- Joined
- Jul 24, 2025
- Messages
- 781
This is the build that I have been working on for the last few months…..since March anyway. I am building two. One is for me, and one is for one of my son’s. I have three kids by the way.
So, my son Frank has got some guns from his Mom and I over the last few years, and so has one of my other sons. One thing that Frank didn’t have was an AR of any type. So I decided to do something about that.
My other son is really the Shooter in Chief of the family. Since he got out of the Army 2 years ago, and got me back into shooting, I have bought multiple dozens of guns. Many of them went to my wife and my two sons. My daughter doesn’t shoot much.
So late last year, I started collecting parts for some AR builds. I had bought two stripped Anderson Stealth lowers. And various parts here and there, when I would find deals on the. I had decided to build my son Frank and I a pair of matching, well sort of, M4 Carbines.
I had already had the lowers. But then Palmetto State came along and had complete lowers cheaper that I could build the two stripped ones that I already had. I wound up giving one of the stripped lowers to one of the other kids and ordered two of these for myself and Frank.
I ordered a pair of these uppers as well.
So at this point I am into his build about $290.00.
Last year I had got some Toolman Tactical 32 round .556 AR magazines in a 10 pack for 50 bucks. I gave three to a friend for a birthday present and he wound up buying three more when it looked like Measure 114 was going to come down. I decided to set three of these mags aside and they are going along with Franks build. Total cost of those three mags when it was all said and done was just over $3.00 a mag.
So at this point I am about $300.00 into his build. Then I found a BCG on sale for just over 50 bucks and I just ordered a charging handle for a little over 12 bucks. So at this point with shipping on everything I am about $400.00 into his build.
About 3 weeks ago, I ordered a bunch of random AR parts in a lot for $77.00 shipping included. In that was one of these, albeit an ancient military contract version that was missing the thumbscrew on the mount. It is probably at least 15 years old. My son used these when he was in the Army. I just put a nut on the screw as the only way to get the torque not is to order a whole new mount, and it is proprietary and costs $180 bucks just for the mount. The used value of this optic is probably only a couple of hundred bucks, but it still works. So I put that on his build along with a spare MBUS rear sight that I had.
I also bought 3 of these mags from the Mag Shack Memorial Day sale for $4.99 each.
So between used parts and sales, my son gets $1400 plus worth of fun that only cost me about $500 dollars all in.
I am just waiting for the Amend 2 mags to arrive and the charging handle that I had to order because I lost the one that I had previously ordered. It is around here somewhere, I just can’t find it.
I will post pics of the actual finished result once I get it ou to the range and zeroed in the next week or so.
So, my son Frank has got some guns from his Mom and I over the last few years, and so has one of my other sons. One thing that Frank didn’t have was an AR of any type. So I decided to do something about that.
My other son is really the Shooter in Chief of the family. Since he got out of the Army 2 years ago, and got me back into shooting, I have bought multiple dozens of guns. Many of them went to my wife and my two sons. My daughter doesn’t shoot much.
So late last year, I started collecting parts for some AR builds. I had bought two stripped Anderson Stealth lowers. And various parts here and there, when I would find deals on the. I had decided to build my son Frank and I a pair of matching, well sort of, M4 Carbines.
I had already had the lowers. But then Palmetto State came along and had complete lowers cheaper that I could build the two stripped ones that I already had. I wound up giving one of the stripped lowers to one of the other kids and ordered two of these for myself and Frank.
I ordered a pair of these uppers as well.
So at this point I am into his build about $290.00.
Last year I had got some Toolman Tactical 32 round .556 AR magazines in a 10 pack for 50 bucks. I gave three to a friend for a birthday present and he wound up buying three more when it looked like Measure 114 was going to come down. I decided to set three of these mags aside and they are going along with Franks build. Total cost of those three mags when it was all said and done was just over $3.00 a mag.
So at this point I am about $300.00 into his build. Then I found a BCG on sale for just over 50 bucks and I just ordered a charging handle for a little over 12 bucks. So at this point with shipping on everything I am about $400.00 into his build.
About 3 weeks ago, I ordered a bunch of random AR parts in a lot for $77.00 shipping included. In that was one of these, albeit an ancient military contract version that was missing the thumbscrew on the mount. It is probably at least 15 years old. My son used these when he was in the Army. I just put a nut on the screw as the only way to get the torque not is to order a whole new mount, and it is proprietary and costs $180 bucks just for the mount. The used value of this optic is probably only a couple of hundred bucks, but it still works. So I put that on his build along with a spare MBUS rear sight that I had.
I also bought 3 of these mags from the Mag Shack Memorial Day sale for $4.99 each.
So between used parts and sales, my son gets $1400 plus worth of fun that only cost me about $500 dollars all in.
I am just waiting for the Amend 2 mags to arrive and the charging handle that I had to order because I lost the one that I had previously ordered. It is around here somewhere, I just can’t find it.
I will post pics of the actual finished result once I get it ou to the range and zeroed in the next week or so.
Last edited: