Tips for your first AR- Wading through the options, and the madness.

hey what's going on guys I'm Chris and this is regular guy training so to follow up the aka video I figured I'd do a a our video and and obviously you guys can see a change there there's Scrabble letters with the family name on it to include my son that's on the way so here it is right I get a lot of questions about you know starting to build an AR and that kind of thing should I build or buy or whatever right so what this is more than anything else is it's sort of a buyer's guide for the most part what to look for and all of that there will be at least one link in the description below for to go more into details about different subjects that are brought up mostly because I've already done it and it plugs you into another video source if you want to go in-depth on a lot of different things I'll touch on those really quickly but then I'll let you know which videos to go check out a link in the description for later so first thing to consider and I have my little notes on my laptop here what is this thing for like what is the AR for is it strictly for home defense right and if that's the case we might want to build up an AR pistol by using a a pistol lower or whatever to where the lower itself doesn't say that it's a rifle that way you could stick a pistol tube on it a brace and now you have a shorter thing that you can run around the house with if that if that's what you're using is it for job training slash home defense ok now we have a slightly more complicated problem not really because that usually means like a standard length at AR or a standard carbine length they are where it's like about you know 14 1/2 inch barrel and that kind of stuff or depending on what your individual job is it could be a 20 inch gun I mean even though it's fairly rare so and then the next one is like your target shooting or your precision work guns made for more distance stuff or what-have-you maybe it's strictly a hunting rifle that kind of deal there's a bajillion different calibers that are out so this is an their category that kind of falls into place with that and then you know kind of as far as the job training thing it's a little it's a little more complicated because we could also be talking about you know like a patrol rifle or something like that so let's go ahead we got to think about that first before we start thinking about all the other stuff and I'll try and make this as reliable as possible depending on who's talking about what or who has a particular way that they lived their life or what happened so first things first pretty much the in my personal opinion anyway the lifeblood of the performance of an ARS in itself a receiver and when we're talking about individual self-defense or when it comes to job training you know we and we want it to be close to either a department standard or a military standard or even self defense right as far as home defense this stuff we really do want we really do want to consider the barrel that we're shoving in the thing my personal opinion on the matter is that if you pick up a solid quality barrel and um basically unless you do lots and lots and lots and lots of training and practice and stuff like that generally speaking that barrel is gonna help perform you and that's good because we own every round that we fire right and if we send stuff astray based on the quality of parts and not the quality of the individual which I know there's a big disparity between the two you have to be you know properly trained and you have to know how to use this stuff but if your equipment meaning if your barrel is crap you can have a lot of different problems one is in the accuracy Department another one's in the stability apartment right so I'm gonna I'm gonna go through the list of things that a lot of people look at and that I personally look at and will go through my personal opinions on that as we go right so we have several different barrel coatings as far as like the inside right we have the chrome lining that's the standard you have Mela Knight and nitride these are like the big ones that are in a lot of different barrels and there's a lot of different claims there's a lot of people that talk about different stuff generally speaking the criticism on Chrome lining which is the military standard is that you know it's it's hard to apply consistently and then you have accuracy issues and that kind of thing and the mela night and I try both kind of boast a greater accuracy yield because it what you call it it can be more consistently applied now with modern manufacturing techniques for all three on the relative based on what I've seen based on what I've used in the past that kind of thing the performance difference while the nitrite and melanin coatings from what I've seen is generally a touch better it's not that big a deal right we're talking you know maybe a half inch greater or tighter at 100 yards and as far as practice and as far as practical accuracy is concerned that doesn't really affect you at 7 yards and inside of that right so they perform very similarly and again with modern application process of all three of these the the inconsistency complaint of chrome lighting is pretty much a moot point so what they really do though is they protect the inside of your barrel which is construction which is constructed on a steel is it protects it a lot from outside elements you know rusting and that kind of stuff so I don't want a barrel that doesn't have any of these like an on line barrel just a straight steel barrel I personally don't want to not have those so regardless to what it is that you pick have one of those right now there's different barrel construction types or different types of steel that are put out and this is depending on who you are this means a lot or very little right you've had 41 40 41 50 types of steel as far as barrel construction is concerned what the what the 40 and the 50 really signify is how much carbon is is more or less applied to the barrel construction right or within it so the 4150 what this really means is with 41 50 barrels they tend to be tougher all around and the military standard for the 4150 the military standard happens to be 41 50 however 41 50 barrels are not all equal right because as far as the military standard is concerned it requires I'm just trying to keep track of my notes additional carbon or van diem additives within the barrel building process right and all that really leads to is it it's for the trike keep is very simple it's it's more stout it as additional barrel life as far as number of rounds fired that kind of thing what this really means to you especially if you go out in practice is 4150 especially military specific or a mil spec or Jesus Christ military standard 4150 is concerned is that what it really eels to is it lasts a little bit longer which is better for those who go out and train and practice all the time right so it really does help now we have two different types of manufacturing processes as well that are generally out and again I can't get in this in the into the individual specifics of every little thing because this video will take hours but generally speaking you see like cold hammer-forged barrels and you see like button rifle barrels and and all that the trade-off that i've seen between the two and i get questions on which one to use all the time generally speaking the cold hammer-forged barrels tend to last a little bit longer right and we're talking you know five to eight thousand rounds more than a button rifled barrel but by a slight margin the button rifle barrels tend to be a little bit more accurate right so and again with modern manufacturing processes how accurate these two are as far as the difference between the two is very very small like the difference between the two is very small so my personal preference is cold hammer-forged all day 41:15 mil standard cold hammer-forged it's me personally that's what I want to use because