# AR 15 info



## Saltwater_farmer (Feb 8, 2010)

I want to build an AR 15, does anyone have any experience, or advice? Who makes the best lower receivers, should I buy partially assembled ect....


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## matt922 (May 3, 2012)

rock river arms 

http://rockriverarms.com/

probably better off buying one complete and ready to shoot, but do what you do


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## FrankwT (Jul 25, 2010)

Decide on the caliber, trigger and barrel first. If you have never done it buy a complete lower and a complete upper, pin together and shoot. You can modify and add things after that.


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## timc (Oct 19, 2009)

If you build your own it is very easy. The lower is very easy to assemble as long as you take your time. 
As far as what lower is the best, I've used Rock River before and they went together very smoothly. I've built 5 AR's so far. The only one I had difficulty with was an R guns lower. The hole for the mag release was out of spec. As long as you get a spec lower, you should have no problems. 
There are only like 10-15 places that make stripped lowers for the different brands anyway.
If you build the lower yourself, you will need some tools: punches, stock wrench, center punch or some other tool to stake the castle nut and a screwdriver or allen key for the pistol grip.

Building the upper isn't too bad either, again, if you take your time. For the upper though, you will need a barrel wrench, torque wrench, and split ring pliers if you use a delta ring. You will aslo need an upper block to hold the upper while you install the barrel. You will need some moly-grease for the barrel. Aeroshell 33MS is the grease that is recommended, but there are plenty of greases others have used. Just make sure it doesn't contain graphite. 
Hope that helps. AR15.com has a whole forum on building your own AR with tutorials.


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## Tyee Dave (Oct 24, 2007)

matt922 said:


> rock river arms
> 
> http://rockriverarms.com/
> 
> probably better off buying one complete and ready to shoot, but do what you do


I have bought two complete RRA LAR lowers with a match trigger and couldn't be happier. Depends on whether or not you like the stocks etc. There is so much you can do to make it exactly what you want if you are picky. I was not so picky but very happy with what I got.


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## Gravity3694 (May 10, 2011)

Tyee Dave said:


> I have bought two complete RRA LAR lowers with a match trigger and couldn't be happier. Depends on whether or not you like the stocks etc. There is so much you can do to make it exactly what you want if you are picky. I was not so picky but very happy with what I got.


The only good reason to build an AR versus buying one is that you can save slightly by ordering what part you want in the final build. If you buy a complete rifle you have to remove some parts and replace them with the desired ones.

If your ideal rifle is an exact replica of an existing complete rifle sold by a manufacturer your going to spend a little more.

So conceptualize what your going to use this rifle for and then spec out your build based on that.


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## kendive (Sep 9, 2008)

matt922 said:


> rock river arms
> 
> http://rockriverarms.com/
> 
> probably better off buying one complete and ready to shoot, but do what you do


I agree... I have a complete lower just waiting to be made into something. :thumbsup:

I have two others just waiting also they are not RRA...


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## ABailey (May 25, 2010)

Rock river all the way. Worth every penny


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## danjammy (Feb 20, 2011)

*AR15.com*

AR15.com

You will never get through all the info on that site. Best place for black rifle info in the world. :thumbup:


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## Pinksnappertrapper (Dec 7, 2007)

I have heard of alot of the ar guys selling them or keeping them and building ak47's because of the price of ammo. You can get 11,000 rounds of ak ammo for $1,500.


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## FrankwT (Jul 25, 2010)

Pinksnappertrapper said:


> I have heard of alot of the ar guys selling them or keeping them and building ak47's because of the price of ammo. You can get 11,000 rounds of ak ammo for $1,500.



I have not heard that on any of the AR sites, too inaccurate for them. If shooting 223 and 5.56 it is super cheap(not as cheap as your 7.62x39). I shoot a 6.8 not that cheap to shoot, but am not a dirt clod shooter, use it for hunting, no worse than most hunting ammo.


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## scubapro (Nov 27, 2010)

The sole reason I got a 5.45x39mm upper to put on an AR lower was the insane low cost of the Milsurp commie 5.45x39 ammo.

When Glassplus and I sighted mine in at his place with a 1x EoTech and were hitting 8" steel plates consistently at 220 yards - I was hooked!


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## bigbulls (Mar 12, 2008)

> I want to build an AR 15, does anyone have any experience, or advice?


If you are only going to build one rifle then it's cost prohibitive by the time you buy the tools needed to build one. I'm not talking about pinning together a complete upper and complete lower. I'm talking about actually building the rifle from parts and assembling the entire rifle.

If, however, you will be building several down the road then yes, it can be less expensive to build yourself and you can build exactly what you want.

One thing to keep in mind is that when you buy a rifle factory assembled you typically have a warranty to go with the rifle. For instance a Rock River has a lifetime warranty. If you build one yourself you aren't going to have this to fall back on if something breaks because you didn't assemble something just right.


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## T140 (Nov 20, 2007)

+1 on RRA, cheaper than dirt has step by step build on YouTube. Good luck.


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## Saltwater_farmer (Feb 8, 2010)

I appreciate all the responses, looks like I have some thinking to do.


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## kendive (Sep 9, 2008)

Pinksnappertrapper said:


> I have heard of alot of the ar guys selling them or keeping them and building ak47's because of the price of ammo. You can get 11,000 rounds of ak ammo for $1,500.


I have two AK47's. That may come in handy for the zombie apocalypse

I would just have to find room with all this other ammo I own. :whistling:


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## skullworks (Oct 2, 2007)

I need a link to the website selling AK ammo for 13¢ a round!!!!!!


