My niece's husband has been asking for my help building an AR. I had a lpk laying around so we put it together last night. We got to talking what he should get for the rest of the build.

My lgs has had a stack of LWRC M6IC DI guns for awhile. Not a great price, but not bad either, I think. Handling the one on display I quickly noted the fit and finish was nothing short of fantastic. It has a proprietary free float handguard but it is a nice MLOK which is what I like anyway so that wasn't a negative. Spiral fluted barrel, negative at first but slowing growing on me. Especially if I pretend like it has some advantages beyond weight savings. lol.
Hammer forged 1:7 twist. Mid length. Solid barrel overall other than the spirals.

Didn't come with sights. Fully ambi lower that is very nicely done. Decent nickel boron coated mil spec trigger ala ALG Defense trigger. Decent but not great. Nickel boron bcg with a machined gas key, no screws, no staking. Nice. In a pinch a regular bcg works too though.

All in all it seems like a very nice 6 and a half pound rifle before you put sights, optic, light, and sling.

Anybody else got one?

I sold one to a customer once, it was certainly a nice rifle. I’ve always had a thing for their piston AR’s. I remember one I was fondling once, very smooth gun.

I have a PWS piston. Nice gun. Not sure I need a piston or the extra weight. This one is DI. I was impressed by the gas block under the rail. They put a big ass tapered pin in there to lock it in place. I like that. I hate screws and dimples and such.

This thing just seems really well thought out.

I also wanted to build or buy an ambi lower. My little monkey hands never could run the left side of the gun like you are supposed to. I have used BAD type levers to get around that but they are not the solution. I think this is the solution. For me.

I found a lightly used one of Gunbroker and it’s exactly what I wanted. Mine so far as been 100% reliable, but I’m having second thoughts on the green dot I put on it, but that’s not LWRC’s fault. I did replace the charging handle with an ambi PRI Gasbuster. My trigger so far as been fantastic although that seems to be a flip of the coin.

I’m thinking of doing an SBR for the ambi lower, but with the paddle release on the right side, you can’t use an upper like the BCM Mk.II that moves the forward assist closer to the ejection port.

The thing I like about the fluted barrel is that it’s an F U to Maryland Gun Laws. LWRC is based in Maryland and in order to own an AR, it has to have an HBAR. So they manufacture one barrel thickness and spiral flute the 16” barrels and still perfectly legal in Maryland.

Good point. I used to live in Maryland. Gov O’Malley pushed his gun control nonsense so after Newtown. There was a huge rush to buy stuff that was going to be banned. I ended up with a shoebox full of lowers, Tavor (which might not have been banned), and an AK. Almost got a M1A too but I thought wife would be pissed so I stopped short.

We all thought AR’s would go away. After the ban it was actually easier to find them. They wrote the law with such an obvious gaping loophole. HBAR is the equivalent of light mayonnaise. It’s a word without definition.

Yea, fuck Maryland.

I have an LWRC piston upper with the same spiral-fluted barrel. The upper's fit and finish is great. It feels solid, and is a little heavy -- in part due to the old-school quad rail.

quote:

Originally posted by pedropcola:
Hammer forged 1:7 twist. Mid length. Solid barrel overall other than the spirals.

I'm disappointed with the barrel. Definitely in the league of my Wilson Combat barrels. With a 1:7 twist, the LWRC should shoot just about any heavy match bullet with great accuracy. But it doesn't. It shoots most 69 grain SMK bullets pretty well, but only shines with FGMM 69. It doesn't do well with Hornady 55 Vmax, which is also a disappointment.

The LWRC barrel fouls faster than any 223 barrel I've owned, and it takes a lot of work to clean.

I don't know if you're looking to buy another LWRC rifle/upper/barrel. I can honestly state I won't.

Well that’s disappointing. Once I get it sighted in I will have to see how mine does.

I'll put the accuracy in perspective for shooting at painted steel targets at 320 yards. There's enough wind at my range that it's best to consider vertical variation only. Depending on regular wind variability and gusts, the left-to-right dispersion can be virtually nothing to WTF wide. All the figures are factory ammo, 5-round groups, from a solid prone position -- Atlas bipod and moderate weight rear squeeze bag. I had minimal flyers. Minimal movement of the reticles during the recoil cycle -- I recall seeing pretty much all my impacts through the scope. I sometimes saw bullet trace on the 430 yard shots.

Hornady 75 BTHP Black, 320 yards
LWRC -- 5 groups with verticals from 3.5" to 6.5"
Wilson Combat -- 7 groups with verticals from 2.0 to 3.25"

FGMM 69, 320 yards
LWRC -- 6 groups, 2.0" to 4.0" verticals
Wilson -- 6 groups, 1.0" to 2.5" verticals

Hornady 55 Vmax -- targets at 430 yards -- didn't have very many groups at 320 yards
LWRC -- 4 groups, 5.5" to 7.0"
Wilson -- 3 groups, 2.75" to 3.75"

Of course, every barrel is different.

