Building an AR-15: My experience.

I have put together two AR-15s so far, and I am going to share my thoughts on the experience of buying and building both of them. I did a lot of things wrong before I did something right. Maybe this will help someone who is interested in  building their own.

I am a massive supporter of building your own AR-15. It saves money in the long run and you get exactly what you want. I am not the only one that shares this sentiment. This YouTube video explains it perfectly:

When I build my first one, I was in college and I was just starting to get into guns. I was probably 19 or 20 years old and I could neither afford to buy one outright nor was I old enough to legally be allowed to buy one. I was, however, allowed to buy everything for an AR-15 except the Lower Receiver (the part that is legally considered the gun) and wait until I was 21 to buy it. I kept my eye out for parts that I needed and hoped they were on sale.

I was building this just after the Sandy Hook tragedy, so finding parts for a decent price proved to be difficult. Once they started threatening to ban all ARs, people started buying ARs left, right and sideways. I also didn't know which companies had better or worse quality, it was basically all about price.

So, I knew I wanted an AR, but I didnt have anything in mind about EXACTLY what kind of AR I wanted.
The AR-15 is quite multifaceted  depending on how you set it up. Because I knew nothing, I decided I wanted it to do EVERYTHING!!!! This turned out to be the worst idea ever...

I had no idea where to start looking for AR parts... I had about four friends who were all trying to help me and they were about as useless as help could possibly get. they gave me a bunch of different websites that they used, but most of them were kinda... meh... I primarily purchased all of my parts from three different websites. MidwayUSA, Brownells, and Amazon.

Amazon? really? yeah... what did I know? they had the stuff I needed, and it was cheap. I would do it again if I had to do it over... I found a 7 inch quad rail on amazon for about $50 and anywhere else was over $200. It had no brand, but it had decent reviews and it allowed me to keep my cost down.

The next thing I picked up was the charging handle. Remember when I said my friends were less than helpful? I had a friend who build a few ARs and he told me "make sure you buy a good charging handle. I have see those things break. You don't want to skimp out on it." So what does an impressionable young man like myself do? I buy a $70 charging handle with the extended grip on it. It has BCM engraved into it and you can tell it is high quality. I am really happy with it, but let's be real here. I have a lot more experience with ARs now, and I have never ever heard of anyone's charging handle breaking. the extended handle does make it a bit more comfortable, but it is definitely not needed. If you are building an AR for the first time, just get the cheap $20 dollar ones. It is all you need.


I was also told not to cheap out on a barrel, and that the pencil barrels you get on cheap ARs are not very accurate and they wear out a lot faster. So I bought a heavy barrel on Amazon and didn't think anything of it. my barrel had a carbine length gas system, so I grabbed the stuff I needed for that. I didn't like the full time iron sights/gas block/barrel combos, so I got a gas block with a rail on it. my quad rail fit just before the gas block started, and I was hoping that both rails would be the same height, but no such luck. The gas block I got was only about twenty bucks anyhow, so I decided to just live with it.

On the end of the barrel, I didn't want to be lame and just have the standard AR flash hider. I also heard that compensators help to reduce recoil, so I picked up a cool stainless steel compensator that had spikes on the front. whenever I wasnt shooting it, I had to protect the case and my walls by putting a red rubber cap over the spikes... yeah, I shot that cap off the second time I went out shooting... as cool as it is to say "yeah! I got spikes on the end!" it is really less cool the older you get. They were really sharp spikes too, and they just got stuck on everything, and pricked everyone. I ended up getting rid of it.

Working my way back, I had picked up the cheapest upper receiver I could find. There weren't really any issues with it until I finally paired it with my lower receiver and tried to put the pivot and takedown pins in. For some reason they did not match up quite perfectly, and it took a bit of shaving to get them to snap together. I want to say "make sure you buy your upper and lower as a set" but I did that for my next one, and it didn't help that much. Getting those pins out is still a bitch. if you are lucky, it will fit well... if you are normal, it may take some fitting...

I bought that upper receiver stripped, which means it didn't come with any of the little parts that are normally attached, such as the forward assist button thing, and the dust flap. I hated assembling these parts. First off, it was a waste of shipping to buy all of these things separate. I couldn't find anyone who would sell all of them. I also wanted a dust flap that had cool words on it, so I ended up buying the forward assists assembly by itself, then the dust flap, and last the spring that keeps the dust flap open. I did all of them wrong. They are unusually hard to install, so I recommend not wasting the time, and just spending the extra money on one that is assembled. Also, forget about the cool graphics on the dust flap. No one cares what you think, and it makes you look like a tool. Trust me. I looked like a tool.

I was told that a nickle plated bolt carrier group was the way to go, because it reduced friction. Thankfully, I didn't have the money for that shit and I was smart enough to go with the regular bolt carrier group. No one needs the nickle plated stuff. It is cool, but unnecessary.

