Certified Gunsmith

Well I am finally a certified gunsmith! While I could have spent this money on tools or my AK armorers class my Queen is tired of hearing about "my upper" and I no longer had an excuse not to buy it.  I did not get anything for my college graduation so I got myself this for my gunsmith graduation.

For my final exam I am finally building my rifle the AR15RK.  I just ordered my flat top upper so I can join the 21st century.

In this I am going to put my current 1/9 twist heavy barrel from my Oly Arms if you can remember that saga finding out about that barrel.  Wondering why I bought a non-stripped upper and do the work myself my answer is, Why?  The parts cost another $40 and that C-clip on the ejector cover is a pain in the butt who wants to fight that.  DSA had such a good deal on it I could not go wrong.  I read a bunch of reviews and it gets 4 out of five stars.   Then I went on Amazon of all places and found this for $38.50 which is $10 less than Midway or Brownells and free shipping.  By the way as great as Brownells is they are currently out of everything.  You cannot even get a front sight bench block from them and they have no uppers for less that $150 stripped.  Of course hardly anyone has uppers right now Rock River Arms has "back ordered for indefinite period of time" on all the flat top uppers.

Yes that is a set of rifle length Magpul MOE hand guards.  Next pay check I order the gas system, front sight taper pins, BUIS which will also be a Magpul, and possibly a railed gas block.  I need to measure the diameter of the rifle where the front sight is mounted so I can order the correct size.  DPMS has a cool four rail gas block if I can find one that fits.  I will get me a couple of rail sections and will be able to mount my light and laser for the house and remove them real easy for when I go hunting.  Next step is to remount the scope and put a milspec sliding stock on it.  You may wonder why I did not free float the barrel.  Well let me tell you a story way back when I was a kid I was able to shoot 9 out of 10 at the 500 meter line in the rain with the wind blowing with an iron sighted M16A2 service rifle.  Currently I am shooting half dollar sized groups at 50 yards which puts me at 1-2" high or low out to 200 meters.  That is good enough to get me in the ball park on a man sized target out to 300-400 meters which by the way is a distance I do not foresee myself shooting unless the world falls apart which it could. 

Next though saving money for FFL so I can get my business started.  I intend to order rifles people want and would also like to do custom builds and for that you need an FFL to buy receivers.  The AR series of weapons can be tailored to just about any ones desires and while easy to work on not everyone has the tools to do it.  I am also doing to do the same thing with the AK. 

Next rifle build for myself will be to use the upper that I will have and combine it with a sliding stock lower and a 1/7 twist 16" pencil barrel and have a handy little carbine that the Queen or kids can use easily.  That will involve more web gear and magazines but that is never a bad thing now is it.