Ok, I decided to do something crazy during this crazy time and try to an upper build for my brother in law. He had very specific requirements in the AR he is looking for and wanted something similar to what he used back home.

 

The plan was to build the lower and shop for an upper. Below is the built lower with the A2 stock that my brother in law wanted. Buffer tube wasn't in the picture then but has been added since.

 

For the upper, the plan was to purchase a 20" upper with the whole A2 setup. Nothing came up in my search for a few months but my brother in law was in no hurry. Then the buying frenzy hit and the prospects of finding the right upper seemed to vanish and he wanted to pick up whatever. He did not want to go out and buy something at the current frenzy prices.

 

I picked up an unassembled demo upper at a VERYreasonable price from BCM with many of the parts needed for the upper. It came with the forward assist and the dust cover with the kit. I just had to put them on the upper which I thought was not too crazy to do. I figure I would pick up the 20" barrel, the front sight base and a Rock River Arms A2 handguards. I didn't have a shopping list on what I needed and not knowing what was included or not included, I picked up some pieces I figure I would need including the barrel nut, delta ring assembly, gas tube, and taper pins for the front sight. Make sure you have a shopping list before going to try and build your own upper though as you will see why later!

 

BCM shipped the parts quickly. In went the dust cover which is an easy to install. The c-clip was already on. The toughest part was winding the spring and holding it in place while I slid the rod thru it. The spring popped out a few times but once I figured the trick, it was easy. For the forward assist, this was a bit more of a pain. It took quite a bit to pop that sucked in. I wound up using the short end of the allen key to hold the forward assist in place and drive the pin to hold the forward assist from the bottom.

 

Now, I was off to the barrel. The barrel slid right in. I didn't have the tool to install the c-clip on the delta ring so I had to make a trip to Home Depot.

 

Found this video on YouTube to figure out how to put the delta ring together:

 

I torqued down the barrel nut and here is the end product. I left the barrel shroud to protect the barrel so it kind of looks like a yellow lightsaber.

 

 

I then attached the gas tube to the front sight block. The gas tube pin was a big PITA to get in because the darn pin is so tiny! I then realized the front sight block has not been drilled for taper pins (that's what you get when you try to order stuff on a iPhone without reading all the fine print!). I am also missing the front handguard cap and the front sight assembly.

 

I was fortunate enough to get a front handguard cap from Ty at Midwest PX. Unfortunately, I do not think the size fits. The cap seems a bit small. You can see the top and sides just stick out in the last picture.

 

 

 

 

 

Looking online, I see there are round and triangular caps. I figure the front looks like it should be a round handguard cap but I'm not sure if there are different sizes or whether I should try to bend the ends a bit on this cap to fit. I didn't find any different sizes other than shape. Looking at the pictures on RRA's website, it looks like they have triangular caps (#6 in the picture below).

 

 

http://www.rockriver...category_id=277

 

So, here I am stuck at this point with the front handguard cap and getting the front sight drilled & tapped for taper pins. I also need to find a bolt carrier group and a charging handle but no luck with the bolt carrier group. The virgin barrel would also need to be drilled so that the front sight block will stay in place. I think the last two items, I'm going to find a gunsmith to do. I don't really want to mess up the barrel.

 

For the front handguard cap, does anyone know what type of cap I should use based on the pictures above?

 

I'll get more details on this adventure as I go in case any other member wants to try this.

There's little tabs at the 2,4,8 and 10 position so you'll need the triangular end cap. Carbine length don't have these so the round ring works for those.

 

Also, here are some vids on the FS process of drilling, reaming and pinning. This guy's meticulous, but you get the idea.

 

Now that you mentioned it, I can see where the triangle shaped cap would fit. I just thought the triangular cap was for the triangular handguards. I guess you can shove a triangular peg into a round hole.

 

Now to find a triangular handguard. Seems like Sarco has it in stock and I may need to do a run out there.