I shoot a lot I train a lot and when I and when I go out and teach class and all that stuff I do a lot of demos so my guns tend to go through you know quite a few rounds in addition to the fact of students use my my stuff all the time either something broken their gun or or there's an irons only portion and they don't have backup irons on their gun I'll go ahead and snatch up one of them and and throw it in his direction so that you can go ahead and use that so my guns tend to be used quite a bit so I tend to go for this for the tougher materials now the the stainless steel question is going to come up and the general rule of thumb in all honesty for steel is that if I'm building a a purpose-built precision gun or if I want to shoot farther away with it I tend to need a more accurate or a more consistent barrel and this is only if the rifle I am building is specific to more like distance work right and realistically speaking as far as just like regular riflemen distances a fourteen and a half inch barrel can hit stuff at six hundred yards just fine like you can stay definitely inside the shoulders at six hundred yards but if we're trying to but if we're trying to hit smaller things farther away like dome size target at six hundred okay let's bust out the let's bust out the stainless steel barrels and go to work for with them now generally speaking you see three different sets of numbers and yes I know that there's more but generally speaking you see for 10 for 16 and for 16 are stainless steel right for 10 tends to be the most durable of the bunch it's it's consistently accurate but it tends to have a longer barrel life from what I personally seen right 416 sorted in the middle of the road and as far as 416 are is concerned that is the most accurate barrel that you're going to get regardless of caliber that you pick and all that and these are the dudes at that decide to go with semi-auto six five cream or guns and all that stuff that are shooting like PRS matches right and they'll bust out the 416 are for the most accuracy Ile possible now the drawback to all stainless steel across board is that it tends to have a shorter barrel life than something like cold hammer-forged barrel right and with 416 R that is it it is the most affected by that meaning it has the shortest barrel life so for instance if you're using it in a match rifle you'll burn through a few barrels just in your practice before that before those real big matches right if you're out there practicing a lot but at the same time you know those ballistic advantage barrels that are 416 are yield amazing results and dudes that win use barrels like that all the time so what we're looking at as far as degradation here is that if it's a really finely tuned barrel from a reputable manufacturer from a reputable manufacturer like ballistic advantage for instance right you're looking at something like a sub minute rifle sometimes half-minute rifle and this depends on your ammunition and stuff too obviously but the barrel itself is very important in that you know in inside of its first 2,500 rounds it is a sub minigun you know well within some in a gun sometimes half a minute or less depending I mean sometimes that that tuned hand loaded ammo with a barrel like that yields extremely accurate results like one-third so but outside of those 2500 ish rounds and yes the manufacturing of these barrels has yielded slightly more durable barrels but the principle is the same two and a half to three thousand rounds you start losing that that absolute tack driving gnat's ass precision that you're looking for and usually around 500 5000 - rounds it defeats the purpose because now our accuracy threshold has dropped to lower than that of a really really good quality called hammer forged barrel so a lot of times the PRS guys will go with a really good quality barrel like this and they'll be like okay service like 3000 rounds because the purpose of it being as accurate as it is is kind of lost after those so again if you're getting into like the match stuff that's really important if we're talking about self-defense hunting that kind of thing I would personally just go with a cold hammer-forged barrel because it yields serviceable accuracy minute minute and a half depending on the ammunition that you use and it'll do that for a long time right like we start to see accuracy degra gate degradation around 12,000 rounds okay stuff like that and then it's and then the thing finally starts to keyhole after depending on volume but and it may be different for you but as far as for me I do a lot of more high volume higher speed stuff as far as cold hammer-forged AR barrels are concerned I'm losing them between 2025 so you know it you're gonna have to make a determination on what you want based on your individual purpose so there's that right now here is the thing okay did you do we're gonna get into gas systems very very very lightly here because I have a gas system and barrel twist rate video that I'll leave in a link in the description below but generally speaking we're looking at something like the car be length mid length and rifle length gas system for a for an AR from what I've personally experienced depending assuming that the rifle is properly lubed up in that kind of deal the carbine length gas systems are tend to be a little more reliable and the in the moment sense because if there's a bunch of crud in the gun it'll push that stuff out but over time it wears out parts faster right I'm changing out things bolts and that kind of deal quite a bit faster than something like a mid length gun which is a pretty good in the middle-of-the-road kind of deal to where it's not as harsh on the components still super reliable you're able to keep a a 14 1/2 inch barrel with a soft with a smoother impulse on on the reciprocating parts that kind of deal and then the rifle length cast systems which shoot the smoothest right and they're the least harsh on the components which is great they also deal much better as far as heat is concerned as far like my m16a4 clone that is over here right like it's really really hard to make this thing super hot with a carbine length gun it's easier and with a mid length gun and it's again in the middle of the road so again you have to make the determination based off of what you want and then you have the standard twist rate which standard twist rates which is 1 in 7 1 & 9 & 1 & 1 & 8 & 1 & 8 tends to be like a 2 to 3 wild kind of deal consider to understand this generally speaking you're one in seven twist rate is the most common the one in nine twist rate is just not as common anymore because of the gravitation toward it's heavier bullets for defense use and for more distance use and hunting ammunition and stuff like that so the one a9 is beginning to go the way of the dodo or the budget companies right so if you see a one a nine twist barrel I will really pay attention to where that upper or barrel came from right and we'll get into reputable people later on here but there's not much more to talk to on that because the details of which can really can really easily be gone through if you just go to the link in the description below I go into big into much more detail on these three or on these barrel lengths and gas systems twist rates that kind of thing so for those who have the barrel length questions we can go over there to it kind of it kind of runs together in its own little video so here's the thing - I get a lot of questions on ammunition to use for for training defense that kind of thing so the first thing I'm going to touch on is what you're going to shoot the vast majority of if not all of through your guns because let's be real here the self-defense stuff with a rifle in a house is very very very rare right so the vast majority if not all of the ammunition that you send through your gun is going to be this right now realistically speaking this to mean this is like cheapo Depot stuff the more you can get the more you can practice that kind