Your Perfect Rifle... No more Assembly Required Part 8

If you’ve been following along with the project, you are probably already familiar with what has gone into this rifle in terms of parts and assemblies, but I thought a spec box might help for anyone who fell asleep while reading.

After a mechanical ops and safety check out, with metallic sights in place, two rounds were loaded into a magazine, one  round was chambered and cycling was checked. The rifle short cycled on the first round, but fired the second round when the rifle was manually cycled. Kind of took the excitement out of the words “semi auto”. The JP adjustable gas block was opened a quarter turn, the magazine was reloaded and this time the rifle cycled flawlessly and did so with a magazine full of mixed handloads; varying bullet weights and charge intensities.

A Burris XTR with FastFire III and P.E.P.R. mount combo was installed and the rifle was shot at 100 yards for accuracy with Remington Express 55 grain PSP ammo. The first three shots were less than impressive, the second group was much better and the third three shot group fell within 3/4″. The next group was similar. After letting the rifle rest and return to ambient temperature, another group was shot that was also under 1″.

The rifle was taken back to the shop, disassembled and checked for any problems or odd wear and tear. Nothing loose, falling off or beaten. The rifle was scrubbed down, both sub assemblies and bore, light lubed where appropriate and put up. Not for long….

The never ending story….

I usually don’t bother with mechanical sights as I almost always shoot through a scope, and the Burris XTR and FastFire III were an excellent combination, but these sights were too good to pass up. The front sight is made specifically for mounting on a gas block rail. They both push button unlock and fold down to less than 1/2″ height. 1/2 MOA increment of adjustment

The front sight, with adjustable elevation, has a side access hole that permits gas system adjustment with sight in place. The aft sight has a flip aperture for short and long range shooting and adjusts for windage. Both sights have an integral ratchet that prevent the sights from falling back even if the detent lock is not engaged. Troy # SSIG-GBF-OMBT-00 Front # SSIG-FBS-R0BT-00 Rear. $123 front and $102 Rear on Amazon.

Not much to read, but my favorite magazines

While my dusty, trusty High Standard magazines worked just fine, their tin can construction seemed a bit dated and a couple of them in close proximity were noisy. They were replaced with 20 and 30 round PMAG Gen M3 Magazines with dust covers – Brownells # 100-011-413 $13 and # 100-011-220 $14 respectively. These are not the window type, a feature that makes a heck of a lot of sense… and yet I did not pick them.

If there is anything that makes an autoloading firearm unreliable it is substandard or out of spec magazines and there are a lot of poorly done steel mags out there. These seem to hold up really well, last a long time and are no more expensive then steel… plus they look good.

But, Joe, can it hit anything? Glad you asked…

Just picking a 1″ square and shooting for group size, these three shot groups were the result. I shot the bottom left, then the top center, then my wife shot the lower center group just under mine. Works for me. All Remington Express 55 grain PSP ammo. no cool down between groups. When I get some time away from other projects I’ll shoot some more and publish heavy bullet handload results.

And in conclusion, your honor…

Well, that was fun. I got to pick the parts, make them fit and shoot something that looked like I wanted it to look. Lots of personal satisfaction. The only thing that required service was the firing pin retaining pin, which I assume was munged when I made the initial install.

There are many redesigned pieces I would like to prototype and configurations I’d like to assemble. I strayed from my initial objective of a very light AR when I ended up with an 18″ barrel, elected to go with the heat dissipater and did not use the magnesium lower as was the original plan. The dissipater gave the rifle a unique personality.

The heat sink heats up quickly, drawing heat away from the barrel, but the gun cools very quickly as a result. Timney did a great job with a modular drop in single stage trigger. It contributes significantly to the rifle’s accuracy just by making it easier and more consistent to shoot. I like the charging handle as it removed one of the most annoying aspects of AR shooting; fishing the stock charging handle out from under a scope eyepiece.

Your Perfect Rifle… Some Assembly Required Part 1
Your Perfect Rifle… Some Assembly Required Part 2
Your Perfect Rifle… Some Assembly Required Part 3
Your Perfect Rifle… Some Assembly Required Part 4
Your Perfect Rifle… Some Assembly Required Part 5
Your Perfect Rifle… Some Assembly Required Part 6
Your Perfect Rifle… Some Assembly Required Part 7
Your Perfect Rifle… Some Assembly Required Part 8