My Weekend Project

Looks like your off to a good start!

When ever I see pieces of a rifle waiting assembly I replay the scene from Forest Gump. "Done drill sergent!"
" Gump!.... why did you put that weapon together so fast?"
"Because you told me to drill sergent!"
Makes me laugh everytime.:D
Sent from somewhere in East Texas Jake Parker
 
Done for now. When I milled the lower, I kept it a tad undersize so I could hand fit the upper and lower. Got that finished and assembled the lower. Will assemble the upper tomorrow.

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So we should see some test firing by next weekend, right??

Sent from somewhere in East Texas Jake Parker
 
Not sure when I'll test fire. Haven't put a round downrange since moving here. Will have to research where/when.

Finished the assembly this morning. I was expecting this to be more involved. There was some fitting involved, but pretty straight forward. But this was my first AR build, not my first gun build. Now I get to tweak the scope fitting/placement. Will laser set to 100yds before I go to the range.

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Nice Bill! I have a 308 scheduled for a build as well. Life has not been kind to me with free time, so shop time has been non existent lately. How does the Juggernaut Tactical stuff look in person? I have looked at the web sight, but they were a little pricey, so I opted for an Arese Armor lower and a DPMS upper. I have not purchased a barrel or scope yet but have everything else for the build. I bet Jeffe did not even notice that little piece of aluminum, how was the surface finish on the pocket? Did you put any finish on the fresh aluminum? I plan to paint my upper, lower and hand guard with ceracoat.
 
Yea, a little pricy but I wanted billet pieces, not extrusions. Really good looking pieces. I wanted to buy the upper and lower from the same manufacturer as I didn't want any surprises during fitment. As I said earlier I left the back pocket in the lower a few thou narrow so I could hand fit for a snug and centered fitment. If it shoots loose I can always make some steel inserts.

I basically used the fixture kit to machine the lower (being a novice to ARs, I'll take all the help I can get). I started drilling the 1/8" holes down one side and didn't like how it was going so I changed to the #2 plate, put a 3/8" drill in the mill and used that to remove most of the material. Then used a center-cutting 3/8" carbide to finish by basically just manually following the guide plates. Finish came out fine, but I did notice that the 1/8" drill walked a bit so now I have little channels down the one side. Not in any critical areas though... :mad:

If I do another, I will put steel inserts in the fixture's drill guides for the hammer, trigger, and safety so that the fixture will last longer. The firing pocket is bare aluminum for now. Not sure I want to bother painting/coating it as I can just shoot some WD40 down there once in a while to protect the surface. :)

The barrel and BCG are both from DPMS, again to minimize surprises during fitment. The barrel is a 18" SASS and I have heard nothing but good stuff about this barrel. According to the guys that I bought most of the parts from, they have built two Juggernaut rifles using the same main components I did and both shot sub-MOA @200. While I shot high expert every year when I was in the Corps, I am a lot older now with crappy nerves and fine motor skills. I am fairly certain I couldn't even SEE a target @ 1000yds, let alone hit it with open sights like I once did. I am keeping my personal expectations very low and am fairly certain the rifle is a lot more accurate than I am.
 
Thanks for sharing Bill I got a jig as well, but will use my DRO to keep things in spec. I plan to hog out most of the material with a roughing mill then finish up with a 7/16" ball end. I also got the appropriat sized reamers for all of the fire control pin holes.

I was very surprised to find the the DPMS upper and the Ares Armor lower fit together very snugly. Pins fit no problem so I guess I was lucky.

At 1000 yards all I can think of hitting would be the side of a large mountain.
 
Interestingly, I didn't use reamers on the holes and everything fit perfectly. Go figure.
 
Nice job on the AR, What size is the buffer tube on the 308?
 
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