of thing of course you have like your X m1 9355 grain stuff you have Wolff gold which is basically the same thing pmc does a lot of good stuff and yes I know there was a video in which a PMC round essentially blew apart a gun that I was working with but as far as major manufacturers are concerned I've seen about all of them do it except the Russian of Steel case stuff and wolf call so far right so you know ammunition factories make mistakes too I'll still recommend PMC and you know like American Eagle and you have people like there's there's a million different manufacturers out there like freedom does a lot of stuff too so you know the one thing I can really say oh and regular wolf steel case the one thing I can definitely say is in all honesty get the chief of stuff that you can get and shoot the most that you can now with wool steel case and tool and Tula steel case I tend to not like Tula and that's only because it's an inconsistent performer as far as just like accuracy every once in a while again cycling issues that kind of thing and it is even more low powered than Wolfe so I tend to stick with Wolfe as far as the steel case stuff in in my guns for those who have questions on just the whether or not it wears more as far as a gun is concerned what to do about the stuffed cases and things like that I'm I made a dedicated video to that as well where we dispel a lot of myths and it's far more useable a lot of people have just told me you know they're they're on the fence they're completely against wolf and then they watch that video and their minds are completely changing it's all everyone run now so go ahead to the link in the description below also for the steel cased ammunition video that I did a while back and you know we'll go from there now as far as self-defense there's a lot of different manufacturers out there to me like the big two as far as self-defense and hunting ammunition that comes from like Corbin and Hornady right the rifle ammunition coming out of these two is nasty right it's really really good stuff and or any Hornady makes probably some of the best hunting ammunition I've ever seen as far as consistency of performance not just in the accuracy department but on on the on the animal that you're trying to take or whatever so I like both of those two as far as target shooting or distant shooting in in the two two three five five six realm and that's where I'm going to stay here a mark 262 pattern 77 grain round is to me the best bet and a really good source for that is Black Hills if you're building your own Mark 262 just remember to stay within spec and use sierra matchking bullets and your I can't go wrong okay so there's that oh and be consistent with your brass right as far as just consistency on delivery and that kind of stuff I like leupold brass the best for the match great stuff so now here's another big question here you know should I build or should I buy well really that's up to you if you're like I was and am about certain things still a lot of guys especially if if you're getting into this and you're new at it right a lot of times guys are not confident with their ability to assemble parts and I completely understand that man all it really is a confidence and experience thing and some guys just don't trust themselves to put together a rifle and have it function right so here is a fairly long list of of companies that built competent firearms that are complete that will sell them to you and you can pretty much just pick the thing up and walk away with it without hardly any issues at all and a few lemons that there are these companies handle their customer service very very very very good so these are all companies that I've either used personally did reviews on right which also personally used or witnessed a lot in classes that I've either either taken or taught right so here we go and and this is a no real particular order they do very well on their own right so you have Bravo Company manufacturing or BCM Sons of Liberty gun works FN or fabrique nationale spikes tactical Daniel defence Smith & Wesson they're MP 15 line is is pretty good Colt Palmetto State Armory their premium line I have no data on their free on their freedom line like I haven't seen them used before and I haven't personally use them this is a PSA premium line 20 inch gun and it been running like a champion it's it's been shot a lot either by students for myself and it just keeps on rolling I've had to change a set of gas rings out of it and that's it I don't know why the gas Rings went down personally so I don't really know how but since that first time that I had to change out gas rings and this was that Pat McNamara course that I took I've had no other issues from it at all what else did you do knight's armament knight's armament like the SR 15 and pretty much all their products except a 110 I don't know what the issue is with the 110 but as far as a two two three five five six gun the SR 15 is amazing just be just be wary of this if if you're building anything if you attach a lower to a knight's complete upper you're fine but if you start changing out upper receiver components that's really a no-no because there's a lot of proprietary parts in that upper like the barrel extension the bolt the cam pin stuff like that so if you if you throw like a Daniel defence bolt in a in a knight's armament gun then it'll work in the moment but if you just keep on using it like that you're gonna wreck things so pay attention to that they have a lot of proprietary parts and their uppers however a knight's armament complete rifle from my personal use and all that like I reviewed one a while back for my personal use the Knight's armament guns are some of the nicest ARS I've ever used in my entire life Ross weapons of military design or our WMD I did a review on one of those it has a 416 are stainless barrel in it too and I killed that barrel right around 10,000 rounds I still have to replace that barrel but that rifle is was awesome from start to when I killed a barrel right so you know it it's also fairly expensive though so it's a premium line gun I would I would pay attention to what you are using it for but it is an excellent rifle in and of itself now stag arms I might have lit some some torches and a couple of people may have grabbed their pitchforks from what I've personally seen stag arms guns do fine right however I am also aware of some complaints that other people have as far as in manufacturing issues the only thing that I can really say is if this is sort of a roll of the dice right because I have this personal experience but there's other people saying different right but I haven't personally seen it so if you're gonna pick up something from stag arms I would say just premium kit everything make sure that you have their NPI tested I think it's like a plus package or something like that on their moving parts just make sure that that is on their upper echelon stuff before you just kind of go forward with it right who else know vests key expensive guns but they I've never seen one not run Lewis machine and tool great stuff H&K very expensive very expensive but there M are five five six does run what you call it Midwest industries makes great stuff Barrett makes a great piston-driven rifle as well as the you know HK LWRC really good di and piston guns primary weapon systems are PWS okay Adams arms also great stuff Patriot ordnance factory or POF you know Brit most of us have seen the Iraq veteran 8888 meltdown where he's stuck worried he took that piston-driven gun put it in a full auto test and burned through a bajillion rounds and stuff of wolf in full auto so you know a lot of people are really sold on the quality of that system in and of itself and having seen a few of them come through classes or or classes that I've taught before you know they they run fine Leroux makes great complete guns and they have the stealth uppers and all that stuff they make excellent excellent equipment so all these companies