Hello everyone!
So, about six months ago, I decided to start exploring the AR platform. I went down to my local gun store (Tombstone Tactical), and bought myself a stripped Anderson lower and a basic military type parts kit. I rushed home, found me a YouTube video, and put the thing together in about 20 minutes, lol.
It then sat on a shelf until last week.
In the meantime, I picked up an actual ArmaLite 16" (M15A4CB) gun for $599 at Cabela's, and have proceeded to have a blast blowing holes in 5/8" plate at 50yds with PMC green tips.
This brings us current. During my time playing around with the ArmaLite...I did a lot of research into what options there were for my little Anderson lower sitting on the shelf. I originally wanted a 7.62 gun (come on, they're big!), quickly found out that the .308 wasn't realistic and wouldn't fit my lower anyway...then stumbled over the 6.5 Grendel and quickly succumbed to all of its obvious virtues. My thoughts were that since I had a maneuverable, '100 yard' gun already, I'd build the 6.5 into something that could make use of its ballistics. Something that would make sense for coyote, deer, javelina, or targets.
So I put together a parts list:
For the most part, that's the direction the build took.
All the parts together. The optics are an older Nikon ProStaff, and actually came with my $599 ArmaLite, which now uses an inexpensive red/green dot.
Anderson stripped upper, Strike charging handle (glad I bought the extended one...the scope is right in the way of it lol), and the bolt carrier setup that I ordered with the barrel. The bolt itself is the 750XD from AR15Performance.com, and was checked for headspace with the barrel before shipping.
Squared upper. I don't know if this step is mandatory to be honest...and it actually had caused me some doubt in other parts of the build (the gun feeds fine for the most part though, more on that later). In reading though, unless one goes nuts to the point where the barrel extension protrudes into the upper, it should be a non-issue.
{continued!}
So, about six months ago, I decided to start exploring the AR platform. I went down to my local gun store (Tombstone Tactical), and bought myself a stripped Anderson lower and a basic military type parts kit. I rushed home, found me a YouTube video, and put the thing together in about 20 minutes, lol.
It then sat on a shelf until last week.
In the meantime, I picked up an actual ArmaLite 16" (M15A4CB) gun for $599 at Cabela's, and have proceeded to have a blast blowing holes in 5/8" plate at 50yds with PMC green tips.
This brings us current. During my time playing around with the ArmaLite...I did a lot of research into what options there were for my little Anderson lower sitting on the shelf. I originally wanted a 7.62 gun (come on, they're big!), quickly found out that the .308 wasn't realistic and wouldn't fit my lower anyway...then stumbled over the 6.5 Grendel and quickly succumbed to all of its obvious virtues. My thoughts were that since I had a maneuverable, '100 yard' gun already, I'd build the 6.5 into something that could make use of its ballistics. Something that would make sense for coyote, deer, javelina, or targets.
So I put together a parts list:
For the most part, that's the direction the build took.
All the parts together. The optics are an older Nikon ProStaff, and actually came with my $599 ArmaLite, which now uses an inexpensive red/green dot.
Anderson stripped upper, Strike charging handle (glad I bought the extended one...the scope is right in the way of it lol), and the bolt carrier setup that I ordered with the barrel. The bolt itself is the 750XD from AR15Performance.com, and was checked for headspace with the barrel before shipping.
Squared upper. I don't know if this step is mandatory to be honest...and it actually had caused me some doubt in other parts of the build (the gun feeds fine for the most part though, more on that later). In reading though, unless one goes nuts to the point where the barrel extension protrudes into the upper, it should be a non-issue.
{continued!}
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