I've been hearing Lot about building a rifle, uppers lowers and what not. I am very interested in trying this out but I have no idea where to even start. Where to look for parts or even what to look for. Could use a great deal of help here, been selling off some of my "stock" to start my pet project. Any tips, information, web sites etc would be greatly appreciated.
Rifle building
- Thread starter Pgabriele
- Start date
But a reaction rod, they work a lot better for torquing down the barrel nut than the vice blocks you can buy. Another needed tool is an AR wrench and a torque wrench. If you watch some of the videos on YouTube it's really not that hard. Just take your time.
I'm in the process of doing this myself, I'm far from accumulating all my parts, but dolalr wise it can add up in a hurry. It's too easy to want the best of everything, and the best of everything is $$$. My suggestion is to be like santa, make your list, check it twice, and hunt for sales. From my personal experience, almost no shop has everything, you'll be ordering onsies and twosies from different stores, so expect to get rapped on shipping
The last thing you want to do is to buy the wrong parts, so figure out what you want the rifle for and start from there. For example, I'm building a precision rig, so I wanted a longer barrel with a rifle length DI gas system and a rigid stock with a rifle buffer and spring. If you want more of a PDW look/feel this would be a very wrong direction to go.
If you're not already intimately familiar with AR's I would suggest you buy a factory built basic $700+ rifle like a Core or Windham Weaponry then do some basic mods and play around with it first. Pick up the tools as you find deals and once you feel you can take anything apart and get it back together start collecting parts for your build.
The reason I suggest going this route as opposed to doing a build for your first is that it will help you figure out what you like and don't like ahead of time. You can easily spend over $300 on a free floated forend and up to $500 on a barrel. Just picking one randomly then realizing it's not working for you can end up costing you a lot of money as you will always take a bit of a loss selling it later.
No one on here can tell you what you like so I would head to the range and also to whatever shops are in your area and handle and hopefully shoot a few rifles before buying anything. Some guys like shorties and some guys like DMR type set-ups, only after playing with a few will you know what you want to build and what components you like. I've owned every length from a 6.5 inch all the way through to a 20 inch with pretty much every length in between (also used to own a 16 inch and a 24 inch AR-10) and I've realized that a 12 inch barrel with a 12 inch forend is my favorite and now own three lowers with three 12 inch barreled uppers (9mm, 300BLK and 223/5.56), a 16 inch upper I built to get into 3-gun, and a 16 inch dedicated 22LR upper for practicing with cheap ammo.
Don't go into a build thinking you're going to end up building a rifle for less than you can simply go buy a complete rifle off the shelf. You will spend more (probably double) but the upside is that you will build exactly what you want.
As noted above buy a reaction rod ($100ish) as it's the best way to tighten a barrel without risking damage to your upper receiver. Other than that you'll need an armourers wrench a punch set and a light hammer.
The AR is a great platform that allows us to play dress-up with our rifles, if you don't like something you can change it out and try something different, the problem is that this can get expensive if you're just randomly trying things to try to figure out what you like. It's fun though so the choice is your's.
Have fun and be sure to post pics once you buy something or when you finish your build. Always ask if you are unsure of how to do something but as mentioned there are a million youtube vids showing how to assemble them.
The reason I suggest going this route as opposed to doing a build for your first is that it will help you figure out what you like and don't like ahead of time. You can easily spend over $300 on a free floated forend and up to $500 on a barrel. Just picking one randomly then realizing it's not working for you can end up costing you a lot of money as you will always take a bit of a loss selling it later.
No one on here can tell you what you like so I would head to the range and also to whatever shops are in your area and handle and hopefully shoot a few rifles before buying anything. Some guys like shorties and some guys like DMR type set-ups, only after playing with a few will you know what you want to build and what components you like. I've owned every length from a 6.5 inch all the way through to a 20 inch with pretty much every length in between (also used to own a 16 inch and a 24 inch AR-10) and I've realized that a 12 inch barrel with a 12 inch forend is my favorite and now own three lowers with three 12 inch barreled uppers (9mm, 300BLK and 223/5.56), a 16 inch upper I built to get into 3-gun, and a 16 inch dedicated 22LR upper for practicing with cheap ammo.
Don't go into a build thinking you're going to end up building a rifle for less than you can simply go buy a complete rifle off the shelf. You will spend more (probably double) but the upside is that you will build exactly what you want.
As noted above buy a reaction rod ($100ish) as it's the best way to tighten a barrel without risking damage to your upper receiver. Other than that you'll need an armourers wrench a punch set and a light hammer.
The AR is a great platform that allows us to play dress-up with our rifles, if you don't like something you can change it out and try something different, the problem is that this can get expensive if you're just randomly trying things to try to figure out what you like. It's fun though so the choice is your's.
Have fun and be sure to post pics once you buy something or when you finish your build. Always ask if you are unsure of how to do something but as mentioned there are a million youtube vids showing how to assemble them.
Last edited:
Lexthedestroyer
CGN frequent flyer
- Location
- Abbotsford, BC
Not to highjack this thread, but I'm building my first as well, lower receiver and all lower parts should be here Tuesday. Quick question on the upper: do you guys check headspace on your rifles after assembly? And if so, anyone around the Lower Mainland have a set of gauges and wanna make a case of beer when I get around to throwing my upper together?
burnt_servo
CGN Ultra frequent flyer
- Location
- right in the middle of b.c.
midway usa has some info on youtube about gun smithing various rifles and I think they include ar's
here is some of it
here is some of it
Purchasing go/no go gauges is relatively inexpensive and well worth the investment and piece of mind. The gauges can be used to periodically check the rifle clearances after prolonged usage.
Having said that if you use Mil Spec parts from different reputable manufactures for a build you will not have any issues with regards to head spacing.
