Around last August I decided to start building an AR. I was sick of the “rickityness” of the WASR that I had and the un predictable recoil. I purchased a spikes lower and LPK around that time and was waiting to see what kind of upper I wanted. It was impossible for me to pass up the smartgunner deal especially with BCM being out of stock. I sent off my money and waited patieiently for my upper to arrive, low and behold about 2 months later there it was. A couple weeks ago I went ahead and picked up CH,BCG,Sights, buffer tube assembly, and stock.
Finally, I got everything put together this past week and went out to the shooting academy yesterday. All I can say is “Holy Crap”, I love this platform. This thing shot like butter, and the recoil was damn near non-existant. I can’t imagine what a Battle Comp would do.
Sadly, the MBUS I got didn’t come with a front sight tool so I wasn’t able to get zeroed. I was however lucky enough that the front sight was set just about perfect for a 6-o-clock hold, ringing that steel silhouette at 100 yards was no problem. I’ll get back out this week and get it sighted in for real. I’ve also got a primary arms m4 that I can throw on until I pick up a 1-4x type scope, though I am planning to use irons for a bit (well, I guess plastics).
Heres the list-
Spikes Lower
Delton LPK
A5 Buffer Tube Set
Vltor Modstock
MOE Grip
PMAG’s
Daniel Defense 16" LW Middy
Daniel Defense 14.0 Lite Rail
FN Full Auto Bolt
BCM/Vltor Charging Handle (Pre-production)
MBUS
I was hoping that the first few hundred rounds could be something like XM193. I was unable to find any locally so I decided to start it off with a “low powered” load test. I shot Wolf, PMC Bronze, Remington UMC, and some Winchester 556 that was close in cost. Everything fired/functioned fine without any kind of hickup.
Nice rifle. Congrats. I’m surprised you didn’t get the tool to adjust your front sight though. I recently bought a set of Gen 2 MBUS and my front sight came with the tool.
Nice stick! I built 2 rifles around DD uppers from Smartgunner and have been nothing but pleased.
Sorry you didn’t get your front sight tool, however you can adjust that front sight post without a tool by spinning with your hand or using the tip of a bullet. Its okay to improvise
I was trying to use my hand but couldn’t get that little bugger to move. I’ll try harder or use some needle nose pliers. I got the sights through a trade and didn’t even think to ask for the tool.
Today I am going to order 500-1000 rounds/few more mags/ and some grip panels.
I was going to stake the castle nut but decided to use Loctite for now as I will be needing a new end plate with a sling mount soon. Can’t wait to get out this weekend and do some serious shooting. I’ll get these back-up sights set, get that PA M4 on and have some fun. Hopefully I can slap a TR21 or similar on around Christmas.
Please don’t use loctite. If you use blue it doesn’t hold up to the heat and red can be a real PITA to remove the castle nut.
Go get a cheap spring-loaded punch and stake it or tighten with a wrench to the appropriate torque and keep an eye on it until you stake. Some good staking pics can be found in this thread. (both pages)
I have it torqued properly and used blue loctite. I just didn’t want to stake it because I’ll probably by a noveske end plate or the likes in a week or two. Not sure that I will even use the end plate sling attachment though. If I decide to run the sling through the modstock I will go ahead and stake the vltor endplate that’s on there now.
looks good! Im pretty sure you dont need a front sight tool for the mbus, you should be able to turn it with your fingers. If not just bend the neck of a fired case and use that to turn the sight
Proper torque will hold it on without the need for Loctite if its only gonna be a few days. I have beater rifles that have run for thousans of round with no staking or loctite. Staking become a requirement when you start running a rifle hard and attaching slings to the stock which cause twisting on the extension. The spring loaded punches work well.
Thanks for the heads up, I’ll probably run the sling off the QD swivel on the stock and go ahead and stake the endplate I have. Not like it’s hard to get them off if I do decided to put on a QD endplate.
