Making my own side charge upper/bolt carrier?

[customcutter]

OK, I finally did it. I ordered a "blemished" slick side upper from PSA last week. I'm thinking about making my own side charge upper and bolt carrier. So I thought I'd ask a few questions of folks that might have them, or have ideas about it. Because it's a forged upper I'm only going to have a "bolt handle" on one side of the bolt carrier.

It looks like it's as simple as milling a slot down the side of the upper, then drilling and tapping the bolt carrier and attaching a "bolt handle". I know I need to do something to block the channel that the charging handle normally goes into to block escaping gasses.

Is there something else I'm missing, or is it really that simple?

[ricsmall]

That's about it. I just put a charging handle in mine just in case. I used the dpms slick side lo pro because of its thickness. Wanted all the rigidity I could get for a bench/tree stand gun. Figure on using carbide to drill the carrier. It's HARD.

Richard

[CPT.CRAZY]

That is basically how I did mine, just mill a flat spot on the BCG be for you try to drill it.

[customcutter]

Thanks guys, I appreciate the input. I had wondered about the hardness of the carrier. I've got carbide bits and mills, so that won't be a problem.