New AR15 Upper

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raymond
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New AR15 Upper

Unread post by raymond » December 5th, 2014, 5:54 pm

Time for a weapons post.

For a good while I've been looking for a cheap carbine upper. I have a mid 90's Colt Match Target H-Bar that I used to use for CMP shoots that seldom sees the light of day anymore. So at the St Charles Mo. gun show in early November, I bought a flat top M4 upper with free floating rails for $250.00 :D It is a no name unit built by an individual who was selling them at a table. The only marking I can find on it is 1/9 for a 1 in 9 twist barrel. There is no C or MP to indicate it is a chrome lined bore or that the barrel was magnetic particle inspected. That being said, the bore is shiney like a chrome lined barrel. In keeping with the cheap theme, I found a sling mount at Wally world for less than $10.00. The front and rear pop up sights were purchased from a friend. They are plastic and made by MFT. The rear sight is a dual aperature same plane. The guy I bought them from didn't like the plastic feel and bought metal ones. He sold me both for $25.00. The handle is unmarked, but folds, and was bought at a gun show for $25.00. The red dot sight is a Bushnell TRS 25 mounted on a UTG riser so it co-witnesses the sites. I paid around $80.00 for both from Amazon including free shipping. The NEBO flashlight mount was around $8.00 from a gun show vendor. The Mini Maglite LED Pro (much brighter than a regular Min Maglite LED) I've has a while but saw online for $23.00 at Wally World. The tailcap switch on the flashlight was $3.00 from the same vendor as the flashlight clamp holder. The sling is a USGI M1/M14 sling I bought from Fred's M14 Stocks around 15 years ago. I bought around 15 of them for only $5.00 apiece.

I did a lot of research on cheap red dots and the Bushnell TRS 25 seems to be the gold standard. It holds it's zero, the clicks are repeatable and consistent, and battery life is good. I used my Colt Lower because I didn't want to buy another and I already had it, and it has an accu-wedge and a JP Enterprises 2 way adjustable match trigger that was the gold standard back in the mid 90's. I bought a cheap upper because I wasn't worried about match grade accuracy. If I was, I'd leave the H Bar upper on the rifle. I also didn't put a collapsible stock on because I just don't like the feel as much as the standard A2 stock. I didn't put a pigtail and pressure switch because the switch I put on the light can be flicked off and on with my fingernail with little pressure while my hand is on the front handle, and as I said earlier, it was only $3.00. I've only put about 100 rounds through it at 25 yards, but it is extremely accurate when shot from a rest while sighting in. I was worried about the feed ramps causing a jam and fully expected to have to dremel them, but so far, no failures to feed. After investigating, I found out that the feed ramp geometry is different on rifles and carbines. So far the carbine is a lot of fun and the red dot is just the thing when you start having trouble focusing with iron sites. And I only have about 430 bucks in the upper, including accessories.

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Raymond


"On the day when crime puts on the apparel of innocence, through a curious reversal peculiar to our age, it is innocence that is called on to justify itself." Albert Camus

HILLBILLY-06
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Re: New AR15 Upper

Unread post by HILLBILLY-06 » December 5th, 2014, 9:08 pm

LOL, nice post, but there is a reason that the rear peep sights are usually closer to the eye than the one pictured there. Even with my Armalite M15A2, when I was competing in service rifle matches, the charging handle would often catch my nose from the recoil of the rifle, but mostly when shooting the 600 yard line and with hand loaded ammo to reach out there and group good. Your peep looks like it sits too far forward for proper eye relief, In fact it looks like you may even get powder burned just crawling up on that rear sight, but then I don't have it sitting here to try it either, LOL. You may not have that problem at all in this case, but also, as I got in my 40's those peep sights got harder to use, especially the national match sights.
Looks like a nice rig, let us know how it works out...
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raymond
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Re: New AR15 Upper

Unread post by raymond » December 6th, 2014, 12:37 am

HILLBILLY-06 wrote:LOL, nice post, but there is a reason that the rear peep sights are usually closer to the eye than the one pictured there. Even with my Armalite M15A2, when I was competing in service rifle matches, the charging handle would often catch my nose from the recoil of the rifle, but mostly when shooting the 600 yard line and with hand loaded ammo to reach out there and group good. Your peep looks like it sits too far forward for proper eye relief, In fact it looks like you may even get powder burned just crawling up on that rear sight, but then I don't have it sitting here to try it either, LOL. You may not have that problem at all in this case, but also, as I got in my 40's those peep sights got harder to use, especially the national match sights.
Looks like a nice rig, let us know how it works out...