are and I know I've missed a lot that you guys want me to want to ask me about but at the same time if I haven't mentioned it chances are I haven't seen it before or simply forgot about it right all of these bought straight from them from the factory and all that stuff they they make good guns right now I know that you guys are going to to ask about like the EMP like the MMP sport to or something like that now here's the thing about these slick sighted guns without a ports and brass deflectors like they're as bare-bones as possible right if it comes from a reputable manufacturer like from one of the ones I've listed I've seen a few of these guns come out the classes and I've seen them psycho you know they run fine however there are a couple of things to know number one is that while they'll work you'll start getting annoyed at a couple of things and the first thing that a lot of people will start to get annoyed at especially if you take my self-defense classes and stuff is the last is the lack of that brass deflector that thing is gonna hit you straighten the teeth okay especially if you're using like wolf AM or whatever right you know those cases are going straight in the teeth and that's going to be a little irritating you'll miss that brass deflector now that it's gone the second you switch over to southpaw right or if you're a southpaw in general I would say to just kind of you know not use those mostly because of that issue right you'll never not have an annoying day however I can't really recommend against the sport to in and of itself because I've seen I've seen several of them now and they work they work just fine you know so you know I haven't reviewed one though so again take that opinion with a grain of salt right now building an AR building an AR can seem in and of itself like a rather immense challenge to a lot of folks because there is just all this stuff and all these marketing teams trying to get your credit card information and a lot of them are garbage right a lot of them are straight-up garbage so what I'm going to do here is I'm unlike the a a video where there's just fewer stuff fewer things to go through as far as just a variety especially in the United States I'm going to avoid the companies that I hate mostly because if I makes that with the companies that I like this is going to go on forever right so you know while we're building an AR the first thing that we're that we're gonna have to worry about because this requires a background check right is the lower now here's the thing provided that the lower receiver itself is made out of quality stuff okay and well let me back up provided that you don't have any fitting issues and that you don't have and that stuff is properly tightened up all that unless you're trying to build a a precision set up a lower is a lower is a lower and to me personally if you're trying to build a precision set up if you're trying to build that tack drive and rifle you might as well get a complete rifle rather than trying to build one up yourself because a lot of times you may have a stacking tolerances issue and what I've seen several times in the past is where like this dude will drop five grand and on paper this rifle is [ __ ] amazing right and then he takes it out and he's really pissed off that this five thousand dollar rifle is shooting a minute and a half and generally speaking I make fun of the software not the hardware at that point but at this individ in this individual instance I know that that dude's a shooter right so you may run into a stocking stacking tolerances issue to where that lower doesn't fit that perfect just just perfect enough to that upper receiver or that barrel doesn't fit perfect enough but it's within a certain tolerance spec from left to right on how things individually fit together right so when you so the sum of its parts is mediocrity stuff right or if you're gonna build it I would say have a competent PRS rifle guy put your [ __ ] together right he'll he'll put you in the correct direction as far as lower components upper components all of that so there's that now as far as a quality lower is concerned we're going to want to make sure that our castle nut on our bottom two is as tight we're gonna want to make sure that this guy moves freely okay personally I just like captured pins there are some lowers that don't have captured pins and [ __ ] that I like to [ __ ] proof my stuff make sure that your your buttons and your switches aren't ridiculous make sure that that you know it's not SuperDuper tight but it'll stick on and off and it doesn't just kind of float in place make sure that as far as your buffer tube is concerned just get a milspec one if you grab a a commercial buffer tube you're gonna run any compatibility issues with most of the market right because as far as most of the market is concerned most of the market revolves your stocks around milspec so if you if you run up with a commercial stock or a commercial tube on a military stock or not from that we're not or vice versa we're gonna start running into compatibility issues so just get a military - okay now whether or not you like a for or position 2 or 4 or a 6 position - really that's on you but that that's something that I really want to note about these as well as the rifle length tubes as well make sure that we stay in Mills mil spec as far as that's concerned because most of the market or aftermarket market is gauged for that right and then from there realistically speaking just make sure that you don't have any magazine fitting issues to where you do want a little bit of looseness this is supposed to wiggle around a little bit right it's supposed to wiggle around a little bit so if you insert a magazine and it doesn't move it at all that lowers too tight if you insert that magazine yank really hard and the magazine comes out it's obviously too loose move on to a different lower right and I mean I've seen a gambit before you know I've seen really high quality lowers or lowers that are marked with really high quality brand names and I also have well over a hundred thousand rounds of like various different uppers and stuff on a DPMS lower from like my first AR ever which you know all the way put together as a giant piece of [ __ ] but the lower itself is serviceable right so if we're if we're building just a self-defense rifle we're not worried about stacking those rounds on top of each other at three and four hundred yards what we're looking at is a serviceable carbine that will run practical accuracy and we're not going to have any operating issues out of so keep in mind keep those things in mind but generally speaking if you select the lower even even if it's generally speaking from the budget manufacturer it's probably going to be good to go right like anderson lowers Aereo that kind of stuff pretty much wherever it comes from it'll be fine now it would be suspect to me if the lower was like twelve dollars but the market value generally on a lower that has a right to exist as usually somewhere around it was like $150 during panic buys and stuff but we're looking at like fifty seventy dollars now right so that's how that works Oh things to a boy polymer and carbon fiber upper and lower receivers okay and here's why those suck on polymer and carbon fiber lower receivers this part right here is gonna crack and it's gonna blast some chef part right because the lower itself is a low stress receiver but there is a fairly decent amount of stress right here you can also see just based on how much metal is there this is the weak point okay because we have a lot of torque going to the rear and all of that stuff so a void polymer and carbon fiber just Google Flu it man you'll see endless pictures of those things snapping right at that spot over and over and over and over again don't do it I know it's like I know it's cheap don't do it okay same thing with the same materials in an upper receiver and the reason being is that your barrel extension okay your