If you could do it all over again....

[Indiana Jones]

sometimes i wish i had built a specific coyote gun. the mk12 mod1 is too heavy for the mountains alot of the time, where we sit and call for 20 mins, then move up, then set up again and move again. for a not so skinny guy at 9000 feet this becomes a tad less fun. my 'm4' chad worked up for me years ago is my go to all around rifle. with the ACOG i have enough to hunt anything i want with it but it is not conducive to using shooting sticks. If i could do it again ( i can, but funds are tight) i would do an 18" with a carbon free float tube and everything as light as possible and a nice geissele ssa-e like im going to put in the mk12. i guess this question all depends on you purpose for the rifle. since bipods are almost useless in the mountains, i can save weight there. some sort of scope with around 2-6 power would be nice. maybe camo. now im just daydreaming....damn you

 

[ericoak]

Yeah but will you? If you knew you could not buy anymore?

Yea, I don't need that many ar-15s.

I have nothing really against Magpul stocks. However if you ever got them muddy I think they would be a real PITA to clean. Just don't see an advantage over a stock stock.

Shoulder them next to each other. Much more comfortable to me.

Not entirely but if everything is equal, yes. The old tech will outlive must of the modern new crap. I can tell you this. Most plastic mags for the 10-22 are junk. Plastic mags for the M11 are junk. I have seen junky plastic Mini 14 and Ar mags.

Yea most of the 10/22 mags suck, but the Rugers work great. Yes they have metal feed lips.

You should watch some of the torture tests they do to the magpul mags. It is pretty impressive.

We live in a world where everything is cheap and disposable. That also means cheap. I like stuff I can fix. Its always served me well. My Maxims are near 100 years old and still working 100%. You think any of these plastic MGs will be after 100 years?

Yea I think they should work in 100 years. And if they don't, print out an even higher quality frame in your basement.

 

[erwos]

I feel like most of this has been covered, but...

I like the BAD lever, the Phase5 lever, and all of those devices. Yes, you need to make sure your rifle works properly with them, but they're so damn excellent when they work correctly.

I like ambi-safeties, as I feel like they're easier to put back on safe. You need to be careful to loc-tite the other end of the safety, though.

For a pistol caliber build or a toy SBR build (ie, 7.5"), I think the ALG ACT is a good enough trigger, and is a good value over the milspec. For a serious rifle caliber build, I'd recommend running with a G2S, G2S-E (Brownells), or SSA-E.

A tactical latch is a must. I'm unconvinced that the BCM CH is the only game in town, but it's not a bad choice if you don't mind the extra $20 over something like the PRI latch. (Lefties and suppressor users will need other, more expensive CHs...)

Tritium front posts are a nice to have, but nice enough that I put them on all my rifles.

I would never spend extra money on a full-length quad rail. The M-LOK, Keymod, and screw-in rails are the way to go, preferably on a free float handguard. I actually dumped my old-school Surefire quad rail to go back to M4 handguards because it was SO DAMN HEAVY.

The only pistol grips I would ever both with anymore are the MOE+ and K2+ (or the non-rubberized versions, if you're weird and don't like the rubberizing). I would only use the K2 angle on reduced-length stock guns (entry stock, NEA CCS, etc.), but it's super handy for those builds.

Stock choice should be dependent on what's going to balance out the rifle. The MOE stock is highly under-appreciated, given how light and solid it is. My usual stock choices are MOE (light front end), ACS-L (medium front end), and UBR (heavy front end). There are very few times I'd seriously consider using the PRS - maybe if I had a 24" HBAR bench gun or something.

I am an optics whore (in the sense that I put optics on all my rifles), and really recommend hunting up a decent optic for any serious-use rifle. There are a lot of great choices in the $200-$400 range these days, so you don't need a huge budget. On the other hand, you can do some insanely light SBR builds using a pencil barrel and a fixed-carry-handle-style upper (or a fixed rear sight?), so I would not necessarily say you MUST have optics. Just capitalize on the lack of them if you go that direction, and don't build some ultra-heavy rifle without optics.

Over-spending on BUIS is a sucker's game. MBUS work fine in the super-rare event that I need to deploy them when my optics fail, and you can find cheap Matechs online.

Finally, strive for the lowest weight possible. Heavy guns are sometimes a requirement, but it can also be indicative of putting a bunch of cheap crap (low-quality full length quad rails, low-quality stocks, low-quality optics mounts, etc.) on your rifle. I'd rather have a stock M4 that was light than some sort of monstrosity with all the bells and whistles that weighs 10lbs.

Disclaimer: I am a weirdo with 6 ARs and none of them are the typical 16" barrel flat top build most people have. Maybe I should get another lower so I can have a 16" HBAR to tart up.