First time build

[bobc36]

Hello all,

I am interested in my first 6.5G build, and I stumbled upon this forum. I put together my first AR by building the lower receiver and buying a PSA complete upper receiver. This was done in my younger and more single and childless days. Any purchase now has to go before the CFO/receiving department of bobc36, inc. (not me) so budget is the key. I have a sneaking suspicion that it will be easier to buy upper and parts separately, and assemble at a later date. Since I havent built an upper before, I dont really have any good tools for doing so.

I've watched a few videos of assembling the upper, so I think I could do it. I just dont know the finer nuances of what parts to pick. I read some differences between Grendel 1 and Grendel 2, and aside from the mechanical difference between the two, its personnel preference as which diameter to use.

I currently have a lower receiver that I assembled from a parts kit, RRA 2 stage NM trigger, and a Luth-Ar MBA 1 stock. Not the top of the line, but then again with a new kid and new house, I cant justify top of the line.

I was hoping to keep a budget of ~$500 for the upper parts, just not all at once.

So a coupe of things I was hoping for were as follows:

18"-20" barrel. This seems like a sweet spot of sorts.
Stainless Steel Barrel
A set of tools. I do not have a bench vice....yet.


If you guys have any questions, I am more than happy to answer. Thank you for taking your time to read and answer.

bobc36

[Kswhitetails]

Welcome aboard!

[Popeye212]

Welcome from the Republic of Texas

[BCHunter]

As for tools for assembling an upper you need a torque wrench with 1/2" drive and 20 to80 ft lbs range $20.00 at harbor freight. You need an upper action block or ransom rod. Action blocks are cheaper ransom rods work better fiqure 40-100. And you do need access to a vise another 40-100+. You have to torque the barrel nut on and putting the action block in a vise is the way to go about it. You should be able to justify the vise and torque wrench to the CEO because it will get used for other projects.

I bought all these tools in the last year for $170.00

With these assembling uppers becomes addicting, I've built four since February, and trouble shot a co-workers tearing it apart and rebuilding it.

The other tool people suggest is an upper lapping tool.

Shop the holiday sales and you should be able to make your budget, last build I did was a 223 wylde aero m4e1 henanced assembled upper and 12" handvuard combo, 170.00 Ballistic advantage 18" Hanson profile barrel came with gas block and tube 230.00 vg epsilon brake 45.00.

Getting sub moa groups with this and my reloads with a 7lb mil spec trigger.

Welcome,...and if becomes more then a hobby.

[Bigs28]

If you live in south florida i can lend you the tools or you can go to advanced auto and use their torque wrench for free as part of their loan a tool program

[bobc36]

Thanks for the welcome everyone. I really appreciate it.

BCHunter, that's a really good idea about the tools. I can take that out of her project budget. You can use a bench vise to hang curtains right lol.

Are there any manufactures to absolutely stay away from, or are they more your mileage may vary?

Thanks for the help.

[VASCAR2]

If your talking about brands of barrels to stay away from Bear Creek Arsenal has had several Nitride 6.5 Grendel barrels get sold with short chambers. From my reading BCA has tried to fix or replace any out of spec barrels. If buying a BCA barrel buy from a reputable retailer.

My personal opinion but I’d rather spend a little more money on a different brand of 6.5 Grendel barrel. By the time you screw around with a cheap barrel only to find out you have to send it back it is just cheaper to buy a better barrel. Range trip cost and ammo prices are not cheap and is completely wasted if you have to send your barrel back.

Every manufacturer has a lemon slip out but the percentage is way less with some brands. Alexander Arms, Ballistic Advantage, Faxon, Odin, J&T Dist., Shilen, Lilja, JP, LaRue have a good reputation. House brand barrels from Midway USA, Classic Firearms or Brownell’s have used different suppliers but predominantly Satern/Liberty or Bear Creek Arsenal.

Satern/Liberty have sold barrels with out of spec chambers then introduced the Grendel II chamber. Black Whole Weaponry sells a barrel with polygonal rifling and 264 LBC chamber. BHW/Columbia River Arms have chambered barrels designed to use 7.62x39 bolts with .125 bolt face. The x39 bolt are designated Type I whereas BHW has chambered barrels to use 6.5 Grendel bolts .136 bolt face depth and designated these barrels as Type II. You have to use the proper bolt for how the barrel was chambered.

Several manufactures are selling barrels with 5R rifling and Polygonal rifling. If you plan on shooting a lot of Wolf Steel cased bimetal bullet ammo I would suggest buying a barrel with traditional rifling (Enfield). Many 5R or Polygonal will not shoot bimetal bullets accurately because this type rifling does not engrave/grip the bullet jacket as well as traditional rifling. Every barrel is unique but in my experience traditional rifling is better with Wolf bimetal steel jacket copper clad bullets.

My recommendation is to buy a 6.5 Grendel barrel with SAAMI Spec chamber and 6.5 Grendel .136 bolt face commonly referred to as Type II. The 6.5 Grendel SAAMI spec chamber and .136 6.5 Grendel bolt are pretty much standard now with new manufacturers. You just can’t assume everything is interchangeable in variant AR-15 calibers.

Palmetto State Armory has just started releasing uppers in 6.5 Grendel within the last few days. Prices from PSA are very attractive and in my experience PSA has good customer service. PSA plans to introduce different barrel lengths and barrel contours for the 6.5 Grendel soon.

Just remember the heart of the AR-15 is the barrel and it is the most important component if your interested in accuracy.

[Kswhitetails]

VASCAR2, nice post. Well thought out and well represented. Good advice.

[bobc36]

I appreciate all the help everyone.

What places do you guys usually find the best deals, aside from holidays? I know your big ones like Primary Arms, MidwayUSA, and others, but are there any places you shop at specifically?

Thanks

[A5BLASTER]

Ammoseek, joebobs, arm or ally,granite ridge,PF, few other places.

Hope this helps sir.

[grayfox]

What Vascar2 said. +1.
I personally would definitely stay away from Bear Creek, maybe they have fixed their issues or maybe not... but for your first time stick with a known-good brand. I've got Odin, Howa (bolt) and Faxon and they shoot great. A little more $$ gets you the others in his post "Alexander Arms, Ballistic Advantage, [...] J&T Dist., Shilen, Lilja, JP, LaRue..."
Alex Arms if I recall uses a 9/16x24 threading on the muzzle but the others are the more standard 5/8x24, which gives you more muzzle tip options.
Lot of times Joebob has good deals, there are others too.

Beware the $99 special, it usually costs you $500 in time, effort, ammo, frustration and other pieces/parts. I know some folks will say they got a good deal, but again, save the "good-deal-hunting" for your 3rd or 4th build when you have more experience under your belt.

Start your break-in with fairly well-known commercial ammo that works for lots of barrels, like the Hornady Black 6.5- 123.

Barrel, trigger, and scope -- that's where the accuracy lies IMO. The rest are pretty much commodity items with premium, real good, and/or average ones, but these 3 are your money-pieces.

[Randy99CL]

What places do you guys usually find the best deals, aside from holidays? I know your big ones like Primary Arms, MidwayUSA, and others, but are there any places you shop at specifically?

Thanks

Are you a Veteran? Seems like every time I ask about a Vet discount they offer one. I'm signed up for 10% off everyday at BCA, Faxon, Ballistic Advantage, and Vortex is 40% through Expertcity.

Even if you're not a Vet sign up at the website for every company you might be interested in. Every holiday (like the 4th of July) they all have some kind of sale going on and you won't hear about it unless you're signed up for their emails.
Lots of retailers have everyday sales too. Midway, Midsouth, Natchez, OpticsPlanet, Dvor, Sportsman's Warehouse, Cabelas.
I get more than a dozen sale emails daily.
Edit: And Sportsman's Warehouse has a 5% vet discount too.

[grayfox]

Randy, now it's expertvoice. you need an "affiliation"... what about us retired guys, vets, etc? none of my affiliation tries seemed to work. Any ideas?

"
Add an affiliation.
You must be affiliated to access brands."

[Randy99CL]

Randy, now it's expertvoice. you need an "affiliation"... what about us retired guys, vets, etc? none of my affiliation tries seemed to work. Any ideas?

Add an affiliation.
You must be affiliated to access brands."

1. You're right; I get emails from Expertcity.com but then they are labeled Expertvoice.
2. I haven't ordered from them yet but plan to soon. Want a Vortex scope.
3. I got there through Vortex. I applied for the Vet discount (or at least got the ball rolling) on the Vortex website and at some point was patched through to expertcity. Don't remember exactly when but I had to submit my VA docs and was approved. Basically expertcity handles we folks and passes the purchase requests on to the companies.
4. I think you have to take the sales courses and pass the tests but I haven't done that yet.

I've worked in Sales before and expertcity seems to be set up to train salespeople and then monitor/control the employee (and Veteran) discounts.
The Lenovo (was division of IBM) computers look like a pretty good deal too, but I'd have to do a lot more research before I bit on one.

I want to get the Vortex Viper 6.5-20x50 PA for $341 or the Crossfire II 6-24x50 for $224. Shipping is only $10 per order but I understand it can take weeks to receive it.

[bobc36]

I am not a vet, although I do have a great amount of respect for all. A buddy of mine was home this weekend, and he was telling me some stories of his most recent deployment and lost gear.

I appreciate all the help guys, and hopefully will be assembling the parts soon. Maybe my wife wont notice the new boxes vs our old beat up moving ones.