First time build

[texag15]

Hey guys

I'm starting my first gun build and decided to go with the .308. I am building it around the Aero M5 lower. I already know I will be ordering the Aero M5 upper and Aero parts kits whenever it is they will be in stock again.

A couple of things i am not sure on. What buffer tube kit to get, what barrel and gas system (looking at criterion and rainier right now and would like to buy the barrel with the gas system assembled if that is a thing), a good BCG (between Aero and D Wilson manufacturing). 

Any and all suggestions are greatly appreciated.

[Fletch]

20 minutes ago, texag15 said:

Hey guys

I'm starting my first gun build and decided to go with the .308. I am building it around the Aero M5 lower. I already know I will be ordering the Aero M5 upper and Aero parts kits whenever it is they will be in stock again.

A couple of things i am not sure on. What buffer tube kit to get, THERE ARE SEVERAL OPTIONS...WILL YOU RUN A CARBINE/ADJUSTABLE STOCK OR A RIFLE/FIXED STOCK? what barrel MANY MANY OPTIONS...WHAT IS YOUR INTENDED USE? and gas system WHAT BARREL LENGTH ARE YOU WANTING? (looking at criterion and rainier BOTH EXCELLENT CHOICES right now and would like to buy the barrel with the gas system assembled if that is a thing), I THINK YOU'LL STILL HAVE TO TAKE THE GAS BLOCK OFF TO GET WHATEVER BARREL NUT YOU'RE USING ON THE BARREL a good BCG (between Aero and D Wilson manufacturing). I HAVE NO EXPERIENCE WITH EITHER SO HOPEFULLY SOMEONE ELSE WILL ANSWER THAT...I RUN A RUBBER CITY ARMORY THAT HAS BEEN FLAWLESS.

FOR A 16" BARREL I WOULD EITHER GO CRITERION, MEGA ARMS, OR JP RIFLES....FOR 18" I WOULD EITHER GO CRITERION, JP RIFLES, FAXON (18" HEAVY FLUTED), OR PERHAPS JUGGERNAUT TACTICAL (FLUTED)...PLEASE NOTE THOSE ARE JUST MY OPINIONS/PREFERENCES FOR MYSELF SO TAKE IT FOR WHAT IT'S WORTH. I WOULD NOT NEED/WANT A BARREL LONGER THAN 18" BUT THAT'S JUST ME.

OH...WELCOME TO THE FORUM!!!!

Any and all suggestions are greatly appreciated.

 

[texag15]

20 minutes ago, Fletch said:

 

Wow that was a tremendous amount of help, actually forgot to ask about barrel nut. I want a 16 incher and will be doing mostly target shooting and as a pig/animal gun for out at my ranch. I want an adjustable stock

[texag15]

Price is not really a huge factor for me as long as i am getting reliable quality parts. That being said it would be nice to keep it under $2500. I will also have it as a SHTF rifle as well as a target/ranch rifle.

Edited July 8, 2016 by texag15

[slugger43]

Yeah, what Fletch said on the Rubber City Armory BCG; mine runs perfect, and it's mated up with a Mega 18" barrel.  Everything I've ever bought from Mega was super, as is their customer service.

Welcome to the forum from Washington.

[washguy]

Hey Tex  Welcome aboard !    So a Texas A&M fan/Alum?    I have several 308's and my longest barrel is 18" and it pretty much stays in the bunker

16" barrel with a midlength gas system will do the job out to 500 with targets easy...if you're huntin well it would be a lot less I would hope.. these 308's can get real heavy real fast and then they aint no fun to lug around. Mega's are nice and Rainier Arms has some nice barrels. You will want a mil spec buffer tube...and a butt stock of your choice in mil spec....you will need a DPMS type claw to hold your upper while you install the barrel/gas block...and handguard of your choice.... building an AR308 as a first build isnt really the thing to do though...they dont go together as easy as an ar15

OH Wait....you're an Aggie....I forgot...you need to go buy a 308 already built...  Ive seen it with my own two eyes...Aggies can not chew gum and walk at the same time   LOL  ...........just kidding...my uncle is an Aggie to the tenth degree...his King Air is painted in A&M colors              Wash

[texag15]

50 minutes ago, washguy said:

Hey Tex  Welcome aboard !    So a Texas A&M fan/Alum?    I have several 308's and my longest barrel is 18" and it pretty much stays in the bunker

