Build difficulty ?

[Rugerfan.64]

Hello all, I have been working on my "daughters" rifle for a couple of years now. Just got serious with it since the 1st of the year. So I had a PSA stripped blemished upper, and mated it to a Brownells 24" barrel. So today I dropped by Rankin Co Shooters Supply and picked up a gas block and gas tube. I have read all of the problems with folks being over and under gassed and having the tube and port not lined up properly. To Brownells credit , I had no problem lining up the gas block and the gas port. The dimple in the Brownells barrel lines up perfectly with the rear hole in the clamp on gas block. When you rotate it around to line up everything just fits. So is this building an AR really that hard? Its been pretty straightforward to me. The stuff just fits. Maybe I have been lucky ? I see it as something to be careful with for sure , but so far as difficulty I'd rate it a 3 at the very most. I admit , the Brownells barrel and bolt are matched , and I got them as a pair. I do have the USARMY in hindsight , so that might be the one thing I got out of the ARMY that I use with this. Well that and surveying, but that s something else. I'm not saying I am smarter or more talented because I know better, there are some things that are beyond me ,,way beyond me. But I have yet to find the difficulty in building an AR. The proof is on the paper, so when I finally get this thing done for my daughter ,,, my wife is calling BS on this ,,, it is for her. Maybe. I will post up some targets and that will tell the tale. So far I am pretty stoked about having a 6.5 Grendel,, and cant wait to shoot it. The easy part was the Radical Firearms gas block and tube, good set of punches and viola. Don't get me wrong , I aint bragging, cause I am sure I will screw the pooch at some point , but for now this is easy. Mostly cause I have read a lot of information on here.

[ricsmall]

Hello all, I have been working on my "daughters" rifle for a couple of years now. Just got serious with it since the 1st of the year. So I had a PSA stripped blemished upper, and mated it to a Brownells 24" barrel. So today I dropped by Rankin Co Shooters Supply and picked up a gas block and gas tube. I have read all of the problems with folks being over and under gassed and having the tube and port not lined up properly. To Brownells credit , I had no problem lining up the gas block and the gas port. The dimple in the Brownells barrel lines up perfectly with the rear hole in the clamp on gas block. When you rotate it around to line up everything just fits. So is this building an AR really that hard? Its been pretty straightforward to me. The stuff just fits. Maybe I have been lucky ? I see it as something to be careful with for sure , but so far as difficulty I'd rate it a 3 at the very most. I admit , the Brownells barrel and bolt are matched , and I got them as a pair. I do have the USARMY in hindsight , so that might be the one thing I got out of the ARMY that I use with this. Well that and surveying, but that s something else. I'm not saying I am smarter or more talented because I know better, there are some things that are beyond me ,,way beyond me. But I have yet to find the difficulty in building an AR. The proof is on the paper, so when I finally get this thing done for my daughter ,,, my wife is calling BS on this ,,, it is for her. Maybe. I will post up some targets and that will tell the tale. So far I am pretty stoked about having a 6.5 Grendel,, and cant wait to shoot it. The easy part was the Radical Firearms gas block and tube, good set of punches and viola. Don't get me wrong , I aint bragging, cause I am sure I will screw the pooch at some point , but for now this is easy. Mostly cause I have read a lot of information on here.

Building one isn't hard as long as you use good components. Some have difficulty but that's what this forum is for, helping those. Hope the rest of your build goes as smoothly. Roll tide.

Richard

[dmsims21]

I don't think it is that difficult, as long as you get the right parts. Putting one together isn't too bad, but building one that functions properly is a little more difficult.
Many times when you read of horror stories on the internet, it is due to components not working well together. Not everything is completely standard.
The gas port may be the right size and the gas block lined up, but the buffer of the wrong weight.

[LRRPF52]

There are a ton of things that I do now that I didn't do when I first started assembling my own uppers and lowers.

These are mostly for reliability and accuracy.

I would go over Robert Whitley's list: http://bulletin.accurateshooter.com/2015...s-answers/

Having a lot of familiarity with the design certainly helps. I remember being a young Specialist, Sergeant, then Staff Sergeant, thinking I knew basically all there was to know about the AR15 FOW simply because I had been studying it since the 1970's, shooting it since the late 80's, memorized all the parts down to detents and springs, but I really didn't know jack squat compared to what I have learned over the past 10 years.

It's like a totally different gun now, even for my build approach. Getting into the early 60's guns and 6.5 Grendel has really forced me to see things I never would have if I had just stayed with 5.56 NATO.

[muzz1504]

Just completed my first Grendel and like you, I figured I would 'screw the pooch' somewhere along the line. Have been reading the building and troubleshooting posts on this forum to be prepared to get it running. I like tinkering with stuff.

Works great so far (I think)....loaded singles in mag first....throws brass at 3 o'clock, brass looks good, bolt locks back when empty, will strip them from the mag and cycles properly with Hornady 123 SST's. Then loaded a few and ran them. Don't think I need to tinker with it so far. Just waiting for this 20+ mph gusting wind to give me a break so I can see what it will do on paper.

Alexander Arms barrel, bolt, flash hider, and magazine, Yankee Hill gas block, Rainier upper w/noname bolt carrier from gun show, Anderson lower and lpk, cheap ff tube, and UTG stock. Saved a few bucks where I could. Will probably put a fixed stock on it later...needed adjustable to change lop for wife to try it out(trying to convince her that she needs a Grendel AR too). It might group like throwing a handful of gravel, but I doubt it. I think it should be a decent shooter. Hope so since I built it to deer hunt with.

I did buy a Wheeler vise block and an armorer's wrench to assemble the rifle. I already had torque(sp?) wrenches. As far as being difficult to put together, it wasn't. Probably easier than changing a barrel and headspacing a Savage...and that's no big trick. I watched a lot of videos and read a lot of posts on assembly...trick is to be able to filter out the wheat from the chaff....some of these internet warriors are obviously full of B.S.

I'll make a post on my build after I get to shoot it for groups....like I said, waiting for the wind to quit laying the trees down.

muzz1504
A 1/504 82nd
US Army '72-'78