I picked up a lower receiver parts kit for about $100 that included the trigger and hammer assemblies, the trigger, the pistol grip, the carbine buffer tube, recoil spring and standard plastic GI style stock. All of these parts worked okay, and it was about all I could find at the time, so I lived with it. I ended up switching out the pistol grip, because I hated the GI pistol grip.

I ended up getting a Magpul pistol grip because it had three different thicknesses, two different front panels to either allow for a finger notch, or to have a smooth front, and it also had a secret compartment in the grip which I used to store exactly three rounds of ammo. The grip was everything it was supposed to be. I had no idea what I liked, so I wanted something that would do everything. I found out that I do not like the finger notch and I like a slightly thinner grip, because I feel like I have more control. I also found out that I do not like how plastic this grip felt. Magpul has come out with some grips which are sorta rubbery, and those may be better, but mine felt like very cheap plastic. On my AR, I found out I like a "grippier" pistol grip (it's a real word... just trust me... Don't look it up... just know that I am right).

I also found out that I hated the standard trigger on my AR. They are cheap, and that is great, but they are heavy, gritty, and generally unpleasant. I wouldn't have done it for that first AR, because I just wanted the gun to be done, but I now prefer a much more polished trigger.

alright, so that is the basic parts of the gun, now lets get on to accessories! This is where it really gets interesting. If you ever heard of a "Mall Ninja" then you will understand... If not, here is a decently funny video:

Basically, the Mall Ninja is someone who puts every accessory they can find on their guns. It looks tacky and that is exactly what my gun looked like..

Lets start with optics... I was told to always have iron sights on your gun, in case your other other optic breaks. This is pretty decent advise... but I also saw cool videos of people who had canted sights on their guns! I also saw people with flip up sights! ARG! I cant decide, but I don't want to spend more money than I have to! I am going to do canted, flip up, Iron sights that I bought on Amazon for about $20! Considering other sets by actual companies were about $200 for the set, I thought I was doing pretty good! but I found that I hated using Iron sights. it blocks your vision too much... so I bought a red dot sight.


I was told not to get a cheap red dot sight, because it will just break. so I feel like I did a pretty good job in picking up a Vortex red dot. It actually has turned out to be a really nice red dot It even came with a magnifier that could be screwed on to make it 2x power. which was great, but it reduced the field of view and didn't provide enough magnification for me to really care all that much.

But what if I wanted to shoot long range with it? I picked up a $100 tasco scope to slap on the top of this too! That was crap! the glass on a scope that cheap is so fuzzy and dim. I do not recommend it at all. "but wait, you just said you put a red dot on your rifle. How do you also have a scope?" That is a good question, imaginary question asker! I decided that since I had canted irot sights, that I could also get a canted rail section, and stick my red dot on that, so that I could Co-Witness the sights. That is when you can line up the iron sights through the red dot sights you have in between them. Not a bad idea, unless your red dot sight and your iron sights are canted at slightly different angles... This is what you get when you buy crappy stuff... On top of that, the head of the bolt that held my canted rail in place got stripped the moment I put any pressure on it. No matter how much I try, I cannot get it detached from the rail. That is what you get from a $15 part though. lack of quality.

The quad rail obviously has a bottom rail, so I wanted to put something there. Most people would use a vertical grip, but I was not most people. I heard that the Magpul Angled Foregrip was the next big thing, and I wanted to be a part of , so I picked one up. They are pretty cool, but most people don't know how to use them. They try to grab onto the grip, and only the grip, as if they are grabbing onto a vertical grip, but that is not it. It is designed to be used with your four fingers going along the face, and your thumb wraping around the top of the hand guard. You need to stick your elbow out to the side to hold it this way, but that is how all of the competition shooters support their guns already, just without the angled foregrip. The foregrip just allows your hand to be at a less weird angle, and makes it a bit more ergonomic to support the rifle offhand.

I also decided I wanted a sling, but There are at least two different types of slings and I didn't know what I magpul made a sling that can be both a one point and a two point sling. Pretty cool. The sling works pretty well, but I found that I never use the one point sling. anyhow, I picked up a sling attachment point and put that on the front of my rifle, then I got a new buffer plate that had a swivel sling point. It was pretty alright too.
wanted (are you picking up on the theme here?). I did a bit of research and found that

After all of this, my rifle weight a ton. It did everything poorly and did nothing well. I was happy with it for a while, until I started seeing other people's rifles. their rifles were sleek and lacked scratches... They were simple and sometimes had a minimalist feel to it. They always weighed much less than my rifle and they always had a specific purpose to them. I am not going to lie... I was a bit jealous... I wanted a rifle that I could be proud of and that I could brag about... so I had to do a bit of soul searching to find out what I liked best in rifles and what purpose I wanted my next rifle to have.

Finally, I came up with a set of requirements. I wanted my rifle to be:

-Fast
-Light
-Comfortable
-Quality

Gone were the days of cheap items. I would spare no expense on this new AR because I was tired of people asking me "what brand is Bla Bla Bla?" and having to respond with "uh... generic... I don't know... It was cheap..." It just made me look and feel like a tool.  I knew this was going to be more expensive, and I still wanted to find good deals where I could get them, but I refused to get another brand-less knockoff.

