Building a 3 gun.

[david.bergen]

Hi everybody,

A friend and I started building our ar 15.

Because it's very difficult to get American parts in Europe some firms started to mill there own receiver and uppers.

One firm is also offering an aluminum bolt carier.

Do you think this a good option or should we stay with a steel one.

They are more expensive but we were told it should give a smoother shooting rifle.

Anybody any idea's on reliability and durability?

Thanks,

David

[RH45]

JP offers a "lightened" bolt carrier which is supposed to help with felt recoil if the gas is also adjusted properly, but, without a means to adjust the gas, like using a JP adjustable gas block, I wouldn't use a lightened carrier.

I know that some alloys of aluminum are pretty tough, but, I think I'd stay with steel.

[SingleStacker45]

I recently built my first race rifle and went with the lightened carrier and modified my buffer to match. You want to try to keep the ratios of the weigts of each component the same so that they act together properly. Since my carrier was about two ounces lighter than stock I reduced the buffer by the same percentage then used the jp adjustable gas block to reduce the gas pressure. It's a system so you have to keep it in ballance. As for the alloy carrier it sounds interesting but there is some concern for durability since there is so much pressure in there and the friction of the gas rings to worry about.

Mule

[steel1212]

The aluminum ones will wear out but are super light. I use a JP SS lightened carrier in my gun with adjustable gas and JPs trigger kit.

[kurtm]

I DISAGREE with all these other posts!

Nothing wrong with the aluminum carriers. they last anywhere from 5-10 thousand rounds (about a barrels life). You CAN run them with full gas pressure ( I do ) and you CAN run them with a standard buffer ( helps if you get slam fires ). Youy need to oil the gas rings, cam pin race and rails every 100 rounds. Think of the aluminum carrier as an F1 motor, it needs a lot of care....BUT it does stuff the Smart car just can't, but it needs a lot more attention. I run them ALL the time and I really like them, don't steer shy of them they work. Just oil them up every 2-3 stages and clean them every night and all is well. KurtM

[david.bergen]

We ordered some alu cariers to give them a try. When we receive them I'll post some pictures .

Are there any speciality's involved in setting up the gun correctely.

I read about rifle length gas systems,but we use mostly carbine over here.

Adjustable gasblocs... we machine our barrels from blancs so we can choose the gas port size and gas system length so maybe they are not needed.

So if you have dimensions that work (port size, barrel length, barrel length after the port,buffer,....) feel free to post them

All suggestions are welcome.