16" barrel with a midlength gas system will do the job out to 500 with targets easy...if you're huntin well it would be a lot less I would hope.. these 308's can get real heavy real fast and then they aint no fun to lug around. Mega's are nice and Rainier Arms has some nice barrels. You will want a mil spec buffer tube...and a butt stock of your choice in mil spec....you will need a DPMS type claw to hold your upper while you install the barrel/gas block...and handguard of your choice.... building an AR308 as a first build isnt really the thing to do though...they dont go together as easy as an ar15

OH Wait....you're an Aggie....I forgot...you need to go buy a 308 already built...  Ive seen it with my own two eyes...Aggies can not chew gum and walk at the same time   LOL  ...........just kidding...my uncle is an Aggie to the tenth degree...his King Air is painted in A&M colors              Wash

Wash that's awesome brother!! A good friend of mine I went to a&m with has an uncle from Dallas who has a king air. He comes from an aggie family as well. 

I appreciate the tips/heads up. I'm always up for a challenge. Unless you think I should start with an AR15 build. 

[EngrBob]

10 minutes ago, texag15 said:

Wash that's awesome brother!! A good friend of mine I went to a&m with has an uncle from Dallas who has a king air. He comes from an aggie family as well. 

I appreciate the tips/heads up. I'm always up for a challenge. Unless you think I should start with an AR15 build. 

No issue starting with a 308 build.  I did and it made the 2 223s, the 6.5 Grendel and the 6.5 Creedmore easier.  I work with a lot of aggies ( both Texas &M and NMSU) and at least a few can walk and chew gum.  Welcome from west Texas.  One word of warning you can't have just one!

[texag15]

20 minutes ago, EngrBob said:

No issue starting with a 308 build.  I did and it made the 2 223s, the 6.5 Grendel and the 6.5 Creedmore easier.  I work with a lot of aggies ( both Texas &M and NMSU) and at least a few can walk and chew gum.  Welcome from west Texas.  One word of warning you can't have just one!

Yeah it took four years but I finally got the walking and chewing gum thing down. I'm hoping the hardest part will be finding a good place to get my cerakote done the way I want it. 

[Fletch]

5 hours ago, texag15 said:

Wow that was a tremendous amount of help, actually forgot to ask about barrel nut. I want a 16 incher and will be doing mostly target shooting and as a pig/animal gun for out at my ranch. I want an adjustable stock

I've got a 16" Mega barrel on an Aero M5 set with carbine/adjustable stock that is very accurate and functions perfectly, weighs in at just over 8 pounds (naked)...sounds very similar to what you're trying to build. I just got home and am beat so I'm headed to sleep...I will re-reply tomorrow with more details and any help/advice I can offer from doing my build. Have a good night!

Edited July 9, 2016 by Fletch

[washguy]

2 hours ago, texag15 said:

Wash that's awesome brother!! A good friend of mine I went to a&m with has an uncle from Dallas who has a king air. He comes from an aggie family as well. 

I appreciate the tips/heads up. I'm always up for a challenge. Unless you think I should start with an AR15 build. 

Damn I wonder if we are cousin in laws....lol     my uncle gave the money to build a building  at A&M named after my grandmother...you know whom im talkin about?   you near big D?   And yes you can build a 308....doesnt mean it will work though  LOL       

just ask before buying the parts...we all will save you money (not really) and we will see to it that your parts are compatible

Wash 

Edited July 9, 2016 by washguy

[texag15]

8 hours ago, washguy said:

Damn I wonder if we are cousin in laws....lol     my uncle gave the money to build a building  at A&M named after my grandmother...you know whom im talkin about?   you near big D?   And yes you can build a 308....doesnt mean it will work though  LOL       

just ask before buying the parts...we all will save you money (not really) and we will see to it that your parts are compatible

Wash 

Unless he just forgot to mention that to me then I don't think we are talking about the same people. That's cool though feel free to PM me the building name if you want that would be cool to know. And yeah I loved CS so much that I decided to stay and work here. 

I will definitely ask. It's so frustrating that the parts I want to order the most are out of stock. Any idea of how often aero restocks their receivers?

[texag15]

9 hours ago, Fletch said:

I've got a 16" Mega barrel on an Aero M5 set with carbine/adjustable stock that is very accurate and functions perfectly, weighs in at just over 8 pounds (naked)...sounds very similar to what you're trying to build. I just got home and am beat so I'm headed to sleep...I will re-reply tomorrow with more details and any help/advice I can offer from doing my build. Have a good night!