I am a big fan of 3-Gun Competitions, and despite not living anywhere near any, I still have an ambition to take part in 3-Gun matches some time in the future. A good 3-gun rifle has reduced recoil, and decreased lock time after firing. This allowed you to get back on target faster, and allowed for faster followup shots. This is done by doing a few different things. First, you want to stop the bolt from slamming into the back of the buffer tube to reduce the felt recoil and the overall shock you felt when firing the rifle. I got a low profile adjustable Gas block from JP Enterprises. This allowed me to reduce the amount of gas that was thrown back into the bolt. tune this just right, you can get the bolt to slide back just far enough to eject the spent round and strip the next one off the top of the magazine without ever touching the back of the buffer tube. There is a small margin of error there, so it takes a while...

I also was planning to get a lightweight bolt carrier group, but they are stupidly expensive, hard to find in-stock, and don't reduce the weight enough to make that much of a difference... So I am probably going to give up on that... I also added a Geissele trigger for added speed and just an overall better feel. they claim a slightly faster lock time, but even if it doesn't help speed at all, it feels amazing. It is about a 3.5 lb trigger pull and is as smooth as a trigger can get. much better than the stock triggers.

Everything else I did was to make my gun as light as possible, while still looking good, and feeling good. I saw people online who went to "extreme weight loss" and they started drilling holes in anything that wasn't essential. That looked awful and I hated it. I wasn't going to spend money on something just to ruin it like that. no thank you. I decided to just look for regular parts that were specifically designed to be lightweight. My upper and lower combo were made by Mag Tactical (who doesn't seem to exist anymore), and had some sort of aluminum/titanium alloy that made it much lighter. I found a barrel from Voodoo Innovations which weighed about a pound and a half. The hand guard was a Troy Alpha rail. I
wanted a 7inch to reduce weight, but I had a friend who didn't want his 9 inch, and he sold it to me at a good deal. meh... what's a few ounces, right? I found a compensator that was made from aluminum and was very light. I couldn't find any pistol grips that claimed it was lightweight, and I wanted something nice and rubbery, so I chose a ergo pistol grip, and I love it.

When I started building this rifle, there weren't any adjustable stocks on the market that claimed to be lightweight. I picked up a cheap Magpul stock at first, but was not very happy with it. The stock worked as advertised, but I had some friends who had chosen to buy more expensive versions of that stock, and I was a bit jealous of them. They were able to lock their stocks in place, to keep them from jiggling around and making noise. I waited a bit and very recently ATI came out with a lightweight adjustable stock. It was very minimalist, in that all it did was adjust, but they material they used on the inside of the tube was slicker than normal, so they could afford to mold them almost perfectly to the size of the buffer tube. It made it tough to move, but it also took out any wiggle or jiggle. They have a grip pad inset into the butt of the stock as well, so it doesn't slip off your shoulder. I was very very happy with it. It was exactly what I wanted for this rifle.

One of the heaviest parts of your rifle can be the optics. I still want to use this gun for 3 gun competitions (if I ever move to an area of the country that has them) and they often require a low power scope and a red dot. I do not compete yet, so I knew I would not shoot it out past 100yds. High quality red dot sights are lighter and cheaper than high quality scopes anyhow, so I felt it was a better financial decision. I chose to use a Burris Fast Fire, because it was one of the lighter weight red dot's I could find, and I know Burris makes quality glass.

My rifle weighs in at a slender 5.1 lbs. I bet if I got that light weight bolt carrier group, it would be under 5lbs.

I tried to leave all other accessories off the rifle. I think I have a sling point, just to give me that option, but most of the time, I do not use a sling with it. Even though I think having extra iron sights is a good idea, I have not done it on this rifle. I don't expect this rifle would be used in any sort of survival circumstance. It is sort of like a corvette... I could use it in a demolition derby... but it would not do very well...

So far, some of the issues I have run into are with changing ammo. The ammo I used when I tuned it was just some normal federal FMJ ammo. I tuned the gas block to allow juuuuuuust enough gas through to do the work it needs. This means that any time I go to the cheap steel cased ammo which has less charge, the gun will eject the spent casing, but not strip the next round. I keep meaning to reload my own .223 ammo, so I can control the velocity and get a bit more consistency, but reloading .223 is such a hassle that I haven't gotten into it. No point if I am just shooting for fun.
 All of these items were purchased online as well. I got the upper and lower combo directly from Mag Tactical's website (Which, again, no longer seems to exist). After I put them together with the pivot and take-down pins, they were really really stiff. Despite ordering them as a set, it was next to impossible to take out the pins to take them apart. It broke in a bit better after a while, but it is still very difficult to get them taken out. I thought about getting extended pins, but that would add weight, and is not strictly needed.

Anyhow, that is about it. That is what it was like building my two different AR-15s. Any questions? comments? similar experiences? tips? tricks? Tell me about Your AR, or your plan to build one.