First AR-10 build, looking for pointers

[Chapped Hide]

Man that's pure torture to finally get everything and now have to wait another 10 days. Did you get the gas block from JP? If so, give them a call and see if they'll swap the gas block for one that will fit. They were very accommodating when I returned the SCS I didn't need because I swapped for other parts, no restocking fee and they shipped out my new items before they had the SCS in hand. Post pics when you get a chance, hopefully it's not as bad as you make it sound over in the other thread.

Hurry up and get it put together, I need someone to go play with at the range! If you haven't seen, check out my thread and see what I did with my final group at Sac Valley yesterday. Going back next weekend and working on 200-300 yards now that I have a pretty good Zero.

[CandG]

Man that's pure torture to finally get everything and now have to wait another 10 days. Did you get the gas block from JP? If so, give them a call and see if they'll swap the gas block for one that will fit. They were very accommodating when I returned the SCS I didn't need because I swapped for other parts, no restocking fee and they shipped out my new items before they had the SCS in hand. Post pics when you get a chance, hopefully it's not as bad as you make it sound over in the other thread.

Hurry up and get it put together, I need someone to go play with at the range! If you haven't seen, check out my thread and see what I did with my final group at Sac Valley yesterday. Going back next weekend and working on 200-300 yards now that I have a pretty good Zero.

To top it off, the LGS wouldn't start the DROS because the address on my driver's license doesn't match my other proofs of residency. What the hell is that all about? I just bought 3 lowers 2 months ago without issue. He claims it's some new DOJ rule that went into effect last month. First I've ever heard of it. So my 10 days doesn't start until after I go to the DMV and back to the LGS.

Most of my complaints about the SW build set has to do with the handguard. The rest of it is pretty nice, and the lower definitely looked nice from what I could see. I'm going to talk to JP today and see what they recommend for the gas block. I need one with a similar profile to the one you used on your build.

The rest of the upper is assembled, and looks great. Aside from my gripes with SW and the handguard, I'm pretty happy with how it's turning out. I'll post some progress pictures tonight!

I saw your update in your thread, that's looking pretty good! I'm hoping I can keep my groups that tight - I'm usually about a 1moa shooter at best, I'm hoping that my build will be more accurate than my abilities

[CandG]

Just got a comically bad reply to my email to JP about a solution to my gas block issue.

My message:

Hello, about 2 months ago I bought a JPGS-8 adjustable gas block. Yesterday I finally received my handguard that had been backordered from a 3rd party, and discovered that the top of the gas block hits the handguard (in about the 11 o'clock and 1 o'clock locations). I'm hoping you guys have a solution for a lower profile adjustable gas block that fits on a .936" barrel, but I didn't see one on your website. Any advice? Thanks!

Their full reply: (I didn't cut anything, this is all they wrote back)

Run our hand hand guard.

Thanks JP...

Looks like I'll grab a Black Rain Ordnance adjustable block. My options are slim with the .936" barrel, seems to be the best bet. I'll just sell the JP or use it on a future build.

[CandG]

Here's what I had to do to the barrel nut to make the gas tube clear it. Some other SW users reported that they enlarged the hole in the receiver instead, but I wanted to avoid drilling the receiver and possibly having an alignment issue:



Here's what my gas block looks like inside my handguard. The top of it hits the handguard by a lot, pushing it downwards by as much as 1/4". I ordered a Black Rain .936" adjustable gas block to replace this JP. Not as cool looking, but if the JP doesn't work, it doesn't work.



Here's a closeup of where the top rails meet. As you can see, the machining of each one is very different from the other. I'm pretty sure SW just buys a 3rd party handguard and puts their name on it. Either way, I'll keep using it for now unless I find something better someday. At least the color (almost) matches.



The Raptor charging handle is AWESOME. No complaints!



Closeup of the upper, I'm not a huge fan of how the profiles don't really match, but I guess I'd get about the same result with most 3rd party rails:



You can see here how the cerakote on the upper and the rail don't quite match. It's better in person, the camera flash exaggerates it a bit... but still, they clearly don't match exactly.



Set my AADmount and the scope on top to see how it looks. I think I'm going to love both!



That's all for now... I'll post more in about 10 days when I get my lower done. My Hogue aluminum pistol grip is still on backorder until at least mid-may, so for now it'll just have a cheap-o plastic one that I have laying around.

If anyone needs a JP .936" adjustable gas block, let me know

[Sabian722]

Here's what I had to do to the barrel nut to make the gas tube clear it. Some other SW users reported that they enlarged the hole in the receiver instead, but I wanted to avoid drilling the receiver and possibly having an alignment issue:



Here's what my gas block looks like inside my handguard. The top of it hits the handguard by a lot, pushing it downwards by as much as 1/4". I ordered a Black Rain .936" adjustable gas block to replace this JP. Not as cool looking, but if the JP doesn't work, it doesn't work.



Here's a closeup of where the top rails meet. As you can see, the machining of each one is very different from the other. I'm pretty sure SW just buys a 3rd party handguard and puts their name on it. Either way, I'll keep using it for now unless I find something better someday. At least the color (almost) matches.



The Raptor charging handle is AWESOME. No complaints!



Closeup of the upper, I'm not a huge fan of how the profiles don't really match, but I guess I'd get about the same result with most 3rd party rails:



You can see here how the cerakote on the upper and the rail don't quite match. It's better in person, the camera flash exaggerates it a bit... but still, they clearly don't match exactly.



Set my AADmount and the scope on top to see how it looks. I think I'm going to love both!



That's all for now... I'll post more in about 10 days when I get my lower done. My Hogue aluminum pistol grip is still on backorder until at least mid-may, so for now it'll just have a cheap-o plastic one that I have laying around.

If anyone needs a JP .936" adjustable gas block, let me know

Looks great. What are the dimensions of the black rain gas block? I had a hard time finding an adjustable that fits under my rail (1.5 ID). I ended up using a Troy low pro one.

I'm actually planning on using the JP adjustable one for my spr build, but I'm using JP's build kit...

[CandG]

Looks great. What are the dimensions of the black rain gas block? I had a hard time finding an adjustable that fits under my rail (1.5 ID). I ended up using a Troy low pro one.

I'm actually planning on using the JP adjustable one for my spr build, but I'm using JP's build kit...

I think this drawing is accurate:



If the JP gas block doesn't come with your JP build kit, I'll sell you mine

[Sabian722]

I think this drawing is accurate:



If the JP gas block doesn't come with your JP build kit, I'll sell you mine

Much appreciated

1.6 seems a bit high for a low pro, I hope that one fits! Please keep us posted, I would love to swap out my troy gb for adjustable. But my entire rifle is so heavy plus the muzzle brake, so recoil is pretty darn manageable. I can watch the bullets hit the 600 yrd steels at ASR haha

[CandG]

Much appreciated

1.6 seems a bit high for a low pro, I hope that one fits! Please keep us posted, I would love to swap out my troy gb for adjustable. But my entire rifle is so heavy plus the muzzle brake, so recoil is pretty darn manageable. I can watch the bullets hit the 600 yrd steels at ASR haha

The top looks like it clears fine, the bottom is what cuts it a little close... looking at my rail and barrel with some calipers, it looks like the bottom of the gas block is only about 1/16" from the bottom of the rail. It looks like it might be able to get sanded down some if it ends up getting too close to touching, but hopefully it doesn't come to that.

I'm not too worried about recoil either, my rifle will be pushing 15lbs plus a muzzle brake as well

[Sabian722]

^looking forward to final build pics!

[CandG]

Those of you following the Saltworks thread already know... SW is sending me a return label next week and shipping me back a whole new build kit in hopefully just a couple weeks. Good thing I used Loctite silver to install be barrel, I was able to get it back out of the upper without too much trouble. So probably no new updates here til all that gets resolved. My Hogue aluminum grip might get here before I need it after all!

The issues were two-fold... the forward rail just isn't properly done - the finish doesn't match the receivers, and the profile doesn't match the upper. The other issue is that the upper is out of spec - the top rail is too low, the gas tube port is too low (or the barrel nut is too big), and some people reported that the barrel attachment wasn't centered (although mine appears to be). They said something about how they were getting misaligned when they turned them on the CNC during milling. The lower looked great when I saw it at my LGS, although (same as the upper) the inside was a bit rough to the touch. It will be getting sent back as well, to ensure that I get a properly matched pair. He's giving it the same serial # so I don't have to re-DROS.

So I've decided to wait it out. Now that I've seen how nice these receivers *look* in person, I definitely hope they get the issues sorted out so I can have a set that works as well as it looks.

[varanidguy]

Those of you following the Saltworks thread already know... SW is sending me a return label next week and shipping me back a whole new build kit in hopefully just a couple weeks. Good thing I used Loctite silver to install be barrel, I was able to get it back out of the upper without too much trouble. So probably no new updates here til all that gets resolved. My Hogue aluminum grip might get here before I need it after all!

The issues were two-fold... the forward rail just isn't properly done - the finish doesn't match the receivers, and the profile doesn't match the upper. The other issue is that the upper is out of spec - the top rail is too low, the gas tube port is too low (or the barrel nut is too big), and some people reported that the barrel attachment wasn't centered (although mine appears to be). They said something about how they were getting misaligned when they turned them on the CNC during milling. The lower looked great when I saw it at my LGS, although (same as the upper) the inside was a bit rough to the touch. It will be getting sent back as well, to ensure that I get a properly matched pair. He's giving it the same serial # so I don't have to re-DROS.

So I've decided to wait it out. Now that I've seen how nice these receivers *look* in person, I definitely hope they get the issues sorted out so I can have a set that works as well as it looks.

Awesome! Most people realize that no company is ever going to be 100%, but it really counts how they handle the issues that do come up. They seem to be taking care of you good and proper! Can't wait to see the finished product!

[CandG]

Interesting turn of events, the gun store at which my lower currently resides was broken into last night. Guys drove a stolen car through the front door, and grabbed whatever they could find before they ran off. Just found out about it tonight. Hopefully my non-descript white box in the stock room didn't get nabbed. Geeze, what are the odds.

[Sabian722]

That would be a bust

[varanidguy]

Interesting turn of events, the gun store at which my lower currently resides was broken into last night. Guys drove a stolen car through the front door, and grabbed whatever they could find before they ran off. Just found out about it tonight. Hopefully my non-descript white box in the stock room didn't get nabbed. Geeze, what are the odds.

What store is that? That really sucks!

[CandG]

What store is that? That really sucks!

http://www.calguns.net/calgunforum/showthread.php?t=1193455

http://www.kcra.com/news/over-100-guns-stolen-in-brazen-rocklin-gun-store-burglary/39350586

Looks like they only targeted display handguns, everyone is reporting that jailed weapons should be ok. They grabbed about 100 display weapons, 90 of them were handguns, which is really surprising since the store is located on a VERY busy street, and shares a parking lot with a 24/7 gas station. It had probably been planned out for months in advance. Crazy. Apparently they found the stolen car in Emeryville.