Awesome! I'm going to look into Mega today thanks for the input. And yeah feel free to post your build!

[Fletch]

19 hours ago, texag15 said:

Wow that was a tremendous amount of help, actually forgot to ask about barrel nut. I want a 16 incher and will be doing mostly target shooting and as a pig/animal gun for out at my ranch. I want an adjustable stock

Hey there...sorry I was beat last night and just needed to sleep. As Wash indicated, we certainly aren't going to save you any (or at least not much) money...but hopefully will save you some aggravation and annoyances and help you get exactly what you're looking for. I'll try not to make this any longer than necessary (apologies in advance) but will also try to be very thorough. I have a 16" on Aero receivers...I currently have a Mega barrel (best group 1/2" but think I got a bit lucky on that one...consistent 3/4" shooter though with Fed GMM 168's...I tried other factory rounds...I don't reload...but the gun seems to shoot the Fed 168's the best so I stick with them). The gun has a carbine buffer system (mil-spec buffer tube) and I use one of the Slash's Heavy Buffers (CAR-10) and one of his springs. When I first built the gun I used the standard Aero 308 carbine buffer & spring...but ended up with the back end of the lower rails of the bolt carrier slamming into the lower receiver where the buffer tube meets...after some trial & error and experimenting it seemed the buffer itself was the issue...not 100% sure exactly what was happening, but I was left with only 2 possible causes...1) the pad on the buffer was getting compressed so badly that it allowed the BCG to travel further rearward than meant to be, or 2) somehow the buffer was tilting inside the buffer tube and somehow allowing the BCG to travel rearward more than meant to be. At first the rifle had a regular (non-adjustable) gas block...which I changed to an adjustable gas block as part of my experimenting...it helped the buffer issue but did not solve it. I then tried the Slash's buffer after reading about someone else having the same issue...that solved the problem 100%. For a goof I shot the rifle a few times with full-gas just to see what would happen and the Slash buffer still worked perfectly. I am sure there are many people who have not had this issue and run the same parts I started out with, however, I will always use the Slash buffer (and spring) without a doubt for future 308AR builds, for the little bit of extra money I feel it is worth it. The only other issue I had with the build was a bad barrel...yes, it was a Mega. The best I could get was 1.5" groups, and after ruling everything else out I ended up sending the barrel back to them, they also could get no better than 1.5" and replaced the barrel without hassle. Mega has great customer service and great products...I highly recommend them. Also, if you go the Mega route for a barrel keep in mind they do not dimple their barrels so I would suggest making sure you get a clamp-style gas block as opposed to the set-screw type.

The "recipe" for my build is as follows for the primary parts:

Aero M5 receiver set - Mega Arms 16" barrel - Rubber City Armory BCG - carbine buffer tube w/Slash's heavy buffer & spring, and Syrac Gen 2 click-detent gas block - ALG Defense ACT trigger (with purple spring, 4.5# pull).

I have really come to like the ACT trigger (with the purple spring)...best available value to price IMO...I prefer single stage triggers and I like them lighter than 6-ish#'s but also not too light like 3-ish#'s either. I'm quite sure there are better one's out there, but for the price they cannot be beat. Again, that's just my preference so don't read much into that.

I'm in the process of doing a build right now for a buddy that is somewhat similar to mine...the only differences are that his is with a Mega receiver set, and he wanted the Faxon 18" fluted barrel (it's much lighter than the Mega 18" and from what I've read it shoots very accurately also). The rest of the parts are basically the same. I should have the rest of the parts in by next weekend and if I have any issues or find anything odd with that set-up when building/testing it I will let you know.

As far as building the thing...I use these and they work perfectly:

https://www.plastixrevolution.net/collections/ar15-vise-blocks/products/ar10-sr25-lower-receiver-vise-block

https://www.plastixrevolution.net/collections/ar15-vise-blocks/products/308-upper-receiver-vise-block-ar10-sr25-lr308

I also found this guy's series (links below) on his Maten build to be very informative and helpful when I first embarked on the 308 builds. I think there are like 9 or 10 parts to it, but I mostly watched part's 6 & 7 as the other stuff I was OK on. I also think parts 6 & 7 might be particularly useful to you as well based on what questions you're asking. Worth checking out IMO.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZETW1gJJ_rg

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SFbLX6qtRF8

Also, I would absolutely make sure the headspace checks out with the bolt/barrel.

