what should i build for her??

[jonny rotton]

i want to build a ar pistol for my smallish girl friend. which one will have the least recoil??? 5.56, or 300 blackout, or 6.5 grendel??? what says you?
i want to go light as possible and top it with a quality red dot.

[Drift]

How small? Recoil was a non issue in all 3 by the time my daughter was 10 and still not 100 lbs. 5.56 was cheapest but.. By the time she was 17, she could hit at 1K yards with the Grendel. For tactical CQB, we have gone to the Holosuns as red dot sights on a quality vs cost trade off. Strongly recommend a suppressor.

[Bigs28]

https://www.smith-wesson.com/firearms/mp-15-22-sport

[bj139]

223/5.56 has the least recoil.
For cheap practice try this.
It functions pretty well.

http://www.cabelas.com/product/CMMG-LR-AR-Conversion-Kit/753246.uts

[howl]

5.56 will be least recoil. Blast from a pistol barrel is severe. I'd do a pencil barrel 16" or longer.

[LRRPF52]

Shooting 90gr in 6.5 Grendel is very minimal in the recoil department.

Same with 45-55gr .223 Rem (not 5.56 NATO load).

Neither is really an issue if you use lighter loads and a gas system that doesn't exhibit a lot of carrier velocity like a CLGS with a 5.56 load and standard gas port meant to work in the Arctic.

[DJL2]

A "true" pistol would arguably be best in .300 BO - e.g. a 9" barrel or so.

Now, obviously you are not trying to circumvent the law in any way and that is certainly NOT implied here <ahem>...
That being said, I have seen some other folks use "pistol" as code for "SBR for which I am not going to pay the tax stamp." In which case, get whatever caliber best suited to your barrel length and application...maybe something you already load for.

[rabiddawg]

I don't know about yall but I have always found firing a Grendel to be far more pleasant than 223. The Grendel is just so smooth. There may technically be more recoil in a Grendel but the felt impulse is very different. Fwiw, I turned my only 223 into a Grendel.

I can't comment on 300 blk have never fired one and would only have one in a sbr with suppressor.

[Kilco]

Recoil will be negligible with all three cartridges. Being a pistol without a suppressor, muzzle blast will be the real culprit. If she will be hunting with it, go with the Grendel. If this is a plinker and range toy for short range, is probably roll 5.56 for logistical reasons... very cheap to blast with... but then again you can buy wolf steel case for around $5 per 20 rounds... so maybe just stick with the Grendel.. Then you could hunt with it as well!!

Holosun, and the Sig Romeo lines are great budget get dots... if it turned out to be a serious HD gun, i would go no less than a Aimpoint PRO.

[jonny rotton]

WOW thank you for the comments! i will take them all into consideration. she is 5' 2" and weighs in at 112. she has almost zero experience with guns. i will be training her.
it will mostly be a home defense weapon with the possibility of hunting also. money is less of an issue than weight and handiness.

[Drift]

If $ less an issue than weight and handiness, look to Precision Firearms. I think he still has some Maxim pistol braces left. And a 11- 12 inch barrel should do the trick... but lots of flash..not so much recoil. She may find the muzzle blast distasteful so get either good hearing protection of a suppressor for her

[StoneHendge]

Home defense? 300 BLK all the way. I have carbines in 556, 6.5G, 300 BLK and 458 Socom, and the 300 BLK is the one I keep hidden yet handy. Uses magnum pistol powder so it all burns in the first 7-9" or so, so it will have the least amount of flash. Has twice the smack of 556 at short range so the slight amount of increased recoil is worth it. Less recoil than my Grendel carbine and if anything, a shorter/fatter 30 cal bullet is going be able to transfer more knockdown power than a narrower/longer 6.5 bullet on a human target. This is my 16" carbine

image.png


It has a 9" handguard, medium contour barrel and linear comp and tips the bathroom scale at 7lbs unloaded, so you could imagine how handy it would be with a 9" barrel and pistol brace (which I'm sure someone who's 5'2" would be able to shoulder in the absence of any legal ramifications ). Holds point blank out to 175 yards with a 1x vortex venom red dot. I load a 110 gr Nosler Varmageddon for it, and it's downright nasty. I'm almost done with a YouTube demo for it which I hope to get up in the next day or 2. A 9" pistol is on my list of things to build, but the carbine is so handy and accurate and performs so well shooting standing and unsupported that it's down the list.

[jonny rotton]

my son and i went to the range yesterday and tested the three choices. a 10.5" 556 that we shot wolf 223 55 gr ammo with. a 12" grendel and wolf 100 gr ammo. a 9" blackout with nosler varmageddon ammo. the blackout was the most felt recoil with a split decision on the lightest. i thought the grendel was a little less than the .223 but my son thought the .223 was a little less than the grendel. i am going to start her with the .223 and teach her on that but in the back of my mind i am hoping in time to graduate her to the 6.5 grendel. so maybe i should build her a red dot .223 on a quality lower and build a scoped 6.5 upper. hmmmmmmmm any thoughts are appreciated.
i know that some women turn out to be natural rifle shooters, if so i would want her to have the best equipment possible for her

[LRRPF52]

A "true" pistol would arguably be best in .300 BO - e.g. a 9" barrel or so.

Now, obviously you are not trying to circumvent the law in any way and that is certainly NOT implied here <ahem>...
That being said, I have seen some other folks use "pistol" as code for "SBR for which I am not going to pay the tax stamp." In which case, get whatever caliber best suited to your barrel length and application...maybe something you already load for.

There is no legal issue with building an AR15 pistol, and there is a laundry list of telescoping PDW braces that fully meet the ATF's bogus definitions of a brace and not a stock, that they have "ruled" is ok to shoulder like a stock anyway, so it really doesn't matter which way you go, as long as you have the stamp for an SBR or configure a pistol however you want (as long as you don't have a forward grip on the pistol of course, wouldn't want to do that.)

[jonny rotton]

thanks lrrpf52 for the clarification. i will build a pistol for a handicapped old friend. lol