range toy

My first AR-15 came in two halves, the complete upper and the complete lower. Then come the upgrades, and as you get more comfortable with the system the gun turns into the AR of Theseus. A build transformed piece by piece until none of the original remains. The problem with upgrading one part at a time is that every decision is at the mercy of past ignorance from the others. With that AR I saw mediocrity in my future and decided to start again from scratch.

A MAGIC TRICK

Basically what inspired this whole build was a one off photo I saw on the old internet. An AR-15 so clean, you couldn't see its gas block, its barrel, its muzzle device. A smooth transition from handguard to suppressor. It had that MP5SD adjacent cool factor or integrally suppressed carbine. With some mysteriousness, like a magic trick.

Reverse image searching, the perfectly crafted google search, several forum posts later and I was only getting hints at a direction. Until I finally found a post in the Build It Yourself forum on ar15.com. It turns out there's a dissipator-style technique where you tuck a low-profile adjustable gas block under the handguard, then secure the handguard retainer cap between the gas block and muzzle device to hold everything in place.

The standard Magpul MOE handguard is designed to nest around an A2 front sight base. But with the 5/8" handguard cap timed out against a low-profile gas block with a thin shim the handguard halves could drop in without binding. The perfect length barrel for this is 8" ($108) and I went with the Anderson adjustable gas block as it was the smallest I could find.

These were the best pieces I could find that others had already tried. Other configurations may be possible, but be prepared to try different parts until it clicks.

NO FREE ADVERTISING

I have a rule of no free advertising on my tools. Finding unmarked components for AR-15s is becoming harder especially on higher end gear, everyone wants to add their Gucci tag.

Rollmarks on lowers seems to be table stakes, so finding something clean and unmolested typically ends you up in billet land. This was a win-win in my opinion as most billet uppers and lowers have a more modern aesthetic with same manual of arms. You even typically get more options of features (or lack thereof) with these custom milled parts. I opted for no forward assist or dust cover. This is a range toy, so let's have it looking sexy.

Occasionally the hunt can have you questioning whether the time spent is worth it, but I found a gem of a lower by the manufacturer Runner Runner Guns. Super clean, no rollmark, just enough edginess. And of course the company went under several years before with no stock available. However, persistence is key to those with rabbit hole tendencies. With enough searching, I found one for sale on Gunbroker for a reasonable price. I won't be warrantying a hunk of metal anyway, right?

THE GLOCK OF FURNITURE

This wasn't a precision build. I wasn't chasing sub-MOA groups. My approach is min/max. A KISS build but with competence under its clothes. A firearm as a function of only doing the necessary, acquiring a target and putting heavy lead down range as quietly as possible. From this perspective and my early 2000s sensibilities, Magpul still had enough cool factor to fit in without distracting from the fun bits.

The MOE SL handguard covers the barrel and gas block, the whole reason for this build's look. The CTR stock has solid lockup while staying lightweight and mil-spec, and the MIAD grip is comfortable with swappable backstraps. All in black. $145 for the furniture. Someone on Reddit called Magpul "the Glock of AR furniture," it's plastic, it's cheap, and it works.

There were also comments on r/NFA that warned me the suppressor heat might melt the Magpul handguard. Fair concern. Polymer and hot cans don't mix well. I haven't had any issues. It gets warm but not enough to cause problems. If you're doing mag dumps you might have a different story, but for my casual shooting it's solid.

MOVIE QUIET

The Dead Air Nomad-L is the centerpiece. When I bought it, it had just come out and was getting great results. It's beefy, .30 cal rated so it works on the .300 BLK and can move to a .308 or 5.56 host, and it uses the KeyMo mounting system so you can swap it between guns in seconds.

Dead Air had QA issues at the time. My KeyMo parts didn't thread when they arrived. I RMA'd them and waited weeks for replacements. One of the replacement parts had the same issue. They got it right on the third try, but I watched other people on the forums go through the same thing during that period.

Once it was sorted: worth it. The Nomad-L on .300 BLK subsonic is movie quiet. First time I shot it around friends who aren't about that life, they were shook to the core. They'd never heard a suppressor in person and didn't expect, what i'm assuming was, the incredibly sick muzzle report.

Lessons from the rabbit hole: use Rocksett, not Loctite, on the muzzle device. Rocksett is heat-resistant and lets you remove the device later without destroying it. I went deep on ar15.com about this and the internet agrees for once. Shims are tedious but necessary too, getting the muzzle device timed with the right combination took longer than I expected.

And alignment checks are not optional. I bought a tool steel alignment rod from McMaster-Carr for $24, the go-to recommendation on the silencer forums. You slide it through the bore and check that the suppressor mount is concentric with the barrel. Baffle strikes ruin your day and your can. The rod is $24. A new suppressor is $900.

THE DAMAGE

The annotated parts total $2,551. The full build cost is higher once you add the lower parts kit and the small stuff. I stopped counting.

I posted this build on Reddit a couple times. The top comment was always users asking for the parts list. That's what got me to build MadeBuy, a site where you annotate every part on the photo instead of typing it all out in the comments. The annotated build is here.

HINDSIGHT IS $2,551

The build does what I wanted. If I were starting over I would buy the suppressor first. The wait is the longest part of the build, file the Form 4 on day one and assemble the gun while the government thinks it over. I would skip the optics research spiral, reading 400 forum posts comparing the MRO to the RMR didn't help as much as putting the RMR on the gun and shooting it. And I wouldn't cheap out on the muzzle device. It's the interface between your barrel and your $900 suppressor.

Building an AR piece by piece isn't hard. The parts go together like adult Legos, as they say. The decisions are what take the time, hundreds of small choices where the answer depends on what you're building and why.

Two years later, I can explain every part on this gun and why it's there. Not one piece of my first rifle made it onto this one. The Greeks had a question about that. I have a range toy.