Home Forums Hunting & Shooting AR and Tactical Rifles New (first) AR

Well my boys finally convinced me to buy one, though they don't know it yet. I picked up a PSA upper kit in .223 wylde with one of their stripped lowers and hammered it out on my desk at work (it was slow). Should be a fun little plinker! My oldest was really wanting to step up from the 15-22, so for less than $450 I figured why not. The scope and rings were hanging in the safe so I just used what I had.

Looks good!

Awesome job and way to keep the boys interested in shooting sports! I just built my 1st AR and I’ve never owned one before either. I’m glad I built it so I could get it exactly the way I wanted but I have waaaaay more $$$ into mine than originally planned. Lol. My 11yr old son helped me and I let him have a lot of hands on time while we built it. He told me it was the best father & son project we’ve experienced together. That made me feel great! Plus, he now understands the platform and how it functions. I’ve never seen him smile so big when we test fired it ... it was awesome! I have some optics and iron sights on the way for it and then we can get it sighted in.

Take them boys and go have fun shooting!

I'll likely get it sighted in and then never get to touch it again! Haha! I have more fun watching them shoot most of the time anyways. I'll agree with building it yourself, though all I did was assemble the lower. Pretty straight forward stuff and only burned up one spring in the atmosphere!

I just put together one using the same upper kit. Haven’t wrung it out on paper, just a quick zero and on to killing stuff. But so far it’s been pretty awesome, no FTFs and I killed 6 pigs and a coyote the first two days I had it out.

Awesome! That's the perfect way to wring out a new gun.

Never touch it again....yea, that's funny. It won't be long before you swapping out parts and playing tinkertoys.

Well, not get to touch it to shoot it anyways! The boys will claim those rights!

Have fun! Looks nice

Nice looking rifle..

Seems like a lot for the money. Cheap bolt actions go for the same price and it would seem something like this would cost more to manufacture. We'll see how it shoots I guess.

I'd wager that it'll "shoot"..................(grin)

I think the odds are in my favor, which is right where I like them!

Scope sucks and WILL puke,which do rate a thunk. Rings are dubious,which rates a re-thunk.(grin)

ASC mags grant the most COAL and are without peer.

Tough to beat a 6x Q in 'Horn's,feeding Hornie 75gr BTHP's...............

You know if Rick doesn't limit you to one post a day again, my credit card is gonna catch fire. I picked up 600rds of MEN 56gr plinkin ammo for less than half price from a GI that was bouncing to the lesser 48. I'll let my boys give it a run and see what happens. Upgrades are all but certain as I can't help myself.

Call me...before the wallet comes out.(grin)

HINT....................

Thanks, will do!

Made it out to the range for a bit this morning. I didn't set any accuracy records, that's for sure, and I definitely need a bit more time with the platform to get used to it. Swapping out the trigger won't hurt either as there's no doubt it's the heaviest trigger I own. Next time out I'll have the CMC in it and see if that helps some, as well as try some different ammo. I was just using some MEN 56g FMJ to start out. Still, it's a fun little bastid and I can't believe I waited so long to pick one up!


Minute of Moose/100yds last 20rds

ball ammo won't tell you much really. But you know that. off the shelf Fed GMM 69 will tell you if its going to want to shoot. Of the loading bench Varget at about 25.0 and CCI BR 4 in LC cases and a 69 on top at 2.250 will do about the same give or take. Seems some like fiochhi 50s, but I've never shot light bullets in the AR 223 to speak of.

The ARs do have double recoil like an air gun since the bolt carrier mass is pretty heavy generally speaking. They can be tough on scopes, though I had an old trashco target last probably 15 years testing loads on a test platform upper that had big wide flat smooth wooden forearm. But I've toasted a couple of L's too. The super snipers seem to do ok from what I've seen around here and generally speaking go on hunting ARs. Though I have an old L 4-12 thats been holding just fine on a 6/6.8.

Those mounts will certainly suffice for now.

You'll be happier with a better trigger.

I think Larry likes 75bthp, I am ok with them, but they never liked a hard kick in the butt as accuracy would decline in every gun I've shot em in, if you got to upper end of 2700 without issues it was about as far as you could get. the old 75 amax must have had a better jacket etc.... they could be run harder. But there are lots of decently good bullets out there if you aren't trying to chase 600 plus yards. 69 and even 75s get kind of wind struck out of a mag starting past 300 and certainly past 500.

IF you load, about any non fmj bullet can be made pretty accurate, used to be you could buy Sierra 60 flat base HPs and I used to keep around 5000 or so on hand for practice loads. Worked pretty good on pigs deer and javelina too if you stayed off bones. That said I've still got a big box of loaded 75bthps at about 2740 or so and if I'm in a hurry and no better bullets loaded up, I'll grab a couple of mags of those and it doesn't much matter what I run into.

Ya I'm going to hold off until the trigger gets here, then I'll pick up some better ammo. I brought my boy to the range after he got out of school so he could run a few mags through it. That kid can go through some ammo in a hurry!