barrel extension ends right here okay now you have as far as the barrel extension is concerned that's a steel part because it's part of your barrel which is also steel part but if your receiver is made out of polymer or carbon fiber especially in a direct impingement gun actually really in a piston gun too because there's mountains of torque up here but as far as the receiver is concerned you have a heavy thing pulling on the front end right that goes through wild temperature changes depending on how much you shoot it and what's going to happen is that it's going to start to stress this portion of the receiver which your barrel extension screws into or rather your barrel nut tightens down your your barrel extension too right so you have a lot of torque from the barrel nut tightening down that barrel extension and you have the added stress of weight out front as well as while temperature changes so what's gonna happen over time it's gonna start drooping and then you're gonna blast a gun apart don't do it okay save yourself some issues and don't do it now here's the thing okay here here's what I'm gonna get into next right we're gonna stay in the lower the lower receiver and and we're gonna start talking about buffers right now here is a list of just a few options of buffers that are currently out okay you have that you have a regular car beam buffer which is three ounces the heavy or H marked buffer which is 3.8 ounces you have the h2 which is four point seven ounces the h3 which is five ounces it's got like three tungsten weights inside the buffer and you have the HSS which is six point five ounces the X the X H which is eight point five ounces and your standard rifle length buffer which is what five ounces what does all this weight mean why does it rattle when you shake it that kind of deal right well the reason why it rattles around when you shake it is there are weights floating in that buffer right and as far as your parks are concerned what it's designed to do is that as your parts cycle to the rear okay that momentum eventually stops and it starts to cycle itself forward because of the recoil spring well what happens is that these weights because there's some space in there are shoved all the way to the rear now as all that moves forward and as the bolt locks up in the battery the buffer is is suddenly halted in position right it ends obviously right here now when that buffer is halted in position those buffer weights slam forward and stay there what it keeps from happening is it keeps your your Bolton carrier from bouncing out of battery due to inertia right and this was more of a thing that was brought about because of the carbine length gas systems and the fact that they cycle at a faster rate than like a rifling system right now what does this mean though you know and what buffer should I use now generally speaking to essentially ensure a reliable rifle and in full-auto okay a standard age buffer award just fine that's what it was made for and in most carbine lengths well actually most upper receivers in general their barrel extensions have m4 feed ramps which assists also in cycling the action properly getting rounds chambered locked up and fired without cycling issues under full auto now on your semi-auto that means a great deal less however as you start to gunk up the gun and shoot it a whole lot it does start to mean something because it means that everything's locking up properly now if you're using a standard carp a standard carbon length gallon or even a mid-length gun there may be some questions as far as what buffer do I use and all that stuff right generally speaking generally speaking as far as a collapsible carbine - right like one of these what I generally end up using is a standard age buffer maybe an h2 and the difference between the two really is you'll feel a very very slight difference in impulse what kind of thump hits you in the shoulder that's it really the h2 depending on your gas system and muzzle device will cycle a little bit smoother right but it helps most with a carbine length gas system right with a mid length gas system it's you don't really feel it with a standard H buffer again in a mid length system you don't even really feel it but you'll notice that with a standard H buffer in a carbine length system you'll notice it in the impulse a little bit more mostly because it's being flung back there a little bit faster it's lighter so you'll feel like thumb patch yeah a little bit harder that's about it really so just stay in that realm like there's there's not much more than you can really add to it unless you have a crazy short barrel on a carbine or pistol length gas system which pistol and gas systems I don't recommend anyway generally speaking they don't work very well I know that there's that there's guys that have made it happen for sure and for those that do have for those that have produced working pistol length gas systems you want heavier buffers for those just to slow down the cyclic rate just a little bit and keep you from having cycling issues but other than that as far as a carbine length gas system or a mid-length gas system hh2 you know real simple right so and for the rifle length tubes right a standard rifle buffer is just fine right now whether or not you get a now here's a question I do get on rifle length gas systems on like a 20 inch barreled gun I decided the question is I decided to put a carbine length tube on it because that length opposed to per awkward for me and I want to wanted a collapsible stock do I get like a crazy different buffer or anything like that no the answer is no standard H works just fine just don't go too heavy because if you start going too heavy the parts are not cycling as fast because of the rifle and gas system a standard H buffer will do you just fine in that regard so you know what type of buffer that you use really is dictated by the type of - that you use if you use a carbine or collapsible - you're using a carbine buffer the shorter one right the H or the H - if you're using a rifle length tube you're using a rifle buffer and the standard one again works just fine now when it comes to the types of recoil springs that you should have in it and stuff like that generally speaking again that comes down to the buffer tube that you're using generally right if you have a buffer if you have a buffer tube that is carbine get a carbine length spring in it if you have a if you have a buffer tube that's rifle and get a rifle like spring in it now there are a couple of different aftermarket options some are pretty damn good all right and I'll just go ahead and recommend them just because I've used a few of these in the past right for instance a good option is there's two of them from JP enterprises right JP JP enterprises makes their I better make sure to read this right or people are gonna lose their minds the the chrome silicon Spring right the chrome silicon spring from JP Enterprises in all my guns it's rated for bajillion friggin cycles and you know it's very very consistent it's very flat you don't feel a thudding impulse or anything like that like you do from a lot of different buffer springs a lot of different types of uh for Springs I've used flat wire Springs before they're pretty good JP enterprises always also makes a a buffer and recoil spring combo it's called a silent captured spring that's a whole unit that goes in and it's adjustable and it's really quiet really smooth and you can tune it for you know what it is that you're using just go on their website and and look at directions for certain types of loads or gas systems or whatever that you that you want or that you're thinking about using it for the only Condit that really is that it's expensive right like a hundred plus dollars for it so you know there's that for my rifle length guys built or makes a really good I think it's like an a5 rifle length buffer spring or whatever it's it's meant for the 20 inch guns and that thing is it makes a smooth gun more so