I put together the upper receiver this afternoon on my lunch break. I got a $150 PSA lower during the Halloween sale as the donor lower. Upper receiver is Aero, barrel is a Ballistic Advantage Premium 24" with a 223 Wylde chamber. Handguard is a 16.6" Aero Atlas.

I've got an A2 stock on the way, along with a weight kit from White Oak Armament. The stock, at least, should be here Wednesday.

I still need some scope rings and ultimately a decent scope - for now I've got a Nikon Prostaff 5 3.5-14x40 with the BDC reticle I found in the attic while looking for my armorer's wrench.

Honestly, if I could go back and restart this build I would have gotten a complete lower with an A2 stock. There are also a few parts I would have tried a little bit harder to obtain locally.

I'm going to shoot it Friday. I do hope it shoots well; it's been quite a journey getting here. I forgot just how much I hate assembling upper receivers.

Looking good, if you need any info or help on troubleshooting let us know.

That Nikon should make an excellent optic for your rifle. They are good glass that track like a cat. Good luck.

quote:

Originally posted by old rugged cross:
That Nikon should make an excellent optic for your rifle. They are good glass that track like a cat. Good luck.

Yeah, the issue is that it's a BDC reticle so it's ultimately not a great fit for my long term goals (longer range target practice).

Looks good, will look better with the A2 stock.

In the $400 range Arken has a new EPL4 4-16x44.
Been thinking about picking one up.
https://www.arkenopticsusa.com...-4-16x44-ffp-mil-vhr

I have an SH4 4-16x50 that I think is a great scope but it's heavy.
The EPL4 is nearly a pound lighter and has better glass.
MOA or MIL reticle with a capped windage turret.

It would go on my 18" and the 2.5-10x42 would go on the 14.7" that has a 1-8 on it.

quote:

Originally posted by powermad:
Looks good, will look better with the A2 stock.

I'd say so. (Please excuse the state of my work bench.) This isn't the rifle's intended lower, but it'll still get quite a bit of use as-is because I had intended for a 20" upper to live on this lower when I bought it. I just need to get the A2 front sight post off that thing so I can stop getting the FSP in the sight image. Since it's a toy gun I'm quite comfortable not having BUIS on it. Taper pins are the devil.



My original goal was to buy another Strike Eagle5-25x56, but given Arken's relatively decent reputation from what I've encountered I'm tempted to (at least for the moment) pick up their 6-24x50 FFP or the EP5 5-25x56 FFP and pocket the difference. Amazon has started carrying them, so I'll probably go that route for painless returns/replacement should I encounter any issues.

Lots of folks think the bdc is not a good precision system. It certainly can be.

Long story short, BDC isn't really my cup of tea. The favorite of the reticles I've used to date is the Vortex EBR-7 MOA variant. It'll do for now to get me on paper and see how good/bad the barrel will shoot, but it's a stepping stone

ETA: I should mention that I pulled this off my 308 a few years ago because I was replacing it with a strike eagle 5-25x. It's got quite a bit of mileage on it.

So I got to shoot it yesterday, and I am disappointed to say the least. It short stroked something fierce. Just enough to eject the case but the bolt wouldn't go far enough back to strip another round off the magazine.

My first thought was the gas block is misaligned. So I tore everything out and it actually looked pretty good the carbon ring told me it was pretty close, even if it wasn't dead on.

That leads me to a couple of other options.

1) gas is leaking somewhere else. Totally possible. It looks like I might have installed the roll pin for the gas block incorrectly, though I'm not sure that would have caused it.

2) the gas hole in the barrel is too small. Given the provenance of the barrel it's possible, but it's probably less likely than other possibilities. I'm buying some gage pins to check this.

3) something else is up with my Spike's Tactical BCG

I have a Criterion 24" barrel I found on sale at Brownells with the same overall profile. I might just swap that in and call it a day.

I was able to get it to feed a couple of rounds off a magazine by swapping in a carbine buffer, but not reliably.

Anything else I could have missed that I can look into?

I check gas port size before doing anything.

I have a set of drill bits.
Numbered, lettered and fractional.
Not as precise as Gauge pins but close enough to know if it's about .089" or .099"
I've used a pick and dropped it in the hole and marked the top, then measure with some calipers.

Colt spec for a 20" barrel is .093"
My WC barrel 18" barrel has a .099" gas port.

I believe the gas port size drops with longer barrels.
If the port size goes from. .099" to .093" going from 18" to 20" then I would think around .081" for a 24" barrel.
.0995" is the Crane spec for the Mk12 gas port, 18" barrel.

From poking around it looks like for 24" barrels an .089" gas port is used.

Yup, per several online sources 0.089" is the prescribed hole diameter for a 24" barrel.

Honestly, I didn't think about it. Otherwise I would definitely have had the tools on hand already to check it before I got to this point - I had the presence of mind to get a no-go gauge but not something to check the gas block,

If I can get this upper finished out I might just keep it together and build another based around that Criterion barrel I mentioned.

quote:

Originally posted by vulrath:
My original goal was to buy another Strike Eagle, but given Arken

These scope models are made in China.

I am aware. Sadly, anything in my price point that has the features I want right now would end up being Chinese made. Them's the breaks, I suppose.

We've all purchased Chi-com crap. Everyone is guilty. On rare occasions, it's the best product choice. But every time a Chinese product is purchased, Chinese commerce strengthens and American commerce weakens.

Two weeks ago I was at a convention in Myrtle Beach SC, and planned for a couple extra days to play golf in that golf mecca. I wanted a couple of polo shirts with the course logos, as mementos for the stunning courses. Some of the nicest shirts I saw were made in China. Ixnay China -- unnecessary purchases. The Philippines and Jordan got my business.

There are quality scopes of reasonable prices made outside of China. Philippines is one option.

You have a good point, and made me start looking around. I stumbled on this site where someone has compiled data on several scopes, including country of origin.

From what I've seen there it looks like I'm going to need to up my scope budget from around $750 to $900-1100 to get what I (think I) want. It also brought to my attention a few more-premium brands to my attention.

Honestly, if I'm buying a new scope in that price range, it's not going on this rifle. I'll put it on either of the Nucleus builds I have and the old scope will be moved to this thing. It also means that it won't be happening until at least January, especially since I just learned that I need new rear tires and that'll cost about as much as my original scope budget.

That's a good reference site.

The scope game is kinda nutty, I wound up outside my budget zone on my last one.
But I got what I was looking for so can't complain, other that wiping out my gun fund.

The pin gage has arrived. I'll check when I get home tonight.

I don't have a 0.089" (or 2.26mm) drill, but I do have a 2.5mm drill so if it's off I have 2 choices from what I can see: I can special order a drill specifically for this, or I can drill it slightly oversized and compensate with a heavier buffer and/or use an adjustable gas block.