Author Topic: first time shooting new build (Read 5153 times)

landon410 · « **on:** February 03, 2014, 12:52:20 PM »

this was my first go at a 80% lower.
got the black EP Armory lower, and DPMS lower parts kit, everything went together pretty smoothly. The safety is pretty tight, but it does move without too much effort.
My biggest issue was getting the bolt catch roll pin started, that was a hassle, ended up using dish soap to help lube it up because that was all I had available at the time.

I was told the front pivot pin is a hassle to put in, must have gotten lucky, got it on my 2nd try.
Holding off with the rear take down pin as I don't have my buffer tube/stock yet.

I don't know if its "quality" or not compared to other polymer. I did put my friends colt upper on it, there was a small gap on the right side above the selector, but it felt like it mated well (again I didn't have either front or rear pin on it at that time, just set it on the lower)

I'm pretty happy, with it though.

now to shop to stocks

on the fritz · « **Reply #1 on:** February 03, 2014, 02:25:45 PM »

Cool. Good for you. I had one of these EP lowers and had some issues with mine.

BE VERY CAREFUL THREADING THE BUFFER TUBE ON!!!!!!! It can easily cross-thread; which is what I did.

bkoenig · « **Reply #2 on:** February 03, 2014, 04:29:51 PM »

Awesome. I really need to try one of these. I'd like to build a super lightweight .22 AR for my daughter some day.

newfalguy101 · « **Reply #3 on:** February 03, 2014, 10:07:26 PM »

Quote from: bkoenig on February 03, 2014, 04:29:51 PM

Awesome. I really need to try one of these. I'd like to build a super lightweight .22 AR for my daughter some day.

I built an Ar for my wife using a New Frontier Armory poly complete lower mated to a DPMS Lite-16 upper. It was very lightweight, I would guess it was every bit of 4 lbs less than my 20" A-2 mutt

landon410 · « **Reply #4 on:** February 04, 2014, 08:25:54 AM »

this was really fun, and pretty easy, I'd tell anyone to give it a try.
If anyone wanted to look at my lower I'd be more than happy to line up a time to show it to you if you are consindereing an EParmory 80% I could give you my 2cents on how it went and what I could have done better, but for $65 including shipping, it was cheap enough to be really fun even when I didn't know what I was doing.

I'm really interested in gwacs, its a all one piece lower, the lower, pistol grip, butt stock, all one piece, supposed to be the lightest way to go.
http://www.gwacsarmory.com/

$130 for a stripped lower isn't terrible

landon410 · « **Reply #5 on:** February 06, 2014, 12:26:16 PM »

added a little more to it today, its just a cheap UTG stock, but this is a cheap build.
Now just waiting on tax returns to get a complete upper.

landon410 · « **Reply #6 on:** February 06, 2014, 04:29:25 PM »

couple questions about all this as I only know enough to be dangerous

I don't have a wrench for the castle nut, is it imparitive to use those wrenches or if I can it tight by other means is that ok?
What are those other means? right now its just finger tight

also my rear take down pin, the hole for the detent is really tight so the spring isn't strong enough to push the detent into the take down pin, I'd prefer to not have to put a drill bit in there, any ideas?

landon410 · « **Reply #7 on:** February 12, 2014, 08:24:50 AM »

thanks for farmer rick for giving me this upper for half price, all I had to do was ask...
ok just kidding, but seriously thanks for the emails and time farmer rick.

the upper looks great, the only issue i have is the holes for the take down pins are about 1/16 off from the holes in the upper, IE my lower is a 1/16th longer than my upper. and i'm justing guessing on that measurement its propably like a 32nd, but anyways it doesn't line up.

I've read this is an issue with some of these eparmory lowers, which I used.
Suggestions? do I just file the alluminum hole on the rear take down pin a little bit until I can get that rear take down pin in?

SS_N_NE · « **Reply #8 on:** February 12, 2014, 09:37:02 PM »

Quote from: landon410 on February 12, 2014, 08:24:50 AM

Suggestions? do I just file the alluminum hole on the rear take down pin a little bit until I can get that rear take down pin in?

The most important term for an AR is "mil spec". That means dimesions are within a specified range and allows swapping, changing, replacing parts without needing fit work. The upper/lower takedown pin holes are 6.375" center to center (measure front edge of hole to front edge of hole for centers, or a caliper measuring accross takedown pins and subtract .250" to get centers). It would be important to determine which part is out of spec and not change/damage correct parts. Filing out holes would be poor gunsmithing and could create problems.

landon410 · « **Reply #9 on:** February 13, 2014, 08:13:05 AM »

upon further review and really studying the problem, the rear taken down pin hole in the lower itself is the problem, those holes don't line up, I did not drill the take down holes, those came from factory drilled at an angle.

I got it to fit with some finagling and doings, the upper and lower fit snuggly, not wiggle at all, there is a small gap toward the rear where the upper and lower mate, you can actually see light from the other side through the gap. This is an issue I have read about with this lower as well.