so you know go figure on that whole mess but yeah I mean really that's all I can really say about you know the buffer Springs and buffers and all that it was yeah there are bajillion options but it's simplified a little bit more if you listen to the contacts of what it is I'm saying right so now let's move on to your upper receiver components look this is pretty simple right don't skimp on the upper receiver components yes complete uppers from all the companies that I've mentioned previously are fairly expensive right but you have to understand that is a high stress component like the upper receiver takes the vast majority of the movement it takes the lockup it takes almost all the heat you have to have quality stuff in there if you're expecting your gun to run and most of the time when people start running into working gun issues or snap bolts or whatever it's because they simply did not they simply did not spend or look for quality parts right so a couple of good places to look for you know complete uppers or upper components and stuff like that I'm not sure if Daniel defense still does its build your upper portion of their website but if that's up that's great because you can just assemble that upper receiver and put it on whatever lower that you put it on right with Bravo company manufacturing those guys are amazing because there are a bazillion different options they don't put [ __ ] on their website from what I've seen in the past and you can feel fairly safe about any moving components barrels gas tubes all that you know you can feel pretty safe especially like the muzzle device or charging handle Department as well you know you can feel pretty safe shopping around on there and yeah it's a little more expensive than a lot of budget companies but there's kind of a reason for that you know if you make a quality product you get to name a price for it and in all honesty to me that's that's a place where I'm more strict on on the vast majority of my shopping is that that's the place where I just kind of click things right because and and deal with the bill because that's where you make or break your rifle really for the most part so don't skimp on that please don't skimp on that go to like the the suggestions I made for the for the complete rifles I would say go to their websites and pick up an upper from them or upper components depending on what it is that you want to do you know and this goes and this goes with a lot of rail sections too you'd be amazed how many quote freefloat rails will just come loose you know and over time yeah some of them do if you're not watching where screws are embedded and stuff but man like I said just go just go just go get a quality one and just that's the end of it really if you get a quality one and if and if you follow the directions dudes I know we don't read directions ever but sometimes the slightest difference in that particular rail in the directions will lead to whether or not it works right so read the directions properly assemble the parts all of that so there's that so pretty pretty simple you know as far as bolts and carriers an ar-15 profile or m16 profile the market is shifted a lot towards quality builders are putting in m16 profile bolts and carriers right in a semi-auto rifle it does not really matter if you have a m16 profile or an ar-15 profile bolt bolt carrier and your gun it really doesn't what matters is the construction of the steel whether or not it was MPI tested all that stuff again I would say just don't skimp go for the more premium stuff because these are the highest stress components in the in the gun because that really dictates whether or not you're gonna operates correctly okay so again don't skimp go to the reputable sources and all of that and you know don't skimp on stuff like extraction Springs whether or not you want an o-ring in there that kind of you another good place that you can just you know click on stuff that works is you know you go to some Liberty gun works and pretty much anything that you click on it's good to go right so there you go on that now there are a few odds and ends that a lot of people ask me about too so we'll get into them the the list of charging handles that in person that I personally use is pretty short right now the most widely available are the first two and my most favorite being the the radium Raptor charging handle and snappy charging handle I personally prefer it I put it in as many guns as I can and the reason being is that it's rounded enough to not snag on things it doesn't have the the badger problem to wear those charging handles would have roll pins coming loose right and these things right here they're they're rounded enough to where they don't snag on stuff but they're hooked and serrated just enough to where if you snatch on to the thing even with gloves even if your hands are cold whatever it'll it'll run just fine also grama dexterous which is neat so that personally works for me the next one is from VCM now i don't personally prefer the BCM charging handle but it definitely works okay and the only reason why i don't prefer is just personal preference okay they're absolutely serviceable the way that the latch pivots on the charging handle really does help even out the wear a lot and they're ambi version is pretty good so not much more to say on that there's another one that I have that I've been that I've been using quite a long time and it's it's older tech for sure but this is the TAC latch I'm not even sure these are available anymore but you can see that it is a huge latch for the southpaw side and what's kind of neat is that the bar that runs underneath here and reinforces the GI length right-handed side is just enough to where it's just that little bit more meat that you can grab onto that keeps you from screwing things up now or slipping off of it or whatever and when they were making anime they made right-handed versions as well so if you can still find them I would pick them up I wouldn't hesitate to at all the only thing that I could say is that mine is so used like so used and the latch is so big and there's just a lot of weight in there they're just over time I started to notice a little bit of that does that cause any problems no it doesn't but just be aware that's all so those are charging handles I personally prefer and that I personally like advocate for people to use now as far as building an AR is concerned you you're in the distinct advantage of not having to change out stock furniture so we can go with a large list of manufacturers that make really good furniture right so like the the one that moat that you can't do a list without is Magpul MFT the same guys that make a minimalist stock right Midwest industries makes a lot of really good stuff Troy makes a lot of really good stuff I understand why a lot of you may not want to pick up Troy but you know bottom line their stuff works dan or defense makes really good furniture there's there's polarizing opinions on it but it's a hundred and ten percent serviceable and I personally like it b5 systems you know you you may or may not have seen the stock on this guy but yeah there it is guys Lee makes excellent rails sit super tight super tight to the barrel nut and stuff they are expensive but they work really well Centurion not century but Centurion makes really good rails and stuff too there is some military furniture that I like but I'll get to that later knight's armament makes really good furniture it's just expensive same thing for Lewis machine and tool or LMT LaRue makes really good stuff as well and now let's talk about the military furniture that I like okay you guys may have seen my mock-up for like an m16 carbine right me personally I like the fatter military hand guards mostly because they're just a little bit more to grab onto a little more space from you and the barrel makes things a little bit cooler and the cool thing is that the double heat shielding and it is incredibly effective you know and because of