Thanks to those that responded to my other thread about semi-auto rifles for 3-gun (
http://nebraskafirearms.org/forum/index.php/topic,6194.0.html) I'm happy to finally get a start on my AR-15.
I bought a stripped, Spikes Tactical lower from DE Guns and found a Spikes enhanced lower parts kit online along with a Spikes buffer tube assembly and stock. Call me nuts, but I thought it would be nice for the lower to be all one "brand" and I'm just kind of anal-retentive that way, I guess.
I chose the enhanced parts kit because it came with a nicer trigger (nickle boron coated and factory polished), plus it includes an ambidextrous safety selector (I'm left-handed). I've got to say, from a newbie's perspective, the number of springs, pins, and detents was a little daunting, but after looking at some of the parts lists on ar15.com and watching way too many videos on youtube, I did manage to figure it out. That brings up another thing I like about the enhanced kit: it comes with an extra detent spring and dentent for the takedown and pivot pins. Thankfully, I didn't loose either, but that's a really nice touch and very thoughtful.
Thanks to a tip from some of the good folks in this forum, I was able to use a vice-grip tool (with the jaws taped to avoid maring) to slowly push the roll pins into the receiver. This worked great! I can't tell you how funny it is to watch a video of somebody beating the crap out of their receiver with a brass hammer and then simply pushing your pin in with seemingly little effort. My wife walked by while I was watching a video where a guy was trying to use a punch and a hammer to push the roll pin into the bolt catch. After seeing how easy it was with the vice grips, we both just chuckled.
Overall, the fit and finish of the parts I bought was good to excellent. The only issue was with the pistol grip -- there were several bits of extra rubber in places that I had to trim, but it fit very (very!) tightly and looks decent enough.
The only part that had me scratching my head was how to get the buttstock onto the buffer tube. I finally figured out that instead of squeezing the lever, you should pull down on it to get it into the groove on the buffer tube.
Actually, there was one more thing that was kind of confusing -- none of the videos I found showed my exact parts kit and Spike's enhanced kit comes with special trigger and hammer pins along with an anti-roll system (I think that's what it's called) that attaches to the pins to keep them in place. That had me scratching my coconut for a little bit, too.
The tools I used were:
Vice Grip with tape on the teeth
Small vice
20 round p-mag (to use as a vice block)
Screw driver
Allen wrenches
Small punch and hammer (to finish pushing in the roll pins to make them flush)
Computer (youtube and ar15.com)
Flashlight (to find that spring that got away)
Needlenose pliers
Anyway, I just wanted to say thanks to all here for your suggestions.
I'll try to post some pictures before I loose the thing in a tragic boating accident or something.
