Light weight AR parts recommendations

[davidb]

What is the weight goal? I'm also trying to trim the weight down on mine, but need an accurate scale to weight it.

id like to know this as well

i was planning a light weight build but my plain jane carbine with irons,sling and no mag came in at 6lbs 9oz. so im not sure it would be worth the effort/cost for me

[Junkie]

Wow, I sell a all Billet (7075 t6) gun, Lothar Walter VVT 16 in profile barrel, 12 inch Midwest industries handguard, Ti Compensator, Hard Chrome Plate BCG, with mag. 5lbs 5 oz. Including empty mag and magpul flip ups.

That sounds really light to me. What profile barrel? What's the diameter on it?

I don't have an accurate scale but my AR is 16" M4 profile barrel, no muzzle device, MI SS12G2, Magpul BUIS, currently has an M4 stock and Hammerhead grip but the stock is changing soon. I wonder what it weighs.

edit: http://vuurwapenblog.com/calc.html doesn't have an option for no muzzle device, and I don't know what spec my BCG is or whether their MI SS 12 is G2 or not, but if I had an A2 flash hider I'd be at 6.31, so I should be something like 6lb 3oz... but who knows about accuracy.

[jb octane]

How does it reinforce it there? I haven't seen one in person.

The enlarged end plate should better disperse energy coming from the stock and pointing in the direction of the muzzle, basically things such as mortoring or dropping the rifle on the stock. Admittedly those are not ordinary things but I would like the reinforcement in the event that I need it, especially with my friends' history of dropping my rifles.

[fmunk]

Do a search here and look for a thread where someone's MAG lower failed.

[Junkie]

Yeah, I saw that. I was just wondering how a stock would reinforce it.

[ky2970]

Pencil barreled 14.5 with MOE/standard handguards. You can always yank out the heat shield if you wanted as well.

[shafferds]

Daniel defense sights weigh 2oz.
Magul moe carbine is 8oz.
Flat side upper with no fa or eject port.
Low mass jp bcg.
For optic go pa micro red dot at 4oz.
Rainer arms makes a comp that's 2oz.

[stix213]

Thanks for all the suggestions. To answer a previous question, goal is to be as light as possible while not blowing a budget in the $1k or so range. 5LB or so would be awesome.

Been doing some more looking around, and anyone have any experience or good/bad advice about these?

Light weight stock:
ACE ARUL-E ULTRALIGHT STOCK

https://www.exilemachine.net/shop/ace-arul-e-ultralight-stock-entry-complete-stock-6.html?zenid=c4efs0bhnfef9n3b2hoh6luqr4

Mag Tactical Upper, made from a magnesium alloy instead of aluminum, supposed to be 35% weight reduction but still a strong metal component. Lower I'm using is from the same company using the same material, but I just found out they sell uppers:

http://www.magtacticalsystems.com/index.php/uppers/assembled-uppers/product/205-assembled-upper-deposit

Del-Ton lightweight midlength barrel kit (pencil barrel?). Will probably run it with just a thread protector so I'm at the legal limit in length with no added weight. I plan to go with the MOE handguard as suggested above:

http://www.del-ton.com/Del_Ton_Barrel_Kit_p/kt1008.htm

And I know I didn't ask about sights, but does anyone have any experience with a Burris Fastfire III 3 MOA on an AR here?

http://www.amazon.com/Burris-300234-Fastfire-Picatinny-Mount/dp/B007I9D8QE

[stix213]

Do a search here and look for a thread where someone's MAG lower failed.

Hmm yeah I'll look for that. Was it a failure during normal operation, or an ammo kaboom? The only failure thread I've seen was a bad ammo kaboom that also blew out the lower magwell, but I have trouble blaming the lower for that one.

Ah, think I found it. Looks like it failed while mortaring it, not while shooting. hmmm

http://www.calguns.net/calgunforum/showthread.php?t=853342

[CK_32]

Can someone explain the big want for light weight ARs?


I never understood this? More felt recoil, usually more expensive high grade parts.. All for what? What does a light 1pb gun really do at the range or for HD or what ever the use is?? Detonated race gun for a high end 3 gun shooter I can understand. But I don't get the huge interest or following for it.

I'm all for saving excess weight when not needing it but cutting weight for the sake of weight is what I don't understand.

[stix213]

Can someone explain the big want for light weight ARs?


I never understood this? More felt recoil, usually more expensive high grade parts.. All for what? What does a light 1pb gun really do at the range or for HD or what ever the use is?? I don't get the huge interest or follow for it.

I'm all for saving where when not needing it but cutting weight for the sake of weight is what I don't understand.

To explain why I'm trying to build one, the short version is this isn't going to be a range / plinking / HD rifle, but a run and gun rifle I can move around with all day.

I've built a few AR's and have great fun with them at the range and out plinking, basically my usual shooting. No problems there. I knew they were rather on the heavy side, but I was a bit surprised when I started doing some run and gun drills with a friend of mine recently, up and down some hills, moving somewhat long distances, that I was getting genuinely tired carrying my 11lb tacticool monstrosity after less than a half hour. I expected I'd be tired after a couple hours, since I go backpacking all the time and carry much more weight than that on my back without issue up and over hills all day. Must be carrying it in my arms and in front of me that makes a lot of difference. (certainly if I actually exercised regularly, it wouldn't be as big of an issue, but lets not go crazy here lol) If I'm moving hallway distances for HD I'd be perfectly happy still with my heavier AR's.

My friend I was with run and gunning handed me his 6.5LB AR he built, without picking any special lightweight parts other than just being smart about accessories, stock, and handguard, and it was night and day. I could carry that thing for hours I think. What a difference 5LB makes. So I'm hoping to out do him a bit as well

Also if I can get a rifle down to the 5LB range then it borders on being practical to take it on some of my week long backpacking through hikes. Would be fun to do some plinking 4 days out in the woods with an AR to kill some time, rather than the Glock 29 I always have.

[KingChiron]

stix213, have you seen nutnfancy's lightweight SPR build? comes in at 6 lbs 14 oz. (18" barrel, irons, no mag) might be a bit heavier than you were aiming for but your thread reminded me of his video. He puts it on the scale at 10:30

[Junkie]

Mag Tactical WILL make uppers, but as far as I can tell they don't exist yet. I was thinking of one too, but I'm not at all sure. I'm going with a similar stock as posted.

[jb octane]

Mag Tac uppers are up for preorder.

To CK, I'm having a competition with a friend to see who can make the lighter AR...plus it seems smarter than building another AR with nearly the same specs. I'll be doing a 5.45 with a muzzle break and a lightened bcg and buffer (tuned by adjustable gas block). It should be softer shooting than a standard AR, lighter, and cheaper to operate. Regardless of all that, I'm having fun picking out parts and slowly putting it together piece by piece, oh and trash talk. I love good trash talk.

It's a hobby. Everyone should enjoy it any (legal) way they like.

[Junkie]

Wow, sounds like our builds will be very similar. I'd appreciate some pictures/specs once you get it together. Not sure that I have the ability to lighten the bcg myself, or the wallet to have someone else do it, but I like the concept.