Seems like I did the research, I knew there were issues with the lower and I still used it.... it was cheap... get what you pay for.

Now in the future if I find a nice lower I can swap it out, I could even swap out my lower parts kit, so that might be something I look at doing maybe next year, but this was a really good learning experience for me.

I can't say enough about the upper I got from farmer rick, compare next to a buddies colt, its every bit as nice.

tstuart34 · « **Reply #10 on:** February 13, 2014, 08:40:21 AM »

I am happy you kind of got it to work. But it still sucks you put that work into it. If you don't plan on making another lower and would like to get a forged keep a eye out at Palmetto State Armory. They have (they had them yesterday) blems for 55ish bucks with 7 dollar shipping plus you throw in a 20ish FFL fee. All of the blem lowers that I have got from them have pretty much been pretty flawless.

FarmerRick · « **Reply #11 on:** February 13, 2014, 09:20:28 AM »

Glad you got it working.

landon410 · « **Reply #12 on:** February 17, 2014, 07:46:32 AM »

shot the new rifle this weekend.

first shot went off without a hitch, than nothing, I'd check the rifle and see a failure to feed. This happened several times, see attached photo.

after looking at everything and thinking about it, I asked a guy at the range next to me who I had exchanged some small talk previously if I would borrow a mag of his because I think my feed problem is a mag problem. (I was using the only mag I had which was a cheap POS)

The guy let me borrow a PMag, and things went off without a hitch, the next 10 shots are pictured below, this was a function test and not an accuracy test. I was using a reddot I took off of a different gun, and never 0'ed it.

FarmerRick · « **Reply #13 on:** February 17, 2014, 09:11:17 AM »

Looks like .223 - spec soft points. That ammo is usually loaded with a lesser powder charge than mil-spec 5.56 would be.

That could be a contributor of the feed problem, as well as the cheap mags.

bkoenig · « **Reply #14 on:** February 17, 2014, 09:17:20 AM »

From the way the case body is dented I'm guessing they were popping up out of the mag and jamming with the point stuck above the entry to the chamber, and then the bolt was slamming into them? I've seen that happen with a mag that has screwed up feed lips. You might be able to bend them inward/down a little to get it to feed, but I wouldn't ever trust that mag for anything other than plinking use even if you get it working.

landon410 · « **Reply #15 on:** February 17, 2014, 09:21:50 AM »

that mag has already been retired.
due to where I was shooting (indoors) I used those softpoints

i'll be taking it out again this week or weekend with pmags and maybe some different ammo as I'll be at a friends farm and there are no ammo requirements other than, "don't shoot my barn or the neighbors barn"
yes this is a rule, because I did shoot his barn with my bow once.... long range bow shooting, yea, not too good at that

Picture 1, entry wound
picture 2, inside of entry wound
picture 3, where it came to rest.

I got pretty lucky I didn't hit anything else of importance. The knock is still in the wall, so everytime I'm there I'm reminded about this.... this happened 2 years ago whlie shooting 100 yards with bows, I over shot the target by about 15 yards and hit the barn

FarmerRick · « **Reply #16 on:** February 17, 2014, 09:40:50 AM »

Broadheads are not easily removed after penetration of wood lap-siding on 80 year old chicken houses.

landon410 · « **Reply #17 on:** February 24, 2014, 10:27:10 AM »

shot again this past weekend using only pmag's, this fixed all my feeding problems 100% reliable using Pmags compared to the scheels bargin bin special mag which sucks.

Using good brass ammo doing the shoot a couple, clean, shoot, clean shoot clean thing, 100% reliable, after doing this for awhile I did shoot some herters steel case in it

hit and miss with that, had a case get stuck in the chamber, stuck good too.

Suppose I'll pass on that stuff for awhile.....

landon410 · « **Reply #18 on:** March 11, 2014, 09:01:19 AM »

made some changes, not sure I'll keep it this way or not, added BUIS RTS and a scope.
the back up sights I got off amazon, haven't shot with them yet, but the rear peep is little, and the front sight gets lost, I'm going to put a little white paint on that front pin and hope that helps with the contrast. Its ok when outside, I had some squirrels shaking in the boots and some neighbor's wondering what the heck I was doing, but when in the house and with a little less light it was hard to pick up that front pin....

the scope I stole off my deer rifle, its a Redfield Revolution 3-9x40, I like this scope, a lot. Think Leupold VX1, its the same scope, just different finish and comes with differnt box.

The scope has enough eye relief that I can mount it forward enough to have enough room for the BUIS and enough room to operate the charging handle with no problems.

the bipod is a cheap one I picked up for a couple bucks, its short....

DCPrecisionLLC · « **Reply #19 on:** March 11, 2014, 10:46:00 AM »

If your handguard is using the delta ring style snap in mount and not solidly attached to the barrel nut it isn't a good option for mounting optics. It is hard to tell from the picture what style you have, but I did see that your front scope mount is on there. The delta ring models have enough play that it will be hell on your zero. I would get a good one piece scope mount with offset for eye relief that you can mount on the receiver.