I just got both my carbine and my A2 H bar upper out and laid them out side by side. I have the rear peep sight as far to the rear as poosible. Since the rear carbine sight folds from the front, it puts the sight about and 1 and 1/2 inch farther forward than the standard rear A2 upper rear sight.
Raymond


"On the day when crime puts on the apparel of innocence, through a curious reversal peculiar to our age, it is innocence that is called on to justify itself." Albert Camus

HILLBILLY-06
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Re: New AR15 Upper

Unread post by HILLBILLY-06 » December 6th, 2014, 9:22 am

It could be an optical illusion I am seeing, cause it looks like in the bottom pic that it sits on top of the brass deflector, which is not a comfortable place for eye relief... LOL.
I am sure it must be an optical illusion, caused by the camera angle or something. and the rear sight on a standard A2, or National Match A2 is not that close to the Brass deflector... LOL
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Re: New AR15 Upper

Unread post by raymond » December 6th, 2014, 11:37 am

The rear sight is as far back as it can go without hanging off the rails and interfering with the charging handle.
Raymond


"On the day when crime puts on the apparel of innocence, through a curious reversal peculiar to our age, it is innocence that is called on to justify itself." Albert Camus

HILLBILLY-06
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Re: New AR15 Upper

Unread post by HILLBILLY-06 » December 6th, 2014, 6:04 pm

Hey, it is what it is... No harm no foul... if it was mine, I'd have to turn it around backwards to use it... LOL "now that would make for some good conversation I am sure...LOL" :lol: :lol: :lol:
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HILLBILLY-06
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Re: New AR15 Upper

Unread post by HILLBILLY-06 » December 6th, 2014, 6:06 pm

Like "Jim Owens use to say in his video classes, "It's not backwards, it's just different"... LOL but he was talking about slings in that conversation... LOL :lol: :lol: :lol:
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Re: New AR15 Upper

Unread post by raymond » December 6th, 2014, 8:18 pm

I wasn't going to put any sights on it, but I got such a good deal on these, I couldn't pass them up. I really don't plan to ever use them, but I do have them just in case.

BTW, at the same gun show, I found a set of NOS A1 triangle handguards still in the original packaging for $30.00. I never really cared for the round A2 handguards, and prefer the earlier triangle shaped ones. A google search on my phone said they would fit a standard A2 if it had the triangle shaped front hand guard holder. I couldn't remember what mine was, and I couldn't find any info if a heavy barrel would be different, but bought them on a whim. They fit the H Bar upper just fine. I'll have to take a picture and post it later.
Raymond


"On the day when crime puts on the apparel of innocence, through a curious reversal peculiar to our age, it is innocence that is called on to justify itself." Albert Camus

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Re: New AR15 Upper

Unread post by HILLBILLY-06 » December 6th, 2014, 9:33 pm

I had a set of those triangle hand guards for a while, I tried them on my Armalite with Douglas heavy stainless barrel and they didn't fit. I thought the heat shield was the problem, so I ripped them out and it still wouldn't fit, LOL...
I finally opted to leave it alone, it was a real good shooter too.
"FAMOUS LAST WORDS".... "HEY YA'LL, WATCH THIS"

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Re: New AR15 Upper

Unread post by raymond » December 7th, 2014, 4:07 pm

Here is the Colt H Bar upper with the triangle handguards installed.

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"On the day when crime puts on the apparel of innocence, through a curious reversal peculiar to our age, it is innocence that is called on to justify itself." Albert Camus

HILLBILLY-06
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Re: New AR15 Upper

Unread post by HILLBILLY-06 » December 7th, 2014, 8:54 pm

One of the guy's I use to shoot with had a colt H-bar, he was also my shooting coach when I started out. We couldn't get his old H-Bar to work on the 600 yard line, not enough clicks in elevation. But I do not know which type of sights he had, or even if he tried to add elevation to it or not by running down the front sight post. But I do remember my Armalite took 34 clicks at 600 and I loved watching that rifle stretch out across that range like that.
Oh and his H-bar had like 7,000 rounds down range too and still worked great, it wasn't an x-ring rifle anymore, but still shot well for something that hardly ever got cleaned and still got shot every weekend in a match plus the Friday before the match, LOL
So I would say the H-bar is one tuff rifle.
"FAMOUS LAST WORDS".... "HEY YA'LL, WATCH THIS"

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