New lightweight AR-15 project

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doctorjj

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Partially assembled with M4 upper, upper not fully tightened down because I'm waiting to get access to a vice (mine's not attached to anything at the moment!) to swap this M4 upper to my .300blk and use the PSA slickside upper that that gun is assembled with.

Current weight is 5lb 2.7oz. With the standard M16 carrier, the aforementioned M4 upper, and still has the A2 stock spacer. I expect to cut ~2oz from the carrier. The slick upper weighs 5.95oz vs 8.6 for the M4; so 2.6oz there. The spacer weighs 0.8 oz.

So I expect 4lbs 13.x oz.

If I move to the TN Arms hybrid poly lower that will shave another 3oz + the weight of the trigger guard.

Other note, I don't have any optic or sights on it yet.
Nice! That will be NOTICEABLY lighter than a standard M4-ish gun. I'm at 3lb 15oz with mine, with optic. :-)
 

dennishoddy

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I built a light weight awhile back. Frontier poly lower, with a standard M4 upper. Never weighed it, but I doubt it reached the low weight you guys are building. Definitely lighter. Mostly used parts I've bought, and it sits in velcro in the roof of the tractor for coyotes. Mainly built for cheap, but it came out light as well. You guys have some fun projects in process.
 

NikatKimber

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The TN poly lower is supposed to be a lot better, with brass inserts for the threads.

I would like to get a magnesium lowers, but they aren't readily available anymore.
 

NikatKimber

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Fully assembled with the parts I have currently.
80.5oz complete. That's 5.03lbs with off the shelf parts and a standard M16 BCG and forged 7075 lower.

Currently no parts modded, filed, cut, etc of any sort.

Complete Weight.JPG


With a Vortex Strikefire since that's what we had laying around.

Complete w_Strikefire.JPG
 

NikatKimber

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Plans that will affect weight:

Weight Loss:

Remove A2 Screw and Spacer and replace with A1 Screw. Should lose just over .8oz

Mill Bolt Carrier. I expect to cut at least 2 oz there.

Mill groove on upper receiver. I expect to remove ~.25oz.

Speed cut on hammer. ~.25oz.

Shave down the A2 grip - I hate the finger bump anyways. I'll see what I can get here, and post back. The grip starts at 2.4oz.

Weight Gain:

Add sights, and corresponding mounts. The weight shown above does not include any sights, and ALL the picatinny rail sections are removed from the handguard. I will add one short length back to the muzzle end of the CF tube to mount a front sight on.

Eventually I will mount a Vortex Venom 3moa RDS. It is 1.6oz including the low pic mount from Vortex (according to their site). I will use a .5" riser to make it the correct height. The riser I am looking at is just under an ounce. So that will be just over 2.5oz total. Until then, I am going to find some lightweight "irons" to install just to have something to aim.

Swap A2 FH for a muzzle brake. End goal here is something super light, yet effective in reducing recoil. Faxon "SLIM" brake is 1.12oz. The best performing brake in the TTAG Muzzle Device Shootout series is the Precision Armament M4-72, which weighs 2.55oz. The Faxon is ~$60 and the M4-72 is ~$90. For now, in the interest of budget, and getting something that reduces recoil, I am planing on using a cheapy from JSE. Downside is it weighs 4oz, upside is it is $13 (!!).
 

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