Help Thread

[Sulaco]

I am just getting into AR's and will have my first built tonight. I have a few questions and was hoping you guys could help me out.

First of all, the two pins on the lower receiver that hold the two halves together, is it ok to just push them in and out with pressure? Or do the little detent pins that hold them open and closed need to be depressed in some way?

Secondly, I am going to order a mount for my A2 upper and want to put a fixed, 4x scope on it (non-red dot). Any ideas? I wanted to keep the price under about $200.00 if possible.

Last, I want to pickup some cheap, 10 or 20 round magazines for bench rest shooting (my 30 is too long). What is a good brand to look at?

Thanks.

[CJan_NH]

Originally posted by Sulaco
First of all, the two pins on the lower receiver that hold the two halves together, is it ok to just push them in and out with pressure? Or do the little detent pins that hold them open and closed need to be depressed in some way?
No problem at all-don't worry about the detent. In fact, two of my builds are so tight I have to use a pushpin tool to open it.

Secondly, I am going to order a mount for my A2 upper and want to put a fixed, 4x scope on it (non-red dot). Any ideas? I wanted to keep the price under about $200.00 if possible.
I don't know about the scope but one of the best carry handle mounts is a see-through design like this ARMS mount:

http://www.armsmounts.com/images/prod_2.gif

There are several less expensive lookalikes to the ARMS mount. I own two of the original ARMS versions and one of the less expensive versions, and they all work great! Here is a pic of a scope on one of my carry handle ARs:

http://home.comcast.net/~cjan99999/HBAR_leupold.JPG

Last, I want to pickup some cheap, 10 or 20 round magazines for bench rest shooting (my 30 is too long). What is a good brand to look at?
Any genuine USGI 20 rounder will be fine. I've had great luck with 20 rounders marked by Colt, Adventureline, and Okay Industries. There are several others but those come to mind immediately.

Hope this helps :)

Also, I have a small mountain of spare parts-detents, springs, pins, pushpins, bolt catches, disconnecters, firing pins, extractors etc that I share regularly with my shooting buddies. If any of you guys are ever in a jam and need a small part fast please let me know. If I have it I'd be happy to help you out. I really enjoy working on and shooting ARs-I'd hate to think that someone here was going to miss a match or something over a ten cent spring.

[G23Adam]

I have a carry handle scope mount, $10 shipped and it's yours. It's a Picatinny style rail (doesn't have regularly spaced cutouts) and works good for a low power scope.

[Sulaco]

Is it see-through? Who makes it? If it is see-through, I want it. Email me here and let me know. jasonpityk@sc.rr.com Thanks.

The one I was looking at is carried by RRA and is made by US Tactical. It is a see-through design and sells new for about 25 bucks.

CJan, thanks for the info! One more question. Will I need one of those "raised" cheek weld pieces to go on the A2 stock? If so, which would you recommend? Thanks.

[G23Adam]

nope it's not see through, but works well. It's got a thumbscrew on the bottom that allows it to come off pretty quick if need be, it fits in tight and is fairly repeatable. I thought about hacking it apart to mount on a paintball gun ;) but if someone can use it, that's cool too.

[Sulaco]

I think I would rather have a see-through. I apreciate the offer, though.

[coverdog]

Magazines galore HERE (http://www.ar15.com/forums/forum.html?b=7&f=24). I would go with Colt or LaBelle as first choices.

[MrMurphy]

Some people need the raised cheekweld thing for a scope on an A2 stock (the reason everyone went to the A4 flattop design) some don't. Depends on the shooter.


DPMS makes a nice 10-shot see-through polymer magazine for around $17. Beat it up all you want, it's not a hicap!

[Sulaco]

I guess I need to try it out first. I am not completely settled on doing anything with optics, I just like to know what I can do if I want to do it later. I may pick up a few of those 10 rounders. They look perfect for benchrest shooting.

Thanks.

[mindonmatter]

Originally posted by Sulaco
First of all, the two pins on the lower receiver that hold the two halves together, is it ok to just push them in and out with pressure? Or do the little detent pins that hold them open and closed need to be depressed in some way?


I read your post on AR15.com. Did you get the pivot pin back in yet? If not, I would spray a little CLP product in there. Let it sit for a while. Then take your Glock(unloaded of course) or something hard and plastic with a little weight, and give it a good whack with the butt. The first couple of times, mine was hard to push back in too.

[Sulaco]

Yeah, I got it back in. I just wasn't sure if I was supposed to get it back in like I did. Thanks, though.

BTW, AR15.com worked OK for you today? I couldn't get it to come up at all at the office. It might be a DNS issue with my ISP because it works tonight at home.

Durn UPS still hasn't delivered my upper yet. It's 6PM here. I think they only have until 7PM and then it gets rolled over to the next day.

[mindonmatter]

Yeah, arfcom is working fine for me.

That sucks about your upper. There's nothing worse than anxiously awaiting something just to have UPS delay things.

[CJan_NH]

Arfcom is dead for me too-I'm on Comcast in NH.

[mindonmatter]

Hmmm...that's weird. I actually had the same problem here at GT once. I could access it on any computer except the one at my house. I could even access it through a proxy, but something about SBC lines/ISP's weren't working with GT for some people. Here's the "Site Problems" email address for arfcom, let them know you're having problems...it could be something on their end. goatboy@ar15.com

[Sulaco]

I am fairly certain it is a DNS issue with some of RoadRunner/Comcast's backbone routers. This storm really beat on most of the southeast and I am noticing some funky things happening with some trace routes to different sites.

CJan, do a trace route (from a command prompt in 2000 or XP, type "tracert www.ar15.com") and post it here.

[CJan_NH]

"Unable to resolve target system name www.ar15.com"

Hmmm...

My comcast e-mail has been funky for the past few days too.

[DJ Niner]

As for your scope question... ;)

www.bearbasin.com ( http://www.bearbasin.com/catalog.htm#leup_scopes ) has a pretty good deal on Leupolds right now; 10% off the VX-II series, and free shipping if it's over $250. The one I'm going to suggest isn't over $250, so you'll have to spring for the truck trip.

They have a Leupold VX-II, 1x-4x variable, matte finish, duplex reticle, for $219; after you subtract the 10%, it's under the magic $200 mark (I know, then you have to add shipping; you can't have it all). I think you'd have to look long and hard to beat a Loopy for 2 bills. At 4x it has all the magnification most AR shooters will ever need; at 1x, you can see both sides of a standard doorway at 5 yards. Very fast at low power, great light transmission, compact size/weight. Here's mine on a Bushmaster carbine; I just love it: