Build or Buy an AR

[culatar]

Build it yourself. Roll pin punches and a 4oz brass tap hammer will do for most all of the pins on the AR. I was trained by Depot Level Armorers at Ft. Sill and you shouldn't need a hammer for anything except stubborn taper pins at the front sight block.

Building a lower is very easy in comparison to the upper. AR lowers go together in about 30 mins. Uppers take more time and require a bit more skill and you have more parts and torque values to deal with.

In a nutshell, buy a stripped lower and parts kit. Buy an nice prebuilt upper and top it off with a mil-spec BCG. You'll be good to go for an FTX or a 10K hump if need be.

[moparbob498]

DSA ARMS has complete uppers starting at 275 to 325 dollars ( need bolt carrier & bolt )...M4 style / std. barrel / flutted barrel
very nice quality & american made

[Twister87]

Thanks Guys, I picked up a piece of the puzzle yesterday. I got the lower. A Smith and Wesson MP15. I had a few set backs so it may be a little while till I can get the rest of the pieces.

Twister

[o1dakota440]

i am in montoursville, and have a multi wrench and action block for building an upper. you are more than welcome to use them. just let me know.

[Konsukah_19]

Building is by far cheaper, and once you do it a few times, MUCH easier. For an upper, you need a barrel wrench, uper vice block, and a good solid bolted to the table, table vice. Assembling a lower is more of a pain in the ass the first one or two times then anything. But, as one member here said, once you want to build one with non standard parts...it gets cheaper in a hurry. Aeembling the stock on a lower, and putting in some of the parts...will actually be beneficial for you to get a lower vice block as well. www.model1sales.com sells some of the best around for a good price. Any further questions, pm me.

ETA in my opinion, I think those combo wrenches suck. I have yet to be able to remove a barrel proper from an upper with one of those things. Get yourself one of those GI style barrel wrenches and a good long socket to go with it. With that thing, you can pop off any type of AR barrel on any type of upper. And also, good set of punches and a front sight punch block from Brownells.

[Cornhusker]

I found everything I needed at www.midwayusa.com and www.brownells.com when I did mine. They have parts lists and exploded diagrams that help out a lot. The only things I got elsewhere were a DPMS lower from a gunshow and a Larue one piece scope mount. I put my lower together in well under a half hour with a punch, hammer and screwdriver and I bought the upper.

[Twister87]

Thanks for the advise. I have another question. What is the difference between a pre-ban upper and a post-ban upper? I have the M&P stripped lower, I'm assuming that it's a post-ban lower and I will not be able to use a pre-ban upper or any other parts for a pre-ban rifle right?

Thanks

Twister

[Cornhusker]

As far as I know, pre-ban and post-ban simply refers to certain features on a complete rifle that were not allowed during the clinton gun ban years.

[mojo]

As far as I know, pre-ban and post-ban simply refers to certain features on a complete rifle that were not allowed during the clinton gun ban years.

And currently NOT allowed in some states like CA, NY, etc

[Twister87]

It's a good thing that I don't live in those states.

Twister