First Gun Build Tips

[Tylerj5699]

I am looking to start my first gun build. I want to build a 6.5 Creedmore for longer range.

I am willing to put in the time it takes to learn a new skill like this. I eventually want to get into bolt actions which I understand can be a whole different animal.

I really dont know where to start. Before I order parts I want to familiarize myself more on the inner workings and terminology before I end up messing something up. Anythings appreciated.

[kcnatural]

Are you building a gas gun or a bolt action?

[TX03RUBI]

First off whats your budget and do you know anyone with a few gun builds you can check out?

[Tylerj5699]

Are you building a gas gun or a bolt action?

A gas gun for now

[Tylerj5699]

First off whats your budget and do you know anyone with a few gun builds you can check out?

I mean I have a reasonable budget. $500-$1000 Dont really know yet. I dont want a crappy gun but I also dont want to go overboard in any way

[hoyt21]

Get a good trigger and barrel

[roughneck266]

Get a good trigger and barrel

This. These are the two things that you should not compromise on. FOr accuracy purposes, billet or forged really doesn't matter. I would do free float on the fore end if I were you, but I have seen plenty of rifles that were really accurate with regular ol plastic milspec forends. Just goes against my better nature to have anything unnecessary touching the barrel.

[kcnatural]

I have the tools to build an upper, but I usually buy an upper from a reputable company. Then I build the lower however I want it.

[TX03RUBI]

I mean I have a reasonable budget. $500-$1000 Dont really know yet. I dont want a crappy gun but I also dont want to go overboard in any way

Bergara HMR and throw a Trigger Tech Primary in it. Thatll come in right under $1000, and should be a fantastic shooter. The good news is that its built on a Rem 700 patterned action, so your aftermarket upgrades will be endless as you grow.

[TX03RUBI]

Sorry i just read the gas gun part

[BLACKFINTURKEY]

I will say getting a gas gun to shoot great can be tough. My first long range build was a AR-10 in .260 rem. I’ve got WAY to much in it.

A good barrel and trigger will put you near the 500$ mark. Then I’d suggest an adjustable gas block, magpul PRS stock, free floating hand guard I bought mine off eBay for like 100$ hasn’t failed me yet. I’d look for some budget stripped upper/lower to buy palmetto usually has something on sale.

[RifleBowPistol]