I have a love/hate relationship with imgur. I tried to upload some pics but this was the only one that seemed to work.

It is a great lightweight rifle. DD fixed buis Aimpoint T1 on LaRue QD mount. Fully ambi. This picture shows that. I love this. My little monkey hands love this. Scout-ish Surefire light upfront. BFG sling. It’s my dream rifle come true if it shoots straight. I’m even starting to not hate the spiral fluting. (odd choice LWRC). Great rifle. Caveat, haven’t shot a bullet yet.

Yes that is a PRO in picture. I decided to rob a T1. Are T2’s worth it?

I love the little American flag.

Yes, my dumbass color filled the safe/fire markings. It’s my jam. Lol

The FDE rail ladders show me where to put my optic. I really like this gun without an optic. It feels really light and handy. Not that a T1 weighs a lot.

Nice! What's it weigh, as pictured?

FWIW I LOVE my LWRC DI, I traded off the piston version. The DI gun is light, handy and ready to go OTB with valid exceptions for trigger selection. It’s not my 300 meter match rifle, I have more accurate much heavier options for such. But the LWRC DI guns are perfect for a higher quality lighter weight M4 type gun. Mine is my home Personal defense rifle with nothing but a good optic added. You can spend a lot customizing any AR. IMHO the LWRC DI guns were about right out of the box at a reasonable price for their quality…………..DJ

I’ll take some pictures of mine later, but mine is the first AR I’ve shot and I’m loving it. I didn’t get a feel for accuracy since my range is 25 yards and I think I had me green dot too bright because I couldn’t see where I was hitting. I’m still thinking of putting in a Wilson Combat TTU, but the stock one is still pretty good. The AR trigger is a little different than pistol triggers because while dry firing it feels fine, once there’s a magazine and ammo, the trigger seems to get heavier.

I don’t have a scale so I’m guessing right at 7 lbs. According to specs it is 6.5 lbs otb. So in that picture it had DD fixed sights, a Scout light, Lancer 20 round mag, and sone plastic Magpul rail covers for the top rail. It is a no frills rifle. Light, optic, sling.

I spent the better part of a couple days getting it to this point. This is my first all MLOK handguard rifle. All my AR’s are quad rails. The weight difference is huge.

I started by putting rail covers everywhere. Nope, I like the smooth aluminum slim handguard. I’m sure it will get hot but for my purposes that isn’t an issue. I tried a shorty VFG. Nope, preferred a C grip. The slimness of the handguard makes the VFG unnecessary.

I played around mounting and unmounting a wml with a tape switch. I never liked the real estate it took up and I think I was more prone to light AD’s. So I went old school Scout light with the old click tail cap. Honestly for my purposes it will 99% of the time be on or off. I’m not going to be Uber tactical in my house with momentary on/off much.

In some ways I prefer the Aimpoint PRO. Ok, in one way. I think the dot brightness switch on the PRO is way more handy and intuitive than the rotary side switch on the T1. It is hard to beat size wise though.

I think this is its final configuration although the optic might go back and forth over time.

8 lbs with the Aimpoint PRO. 7.4 lbs as pictured. I love MLOK.

I like it. Everything you need, nothing you don't.

I have ran my IC A5 out to 300 yrds, got 3x5 card accy out of it and balls on 100% reliable

So in my quest to perfect this rifle I swapped optic mounts. One of my Aimpoint T1’s was riding on a non QD Daniel Defense mount. My local lgs had a Scalarworks QD mount that is lighter and frankly kind of a neat design. They also had Magpul XT rail covers which I prefer as simpler and lighter than the current XTM’s.

Anyway the weight now including optic, new mount, and lighter furniture is 7.4 lbs according to my bathroom scale. So perhaps not 100% accurate. It does feel slightly lighter.

Range report soon.

I helped a buddy recently with the purchase of one of these rifles.

After having used it myself as I showed him the ropes, I think the ambi controls are well thought out.

My impression, though, is that it's way over-gassed. I was surprised at the amount of recoil compared to my BCM 14.5" gun (under 7lbs) or my LMT MRP 11.5".

I think the ambi controls are just about perfect as well. I saw a Spear LT yesterday in the wild and it is the first ambi lower that actually might be better. Maybe. Incrementally. The use of an up/down lever vs the ping pong paddle isn't a bad choice. Not better enough for the Spear LT price point though. Nice rifle but if you aren't a big suppressed guy its a lot of coin for a heavier, less nimble rifle. Plus, Sig has changed that lineup so much they have reinvented the word "proprietary". lol

Overgassed, well I suppose that beats undergassed.

The bolt lever gives you more options for uppers as some uppers don’t like the bolt paddle on the right side of the gun.

As for the price, I’ll still take one over the way too expensive SCAR 16. However, Sig can make do with a little less rocksett on their muzzle devices. One guy broke his upper receiver trying to get the muzzle device off and Classic Firearms is probably going to send their’s to Sig to get it off because using a propane torch only made the metal turn colors, but didn’t loosen anything at all.