Ok, so I'm ignorant, so inform me

[E4 No More]

A few weeks ago I bought a stripped upper from PSA because it was a good deal at the time. Now I'm finding myself trying to figure out what I want to do with it. So let me tell you what I would LIKE to do, and someone tell me if I can do it, and how best to go about doing it.

I would like to have one lower and 2-3 uppers. The uppers would be:

1. A marksmanship-centric .308 with a 20" fluted barrel and rail top for a scope to be fixed.

2. A 5.56 with a 18" barrel and a rail top of flip sights and a red dot sight to be fixed.

3. A short-barreled 9mm or .40 ala MP5-like carbine with a rail top.

Yes, I know that they all can fit on the same lower, but would I have to change things like the buffer for each upper too? I like the idea of one nice trigger and buttstock for consistency and cost savings.

Opinions?

[mikegideon]

Scratch #1. Different platform.

BTW... you mean you bought a stripped LOWER, right? IMO, a marksmaship-centric rifle needs a real different stock than a scrappin' rifle. The lower will wind up favoring one function over the other.

Edited October 19, 2012 by mikegideon

[E4 No More]

Scratch #1. Different platform

They do not share the same lower??? Edited October 19, 2012 by SWJewellTN

[mikegideon]

They do not share the same lower???

Nope. The .308 and others with that kind of power require the AR-10 Platform. A .308 won't even fit thru the mag well of an AR-15. If you're gonna do accurate shooting (at any serious range), you'll have to use .223 or 6.5 Grendel.

I have .223, 300 Blackout, and .458 SOCOM. The .458 is the only one that will slap the bejesus out of something, and it's limited range.

Edited October 19, 2012 by mikegideon

[E4 No More]

Nope. The .308 and others with that kind of power require the AR-10 Platform. A .308 won't even fit thru the mag well of an AR-15. If you're gonna do accurate shooting, you'll have to use .223 or 6.5 Grendel.

Crap! Well, that makes sense now that you point it out. But I'd be good to go on 9mm or .40? Do those mags fill the mag well differently?

[scoutfsu]

Lol no they don't share the same lower. Think about the size of the round and magazine. A 7.62 AR is far bigger dimensionally.

eta: Man, that took a while to post.......weird.

eta again - SW, you'll need a magwell adapter for a pistol caliber magazine. You're going to find that it's going to be far easier to just get extra lowers. Extra uppers seem to find extra lowers......kinda like how dust bunnies multiply

Edited October 19, 2012 by scoutfsu

[mikegideon]

Crap! Well, that makes sense now that you point it out. But I'd be good to go on 9mm or .40? Do those mags fill the mag well differently?

Yes and yes. I'm not familiar with the fine details. I know the 9mm guns are blowback instead of gas, and require different buffers. I thought about sharing lowers when I got the first one. Here's a picture of my success...

Edited October 19, 2012 by mikegideon

[E4 No More]

Yes and yes. I'm not familiar with the fine details. I know the 9mm guns are blowback instead of gas, and require different buffers. I thought about sharing lowers when I got the first one. Here's a picture of my success...

Oooo, me likey the ones on the flanks!

[E4 No More]

The 6.5 Grendel sounds interesting. Didn't the Marine Snipers switch to that?

[mikegideon]

Oooo, me likey the ones on the flanks!

The one on the left has an Aimpoint on it now. That's the 300.

[mikegideon]

The 6.5 Grendel sounds interesting. Didn't the Marine Snipers switch to that?

Good long range caliber. I've avoided it because of limited availability. I doubt that all the Marine snipers switched. I'm guessing the .308 still has a longer kill range.

[atlas3025]

You could run an H2 or H3 buffer on any pistol caliber or rifle caliber that will work in AR 15. Although, either may be TOO heavy for a suppressed 300 BLK. Never tried a heavy buffer on mine. But a 9mm will run find on an H2 buffer, as will any 5.56. Of course if you go with a marksman rifle, you will likley have a full buffer tube as you mention, so that means a longer buffer anyway.

