Well, I finally got all of my parts together in one place, and put the thing together. I know this is probably old hat to most of you, but I was surprised at just how easy it was to put together, and I am hoping that if I post my experiences here, it'll encourage others to take the plunge and build themselves an inexpensive rifle suitable for assurance against tyranny.
Before I get into any of this, I want to make it clear that I'm not a shill for any of the companies that manufacture any of the parts I used. Though I am pleasantly surprised by the quality of the parts, considering their comparatively low cost.
First up is the "PSA 16" Stainless Mid-length 1/7 Freedom Rifle Kit", which includes everything except a stripped lower receiver. On the surface, it seems slightly cheaper to source all of the parts separately from different vendors and to build the upper yourself, but after factoring in shipping costs this was the least expensive option.
$430 + $8.50 Shipping = $438.50, avoiding 11% excise tax since it isn't a "gun" yet, and gets shipped to your doorstep:
The parts seems quite decent for what they cost.
The barrel is 5.56 chamber, 16", 1:7 twist, made of 416 stainless, and utilizes a mid-length gas system. A lot of people on the internet say you need a chrome-lined bore, but I think that's only really needed if you're shooting corrosive ammo, which we're not going to see any of in this day and age (at least not in 5.56/.223). I believe that a non-chromed bore is more accurate, and if you shoot up enough ammo to wear it out, then the cost of a new barrel is but a drop in the bucket compared to the tens of thousands of dollars you've burned through in ammo.
The bore looks really good. The exterior surface of the barrel has obviously been turned on a lathe, but for some reason it bothers me less on stainless than it would on a blued or parked finish.
The bolt is C158 HPT/MPI. I'm not sure exactly what that means, but the internet says it means it's good, so cool. It has something to do with the way it is tested to find any microscopic imperfections in the metal, or something.
The bolt carrier and hammer are both of the M16 variety, and would work in a full-auto gun, or with a RDIAS.
The disconnector is the standard semi-auto piece. This, along with the fire control selector, appear to be the only pieces that would need to be replaced to utilize a RDIAS.
All parts are metal. Despite the price there are no plastic trigger parts or anything. Fit and finish are excellent. The contact surfaces on the trigger group pieces are nicely polished in the white, and don't have any surface finish on the working areas to rough up the action.
The buttstock is a standard mil-spec 6-position M4 style, and the pistol grip is a standard mil-spec A2 style.
The stripped lower is an Anderson Manufacturing AM-15, for $50 from Fat Boy Tactical. If you buy a 5-back, you can get free shipping. I did some horse-trading with my FFL and got free shipping. You also have to pay an 11% excise tax on this part, have it shipped to an FFL, and pay the FFL to do the 4473 transfer.
This lower is a low-shelf, so it's compatible with a RDIAS without doing any milling. Fit and finish are excellent, and the magwell is beveled. I feel like this is a very excellent receiver for the money, as long as you don't need any green zombie crap or tacticool pictographs on it.
However, the A2 buttstock doesn't align perfectly with the shape of the surface that mates to it. This in my opinion is only a minor issue, and would be a non-issue if one used the collapsible buttstock provided in the kit.
After FFL fees and excise tax, the stripped lower came to $63.50, for a total so far of $502.
I also bought a few $9 generic aluminum magazines along with the upper, because it didn't increase the shipping charge any. For the purposes of figuring up the total cost, I'll assume that a person will probably order two magazines. I was pleasantly surprised to discover that despite being so inexpensive, these magazines came with anti-tilt followers installed.
You'll also need a rear sight. There are cheaper ones available than what I bought, but they have terrible reviews, so I ended up with a "UTG Detachable Match Grade Carry Handle with A2 Rear Sight" for $41 from MidwayUSA. I also ordered an A2 style fixed buttstock from there as well, as the big thing that has always turned me off about the AR is the M4-style stock, but since the kit comes with a good (just not to my taste) stock, I'm not going to include that in the totals.
So that would bring the grand total of a complete rifle, including two magazines and shipping and FFL fees, and assuming that a person had all the needed tools to assemble it already, to $561. And it seems to be a real decent gun for that price, at least in comparison to what you see other ARs going for.
It may be worth noting that you can just buy the complete, assembled Freedom Rifle from PSA (without a rear sight or any magazines) for $600. After excise taxes and a $15 FFL transfer, that would be $681 to get it home (and that's still without a rear sight or any magazines). So you are saving about $180 by building the kit.
After assembling the lower, the PSA upper snaps in as tightly as any AR I've ever handled. That is to say, there is a tiny, tiny bit of barely perceptible slop, but it's well within tolerances for a shooter.
I followed Larry's video for assembling the lower. More notes on this after the video link....
Now, in this video, you'll see Larry using a bunch of special AR-15 tools. I got along fine without any special AR-15 tools, and didn't need very many tools at all in general.
I probably didn't need the action block, either, but I'd already borrowed it, so I snapped it into the magwell anyway just to help relieve some stresses. All you see there is a brass/nylon hammer, the middle two roll pin punches, and a big screwdriver (for tightening the A1 buttstock screw). Not shown are: A hex bit to tighten the pistol grip screw, and a block of wood to support the receiver while driving the trigger guard roll pin.
I didn't have to put anything into a bench vise or anything. I just held it on my knee and drove the pins while I watched Larry's video.
If you use the included M4 buttstock, you'll probably also need an AR-15 multitool to torque down the castle nut, though.
According to the internet, the torque value for the buffer tube is 35 ft*lb. In motorcycle maintenance lingo, this is "good and snug via hand-tightening", so that's what I did. I didn't put any loctite on it, just oiled the threads and torqued it down by hand about the same as you'd do with a spin-on oil filter. I do have a torque wrench, but didn't bother with it. If it ends up getting loose, I'll amend this post, but I think it'll be fine.
All assembly was done with plain old Remoil to lube the pins before driving them. No roll pin starter punches were used, I just carefully put them in straight with the nylon side of the hammer and then seated them to the proper depth with the appropriate roll pin punch. Nothing was damaged at all doing it this way, other than the usual unavoidable pin slight marring from the punch that requires minor touch-up with a bluing pen (and even then only if you are anal like me).
The trigger guard roll pin was the most difficult one to seat. I had to support the receiver on a wood block to get that one seated all the way. For the rest of them I just sat the receiver on my knee and drove them while I watched Larry's video.
Anyway, I guess what I am trying to say is, don't let the perception that you need $200 worth of tools to build an AR scare you away from doing it. If you are careful, you can do it just fine and dandy without a bunch of special tools. It was quite easy to get the detents and takedown pins assembled without parts flying everywhere without any special tools and only a little bit of forethought. Heck, you could probably use regular punches on the roll pins, but I already had roll pin punches, so I used them.
(Continued in next post)