just the material and the stuff that this hand guards made out of it works really good in the cold too now I just wanted to make essentially a cool-looking m16 carbine type rifle I do not like military m4 stocks they are so fragile it's ridiculous and even if you're like you served in latarian or not in a combat job or whatever and even if you don't really touch many of these many of you may have probably seen this area right here this whole area right here in a standard m4 stock just break the [ __ ] on right there incredibly fragile I hate them and they get very loose very quickly now on the other side of the house though I love a 2 A 1 stocks they're fantastic they're super stable to shoot from the teeth in these stocks grips into whatever it is that you've got it on even if you have like the tiniest of purchases on your shoulder like if you're trying to shoot high-power farther away or just the equipment that you've got on or you're in a terrible position or whatever the teeth and really grip into whatever it is that that you've got it's a little irritating if you if you have like a wife-beater only on or a really really light t-shirt or whatever but it's it's not a big deal and the cool thing is is that with these stocks and with rifle length tubes you're not talking on a on a carbine buffer tube because it's not on a carbine buffer and the whole thing is is screwed and then fitted into place on a standard end plate so you can beat the ever-loving [ __ ] out of this rifle on whatever tables people whatever so I love those stocks I love them to death I wouldn't change anything about them me personally so there's that now I've had a lot of questions also about backup iron sights and there's a lot of people that push a lot of our backup iron sight types that I don't like at all and here's why if I need my backups I frigging need them like I need them and one thing I don't need to have happen is I don't need to have them swept off by like gear or just me moving around or whatever right so what I personally require out of my backups is a locking system of some kind right that way if it's up it's not getting knocked off none of that so the the two in that regard that I really like and yes there they are expensive they're like a hundred plus apiece for like a front and then a rear is I absolutely love Midwest industries I prefer those backups another option there is Troy again there you know they work exceptionally well I just personally prefer Midwest industries mostly because it's just easier to adjust I got the drum in there from like an A to type thing the the rear and front side apertures look very very familiar like I don't have to deal with that diamond 3 or whatever from Troy and it's just a traditional peep sight setup which I just personally prefer right a couple other sets of backup irons on there you might have seen on that gun the front sight was a Danna defense and their fixed rear sights do really well also okay I'm also a big big huge fan of LMT fixed irons I really really do like them mostly because again the usability as far as irons are concerned a lot of people don't put a lot of thought into whether or not they could really use those irons in all conditions and the cool thing about the LMT sights is that they have the elevation drum on them so if I have to dedicate any real time to them I might as well use be able to use them at whatever distance I want to use them at that kind of thing also they mount in an exceptionally secure way so you know there's that opinion there what else so now we're getting into you know excess or like more accessories stuff to put on the gun once you get out of the the iron sight world right okay I'm gonna touch very briefly on on optics mostly because there's a million different people and make a million different optics and I am I'm a little sheltered as far as a lot of different optics are concerned mostly because I've for the most part just stuck to what I Mike and I try not to experiment with my money on sighting systems because to me whether or not a shot Lance is extremely important in every single regard of the word so here's the stuff that I've used in the past that works very well aim point for sure okay T 1 H 1 T 2 pro compound to compound for awesome optics all the way around [ __ ] bomb-proof okay ridiculous battery life you have far less of what you call it you have far less of turrets freezing from super cold weather you have less blooming or Sun bursting it takes a lot to get him there like many thousands of rounds so oh and really good defense of the of the electronic components from heat and cold and shock right so there's not much more to say aim point is very much up there the cheaper ones that I personally like that are more affordable for a lot of guys are obviously the pro there's an even cheaper version of the pro it follows a form factor of a compound - and it's far more affordable than a lot of them out there in the $500 range you're looking at like the h1 and a lot of team ones right now those are the smaller micro dots the t2 is like your $700 optic and the comp m4 which is the most durable of the set right and how durable is it it's durable enough to issue two regular Joe's which excel at breaking [ __ ] everything and it's very very very rare that I see con them for acting up ever right so you know there it is on that and again all of them across the board have absurd battery life so the comp m2 is also great it was just replaced by like the compound for the only real issues that the company who tends to have is that it tends to like at an inside 25 meters it tends to have a little bit of a parallax issue which is where a lot of this coitus stuff came from until that was alleviated by the comp m4 and then you noticed that the co-winner stuff kind of went away right so there's that another one is Trijicon the MRO is the RM ours okay I love both okay the what a lot of people won't like about the RMR is is it has one mint adjustments for elevation and windage that's not accurate enough for a lot of guys and I can concede that point for sure but the MRO is turning out to be an exceptional optic that a lot of people really love and I can certainly see why you know it looks it looks like an eight-point t1 with cancer just tumors all over the place but it's it's an excellent optic and as far as parallax issues man it's it's it's right at vo-tech levels of how precise that dot is depending on where it is in the window and that's a good segue into geotech now there has been a lot of controversy circling io tech as far as what they list for temperature windows and stuff like that I'm gonna tell you what me personally I've never been affected by those temperature windows right but what I have been affected by and this is in their in their cheaper stuff like the ones that take you double-a is that go in the front end is terminal bouncing issues where the thing would flicker with those with that same type of optic I've had elevation and windage is used to where stuff would get in there and turn things but as far as the the XPS 2 & 3 is concerned none of those issues seem present because of how the battery hooks up and you know tech brought in a lot of different companies to fix a couple of different terminal issues because deterrent because the battery terminals used to used to kill themselves all the time and they got to fix a lot of those issues so you know that's great it really is one thing I would say though as far as a self-defense rifle and why I would not pick it right for a self-defense rifle is that when that optic turns on I just leave it on and something that I really [ __ ] hate about EOTech is that there's an auto shutoff feature because the battery life is pathetic we're looking at 600 hours right so me personally I don't want to worry about whether or not the the reticle is on and I don't want to change out batteries million times so you know you're gonna have to take that into consideration if you want one now the plus to