I am going to have surgery soon and will be at home healing for a week or two. So that gives me time for a new rifle build! This one will be an M16A4 Clone, like the M16 rifles carried by US Marines in Iraq,
but in a civilian-legal semiautomatic configuration. The following are the parts I've acquired and their actual costs with shipping and taxes. Part of the fun of building rifles is getting the parts I want at the prices I want to spend.
NOTE: This is NOT a plug for certain brands or items. This is just what I, HandyCruiser, actually bought within my budget and what I paid. There may be better choices. These were just my choices to get what I wanted, when I wanted it, at what I wanted to, or was able to pay. And I did receive some discounts for being a minor local celebrity. That's not really the reason for the discounts, but I like to think it is.
We start with an M16A4 lower from the good folks at Texas Machine Gun & Ordinance. Just having that name on it will make it worth more. The one I have is already finished in a milspec black coating.
Next is the upper receiver from Del-Ton. Based on available photos and descriptions, Del-Ton has some pretty accurate M16A2 thru A4 reproductions at a good price, complete with the correct T-marks on the rail. The milspec auto bolt carrier group and charging handle are included.
The most specialized part for this build is the M5 RAS quad-rail system. This one is the P+S version and was made under the KAS license for government issue. Pricey, but the genuine article and still cheaper than the ones made directly by KAS.
Internals, buttstock and rear site are as follows. After installing an Anderson stainless steel hammer and trigger kit in my last build, I decided to do that for most builds going forward. I believe that for a milspec-like kit, this one is the best quality and is very smooth. Leaper's UTG is high quality as well and meets the milspec pretty faithfully. Also, this UTG buttstock includes the correct matching buffer, spring and tube.
This should cover the initial build of the M16A4 clone, but without the USGI sling, mag pouch and other accessories or optics. Total cost so far is $879.01.
I will post more once the build is underway.