Show Off You Ars

Well, after almost a year my son finished his rifle up. (He's been short on funds, and parts have been hard to find.)

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It's so new we haven't had a chance to shoot it yet but we probably will get to the woods next week. A pretty basic build, but nicer
than his first one. Receivers are blems from Aero Precision, rail is a blem from Geissele, stock is from B5, BCM grip, 14.5" barrel
from Ballistic Advantage. He had to buy a longer flash hider (pinned and welded) to bring the length up to 16.25". Magpul back
up sights borrowed from his other rifle until he can afford an optic.
 
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Nice. Honestly, blems are the way to go for a shooter. ('Blem' is part of my search criteria.)

And a year isn't too bad. I've been building an AR for each grandchild. When I started I was doing 5. Up to seven now. :)
 
Thanks. You're right about blems: only way to go. He's bought blems for both rifles and we can't
even find the discrepancies and he saved a ton of money on that rail.
Seven huh. Sounds like you need to encourage your kids to have more... :). If my son
had the money I think he'd build seven as well. He's become a little addicted to these things.
 
Nice. Honestly, blems are the way to go for a shooter. ('Blem' is part of my search criteria.)
Blems do have a downside. If it's not openly disclosed, you don't really know what this discrepant condition might be.
I suppose it depends on the manufacturer, but I have ordered blem lowers (hey look at the GREAT price) only to find the break down pin holes are in the wrong spot! Off by about .04".
And, of course, can't be returned because, after all, you bought a blemished item. I was expecting a scratch or a gouge but no, it was a mess.
Finally fixed it, but won't be doing that again.
Of course, that's what I get for ordering a blem plastic 80%. Talk about bottom of the barrel :oops2:
 
All the blems my son has are from Aero Precision or Geissele which are pretty straight up companies,
but I imagine there are suppliers that aren't so picky. I think with Aero, they sometimes reject them for anodizing
that doesn't meet their standards, but I've never noticed.

We got the rifle out to the woods a couple of weeks ago: it ran perfectly and gave us an opportunity to get the sights
at least close on adjustment. My kid was a happy guy.
 
I've had the same problem with poly blems but I only paid $20 each. Knew I may have to eat one or all, but they're actually usable. Turns out poly is much easier to repair than alloy.
 
I don't know where this thread is gonna go, but I'm hoping it leans mostly toward hobby machining. So whatever caliber a guy chooses, the operations are all similar or identical. Chambering, crowning, threading, etc.

That little snippet of preaching over, .300AAC (or .300BLK, or .300whisper, or whatever) is, IMO, what really brings the AR15 platform home. To me, it's a perfect match.

See, the 7.62 x 39 commie round was all the rage for a while in the 80s. Heavy slug. Extra gas. Track record of reliability in a rifle that was part farm implement. So popular that the AR, Mini-14, and similar carbines tooled up for that caliber.

Then along comes .300AAC. It was initially sold incorrectly as ".30 caliber performance in an AR". It's not even close (compared to .308 - which is what most folks think of in ".30 caliber"). But it's a darned fine competitor to the commie round. Better yet in that it's not as tapered, the mags are the same. Plus, it shoots an ordinary .30cal bullet, available in a dozen sizes.

It also gives lots of people the all-over fidgets because when you find an ordinary bullet in >200grain, then it's subsonic. And subsonic is something the AR platform is woefully lacking in the .223 setup. Subsonic means suppressors and that means even more fun. So by changing only the barrel (aasy), a guy can go from long range varmint to short range silenced subgun, and everything in between, all using standard AR mags.

The other praise i'll sing about .300AAC is that it uses re-purposed .223 brass without special tooling. Shoot all the .223 you want (yes, 5.56, i know, it's just .223 is easier and quicker to type) then re-form them into .300AAC and pop in a .30cal pill of whatever size you like. All the loads are out there. All the everything is out there.

I like things simple -- or at least i say that to myself. 6.5, 6.8, and some of these other calibers are fine and have many good points. But IMO going .223 to .300 and back is pretty cool and covers an awful lot of ground. Besides, it creates the old "chips and salsa" problem with your guns and that suits me fine.

Wrat
I built a 300 Whisper AR about 23 years ago. SSK run by J.D.Jones was the only source of complete rifles at the time. I had my barrel built by Mike's ARs. I had ported in a very short distance from the chamber for the sole purpose of subsonic rounds only. I have an AAC Cyclone suppressor that really works well. I had to do all of my own R&D to get the rifle to cycle. I'm using a 9mm buffer spring with an empty buffer tube weight. I have several ARs and Sigs that I like but, the 300 Whisper is a fun toy. I'm about halfway into building a 300 Whisper pistol now.
 
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