I pride myself in knowing a LOT about all sorts of things about the firearms industry, arguably too much. I find myself wanting a firearm just to have it, as I think we all do once in a while.
Handgun shooting is where my abilities are not such as impressive; I can make shots, but not with the speed and precision some of my friends can. Though shooting rifles are always fun, the huge difference in shooting a handgun from a rifle is an almost adrenaline pumping experience after you've shot nothing but Rifles and Shotguns since. I was raised shooting large caliber pistols, so I am not very caliber shy. Haha.
Though it was just last summer I shot my first black rifle; I pulled the trigger, the Marmot flew 5 feet in the air, ripping it in half, and I turned and said "I gotta get one of these."
Its a sickness really, building black rifles. The AR15 goes together like Lego's, and even if I didn't have any experience in gunsmithing in the past, I'm sure it would've been no big deal.
The only problems with building an AR was, A: My financial situation, I ain't a rich kid, And B: The time at which I choose to build.
It had been only a month since the horrendous shooting in Newtown, Connecticut, and politicians were already cooking up new anti-common sense laws causing gun owners of all types to go into frenzy.
Things like this had happened before, post elections, post legislation passing. But NOTHING to this degree, people HAD to have whatever they could get there hands on.
There was NO 5.56 ammo, and forget finding parts. I was told by my buddy parts where cheap, and you could build an AR15 for 500 dollars if you chose the cheapest parts. I was super excited.
To be honest, I didn't even notice the frenzy happening until I strolled into Wall mart to pick up some .22lr for a range day and was laughed at. No .22lr? What?
Here's one of our range days.
It was certainly stressful for a noobie AR builder to come into the WORST time possible to begin an AR15 build. I had no idea of the 'typical' market price for parts, so I only payed what I thought was reasonable. Thank GOD for ARpartsfinder.com, without it, I doubt I would've been able to even start my AR building.
When something would pop up, you could literally watch the '# in stock' go down in real time. It was frustrating, especially when you are working for the parts, and cant be on the computer 24/7 waiting for parts to come in. I slowly pieced together an upper, getting a stripped upper first, then the rail, then the barrel. I chose a Milspec 5.56 chambered 1/7 twist barrel, and for now it seems to ROCK.
I was super excited to start the lower, waiting to see how my rifle would look assembled. Saturday evening, I'm mindlessly refreshing Arpartsfinder when an ATI OMNI complete lower receiver for 130 dollars. I immediately snapped out of my reverie like state and got out the card. 135 dollars later, I had a lower coming my way to my local FFL. I was super excited to get it in.
I bought it from Palmetto State Armory, and first off, they never sent a tracking number. So I'm waiting like a loyal dog waiting for his owner to return. Three weeks later, I decided to drop by my Local FLL and see if they know whats up. The guy behind the counter then goes "Oh, Kazanis right?" To be honest, I was frightened as his tone was as if something terrible had happened. He then reached under a counter and as if by doing a magic trick my lower appeared. I flew through the 4473, and 10 minutes later, I had my lower.
I assembled it, It was beautiful. To me anyway, for all the frustration that I went through for it to be finally over!
Ill admit it now, that there was not the prettiest AR at the ball.
I had it assembled, and I throwing it around, as one tends to do; when I slung it over my shoulder, I set it down at one point, and then picked it up by the sling. *SNAP*
My ATI polymer lower had broken into two pieces right at the buffer tower. I was very angry at this. Obviously.
So, back to Palmetto State Armory. Sent them a, what must've been a very angry sounding email, they replied 'We do not Warranty Polymer lowers'. LOL WHAT. So, I then send ATI a chance. I shot them an email. They seemed to be very nice, promising a quick replacement after I shipped the old lower back. I was relieved, but still angry at them for allowing such a crappy product arrive at my door.
About a month later, I am not a happy camper. I keep calling, complaining what a long time I had been waiting. Finally, they say they had shipped the new lower to my FLL, with 25 bucks enclosed for the transfer fee. Which I, on my limited budget, was grateful for. It was obvious, that was an older, non-reinforced model. The thickness of the material around the sight tower had tripled, leaving a MUCH more structurally sound piece. ATI is now neutral to me, they allowed that lower to ship without noting that it may be an older, or even a prototype model. The only excuse I can come up with is that they were trying to capitalize on the panic that was happening in the gun market they put everything they had to get lowers out there as fast as they could.
Another investment later, optics (In this case a Nikon Buckmaster 3-9). And It was done. Optics really make an AR externally shine. With them they really a thing of beauty.
The AR15 design has to be one of the most smooth shooting rifles around. The buffer system makes a seemly muffled recoil, and with the use of an appropriate muzzle device, VERY little muzzle flip is observed.
Before I knew it, my AR was putting dime sized groups at 100 yards in my hands. And It was killing anything it was pitted against. It was awesome.
I will admit it, I am a trigger snob. I hate bad triggers, they make the shooting experience more of a chore than a hobby. The ATI's stock trigger was CRAP. And on my shoestring budget, at first I thought there was not much I could do about it. But a little googling later, I learned all about DIY gunsmith mods to improve the trigger on the AR15. I love doing mods like that, especially when they have large results.
I clipped the trigger spring, and greased the trigger contacts, and before I knew it, I had a respectable trigger.
I am like to say I'm an aspiring gunsmith, but an AR is cake compared to other firearm models.
I plan to start a 1911 build soon, even with reading all about how it is incredibly difficult.
I'm not a big game hunter, I don't disapprove of the idea of big game hunting at all, but in this stage in my life right now, I'm much more into the Varmint hunting. The idea of just shoot and scoot is favorable to me right now, instead of: WAIT WAIT WAIT WAIT, *BANG* Next week is just tending to that kill.
Anyway, I'm already starting a new AR15 build, but that's another post. Haha. I've already written myself into another page I think..
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