Hey guys. First time posting here. I just bought my first AR and im looking for some help. I live in NJ so ar's are few and far between unless you want to pay $2000. Guy on a forum was selling ATI/Delton nj compliant complete uppers with New frontier Lowers for a good price i thought. So i purchased one. It's supposed to come Monday. I was wondering if anyone has one or like it and any thoughts or tips? Also, i have a saiga that only shoots .223 rem. This says 5.56 X 45 mm. Is that 5.56 nato? Any big difference between the two? Any ammo recommended? Like i said any help is greatly appreciated. Thanks guys.

Welcome to the forum.

 

.223 and 5.56x45 are essentially the same round... but the 5.56 is loaded for high pressure NATO specifications. In other words, you can shoot .223 out of a 5.56 but you may want to avoid shooting 5.56 out of a .223 rated chamber.

 

As for ammo type... well, what is the twist rate of the barrel and what do you want to do with the gun? You need higher twist rates to stabilize heavier bullets. The answer will differ depending on if you are shootings cans and targets at 50-100 yards. 62 Grain Federal will behave a lot differently than 50 grain federal depending on the barrel type.

 

The cheap Remington 55 grain that you get from Dicks when it is on sale is probably good enough for most of your needs if you are just putting holes in cans and paper at 100 yards, but I'd need to know more about what you plan to do with the gun and the barrel twist rate. Cans? Targets? Long range shooting? Home defense?

Hey, thanks for the reply. The barrel is 16 inch 1/9 twist. Mainly just shooting targets at 25, 50, and 100 yards

Then the cheap 55 grain .223 Remington UMC ammo from Dicks should do you just fine. Anything above 62 grain is pushing it, though. Load, shoot and enjoy.

Hey guys. First time posting here. I just bought my first AR and im looking for some help. I live in NJ so ar's are few and far between unless you want to pay $2000. Guy on a forum was selling ATI/Delton nj compliant complete uppers with New frontier Lowers for a good price i thought. So i purchased one. It's supposed to come Monday. I was wondering if anyone has one or like it and any thoughts or tips? Also, i have a saiga that only shoots .223 rem. This says 5.56 X 45 mm. Is that 5.56 nato? Any big difference between the two? Any ammo recommended? Like i said any help is greatly appreciated. Thanks guys.

 

Absolutely false.

If you paying over $2000 for a high quality, base configuration AR, you're over paying by a lot.

You can get a Colt (many consider this the gold standard) for around $1000.

 

In case you want to know where....

http://clydearmory.com/firearms/rifles/colt.html

http://www.gandrtactical.com/cgi-bin/commerce.cgi?search=action&category=COLT

http://dsgarms.com/Category/3_1/Rifles.aspx

Hey guys. First time posting here. I just bought my first AR and im looking for some help. I live in NJ so ar's are few and far between unless you want to pay $2000. You've been looking in the wrong places. Guy on a forum was selling ATI/Delton nj compliant complete uppers with New frontier Lowers for a good price i thought. That Franken AR should've cost you about $600. I hope the seller is a Manufacturer or they were evading tax. So i purchased one. It's supposed to come Monday. I was wondering if anyone has one or like it and any thoughts or tips? Del-Tons are okay. Also, i have a saiga that only shoots .223 rem. This says 5.56 X 45 mm. It should be marked .223Rem, but it does shoot 5.56mm also. Is that 5.56 nato? Any big difference between the two? The .223 WASRs will not shoot 5.56mm. Any ammo recommended? Like i said any help is greatly appreciated. Thanks guys.

here she is. just have to get a rear sight.

Palmetto State Armory has the Magpul MBUS rear sight for $39.99 + free shipping right now - use Coupon code JULY4

I'm curious, what did you pay for it?

Palmetto State Armory has the Magpul MBUS rear sight for $39.99 + free shipping right now - use Coupon code JULY4

Thanks. I've been looking for one.

I'm curious, what did you pay for it?

Little over 600 total

Little over 600 total

 

About right

It's very very tempting to buy a $600-800 so called first time/plinker AR. I have been pricing alot of AR thru stores and FFL but a couple of MEMBERS and FFL's on this forum advised me to build one. I am a pretty handy person working on cars, boats and generators all my life so I decided to take on this challenge. I was just about to buy the mp 15 sport but that's not what I really wanted, it was just something that's affordable.

 

Now within 2 months I found great deals on an LPK, buffer tube and buttstock through PSA and a stripped lower. That's less than $300 shipped and FFL fees. I'm gonna wait for another couple months for an upper to get back in STOCK and then my project AR will be complete(without any optics,just yet). The upper will probably cost me about $500 plus but the finished AR will be the exact AR that I want. The total price of my project is going to be around $850 with all the accessories I want on it, that came with the LPK. Instead of changing part by part that would cost an arm and a leg if bought separately.

 

The waiting stages for a sale is the hardest part, but the results are going to make up for it. The rewards of building it yourself is priceless. IMO

... but the finished AR will be the exact AR that I want...

Until you want something else. Hint: It doesn't stop.

Then the cheap 55 grain .223 Remington UMC ammo from Dicks should do you just fine. Anything above 62 grain is pushing it, though. Load, shoot and enjoy.

 

What do you mean by "pushing it"? How much difference is there using a 77grain bullet at 100yd with a red dot between 1:7 and 1:9 twist? I've never shot anything that heavy from my AR; just 55 and 62 grain bullets.

What do you mean by "pushing it"? How much difference is there using a 77grain bullet at 100yd with a red dot between 1:7 and 1:9 twist?

 

I have no idea what a 77 grain bullet would do in a 1 in 9 barrel. I've never tried it, but I can't imagine it would be good. Maybe you would see keyholing or a shotgun pattern on your target. It's not like the ammunition would blow up in your gun or anything, though.

 

I know the Greenhill Formula, which basically says that the optimum twist rate is determined by dividing 150 by the length of the bullet in hundredths of an inch. This works out to 1 in 7 for the heavier Armor piercing and match grade stuff.

 

I recall that the Army originally had a 1 in 10 twist for its 20" inch M-16. When they built the M-16A1, they decided on a 1 in 10 inch twist because the desired ammunition would not stabilize in the older M-16 barrels.

 

Tell you what. You go list Range 14 as your home range. Do you have an AR-15 with a 1 in 9 barrel? If you bring the gun, I'll buy the ammo, we can meet there, see the results and post it here. PM me if you are interested.

well i took her out today. I dont have my rear sight yet but i did order it. I threw a red dot on it that i had lying around. I didnt even aim at targets, just put rounds threw her. It was fun. I bought 60 rounds from simon peter the other day. Federal. What i didnt like it that after one 40 rounds threw her, it took a good 2 hours to clean. Anyone use federal 5.56 and get the same? I mean it was bad!

http://s46.photobucket.com/albums/f147/r0bb6ub9/?action=view&current=2012-06-24_10-36-34_6.mp4

2 hours to clean? Well, that's understandable since you're new to the AR. But once you do it a few times, it shouldn't take you nearly that long.

You're not doing "white glove inspection" clean, are you? It's not necessary for an AR. All you really need to do is run a couple patches down the barrel, and strip down and soak the BCG for a little while. Slap it back together and keep it wet, and you're good to go.

And if you don't believe me about it not needing to be spotless, here's and article for you.

 

http://mscg.yuku.com/topic/5658

That red dot should be mounted further forward...

2 hours to clean? Well, that's understandable since you're new to the AR. But once you do it a few times, it shouldn't take you nearly that long.

You're not doing "white glove inspection" clean, are you? It's not necessary for an AR. All you really need to do is run a couple patches down the barrel, and strip down and soak the BCG for a little while. Slap it back together and keep it wet, and you're good to go.

And if you don't believe me about it not needing to be spotless, here's and article for you.

 

http://mscg.yuku.com/topic/5658

It took a lot of patches to come clean. I've always cleaned until the patch came out white.

That red dot should be mounted further forward...

Was a temporary thing. Its already off the gun.

It took a lot of patches to come clean. I've always cleaned until the patch came out white.

Which parts are you talking about?

My barrel is usually clean after a few (3 or 4) patches. My BCG I soak in Frog Lube for a few minutes and wipe it down with a towel.

I did have to scrape my bolt tail this past weekend since there was some carbon caked on, but that didn't take long either. Maybe 5 minutes.

I froglubed the entire gun before I even fired. The bolt and all parts were fine. Just the barrel.

I froglubed the entire gun before I even fired. The bolt and all parts were fine. Just the barrel.