Home Forums Hunting & Shooting AR and Tactical Rifles Need your suggestions

I recently purchased a Rock River A2 with 20" barrel. It is a very basic rifle as far as AR's goe. It has a standard stock and permanent carry handle. I wanted it to have the basic look and feel. Recently I noticed an old Colt SP1 in a pawn shop. I was very impressed with the way it shouldered and balanced when held by the handle. Mine (because of the barrel wt) is front heavy. Im sure this is best for accuracy, but it is not really what I want now. Im wanting a gun with the barrel wt. of the SP 1 but with foreward assist and shell deflector. Does this gun exist? Can I get this by mating a M16A1 upper with one of todays lowers? If so, where can I get the upper (prefer unused) thanks

I'm sure they may be out there, but lots of threads have folks wanting a 20 inch light barrel and seems like they are hard to find.

Might go looking, you may find a 16 inch flat top or iron sight upper with a mid weight barrel to balance pretty similar.

You should be able to run an old upper on any lower with adapter pins. Just have to have the right combo, and that can vary.

I dont' know that you'll ever find an unused SP1 type upper.

Most of the reliable sources are concerned with accuracy, hence the heavier tubes by a bit.

Remember, SP1s had like 12 or 14 twist, limiting bullets to light ones.

Jeff

Just get a light profile 20" barrel, any AR "smith" can trim one down for you. They all come with 1" diameter and have to be turned down on a lathe, you can get a barrel made to any profile you want even .750 the full length. but usually they start thick under the handgaurd then get turned to like .930 at the gas block, then down to .865 or .750 after the gas block to the muzzel, that was just an example, I do not have any drawings here to refer to, the last AR I had done was in a differant chambering than standard I went 1.00 under the handgaurd to .930 under the gas block then .830 to the muzzel with it turned and threaded to 5/8-28 TPI for the Break I am putting on it. That is a 16" Barrel and is going to be chambered in 458Socom The barrel is that diameter after the gas block so the berrel and break will have the same O.D. But you can do yours any way you want, AR's are pretty modular and can truly be custom built to the shooters specifacation and dsesire. All it takes is Green$$$$

Only a possible problem from turning blanks down quite a bit is internal expansion, and that could also be uneven...

Its a risk you run, and can bite you but generally the worst I've seen, was to take a .8 moa barrel and hit about 1.5 moa from the same thing mentioned, heavy contour barrel turned down light for a junior shooter.

Jeff

Take a quick look at offerings from CMMG and Bushmaster.

Last I knew the light profile BBL. was still offered by both and would take 15 Min to twist onto your upper.

Best of luck to ya!
E4E