Like most said, look for a good barrel. If you get on various AR sites or groups, each group has their preferred barrel brand or brands. I think many buy barrels based off what others say is the barrel to buy, not really knowing anything about barrels. There are many barrel brands out there that are considered on the internet as good or great barrels, for ARs, that I think are more of a cool logo or cool barrel look or option, than good accurate barrel.
I was just looking at some Faxxon barrels, I have read people say they are good, what I read in their add tells me they do sell some good barrels, that should produce good accuracy and velocity. Bartlein is one of the better barrel companies out there, when it comes to accurate barrels and they are not a AR barrel builder, they are a good high end barrel company, that also builds AR barrels. Some of the other good barrel companies also build AR barrels. Then there are the many AR barrel companies, some of those companies, definitely build very good, very accurate rifle barrels. But man of the AR guys really don't know the difference between a very good barrel that will produce very good accuracy and possibly good velocity and barrels that just function trouble free and give them good accuracy from factory ammo. But there are guys who are hard core about ARs who really know how to get a AR to shoot very accurately. Trying to learn to filter through all of the AR info out there and figure out what parts are what you are looking for.
Like everyone has said, good barrel, free floating forearm. Really don't skimp on the forearm either, because the forearm comes with the barrel nut that holds your barrel in the receiver. A good trigger is also of high importance. Geissele makes probably the best of the non drop in triggers. I have two of some version of match grade Geissele triggers. CMC makes a single stage drop in that is very nice, that I would give up one of my Geisseles for, but I don't remember what model it is. Elf has some very nice drop in triggers, there is another one, ATC AR Gold triggers are also very nice. It is best to find a dealer with some demos and try them out to see what you like.
Then Magpu makes some good stocks, either a good fixed stock or one of their adjustable stocks, you really don't want a collapsible stock. Then a good adjustable gas block. Probably something along the lines of JP Enterprises silent captured buffer spring kit is not a bad idea.
I would also suggest you do your research on the upper and lower, look for pieces that fit together snugly, but also good quality parts. I really would suggest a billet upper and lower, with the upper being side charged. Once you use a side charge upper, you will love it, definitely if you use the gun for hunting. The billet uppers and lowers are stronger, more rigid than the forged stuff. For a 5.56 the forged pieces are typically fine. But when you get into the higher powered calibers, the billet pieces are definitely more rigid. One thing that I found can make a big difference in how accurate your rifle is, is how tight the barrel fits into the upper receiver. I had a problem with a good name brand forged upper that my barrel fit loose into. It caused me to have accuracy problems, that I chases for a long time. I kept checking the mount, to make sure it was tight, checked the rings to make sure they were tight. Then checked the barrel nut about three times to make sure it was tight. Did not matter how tight I had everything, the gun would not group under 1" at 100 yards. I finally took the barrel nut loose and found the barrel extension fit loosely in the receiver. That's when I bought a billet upper and lower, swapped all of my other parts over and the gun went from 1 1/2" groups to 3/8" groups at 100.
Another thing that is important to me for accuracy, is the grip. I like a thick grip, with a palm swell, helps you locate your hand every time. Also the two different types of grips I have on my guns, moves my hand back some, so my trigger finger is better positioned on the trigger.
Then once you get a gun built with good parts. Then working on finding better magazines and then the bullets that work best in your gun. AR 15s have very short mags, which limits the rounds overall length. It can make it hard to get the bullet seated long enough to get the bullet close to the rifling. But with a AR 10, the magazine is longer, which is better. Then you chose a 6.5 Creedmoor, which has a case that is very close to a 22-250 in length, it's a bit shorter than a 308, 7mm-08 or 260 Rem. So you can easily seat the bullet farther out of the case and still get the round to fit in the magazine. So your choice of the 6.5 Creedmoor is probably about the best for accuracy from a AR 10 platform. The 250 Savage would probably also work very well in a AR 10, possibly a 6.5X47 Lapua, but it might have some feeding problems because of it's shorter length. On the subject of ammo, I would suggest trying multiple different bullets in the gun. Figure out what weight bullets you want to shoot, then read up to see what the recommended rate of twist is for that bullet weight. Then look for barrels with that rate of twist. Also looking for barrels with 5R rifling or 4R rifling, is usually a better rifling. But when looking for different bullets in a given weight range. Look at the bullets ogive and try to find bullets with different shaped ogives. You can use that to adjust how far the bullet is from the rifling in the barrel. Because you probably will be somewhat limited on overall length, that overall length limit, will probably be a factor in what bullets work best in the gun.

One last thing that I can think of, is making sure you get a mount that puts the scope up high enough you can see through it properly. That was one of my mistakes. I bought a nice AR mount, but it was too low and I had to turn my head sideways to see through the scope. I have found the Burris PERP and the Leupold AR mounts are very close to perfect height. The Burris mount has 6 screws per ring, which will likely cause problems with some brand of scopes, mainly Vortex, they use very thin wall scope tubes and are very sensitive to scope rings being too tight. If you choose a Vortex scope for some reason, the Leupold mount would probably be the better choice. Vortex recommends no more than 18 in. lbs. of torque on the ring screws with their scopes, with a Burris PERP, by the time you get all of them torqued to 18 in. lbs. it is clamping the scope way too tight. I have been through this mess once, won't do it again.

[trophy8]

You’ll have a very tough time building a quality AR10 for $1000.

A good barrel alone is half that. Buy one good part at a time. If you’re in no hurry you can shop around and find deals and save a ton.

I will disagree on all receivers being equal. Find a quality matched set. And don’t for about the larue kit guns. $1500 or so. While not the best you can’t really touch that quality for less

[JLivi1224]

^ LaR makes a hell of a firearm.

[TxLonghorn]

I would look at the larue ultimate upper. It has everything you would need. Large frame ar are harder as not all parts are interchangeable