LR308 build planning

Ok, got sights. Never tried out MagPul's backup sights before. I'm used to the A2 and the MaTech rear sights. But, these were inexpensive, so they kinda fit right into the theme of this rifle.

The separate project of building a service rifle needs optics too, so I'm contemplating crashing the budget for December... Midway put the Sightron 1-4.5x SR1 scope on sale for $375. It was one of the two optics on my short list (the other being the Athlon Helos 1-4.5x) so I might rack up a little short-term debt and get it over with. The scope will get shared with multiple rifles, so, like the anxiety of buying an high dollar RPA aperture sight years ago, I'll eventually rationalize it in my mind ;)

20231126_065309.jpg



If all goes well next Sunday with the test firing, I'll strip the rifle down one last time, paint the upper to match, and reassemble it with all the loc-tite and staking to make it permanent.

One little nit on the lower that needs correcting... the raised area below the rear take-down pin needs a little material removed. With the safety selector in the "safe" position, it just touches the raised surface. It's already marred the paint there. Just milling off a hair from that flat will give the selector a little more room.

I also need to get some more Troy rubber squid fillers for all the unused M-Lok holes in the hand guard. That'll come later to finish the rifle off for those days when I'm not wearing gloves.
 
Last edited:
clm2112 said:
Welcome to the group! I hope you caught the separate thread on how to fill and drill the misplace safety selector. I figure after now three from this vendor with a misplaced hole, their whole production run is likely done wrong.

Mistakes do happen... I once got a whole bunch of BCG's with the gas key installed backward..., but when you are told about the mistake and don't do anything about it... well... not a good sign. Veteran owned or not, wrong is still wrong.
Click to expand...
Yes I did, going to call monday and make sure they get that second order canceled and then find out what they are going to do about this... its already past being able to be shipped as a block of alluminum... I do like the fact that these have extra material to better blend with the BCA Side charger uppers, the others I built just didn't match up very well, I used a 1/2 ball mill to match up with the uppers rear edge but am liking the cove cutter idea too now..
 
Time for a little alteration and colorization to the Bear Creek upper.

I'm not thrilled. Headspace on the rifle is between 308 No-Go and Field. Not great, but I can live with it for the moment (rifle brass coming out of this rifle and being reloaded for it will have to be kept separate... like having a wildcat chambered barrel.) Not sure if the bolt is out of spec or the chamber is cut too deep. I'll need to get a different manufacturer's bolt to compare with.

The rest of the upper is straight-forward and a fairly neat design. I really like the side charging.

So, this morning I stripped down the handguard of all it's M-Lok doo-dads and removed it from the upper. The two cross screws were loose. No thread locking compound had been used during the assembly. That will need to be addressed during assembly. I'm going to bob the end of the handguard square with the end of the top picatinny rail. I don't see any point to having it extend forward of that. The gas block is already buried inside, so there isn't anything to protect.

20231206_070313.jpg
 
Taking the knife to the fore-end... actually a hacksaw and an end mill to square it up.

20231207_214209.jpg


Paint is currently drying... turned it peanut-butter colored like most of my other rifles. Ya know, I really do need to add anodizing to my bag of tricks. Even if the finish looks like crap and I paint over it, it would be nice to have a harder surface finish on the aluminum.
 
Mostly complete. Paint is dry and ready to assemble

20231208_053253.jpg


Painted the receiver as well, since it was already apart. So it is mostly peanut-butter colored.
20231208_081914.jpg

Over time it will pick up a few other items, mostly when things happen to go on sale. Probably a FDE stock, like a MagPul CTR, squid locks to fill the empty M-Lok holes and a sling. But for the moment, it is complete enough to get used.
 
Last edited:
clm2112 said:
I'm not thrilled. Headspace on the rifle is between 308 No-Go and Field. Not great, but I can live with it for the moment...
Click to expand...

After having to send almost every part of my build back to a seller for refund or replacement, this is the kind of thing I've come to expect anymore in this degenerate society. It seems nobody's willing to scrap their out-of-spec. parts; the object is to pawn them off on customers. I can't prove but I suspect that Aero Precision just did this recently with a bad batch of M5 lower receivers (which had undersized magazine wells); everybody had them "on sale."
 
clm2112 said:
Mostly complete. Paint is dry and ready to assemble

View attachment 16156

Painted the receiver as well, since it was already apart. So it is mostly peanut-butter colored.
View attachment 16157
Over time it will pick up a few other items, mostly when things happen to go on sale. Probably a FDE stock, like a MagPul CTR, squid locks to fill the empty M-Lok holes and a sling. But for the moment, it is complete enough to get used.
Click to expand...
NICE! I always was a Reeces peanut butter cup fan...
 

Share this page

Back
Top