Hi all, after months of lurking… finally a post! I am working on a second AR build. The first was a bit heavy so I decided to go lightweight this time. The only problem is, my lightweight build is not so lightweight. Im at 8 lbs unloaded… Below are the specs, any suggestions on where I went wrong
An M4 weighs about 6.8lbs. Eo-tech weighs almost a pound. 9.0 Omega rail is about 4 ounces more than a carbine plastic handguard. So yeah, that is lightweight
Lightweight to me always meant more that the weight is centered in the middle. 20" rifles have a usually want to nose dive forward. LW barrel is only 5-6 ounces lighter than a regular government profile.
Here is a little calculator someone who posts here made (was trying to find it before) to figure out weight of stuff before you buy it, or to enter weights. If you take off EoTech and put on a plastic handguard should save about 1.3 lbs.
oh… well that all makes sense. i know the eotech is a total buzzkill on weight. ended up shifting all the way rearward to maintain good balance. btw, that calculator is awesome! i will def be bookmarking.
Get rid of the Magpul stock and go back to the original Colt old style CAR stock. I did this on all my short fighting guns last year and I don’t know what the hell I was thinking messing around with these other stocks. My SPR/precision/DMR type guns still have enchanced stocks for better cheek weld/shouldering, but all the shorty fighters have them removed.
Go to regular handguards and get rid of the rail. Use a front sight base mount to mount your light.
Get rid of the EO tech and get an aimpoint micro in an ADM mount.
Depending on the combination of parts, this isn’t the lightest solution. The problem is that the FSB weighs a lot, comparatively speaking, as do most of the FSB light mounts. A shaved FSB or low-profile gas block with a rail-mounted front sight on a Troy TRX Extreme rail would be lighter overall.
FWIW, the Omega 9.0 weighs LESS than the Cavarms mid-length handguards.
Speaking of CAR stocks, I’ve been searching high and low for them recently and have been unable to find them anywhere. Is there a good vendor to order them from? Or is it something you have to find for sale second hand?
If your really on a quest for weight reduction you can also look at the ACE ultra lite stock. That might be able to save you a bit more as well as the other suggestions listed above.
I am also looking for an old school CAR stock. Those things were neat and light. I found one in my closet from some Colt long long ago. Does anyone have a good source for them? I know the really old ones were aluminum and are harder than crap to find unless you buy an entire Colt SP-1 carbine. I have found a few on gunbroker but they’ve all had the commercial dimensions. It’s hard to find a mil-spec one.
nice suggestions. as i just invested in the dd9 omega… its staying on. car stock looks nice, anyone have much experience with them? been salavating over aimpoint micros… bit out of my range at the moment.
oh and i triew a m.i.fsb mount on my heavy franken ar15, and it was way too heavy… the plastic mounts didnt seem like a good idea to me that close to the gas block.
That’s an awesome weight calculator. Of course we wish that it had a few more rail options, sights, stocks, etc etc, but overall it’s a great reference. I didn’t know how much my AR weighed until I used it. I’m surprised that my DDM4 V1 weighs like 8 lbs with a T-1 and X300.
I think I’m going to try to go lighter with my next build…maybe DD MRF tube, lightweight barrel, X300, old school stock, and T-1. No VFGs or AFGs.
I think someone should sticky the weight calculator.
Ok, so I used a scale at work (After everyone left of course ) and the weight is 7lbs 8oz. My scale at home was wrong for sure.
Thank you for the suggestions, I’m definitely going to check out the ACE LW Skeleton stocks when I build a lower to go with this upper. Maybe a t-1 too to shave some weight.
Well, I don’t think we should get too obsessed with a few ounces of total weight difference. I am talking about loaded with 62 gr green tip if I remember correctly. I don’t think you’re doing too bad if the gun weighs 8-9 lbs. fully loaded with 30 rounds. Sure, it’d kick ass to have a 6.5 to 7 lb gun fully loaded, but unless you don’t run a light and use irons, I just don’t see it happening. If you have a white light, optic, and PEQ-15, I just don’t see it happening even if you use a T-1 and pistol light like a X300.
Why did you have to wait until everyone left work to weigh the rifle? Lol, j/k. I know…in our society today people freak out at the sight of a gun. Long ago I went to a friend’s house with an AK to show him. I walked from my vehicle about 30 yards in the open into his apartment with an AK in plain view…no magazine, muzzle downward with my arm partly hiding the gun the best I could. Some guys saw me, freaked out, and dialed 911. The police arrived in minutes. They said that nothing was illegal, but told me and my friend that it “wasn’t a good idea” to have any sort of firearms in plain view since most people tend to freak out.