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## shootnstarz (May 4, 2011)

Mandatory: AR-15 Offset Roll Pin Punch, available at Brownells. Any other method produces boogered roll pins or scratched rxs.

Advice: When installing the two push pin retaining pins and springs put the lower rx in a clear plastic bag. If not, when one of the little pins gets launched it will richocet around the room like the laser blast in the "Star Wars" garbage masher, and you'll never find it !!!

Rick


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## kendive (Sep 9, 2008)

skullworks said:


> I need a link to the website selling AK ammo for 13¢ a round!!!!!!



Yea same here...

Maybe we can get a group buy started???


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## kaferhaus (Oct 8, 2009)

I've built a bunch of ARs over the years. You save very little money over just buying a quality AR outright.

And with Walmart selling DPMS carbines for 596+tax.... you're in the hole trying to build one.

Lower and upper receivers are all pretty much the same, don't let anyone kid you. There is some "junk" out there but that's easily sorted through.

What makes a great AR is the barrel, bolt and trigger group. the rest of it is just parts that hold it all together.....


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## tinman (Mar 26, 2012)

matt922 said:


> rock river arms
> 
> http://rockriverarms.com/
> 
> probably better off buying one complete and ready to shoot, but do what you do


Gulp, the site has a wishlist feature.....right that's my afternoon sorted then!


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## Saltwater_farmer (Feb 8, 2010)

I plan on building a couple. I want the experience of putting it together. Figure if I build it from scratch I'll know everything there is to know about it.


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## timc (Oct 19, 2009)

Saltwater_farmer said:


> I plan on building a couple. I want the experience of putting it together. Figure if I build it from scratch I'll know everything there is to know about it.


ar15.com, look at the build it yourself forum, also check out brownells website, they have a whole video series on building an AR

http://www.brownells.com/.aspx/lid=11004/GunTechdetail/How-to-Build-An-AR-15-Video


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## FrankwT (Jul 25, 2010)

You can do it and you are right, then you will know everything there is about your weapon. As Tim says those 2 locations alone will give you all you need.


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## slackwolf (Oct 23, 2007)

Check out AGP Arms for lowers. http://www.agparms.com
http://www.agparms.com/products/AGP-Arms-Forged-AR%2d15-Lower-Receiver.html

Very high quality lowers. I've built a few lowers off their stripped and they are side by side with Mega Arms on quality but the price is a little easier to manage. Everything performed in-house in Tempe, AZ and nice finish on them. All marks are CNC and everything is very tight tolerances. LPK go in very smoothly. Magwell is Wire EDM and PMAGS drop free everytime rather than having to snatch them out. They are also low-shelf full auto capable with a RDIAS just like the spikes lowers.

You can also get them with a RRA LPK installed for $70 or with furniture already installed if you prefer. They come with set screw to take the pre-travel out of a mil-spec trigger. I've been using G&R Tactical LPK's and have been very pleased with the trigger feel just by taking out the pre-travel and some break-in usage. 

If you read around, lots of folks love them and swear by them for the quality. Mega puts out a good product but they are proud. AGP puts out just as good of a product for lowers and their customer service is awesome. Price are inline with buying any S&W, RRA, etc stripped lower.

Last few orders through them I order early in week and before the weekend I'm picking them up at outcast for ffl transfer.


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## NHManontheMountain (Aug 1, 2011)

Rock River is having a sale on lowers. Complete, with their match trigger for under $300


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## sniperpeeps (Mar 5, 2011)

kaferhaus said:


> What makes a great AR is the barrel, bolt and trigger group. the rest of it is just parts that hold it all together.....


+1....always loved the Giessele triggers. 

I will add that there are some performance improving goodies that you can use such as a cyclic rate reducing buffer and adjustable gas block that allow you to really get the recoil significantly lower than a standard AR. Everyone wants something different out of their AR, you just have to find the one you want.

As for lowers, just remember that although there is a lot of brands stamped on lowers there are only so many places that actually manufacture them........


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## bass460 (Jun 21, 2012)

If you wont good online help go to 68 forum the folks are alot nice than ar15 forum and will give you help or info if you need it. it does not have to be a 68 your building they will help on any AR.


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## Xpac (Jun 22, 2011)

Saltwater_Farmer, I built several and if I had to do them again I'd use all Bravo Company parts. RRA is good stuff but if it means anything to you, you can have a "service grade" AR for roughly the same money. You'll see on AR15.com that Bravo Company ARs are preferred over almost all commercial stuff. I have a RRA and I love the lower. The 2-stage trigger is awesome but I rebuilt the upper with mil-spec nato parts from Bravo. One thing to consider is what ammo you want to shoot. That will determine if you want a 1:7 or 1:9 twist barrel. If you have questions I'll be glad to assist you.


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## timc (Oct 19, 2009)

Xpac said:


> Saltwater_Farmer, I built several and if I had to do them again I'd use all Bravo Company parts. RRA is good stuff but if it means anything to you, you can have a "service grade" AR for roughly the same money. You'll see on AR15.com that Bravo Company ARs are preferred over almost all commercial stuff. I have a RRA and I love the lower. The 2-stage trigger is awesome but I rebuilt the upper with mil-spec nato parts from Bravo. One thing to consider is what ammo you want to shoot. That will determine if you want a 1:7 or 1:9 twist barrel. If you have questions I'll be glad to assist you.


+1 Bravo Company makes excellent stuff. We put a BCM upper on my brothers AR and it is awesome


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