Prior to the Clinton Crime Bill in 1994, ownership of AR-15 style rifles wasn’t all that common. Outside of the military, the market was rather niche. Yes, you had hard core guys and dedicated survivalists who loved them, but there were only four, maybe five companies in the United States making black rifles and Colt produced more than all the others combined.
Americans, being natural-born contrarians, didn’t really want ARs until the FedGov told them that they weren’t allowed to have them. The late Great One, Rush Limbaugh, once stated that “liberalism ALWAYS generates the exact opposite of its stated intent.” The stated intent of the elected gun grabbers and their minions was to reduce the number of “assault rifles” in the hands of American citizens.
When the Crime Bill sunsetted in 2004, they got the opposite. Mr. and Mrs. America, after being told that they couldn’t be trusted with scary black rifles, did exactly what true Americans do…they bought them by the millions.
Americans Want Black Rifles
In 1994, the standard or common configuration for ARs was the good old carry handle version, a la the current M16A2. Interestingly, the carry handle version of the M4, mirroring the classic CAR-15, was approved by the US Army in 1994, just as the civilian gates were closing.
By today’s standards, ARs were rather plain back then. No accessory rails, no optic rail, no fancy do-dads to bolt and screw onto your rifle. The Crime Bill’s sunsetting, combined with GWoT, put the AR innovation machine into 5th gear. US Army Special Operations Special Technology had been working on the SOPMOD project, but it truly took off after we had boots on the ground in Afghanistan.
The SOPMOD was a battery of upgrades and accessories for modern warfighters. It took about five minutes for American gun owners to start craving the “cool guy” features. The 14.5-inch barreled M4 went from a modest 6.5 pounds, to seven, to eight-plus pounds with the addition of rails, optics, laser-aiming devices, vertical foregrips, etc. The easy-to-carry-and-maneuver M4 became very front-heavy.
The state of our industry has people purchasing and adding things to rifles that are often highly suspect and do little more than clutter the gun and make it heavier. Yes, that long lead-up is my way of saying that I decided to build an AR-15 style rifle with the idea that I would come up with a minimalist, no clutter / no fluff gun that weighed around five pounds.
Lower Receiver
Around twenty years ago, I borrowed an AR-style rifle from James Yeager to participate in a Fighting Rifle class. The gun was unique as it was built on CAV Arms polymer, unibody lower receiver. The concept of a unibody AR lower was revived by Brownells in partnership with KE Arms.
The KE Arms complete AR lower is unique in that it combines the stock, pistol grip and receiver into one unit. That makes the gun lightweight and relatively inexpensive to manufacture. The savings, naturally, are passed on to the consumer.
The stock on the lower is fixed, which is perfectly acceptable. Stock length is A1 not A2, meaning it has a 13-inch length of pull. True M16A1 stock LOP is 12.875” as the A2 is 13.5 inches.
Upper Receiver
For the upper receiver, I looked in my bin of AR parts that I’ve been accumulating for decades. A good while back, my friend Randy Luth, founder of DPMS and Luth AR, sent me a box of AR parts. One of the parts was a stripped AR upper receiver that was unique in that it had no forward assist (FA) mechanism nor a spring-loaded dust cover. However, the upper did include M1913 Picatinny rails, not just on the top, but on the left and right.
I used all of the other AR parts that Randy sent me, but that upper receiver has been sitting in my parts bin waiting for me to do something with it. Well, the time was now. (This is one reason I never get rid of miscellaneous gun parts.)
You might be thinking, “But, there’s no forward assist, the gun won’t work.” Folks, I have been running an M16/M4/AR for better than 30 years now. Searching my memory — and I have a pretty clear one — I can’t recall a single time when tapping the forward assist was what I needed to do to keep the gun running. Yes, a dirty, dusty, gritty AR bolt might need a push on the rarest occasion. That is why Gene Stoner put the bevel or cut out on the bolt carrier, so you could nudge it with your thumb or finger.
What I have witnessed throughout the years is that tapping the forward assist on the M4/AR has become a nervous tick for some shooters. I’ve seen them load their rifle and then take their dominant hand off of the grip to tap the FA. Generally they tap it at least twice (OCD).
There is very little wiggle room in the chamber of a rifle. If the bolt refuses to seat after you have nudged the BCG with your thumb, something is awry. Fun story. Back when I was training the military, we were on a field exercise where the troops were firing blanks from their M4’s. One young man had loaded his blank 5.56mm cartridges in his magazine backwards. Yes, that happened.
