I've said before, I love the AR family, for it's accuracy, it's ease of shooting, and it's modularity. You can build the AR in jsut about every configuration known to man, then strip it down and change it again with few if any tools, and in just minutes.
Naturally, this tends towards the building of "gun kits", where you have a set of various parts in a single case, and you combine them as desired for the task at hand, be it short range room to room; or long range varminting.
My AR kit consists of the following
Lower:
Bushmaster XM15E2 lower
Ace tubular stock, 2” extended LOP
USGI XM177E2 cyclic rate reducer (used to cut the rate of fire of an M4 down to 600rpm)
Modified light weight spring set, plus heavy buffer tube spring
“Tactical” trigger, lightweight takeup to 4lb crisp break
For the lower I’m planning on picking up a MagPul RSS and a drop in McCormick trigger set.
I have two uppers for it:
Bushmaster superlight carbine A4 upper. 16” 1-in-9 pencil profile barrel (.552 inch thickness).
No flash hider or muzzle break
Heavy bolt carrier
Bolt carrier weight
D-Ring extractor
Tritium front sight post
Hogue overmolded freefloat handguard
HK style ergogrip
Custom heavy barrel upper
24” ultra heavy (1.125") lothar walther air gauged stainless barrel 1-in-8, target cut crown
Fire lapped barrel
Railed front gas block
Hand matched bolt, heavy bolt carrier, and barrel extension (lapped and mated lugs)
Bolt carrier weight
D-ringed extractor
Extra heavy weight, long aluminum free float handguard. Knurled and fluted (unvented)
And four interchangeable sighting systems:
Detachable carry handle with A4 sight
A.R.M.S. Ultra low profile fold down rear sight and Mangonel folding front sight
EOTech 551 HWS
Millett 6-18x56 scope with tactical turrets
All four sighting setups are on thumbscrew mounts at the moment.
So what I have left to do is to have a flash hider fitted on the superlight upper, and get some QD mounts for all of the optics above. oh and get a weaponlight for the shorty, and a replacement front flip down because I don’t like the mangonel.
Really I'd also like to get a dedicated lower jsut for the shorty, and stick the MagPul on it. I’m also seriously considering milling off the front sight on the shorty and putting in a milled block flipup from Bushmaster. It would also let me go to the ARMS S.I.R. setup; which I REALLY like.
I’m debating whether or not I want an ACOG as well. They’re great, but they are a bit pricy, and the other sights I have cover the performance envelope of the acog. That said, the Bindon Aiming Concept models neatly straddle the area between the holosight and the scope, are dead reliable, and dont require batteries… so I’m still debating.
Hmmm, that TA31doc is pretty damn cool as well. Having the Docter mounted on top is a neat idea. I’ve read a couple magazine articles on it, but I’m not sure how well it would work.... hmmm…
Oh and a dedicated .22 upper would be nice, and they aren't all that expensive.
Once I’ve got it all together, I plan on making up a “kit case”. Something like a double shotgun case that will hold both uppers, all the optics, and 10 mags; plus cleaning kit and tools, spare batteries, the lights etc… I’m thinking either haliburton style hard case, or a musicians friend guitar or keyboard case will fit the bill nicely. Something say 36"x18". It certainly doesnt scream GUUUUUNNNN!!! like some other cases do. Maybe in the top if it’s deep enough fit some light weight accessories, and small toolS.. also maybe include enough space for a rolled or folded shooting mat.
I’d like to do the same with my M14, except instead of two uppers there would be two stocks; a sage stock, and a traditional stock. The barreled action would go in between them, and the optics all to one side.
For that one, I WOULD go with one of the higher powered ACOGs (prolly a TA55A), another holosight, and a night force SCOPE ... say a 3.5-15x56.
Of course all of these things require a fair bit of cash that I don't have at the moment; but hey, a guy can dream.
I don't have any pics of the kit as it's currently set up, but I'll grab some this week and update the post with them later.
