What Are You Building?

[Johnson]

Hmm, interesting. I'd be curious to see the finished product. Machining is one of those skills every normal male wants but few seem to have.

[PseudoCop]

Originally Posted by Pracownik stał

I like 'em both, too. This one is going to be a 'Nam-era M16A1 clone so most of the parts are vintage Colt and/or NOS USGI from the late '60s/early '70s. Pretty much everything but the receiver halves, which are reproduced new ( http://www.nodakspud.com/AR%20Lowers.htm ), is real deal old stuff I got from arfcom's EE or Gunbroker. The barrel I have on the way is an actual USGI A1 replacement part from the '70s, new in the package. I've also got a vintage Colt slickside upper, along with older SP1 furniture, for if I want to go for an even earlier look.

The cool thing about the AR platform is how modular it is. If I want to shoot .22 and save money on ammo, it's a simple drop-in $200 part swap. If I want to shoot bigger calibers, it's pretty much just a matter of swapping a new upper half on, no big deal. No need to own a whole different rifle for each caliber you want to shoot. Hell, they've got 7.62x39 kits for ARs if I ever wanted to put it and the AK on the same diet.

The coolest part of this particular build is how cheap it is- once it's done I'll have only $700 in the rifle building it myself. You can't touch a completed build, even on the low end of the quality scale, for much less than $1K today.

[Pracownik stał]

[Pracownik stał]

Waiting on only the last few parts now.

[Iconoclast]

Looks good, Prac!

BTW, what barrel twist does that thing have? Did you decide to "keep it vintage" and use 1-in-12", or did you want something faster for the longer/heavier bullets?

[Pracownik stał]

Originally Posted by Iconoclast

Looks good, Prac!

BTW, what barrel twist does that thing have? Did you decide to "keep it vintage" and use 1-in-12", or did you want something faster for the longer/heavier bullets?

1 in 12". I thought about going with a faster twist but then you're talking more money and a long wait for a semi-custom barrel since I'd want to maintain the A1 pencil profile. Plus, M193's cheaper to shoot than M855, anyway. The only modern parts on the whole rifle are an A2 rear sight aperture and front sight post. Everything else is period-correct, either original USGI parts or quality reproductions (receiver halves and BCG).

I'll probably do an A2 clone next and then will go with a 1 in 7" and be able to shoot all the modern heavier bullets.

[Iconoclast]

Originally Posted by Pracownik stał

1 in 12". I thought about going with a faster twist but then you're talking more money and a long wait for a semi-custom barrel since I'd want to maintain the A1 pencil profile. Plus, M193's cheaper to shoot than M855, anyway. The only modern parts on the whole rifle are an A2 rear sight aperture and front sight post. Everything else is period-correct, either original USGI parts or quality reproductions (receiver halves and BCG).

I'll probably do an A2 clone next and then will go with a 1 in 7" and be able to shoot all the modern heavier bullets.

Good stuff.

One thing, though. Instead of the A2 with that fixed carry handle (I own one and wish it were a flat-top), have you considered going with something more along the lines of one of these?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_...Marksman_Rifle

Basically it's just an accurized M16: semi-auto only, two-stage trigger, stainless steel barrel. Other slight differences are described at the link. It could be an interesting project, though pricier than a plain-jane A2 or A3.

Rifles and complete uppers based on the same general concept are also commercially available, like this one:

http://stores.homestead.com/Laruetac...ail.bok?no=100

Being an accuracy whore, I have a huge hard-on for one of the above. Alas, I'm back in full-time grad school again and will have little disposable income for at least another year. OTOH, if a new assault weapons ban looks imminent, I will go into debt to get one of those mothers.

[Pracownik stał]

I'm kind of on a long-term retro military kick when it comes to my firearms. The youngest rifle I have, my AK, will be 30 next year lol. When I move into an accurate long-range rifle, I'll probably build an early M40 clone from a Remington 700 or something like that.

It's not that I don't like newer weapons or appreciate the technology, but everyone has/builds that stuff today. I like to do something different and am more interested in the historical aspect of earlier military weapons rather than the latest whiz-bang tacticool stuff. Cold War-era is about as late as I'm willing to go with my collection right now. I probably wouldn't even be interested in an M16A2 except it's what I humped in the Corps so I've kinda gotta have one just for sentimental value or whatever you wanna call it. Being a student myself, it's also much cheaper to stick to older weapons. That's not to say I don't pay attention to the new stuff, though. I really dig the engineering and such- you're an engineer so you know what I mean. I'm a gearhead from way back so I of course like the new stuff, I just can't afford to play with those toys right now.

[Iconoclast]

I gotcha. My main interest in weapons is for a future SHTF-type situation (e.g., nationwide gun confiscation, or if they start throwing us "evil anti-Semites" in prison 20 years from now for our political views), but those older weapons will generally kill someone just as dead as the newer ones, anyway. I guess the only real disadvantage is if you want optics on your rifle, but many people prefer irons on an assault rifle.

Like I said, I will pick up at least one more AR or complete AR upper if a new ban looks imminent, but my main interest now is in long-range bolt weapons. One of the cheaper (but not cheap) weapons I currently have my eye on is a Rem 700P in .300 RUM.

You mentioned building an M40 clone. Do you know how to work on bolt guns? I've always wanted to be able to change barrels on a bolt gun, but I think I heard somewhere that it's not so easy.

[Pracownik stał]

Originally Posted by Iconoclast

You mentioned building an M40 clone. Do you know how to work on bolt guns? I've always wanted to be able to change barrels on a bolt gun, but I think I heard somewhere that it's not so easy.

I've never done it but I don't believe it would be too difficult. I knew nothing about building an AR from scratch until a couple months ago.

Having a machinist background, gunsmithing comes easy as far as understanding it. Acquiring all the specialized tools is the only real bitch.