No. I bought the block. Had to finish it. Drill it etc.
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Oh so an 80% lower then?
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Yes. Heck I ain’t got the machinist tools to do all that. A friend of mine is a gun Smith. I did the work but his tools. No digits.
Have you seen the bill we are fighting on Oregon? SB 978. We are talking, walk to your truck to go hunting with gun and become a felon. Look t up if you get a minute.
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Dave2 - I just bought my first AR… Haven’t got it to the range yet. Tell me more about this “200 round break-in”
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I just bought my first. I decided to keep it simple and inexpensive. I bought a Smith & Wesson M&P Sport 2. We’ll see if an addiction develops that will lead to lots of mods 
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More like let’s see how long it takes the addiction is inevitable
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Gunrangegreg,
I send my rifle off to have cryogenically treated. It turns the barrel into a “tuning fork”. The last point the bullet touched as it leaves the barrel ends up the same spot because of the treatment, the harmonics of the barrel then allow you to zero much better. I clean
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I clean every round for the first 10 shots then every other round after to 200
It seems that around shot 159-160 I start printing the same hole at 100 yds…
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My wife is annoyed because I haven’t built hers yet. I have 4 stripped lowers in the safe and she thinks there only needs to be 3 in that condition!
she rides a Peloton and I am thinking of a Peloton themed gun. I fear that would cause the Peloton folks heads to explode!
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It may be a good idea to just buy your first one as a complete gun, I really like the S&W M&P 15, right out of the box, they’re pretty awesome.then you can play around with it and customize it to what your preferences are. Once your pretty familiar with the whole platform, you can start to think about a build. Just seems to be a safe way to go in my opinion. I still have my first one, it’s a great little gun, and it’s never once failed on me ever.
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Here’s a link for a melt down test for the
M&P 15 sport II, it’s a really cool video, the gun is on fire, and he continues with the test, it was impressive, I disagree with him on the change of rate of fire, I think the gas port hole was plugging up not getting larger, not enough gas was being deployed to drive the bolt back. Just my opinion. Enjoy.
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Here’s a link for sniper-101, Rex is awesome, this series of videos will teach you a lot of things, he tends to be maybe too thorough at times, but whatever subject you choose to learn about, these videos will give you a FULL understanding of the subject.
For me, I have to understand how something works in order to have a great understanding and be able to maintain, fix, and troubleshoot properly, This is what Rex does. God Bless.
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Sig Sauer ( You must try ) There many, but I know this it takes a beating
and worth having. I have the Sig Sauer M400 S.W.A.T. 556/223. Something
to grow with.
William Smith
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WOW! I will admit, I skipped to the part where the gun started on fire! (About 5:48) The plastic just melts off the gun. It’s an awesome demonstration of how well the gun handles in heat.
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It takes research and study to what AR plate form YOU desire, not someone else.
The make of parts, the testing of the weapon’s durability and strengths, the weight
and what upgrades do you desire to grow with; INVEST, not scrape pile or junk
heap. Barrel and your length, Upper / Lower, the name is important, but it is contracted
for the company, you choose.
Stock, receiver, Bolt, Sights Front/Rear, or Scope with Mounts. You are in charge.
Thank you
William h Smith
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I’m in the same boat. I’m in California so choices are limited. I’m leaning towards a Saint Victor.
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Depends on your purpose honestly.
The Sig 516 pison AR may be the best ever produced but it is heavy.
For self defense purposes particularly for woman a lighter platform like the S&W M&P 15 is an excellent choice.
I own both and have found both imminently reliable but the Sig is probably better suited to hunting and long range shooting. I have better than 5,000 rounds through both and neither has ever given me a lick of trouble.
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You can also buy an unserialized 80% lower that needs nothing more than drilling out with a drill press which takes less than an hour to go from 80% to 100%.
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So, a little late to this thread, but after skimming through the many replies, I feel something to add. For background, the only factory AR I own is a Colt carbine with fixed carry handle from the AWB era (built during ban, stamped LE Only, purchased right after ban expired and it became legal for general public). For a factory gun, it’s never once had a single hiccup. That said, I have several other ARs, but I built every one of them myself. Let’s just get this out front; you do not build an AR to save any money. Every build I’ve done ended up costing more than going to the gun shop and just buying something a factory put together. But, they were all less expensive than going through any of the popular custom built gun makers. So, home building is a happy middle ground. Don’t forget that building an AR requires several specialized tools. If you’re just doing one and can borrow tools, that would be ideal. Otherwise you’ll end up dropping at least a couple hundred on tools to do the job right.
Yes, you always start with a Lower for any build. It is the core of the gun. Unlike some other comments, I highly recommend you do NOT skimp on off-the-wall brands for your lower. They are not all the same. Don’t get Brownell’s generics here. You do want to go with a reputable name brand. One company that is clearly at the top of the game in making AR receivers that I have not seen mentioned here is Aero Precision. I have a couple Aero Precision lower AR-15 builds, an AR-10 complete build, and three Aero Precision upper builds. At this point, I would not even consider any other company for the lower, upper, handguards, and any optics mounts you might need to use. It is really high quality stuff. My builds are essentially a combo of Aero Precision and Magpul on the outside, even though the “guts” and barrels vary quite a bit. I have used Aero Precision barrels, which are fine. Their line of muzzle devices is also top notch.
It’s usually good to have the upper and lower from the same company. This way you know they’ll match up perfectly. While there is a “mil spec” for the AR-15, there are sometimes little variances in things coming from different companies.
Also, lower parts kits can be a real bugger. There are extreme low quality kits out there. I don’t even buy LPKs from Aero Precision because the ones they stock are not in-house built, but just another random no-name-brand kit with marginal quality. Also worth noting that you are likely to buy a different trigger and pistol grip, so check out parts kits that do not contain the standard pistol grip and trigger so you’re not just wasting parts. Anyone who’s built a few ARs has a jar/box/drawer full of standard duty triggers and pistol grips that will never be used.
Do NOT buy an 80% for your first build. I suggest building a gun from an FFL lower before you think about doing an 80%, and you need to have machining skills and equipment to do an 80% correctly. It’s a higher level project for those who really get into building their own from the ground up (OK, from the 8th floor up; because someone else already did the foundation for you.)
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