{"id":866,"date":"2013-08-26T10:47:15","date_gmt":"2013-08-26T15:47:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/david.bookstaber.com\/Interests\/?p=866"},"modified":"2020-01-04T19:00:40","modified_gmt":"2020-01-05T00:00:40","slug":"ar-15-lower-build","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/david.bookstaber.com\/Interests\/2013\/08\/ar-15-lower-build\/","title":{"rendered":"AR-15 Lower Build"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"https:\/\/david.bookstaber.com\/Interests\/img\/AR15_Lower_Built.jpg\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/david.bookstaber.com\/Interests\/img\/AR15_Lower_Built-640.jpg\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>After <a href=\"https:\/\/david.bookstaber.com\/Interests\/2013\/08\/rethinking-direct-impingement-with-the-noveske-300-blk-upper\/\">I bought a Noveske upper<\/a> I decided it deserved its own lower, and in order to get exactly what I wanted I chose to build this one myself.  The finished lower shown above started out as this $700 collection of parts:<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/david.bookstaber.com\/Interests\/img\/AR15_Lower_Build_Components.jpg\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/david.bookstaber.com\/Interests\/img\/AR15_Lower_Build_Components-640.jpg\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>Going roughly clockwise from the bottom these are:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>$100 Double Star stripped lower + $25 dealer transfer fee<\/li>\n<li>$20 Magpul MOE+ grip<\/li>\n<li>$240 Magpul UBR stock<\/li>\n<li>$160 Timney 667S 3.5lb single-stage trigger<\/li>\n<li>$125 JPSCS-15 Silent Spring System<\/li>\n<li>$20 Brownells lower parts kit<\/li>\n<li>$16 Troy Enhanced Trigger Guard<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>The actual assembly took me perhaps two hours, and that&#8217;s without any special tools that can make inserting some of those springs and pins a lot easier.  There are several decent <a href=\"http:\/\/www.ar15.com\/content\/guides\/assembly\/lower\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">online guides for the process<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>The stripped lower is the only serialized part, and so the only thing that has to be purchased through a licensed gun dealer.  (It&#8217;s kind of funny doing the paperwork to buy a &#8220;rifle&#8221; and walking out with nothing but a small block of metal.)  I was lucky to have ordered this lower last November just before the double-bubble in demand that is only now subsiding.  The brand doesn&#8217;t really matter: A standard AR-15 lower is machined from forged aluminum and is hard anodized black.  There are only a few variations that one needs to be aware of to ensure parts compatibility: trigger pin and buffer tube size (military or commercial), and safety throw (standard or short).<\/p>\n<p>The biggest splurge on this lower is the UBR stock: It&#8217;s Magpul&#8217;s top-of-the-line telescoping stock, and unlike any other it is rock solid with zero movement or rattle at any extension.  I also paid up for the JP Enterprises Silent recoil spring system because I was building this lower for an often-suppressed upper, and even when I shoot unsuppressed I usually wear electronic ear muffs.  I find the rasping, twanging noise that accompanies many AR-15 recoil springs&#8217; cycles annoying.  Not all of them make it &#8212; for some reason the spring on my <a href=\"https:\/\/david.bookstaber.com\/Interests\/2009\/09\/tactical-rifle-ruger-sr-556\/\">SR-556<\/a> is silent &#8212; but I didn&#8217;t want to leave this one to luck.  The other advantage of the self-contained JP system is that it doesn&#8217;t require a retainer detent: I omitted that from the receiver so the one-piece buffer\/spring assembly can easily be installed and removed.<\/p>\n<p>I&#8217;m a stickler for triggers &#8212; a light, crisp trigger is essential to wringing all of the accuracy potential out of a gun.  I have and like a <a href=\"https:\/\/david.bookstaber.com\/Interests\/2008\/08\/cmc-ar-15-super-match-trigger-group\/\">Chip McCormick drop-in<\/a>, but I prefer the retention mechanism on this otherwise functionally indistinguishable Timney unit: The CMC trigger requires special pins that secure with external C-clips.  The Timney uses the standard trigger-group pins and is retained by tightening screws that press the body up against the pins.<\/p>\n<p>There is a diverse market in grips for AR-15s.  Since I have large hands I go for larger grips.  I also stick to grips with an integral backstrap to avoid any pinching in the otherwise exposed joint between the grip and the receiver&#8217;s back radius where the firing hand web anchors itself.  I like the tacky rubber on my Hogue grip, but it doesn&#8217;t have a backstrap and, like comparable Ergo grips I have tried, its core has some flexibility that I don&#8217;t want when I have to move the rifle by the grip.  The MOE+ delivers that soft rubber finish with the rigidity I was looking for.  I would like it more if it had the stippled style of the Hogue instead of the front and rear grooves that work better on hard plastic.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>After I bought a Noveske upper I decided it deserved its own lower, and in order to get exactly what I wanted I chose to build this one myself. The finished lower shown above started out as this $700 collection of parts: Going roughly clockwise from the bottom these are: $100 Double Star stripped lower [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[46],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-866","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-arms"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/po3d1-dY","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/david.bookstaber.com\/Interests\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/866","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/david.bookstaber.com\/Interests\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/david.bookstaber.com\/Interests\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/david.bookstaber.com\/Interests\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/david.bookstaber.com\/Interests\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=866"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/david.bookstaber.com\/Interests\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/866\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1657,"href":"https:\/\/david.bookstaber.com\/Interests\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/866\/revisions\/1657"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/david.bookstaber.com\/Interests\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=866"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/david.bookstaber.com\/Interests\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=866"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/david.bookstaber.com\/Interests\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=866"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}