If you run an H2 or H3 buffer on a 9mm, you need to spend $2.00 extra making it work right, namely, drop 8 quarters in the buffer tube before you put in the buffer. Since a 9mm buffer is a little longer, the shorter H2 or H3 buffer will cycle farther back, and beat the piss out of your bolt catch when your 9mm mag goes empty. The quarter keep the buffer/bolt from travelling too far rearward and slamming hard against the catch when the bolt closes.

There is a physics law out there somewhere that states your ratio of uppers to lowers will always settle to 1:1.

[mikegideon]

There is a physics law out there somewhere that states your ratio of uppers to lowers will always settle to 1:1.

Yep. There's another one that says your AR collection will grow to the size of your safe. In my case, it pushed one rifle out of the safe.

[E4 No More]

Good long range caliber. I've avoided it because of limited availability. I doubt that all the Marine snipers switched. I'm guessing the .308 still has a longer kill range.

I've read a few things on the 6.5 generally after seeing it on DPMS' website. Low drag coefficient with lower profile if I recall correctly. But I really don't know why I'm even considering long range rifles. A failed eye surgery has my dominant eye at 20/30, which is why I sold the Sig 556 DMR to begin with.

I should probably stick to 5.56 and the idea of carbine in 9mm.

BTW: "The 6.5 Grendel is challenging the status quo in Military and Law Enforcement units around the world. First unveiled in May 2003 at the Blackwater Training facility in NC, the 6.5 Grendel out-shot the 7.62 NATO at range with half the recoil. Still supersonic at 1,200 yards, the 6.5 Grendel delivered superior external ballistics to the 7.62 NATO." http://www.alexanderarms.com/index.php/products/65-grendel.html

Edited October 19, 2012 by SWJewellTN

[E4 No More]

I guess the USMC went with the 6.5 Lapua; not the Grendel: http://military.disc...iper-rifle.html

Edited October 19, 2012 by SWJewellTN

[mikegideon]

I've read a few things on the 6.5 generally after seeing it on DPMS' website. Low drag coefficient with lower profile if I recall correctly. But I really don't know why I'm even considering long range rifles. A failed eye surgery has my dominant eye at 20/30, which is why I sold the Sig 556 DMR to begin with.

I should probably stick to 5.56 and the idea of carbine in 9mm.

BTW: "The 6.5 Grendel is challenging the status quo in Military and Law Enforcement units around the world. First unveiled in May 2003 at the Blackwater Training facility in NC, the 6.5 Grendel out-shot the 7.62 NATO at range with half the recoil. Still supersonic at 1,200 yards, the 6.5 Grendel delivered superior external ballistics to the 7.62 NATO." http://www.alexander...65-grendel.html

I would have to do some digging on bullet availability. The 308 has some serious ass behind it. Don't worry about your eyeballs. A 20 year old can't see the target without good glass.

Edited October 19, 2012 by mikegideon

[E4 No More]

You could run an H2 or H3 buffer on any pistol caliber or rifle caliber that will work in AR 15. Although, either may be TOO heavy for a suppressed 300 BLK. Never tried a heavy buffer on mine. But a 9mm will run find on an H2 buffer, as will any 5.56. Of course if you go with a marksman rifle, you will likley have a full buffer tube as you mention, so that means a longer buffer anyway.

If you run an H2 or H3 buffer on a 9mm, you need to spend $2.00 extra making it work right, namely, drop 8 quarters in the buffer tube before you put in the buffer. Since a 9mm buffer is a little longer, the shorter H2 or H3 buffer will cycle farther back, and beat the piss out of your bolt catch when your 9mm mag goes empty. The quarter keep the buffer/bolt from travelling too far rearward and slamming hard against the catch when the bolt closes.

There is a physics law out there somewhere that states your ratio of uppers to lowers will always settle to 1:1.