it is that my personal opinion there are some people that think different that's fine is that the circle dot reticle is the greatest fighting rifle like reticle in the history of mankind and especially since it is a holographic reticle you can tone down brightness and take shots at greater distances by literally shooting through the aperture because you can see me personally there is there has never been a finer reticle in the RDS market or red dot sight op market so again you're gonna have to take to go with the band and make those considerations now Holliston is another one that's emerging very very well and this is one of those optics that as far as a civilian is concerned serves every single purpose that an endpoint or an EOTech or a tragic on would and that's why a lot of people are going with them same thing for primary arms I know that they have red dots too that are labeled slightly different and all that stuff okay whatever they're essentially the same opting in all honesty if you're not a green suit dude if you're not a cop I would just stick one on your gun way cheaper that the battery life on them is absurd they have no right being as good as they are they don't they have no right at all being as good as they are so you know yeah I can't really say anything negative about it so there you go now for those of you that are in the target or SDM or I want to shoot farther dept here's some solid glass to look at right Trijicon again man the ACOG the variable powers awesome optics all the way around night force pricey just like tragic I'm more so actually but great reputation I've you before excellent quality glass loophole same thing okay excellent quality glass us optics right at the same quality level of schmidt & bender and these are like my absolute tops okay very expensive Schmidt & Bender is even worse but US optic is equal in u.s. optics is equal in quality I don't have to wait months and months and months and once for one to get here and if I don't and if I have issues of any kind with it I don't have to wait months and months and months and months to get that fixed so us optics is the very top right one I forgot to mention was Steiner they make great quality stuff pricey just like the knife force and loopholed stuff and Trijicon also and the two that are surprising is that vortex has pretty good quality glass it really does and the Bushnell elite series is pretty much doing the same thing so again depending depending on how much coin you're willing to spend or how or how robust do you want your glass to be I will say this if you're trying to make an extreme distance six pot Creedmoor AR I would just say that your glass as far as extreme distance or long distance shooting your glass is more important than the rifle and cartridge that you're shooting my personal opinion so pay attention that kind of stuff and to just kind of wrap this up in a nice neat little bow you're looking at solid lights okay that you can mount to your gun surefire is absolutely on the list it's always been on the list they have made great quality stuff that everybody can use very well they are a little pricey but if you if you want your assurance of quality there it is you know surefire has always made a great product now stream light is surprising to me in that I've mounted them on ryf on most of my rifles and they have just stood up to everything getting dropped getting shot a [ __ ] on running on low batteries running on lower quality batteries running on good quality batteries all that stuff they run great and the cool thing is is that if you have a problem with them just like sheer fire you send it in they replace it that's it so and here's another one and here's one that I was not expecting was gonna be on this list and a lot of people are surprised are on this list of quality of quality lights I'm gonna do a full review on this later and that's the enforce Gen 2 weapon mounted light the genoise the gen 1 was incredibly fragile the Gen 2 is not and from what I understand the polymers made out of the same stuff that Glock frames are made out of the switches snick in and out of stuff now this one wont snick but that's not only because of its orientation I love the switch I love the options and whether or not you can have a momentary only or a click on click off I love the flooding on them I love the design and it's tough it really is it's truly tough so if you are on the fence about that I would say go ahead and do it so realistically speaking honestly as far as building and gun is concerned if you do your shopping right even if you don't skimp on the on the upper components right let's say you come out on top right because buying a rifle and then changing out stuff to fit you will definitely be more expensive than just building up the one that you want and then mounting stuff from the get-go right the only thing is that again I understand if people are have an aversion to or a rather apprehensive about doing that as a first-time thing because they and I understand man I was in the same game when it for his same boat when I first did this I didn't trust myself to build a rifle so I hope this was very helpful a lot of guys ask me a lot of different questions and I tried to answer as many as I could and I know I probably missed all kinds of [ __ ] right but this is a good overview and I think this is a good forward direction to go as far as all that's concerned right so I hope it was informative I hope it was very helpful if you have any questions throw it in in the in the comments box below if you have if you have built a rifle or any mistakes I want to know if you made any mistakes on your first time purchase I want to know - because here was my first one my first day are bill or my first day are buy was a colossal [ __ ] failure okay I got a fixed stock carbine length okay heavy heavy profile non chrome line DPMS right with a fixed carrying handle and I paid $1,200 for it it was horrible I got [ __ ] raped on price but I mean I didn't know anything and there were no really really detailed videos on how to go about this and what was good and what was bad aftermarket stuff sorting through options all of that because a lot of times people are concerned about length and my opinion is [ __ ] out I'll sit through an hour-long video if I know if the information is good so there it is right so tell me about your first disaster of a build or buy right give me some opinions I want to see them in the comments because a lot of times a lot of good information gets passed that way now if you want to if you want to learn how to use your AR if you want to use your self-defense rifle or pistol or net or whatever we have classes posted for sure on the website the next nearest one that isn't sold out is in the middle of April and that's a performance pistol class so you know come out and do what you can on that if you want to support us on patreon you absolutely can and if you don't want to pay full price for a class you can sign up for $35 a month and as long as you're signed up to that program you can take as many classes with us as you want and that's the end of that right and that system was specifically designed to be abused so by all means abuse it we have a lot of repeat students that would not have had that it would not have had the ability to come out and train as much if they didn't have a program like that and it's something that I wanted since I started doing this so there you go now if you want to join the discussion on Facebook or ask any questions they're linked in the description below for that as well and really that's it guys I hope this was a helpful video and remember a regularly guys firearm mister defense against tyranny be easy

Channel: Regular Guy Training LLC

Views: 39,289

Rating: 4.9063134 out of 5

Keywords: ARG, RGT, aregularguy, Regular Guy Training LLC, Tips for your first AR- Wading through the options, and the madness.

Id: mX85uQHrLNo

Length: 74min 19sec (4459 seconds)

Published: Fri Feb 02 2018