A word about the lower
The kit I bought from Sarco had everything I needed, but the hammer was questionable. Prof. Hale gave me one (and some other parts) from his personal stash; it went in perfectly and worked perfectly- having seen both hammers, I now know mine had missed a manufacturing step, hence it’s failure to operate properly.
Aside from that, the lower went together with remarkable ease, and yes, you could easily put it together on a TV tray. Mine will most likely remain an M4gery it’s whole life, though I kinda like the look of that Magpul UBR stock. I’ve always been a sucker for secret compartments, and having a place t store a wound up pullthrough could be of some utility. I see they make a plug so you can use the pistol grip similarly, so I may go that route instead of the $250 worth of magpul plastic.
I have approached this whole subject through the eyes of a mechaincal geek, and all the things I’ve discussed have related to how the firearm is designed and how it works and how it is supposed to work. Anyone who has ever worked on one, who is not a fool, can see the really marvelous thought that has gone into it’s design, and the brilliance that is in the basic manufacturing process.
Having never carried one in battle, and having only put a very few rounds through mine (though plenty through other’s) I can not make any claims as to it’s effectiveness as a battle rifle, and I won’t, and I won’t even have that discussion.
Having shot them in their many forms, I can say, it’s a hoot to shoot, and I look very much forward to shooting mine more. The time may come that I do another, after all the pieces are inexpensive enough. Putting my hands on a really tight heavy barrel and a freefloatinhg handguard? Could be awhole lot of fun. But then I don’t have too many places I can shoot that far anyway.
All in all, from a pure engineering standpoint, I am impressed. And I don’t impress easily.
11 comments Og | Uncategorized
I know that.
My Sarco seemed to be shy some of the parts for the lower. I bough a lower kit with the receiver as the receiver I am using has some different spring to hold in the pins.
The hammer my kit came with seemed to show some wear on the face of the hammer so I have it in the box of spares.
Need to finish the build so I can see if it will shoot as good as the one I traded off.
The first build I did was the lower which I put a DPMS upper on. It love cheap bullets and was dead on accurate.
The AR paltform is a marvel of engineering. Keep it clean and it will not let you down.
A decent two stage trigger is worth the bucks and time to fit. I have a UBR magpul handle and like it. It don’t rattle around like the others and has a bit more weight to offset the heavier barrels I tend to use.
Og: Make sure there is a J-shaped spring in the bottom of the hammer. It engages the center groove in the pin with a very positive snap, and without it the pin will eventually drift out to the side, often enough to disengage and fall out.
The groove or grooves farther outboard on the pin attract the legs of the hammer spring, primarily to keep them from dragging against the hammer, but aren’t sufficient to completely retain the pin itself.
A lot of aftermarket hammers have the pin hole drilled in the bottom of the hammer, but lack the spring itself.
My latest has a MAGPUL mil-spec stock and a TAPCO “SAW” pistol grip. Both fit my old beat-up body just fine.
Assembly was very simple and took about 45 minutes. Don’t know why anyone would buy a complete off-the-shelf AR when its so easy to assemble a custom weapon.
No, you’re not taking a shine to that thing. You can admit it.
No question, Vman. The engineer Og likes the AR just fine and dandy.
my soul still prefers my M1 carbine.
Ergonomically, I do not like the AR System. I was raised to shoot w/o pistol grips, with my wood stocks grasped a certain way. But from an Engineering point of view, you can tell it was designed by someone who just wasn’t rehashing the past, but actually wanted to build something State of the Art.
My heart belongs to my M1 Carbines, also. But my Supply Side says, if I was starting from scratch, I’d go AR. Stocks, pouches, mags, spare parts, even Ammo is plentiful.
I now know how all those Old WW1 Vets who grew up on 1903 Springfields felt, when, at the end of their 20 had
to learn the Garand.
1. Am not an engineer.
2. Went through basic training with M14 and used M16 ever after.
3. Was familiar and comfortable with it but have no affection for it -or any other weapon. Just a tool.
4. If you want an indicator of the weapon’s worth, here’s a standard you might consider.
5. Most of the world’s special operations forces are allowed to choose their own weapons.
6. The vast majority of those people are carrying M4 variants -even units whose countries equip their main forces with domestically produced rifles.
7. That would include Britain (SAS, SBS), France (GIGN), Israel (Shayet), Australian SAS, etc.
8. When we switched to the M16, the BDA went from 140 rounds to 420. And a lot of the super soldiers carry double that these days.
9. Anyway, have fun reading your remarks (and the comments) on this subject. Have learned quite a bit. Thanks!
V/R JWest
V/R JWest
.458 Winchester is the obvious caliber any serious battle rifle should be chambered in. 5.56mm is meant to take care of coyotes and squirrel infestations.
(Grau runs away cackling maniacally)
All kidding aside, I’ve been seriously thinking about saving for an M4gery myself, less for me and more because when I teach Rave to shoot I seriously doubt she’ll enjoy the shoulder maiming thumpery I do (I still want a Saiga 12 so bad it hurts)
As to utility in battle, when son was home after first Iraq tour his thoughts boiled down to
Good ergonomics.
Good to excellent accuracy.
Picky about being kept clean; do that well enough and he never saw one jam in use, even though a lot of their mags were crap.
But he doesn’t like the cartridge; especially from the 14″ M4 at distance.
I love ARs. Legos for Gun Nuts!