First attempt at building my own AR

[ALCOAR]

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[SteveL]

Thanks everyone for looking and for leaving comments.

LowSpeed_HighDrag, the 45° safety is awesome. IMO everyone needs one.

PrairieDog I had a look at your pics and that is a very nice looking rifle. There are quite a few similarities there. I was waffling between DD and BCM and I ultimately went with DD because of the deal SmartGunner was doing. Granted, it took quite a while to get it, but I don't regret the decision at all.

With regard to the rifle's weight, I went with a lightweight profile barrel and the TRX extreme battlerail to shave a few ounces, but I pretty much made up for it on the back end with the Vltor Emod stock. I know there are lighter stocks out there, but I decided to give the Emod a shot. I had a Vltor modstock on the BM I used to have and liked it (not that I shot the rifle alot). It will also gain some weight when my Scout light arrives and when I put an Aimpoint on it. My astigmatism plays havoc with the larger 4 MOA dots, so a Micro is out of the question. Whichever Aimpoint I go with will be a full-sized model with a 2 MOA dot. If anyone from Aimpoint ever reads this, I know I'm not the only one who would appreciate a Micro model with a 2 MOA dot.

Alex, by BAC if you mean the BattleComp then the answer to your question is yes. However, I have to tell on myself now. The installation of the brake by me is the only part of the rifle I'm not fully confident in. It was pretty tricky getting it timed properly using the shim kit with what I feel is an adequate amount of torque on it (even with the Rocksett). Now I know why it's recommended for professional installation. In the interest of safety I'll take it by my local shop in the next few days (before I shoot it) and have them remove and re-install the brake to make sure it's installed properly. IMO the $20 or so they'll charge me is a small price to pay for the peace of mind to know it's done right.

You hit the nail on the head too about going to certain members for greater insight and more detailed info/opinions/experiences with certain components. Once again I'd like to give a big public thanks to you and Duffy for your help with information regarding the SD-C trigger and BAD ASS-ST. I also kept up with all the threads on the Vltor A5 and exchanged a few posts in one of them with Robb Jensen and that's what steered me in that direction. When I made the determination that this rifle would be a build project rather than buying a complete rifle I decided that I would do some more research, take a little longer, spend a little more money and buy the better components to begin with and be done with it. Funny thing is, with regard to the saying 'buy once, cry once', now that I have the rifle in my hands I don't see anything to cry about.

[Scoby]

Super nice Steve.

Scoby

[Duffy]

Thank you for your kind words guys, I'm only doing what gun owners all do and sharing what information I have

Lowspeed, please feel free to give me a call, or email me for a free shipping code. We have MIL/LE discounts as well.

[LonghunterCO]

I really like it.

[SteveL]

Thanks Scoby and Longhunter.

LowSpeed you should definitely get in touch with Duffy. You won't be disappointed.

[SteveL]

Ok I got some better pics today. I'm still no photographer, but at least these aren't fuzzy.

[ALCOAR]

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[SteveL]

Those pics look much better, great work!....I'm no photographer but Ive found it all comes down to lighting. Natural is best, filtered even better.

Yeah I'm starting to figure out the same thing about lighting. Not being a photographer I don't have the diffuse lighting setups they would use and it seems most indoor lighting just produces crappy pics. The colors don't turn out very well due to the unnatural color temp of most indoor lighting. That leaves me with hauling the subject of my pics out into the sunlight and the results are much better that way.

It also helped taking my pics at a higher resolution this time. I was using the lowest resolution my camera had the first time because they're faster to upload, but when I saw them full-sized they looked a little fuzzy.


With regard to my rifle, I've been examining my installation of the BC a little more and I'm becoming more and more confident in it. I think I'll go put some rounds through it as-is, but I'll keep a close eye on it just in case. It seems like the Rocksett set up pretty well and is now rock solid (no pun intended). I really don't think it's going anywhere. I'm not worried about a bullet striking it as it exits the muzzle because it doesn't have any play in it as it threads onto the barrel. I'll just watch very closely to make sure it doesn't start to back off or anything.

[Quentin]

Great, great build, excellent choices in your components! I also used the DD 16" CHF, LW midlength upper in my recent build and it's perfect for a light weight carbine.