africanized swallow

"I may have decided to build at the wrong time or the right depending on how you look at it. " I heard that the best time to start saving for retirement is last year and that the second best time is right now. It seems like the same thing applies to AR builds. I'm still building, but I'm pretty sure that my 80% arms lower will work with the Aero upper, and the LPK definitely does, if you want to add some milling to your build. There should be a bunch of options though, as you have discovered, the DPMS "standard" requires substantially more investigation than the AR-15 standard. Also, welcome from Illinois.

I'm working on my first build and I really don't think you need a special tool to install the pivot pin. What I did was use a normal punch to compress the detent and spring, then used a roll pin starter punch across the pivot hinge, got the best mate between the pivot pin and the starter punch and then just worked them back through the hinge, making sure that the pivot pin was in tension with the side opposite of the detent when the transition between punch and pin occurred.

Yeah, no worries. I was a little hesitant to put it out there because IL laws are kind of a CF, but not nearly as bad as some other places I've lived.

Illinois

Decided a while back that I wanted to build a firearm (cause its a fun thing to do) and unfortunately live in a jurisdiction where mags over 10 rounds may be illegal, so i figured I better make every shot count. AR308 seemed like a natural choice... also I'm hoping to get a chance to poke some holes in elk, hogs, etc and i don't have anything in my safe that will handle game bigger than a whitetail. I have most of my parts at this point (I think the only thing that is still in the mail is a dust cover lol) and the lower milled out and I'm planing to start putting things together tomorrow. Basic gist of the build is BA BCG, and barrel with rifle gas, 80% arms lower, Aero Precision upper, rails, and parts, LaRue trigger. Its been a bit wild putting the parts together what with the world burning and all so hopefully I ended up with set of parts that works together alright.