After shooting a friends AR I had been wanting to build one for a while. So I finally broke down and picked up a lower and a parts kit.
Mega Arms Forged Lower
Stag Arms Lower Parts Kit
That soon led to a VLTOR IMod adjustable stock and buffer tube kit, so I finally had everything to assemble the lower.
And with some help from a friend of mine the lower parts kit assembled, with a couple tweaks to the trigger 
I decided I wanted a different trigger guard, but beyond that the lower is finished
And the stock extended, which is where it’ll probably end up, because NY makes you pin the stock in one place. I guess my 4 foot long gun is instantly super scary when it’s only 3’6"…
Magpul MOE Trigger Guard, so the lower was finally finished
Tubb SpeedLock Flat Wire buffer spring, Stoner takedown wrench and a DPMS Mark 12 18" 1 in 8" stainless barrel
Magpul MOE+ Grip
Besides this grip feeling fantastic in my hand it also has a second hole so you can adjust the play in the upper without removing the grip. A very nice added feature. The added tail on the grip really makes the grip more comfortable as well. MOE+ on the left, Stag grip on the right.
Lastly I did some calculations just to prove to myself that my barrel wasn’t going to blow up if I re-profiled it down to .625". Not that I didn’t trust a bunch of people on the internet saying it was safe… lol
Kies adjustable low profile gen-2 gas block. It’s about half the length of the block that came with the barrel, so I’ll be matching the rest of the gas block section of the barrel to the same diameter as the tip of the barrel.
Stainless SJC Titan Compensator, chambered in .223. I’m really impressed with it, although it does need some deburing in the ports, and a bit of polishing as well. The ports could have looked a lot nicer if they went in for a finishing cut though. It also needs a bit of material taken off the end so it times correctly with the barrel, but this is just my OCD.
Plans for the barrel
Just for clairity
I ran up to Jackson to pick up a Mega Forged Upper. The quality of this part is quite impressive, and it’s fit to Mega’s matching lower is bar none.
I slid the barrel into the upper, and just like that it all came together. Now I’m getting excited, haha.
Modeled up the upper just to see if things were going to come out the way I was hoping…
I made myself a little block to thread onto the barrel with a center on the other side, which will let me run a center on the barrel without marking up the muzzle.
Finally re-profiling the barrel…
The end of the barrel was running out .003", so with the addition of a washer it only ran out .0005", pretty damn good!
And the weight before and after
Thats a .79 pound weight savings 
And the full lower, stripped upper and barrel now balance right at the barrel nut, things should stay pretty balanced from this point on.
I trimmed a few thou off of the break, in order to time the brake with the barrel. After that we drilled and tapped a hole in the brake to accept a set screw.
I decided to do some cleanup and debur on the brake, just to make things a bit cleaner. I also sand blasted all the ports in the brake to give them a nice matte finish. It should look nice with the rest of the brake polished.
Drilling the dimple in the barrel after torquing the break
Set screw installed
Kies Nickel Boron coated carrier
Stag Arms chrome bolt, as well as a hard chromed firing pin, cam pin, and firing pin retention pin.
And some pictures of the assembled bolt carrier group
VLTOR BCM Mod4 charging handle
Pictures of the charging handle and BCG assembled in the upper
And lastly a Yankee Hill Machine rifle length black gas tube
Everything mocked up in the gun after a bit of preliminary polishing on the barrel.
Picked up some paracord and made a few pull loops for my mags. It should help me keep track of which mags are mine when I’m shooting with other people, as well as make the mags easier to pull out of pockets and ammo cans.
And they also have a reflective strand, which should make it easier to find dropped mags in the dark.
Burris PEPR Quick Detach 30mm scope mount. I’m really happy with the mount, it is definitely very well built, and the quick locks are easy to use and very secure.
The mount also comes with a couple top caps what have a small section of picatinny rail built into them, in case you want to mount a mini red dot or something of that nature.
Wilson Combat Black Armor-Tuff 5.56 NATO
I wasn’t a big fan of most of the customized covers, too overplayed IMO, so this one seemed like a good balance of something different, but useful.
DPMS Forward Assist and Ejection Port Cover. I won’t be using the cover, I only bought it for the hardware.
5.56 NATO No-go gauge
And a couple Lancer AWM 10 round mags to hunt with, I’ll have to pin them to 5 rounds though.
I threw the DPMS forward assist into the lathe and polished the concentric rings on it. I think it came out pretty well.
And I installed the ejection port cover
Burris TAC30 1-4x red dot
I also installed the polished DPMS forward assist, thankfully without damaging the upper.
After finally getting the hand guard and barrel nut, I could install the nut, weld the comp on, and finish polishing.
Lancer Carbon Fiber Extra Long Hand Guard
Nice aluminum end cap, I’m really impressed with Lancer’s fit and finish.
The hand guard nut
The bottom of the tube is pre-drilled for swivel studs, and their picatinny rail system, I was assuming I’d have to do it myself, because I could never find a picture of the bottom of the tube.
Top of the tube is un-vented, which seems stupid to me, but oh well, I might change that later.
The fit between the two pieces is awesome, just a few tenths of press
All together, with a barrel nut it weights in at 12 oz
12 oz doesn’t seem that light, until you realize 6.9 oz of that weight is just in the barrel nut, hand guard nut and fasteners. So most of the weight is centralized on the rifle.
And the tube it self is 5.1 oz.
The barrel and hand guard nut assembled in the upper
Gas block installed
And the hand guard bolted on, finally, it’s finished.
Gas block Clearance
I also picked up a nice waterproof Burris scope cover, since apparently Burris scopes don’t come with bikini covers anymore.
Everything went well tuning the gas block. I ended up at 2.75 turns out. I only had one mis hap, for some reason the 5th or 6th round had a light primer hit, but that was it. The gun worked flawlessly beyond that, especially after tuning the gas block.
All said and done it weights 8 lbs 2.5 oz without a mag. I wanted to stay below 8 lbs, but it’s still pretty damn light, and it balances at the barrel nut, if not slightly further back.
I’m also very happy with the muzzle brake, it isn’t nearly as loud as I was expecting it to be, and as you’ll see in the video below, I don’t think I even need to tune it, the muzzle barely moves. I’ve gotta work on my trigger work, but damn is this thing fast. Hopefully it gets faster as the trigger wears in.
Skip to 1:20 for the fun stuff.