When this young trooper attempted to chamber a round, the backward blank cartridge naturally failed to chamber and the bolt was half open. Undaunted, the man pounded away on the forward assist mechanism until the cartridge was driven into the chamber – hard. We instructors had quite a fun time driving the blank cartridge out of the chamber. The young man, in his defense, had been taught that if the bolt failed to seat, he was to push the FA until it did so. No one had ever said to this young man, “If the bolt does not close with one tap, STOP!”
Barrel
As this build would be for a rifle not a rifle caliber pistol, I need an AFT friendly length barrel. I returned to the Brownells website and selected a Brownells brand 16-inch carbine length barrel with an A2 front sight housing. The thin profile barrel came with all of the hardware, save a gas tube and pin. A gas tube of the corresponding length was ordered as well.
The barrel shipped minus a muzzle device, for this I decided to go with a low profile Yankee Hill Manufacturing flash hider. That part and the Magpul BUIS rear back-up sight also were picked up from Brownells.
Other Parts
Diving back into my parts bin, I had a complete AR-15 bolt carrier group and I must admit that I had more AR charging handles than I had rifles. The KE Arms complete lower receiver would arrive with the trigger, buffer and spring and all the various controls and parts necessary.
I have assembled numerous AR lowers in my time. For this project I did not feel like I needed the practice. Besides, for the price, I was perfectly happy to let KE Arms install the trigger, bolt catch, magazine release button, etc.
Regarding the handguard or the forend, I decided to order an MOE version from Magpul as well as a cantilever rail mount to pair with the handguard. One accessory that any defensive rifle must have is a white light. I would be adding one to the gun for this project.
Assembly
The KE Arms lower, being the “firearm” portion, had to be picked up from our FFL guy. The rest of the parts arrived in brown boxes from Brownells. Laying all of the parts out on my workbench, I visualized the assembly process. That is when I realized that the gas tube did not come with the tiny little roll pin needed to secure it in place in the front sight housing.
Fortunately, I have been at this game for quite a long time. Back to my part tote I went. Inside the bin was a ziplock bag full of miscellaneous AR parts; detent pins, tiny springs, clips, gas rings and, yes, a teenie-tiny roll pin for the gas tube.
A piece of advice, if you have never assembled an AR before, skip Youtube and go straight to the Brownells website and watch their “How to Build an AR-15” series. Back in the old days, I watched the DVD version. Not only will their professional gunsmiths show you how to put it all together, they will recommend the dedicated tools to get the job done right. At the very least, you are going to need an M4/AR Armorer’s wrench and a roll pin punch set.
Also, remember to get some threadlock compound. All the threads on your AR should be coated with threadlock before final assembly.
With the upper receiver fully assembled, it was time to mate it with the KE Arms lower. The pivot and takedown pins that come with the unibody lower are more like HK pins than traditional AR pins. They can be pulled completely out and then re-installed.
The only other accessory that I added was a Night Fision tritium front sight. These are excellent aftermarket AR sights and they install easily into any milspec front sight housing.
Now to the scale. While I did not hit the strict five pound benchmark, the entire rifle came in at a fighting weight of only 5.8 pounds and had a fantastic balance, it was not at all “front heavy.”
Custom Finish
All the parts were black or parkerized and, being the guy I am, I decided to add a Duracoat custom finish to the entire project. I combined their Jungle Green and Russian Special Forces Yellow (aka baby poop yellow) to put a Rhodesian bush war looking camouflage on the rifle.
Range Time
With a supply of top shelf Black Hills 5.56mm ammunition and a few extra magazines, I headed to the range. Wanting to ensure reliability and be sure that ammo was not the issue, I chose Black Hills for their stellar quality control. If the gun didn’t run right, it would not be the ammo.
BLUF: the lightweight rifle ran without issue; no stoppages or failures to fire. As I mentioned, the gun had good balance and was not at all front heavy. This led me to running some “dead arm” or single handed shooting drills with the rifle fired using only my dominant hand and shoulder to support it.
While I didn’t hit the true five pound mark, 5.8 lbs is not that bad. Adding a white light, such as a Surefire Scout, will only add about 3.5 ounces more. As the barrel is a thin-profile, I would not run it with one of the new FRTs or even a binary-trigger. Nonetheless, for semi-auto fire you should be good.
If you like longer, larger, heavier ARs, that’s great, enjoy. What I was able to put together was very light weight, well-balanced, each to maneuver 5.56mm carbine.
Paul G. Markel is a combat decorated United States Marine veteran. He is also the founder of Student of the Gun University and has been teaching Small Arms & Tactics to military personnel, police officers, and citizens for over three decades.