Now 8 quarters is definately something I wouldn't have thought of, thanks.

[mikegideon]

I guess the USMC went with the 6.5 Lapua; not the Grendel: http://military.disc...iper-rifle.html

Different animal. The 6.5 Lapua is a candidate for the bolt gun I'm gonna build. I'm leaning toward 30-06 though. I like that 1000 ft/lbs of energy at 1000 yards.

[E4 No More]

I would have to do some digging on bullet availability. The 308 has some serious ass behind it. Don't worry about your eyeballs. A 20 year old can see the target without good glass.

Thanks, Mike. This may sound whiney, but, I am what my eye doctor calls "sight sensitive", but it really boils down to the fact that I'm obcessive-compulsive. When I was the sniper for my PD I wore contacts that corrected my vision to almost 20/10, (I could identify half of the letters on the 20/10 line). I gauged my accuracy by being able to put a round in someone's pupil at 100 yards. Today I see two sets of blurry crosshairs when I sight through a scope, and that drives me absolutely batty! Today I'm doing good to put a .308 in someone's eye at 100 yards. It kills me to not be what I once was. It sucks getting old!

[mikegideon]

Thanks, Mike. This may sound whiney, but, I am what my eye doctor calls "sight sensitive", but it really boils down to the fact that I'm obcessive-compulsive. When I was the sniper for my PD I wore contacts that corrected my vision to almost 20/10, (I could identify half of the letters on the 20/10 line). I gauged my accuracy by being able to put a round in someone's pupil at 100 yards. Today I see two sets of blurry crosshairs when I sight through a scope, and that drives me absolutely batty! Today I'm doing good to put a .308 in someone's eye at 100 yards. It kills me to not be what I once was. It sucks getting old!

You can't adjust it out with the scope? Most of my scopes are dialed in for my reading glasses. I have to spin them a good ways to focus them for naked eye. Got tired of switching glasses when I had to move a dial.

[E4 No More]

You can't adjust it out with the scope? Most of my scopes are dialed in for my reading glasses. I have to spin them a good ways to focus them for naked eye. Got tired of switching glasses when I had to move a dial.

Nope! The problem is my eye which is why the doctor cannot fix it. Basically, I have an astygmatism that Dr. Ming Wang, (the so-called best eye doctor in Nashville), cannot fix. I had an experimental intracorneal ring implant done on my right eye in the mid 90's to correct near-sightedness. I was moving to Nashville before the study was done, so they had to remove it. This leaves a groove in my cornea. They told me that my eye would go right back to normal, but they were wrong. Dr. Wang didn't think it would be a problem when he did LASIK on my eyes. He was wrong too. I am going to go back to my regular doctor soon to see if he can correct it with glasses, but for now I see two fuzzy crosshairs no matter what.

[mikegideon]

Doctors ain't touching my eyes or my johnson. They is what they is.

[E4 No More]

Doctors ain't touching my eyes or my johnson. They is what they is.

LOL!

I wanted the eye surgery because shooting the rifles with glasses sucked. Each recoil shifted the glasses and thus point of aim. I guess I could go to a high mount to help that out some.

[mikegideon]

I have a little astigmatism. I can't see a clean dot in my Aimpoint. That's one of the main reasons I like the Eotech better.

[E4 No More]

I have a little astigmatism. I can't see a clean dot in my Aimpoint. That's one of the main reasons I like the Eotech better.

Humm, may have to check that out then. I got rid of an M4 for the Sig 556 DMR because the Aimpoint was really only useful to about 150 before the dot was bigger than the target. That isn't the only reason. I bought the M4 from the Outpost Armory with the aimpoint. I discovered later that I had to drift the rear sight all the way to the left wall to hit on target, but as near as I could tell the front sight post and frame was perfectly straight. Of course, Outpost didn't care to do anything about it either! I was treated much better at Hero Gear.