My build is meant to be along the lines of a DMR or CSASS...I mostly shoot paper and steel out to 600 yards and like to be able to make hits consistently and quickly...which this set-up does perfectly. Oh...I've always preferred simple flash hiders to muzzle brakes....but on this build I ended up changing out the flash hider for a brake and I am very glad I did...the rifle feels so much more smooth and I'm able to get follow-up shots much more quickly as well. I've never shot it past 600 (yet) but I feel pretty confident it should have no issues out to 800 or so. Based on what you are asking I think a set-up similar to this would work perfectly for you.

 

Edited July 9, 2016 by Fletch

[texag15]

31 minutes ago, Fletch said:

Hey there...sorry I was beat last night and just needed to sleep. As Wash indicated, we certainly aren't going to save you any (or at least not much) money...but hopefully will save you some aggravation and annoyances and help you get exactly what you're looking for. I'll try not to make this any longer than necessary (apologies in advance) but will also try to be very thorough. I have a 16" on Aero receivers...I currently have a Mega barrel (best group 1/2" but think I got a bit lucky on that one...consistent 3/4" shooter though with Fed GMM 168's...I tried other factory rounds...I don't reload...but the gun seems to shoot the Fed 168's the best so I stick with them). The gun has a carbine buffer system (mil-spec buffer tube) and I use one of the Slash's Heavy Buffers (CAR-10) and one of his springs. When I first built the gun I used the standard Aero 308 carbine buffer & spring...but ended up with the back end of the lower rails of the bolt carrier slamming into the lower receiver where the buffer tube meets...after some trial & error and experimenting it seemed the buffer itself was the issue...not 100% sure exactly what was happening, but I was left with only 2 possible causes...1) the pad on the buffer was getting compressed so badly that it allowed the BCG to travel further rearward than meant to be, or 2) somehow the buffer was tilting inside the buffer tube and somehow allowing the BCG to travel rearward more than meant to be. At first the rifle had a regular (non-adjustable) gas block...which I changed to an adjustable gas block as part of my experimenting...it helped the buffer issue but did not solve it. I then tried the Slash's buffer after reading about someone else having the same issue...that solved the problem 100%. For a goof I shot the rifle a few times with full-gas just to see what would happen and the Slash buffer still worked perfectly. I am sure there are many people who have not had this issue and run the same parts I started out with, however, I will always use the Slash buffer (and spring) without a doubt for future 308AR builds, for the little bit of extra money I feel it is worth it. The only other issue I had with the build was a bad barrel...yes, it was a Mega. The best I could get was 1.5" groups, and after ruling everything else out I ended up sending the barrel back to them, they also could get no better than 1.5" and replaced the barrel without hassle. Mega has great customer service and great products...I highly recommend them. Also, if you go the Mega route for a barrel keep in mind they do not dimple their barrels so I would suggest making sure you get a clamp-style gas block as opposed to the set-screw type.

The "recipe" for my build is as follows for the primary parts:

Aero M5 receiver set - Mega Arms 16" barrel - Rubber City Armory BCG - carbine buffer tube w/Slash's heavy buffer & spring, and Syrac Gen 2 click-detent gas block - ALG Defense ACT trigger (with purple spring, 4.5# pull).

I have really come to like the ACT trigger (with the purple spring)...best available value to price IMO...I prefer single stage triggers and I like them lighter than 6-ish#'s but also not too light like 3-ish#'s either. I'm quite sure there are better one's out there, but for the price they cannot be beat. Again, that's just my preference so don't read much into that.

I'm in the process of doing a build right now for a buddy that is somewhat similar to mine...the only differences are that his is with a Mega receiver set, and he wanted the Faxon 18" fluted barrel (it's much lighter than the Mega 18" and from what I've read it shoots very accurately also). The rest of the parts are basically the same. I should have the rest of the parts in by next weekend and if I have any issues or find anything odd with that set-up when building/testing it I will let you know.

As far as building the thing...I use these and they work perfectly:

https://www.plastixrevolution.net/collections/ar15-vise-blocks/products/ar10-sr25-lower-receiver-vise-block

https://www.plastixrevolution.net/collections/ar15-vise-blocks/products/308-upper-receiver-vise-block-ar10-sr25-lr308

I also found this guy's series (links below) on his Maten build to be very informative and helpful when I first embarked on the 308 builds. I think there are like 9 or 10 parts to it, but I mostly watched part's 6 & 7 as the other stuff I was OK on. I also think parts 6 & 7 might be particularly useful to you as well based on what questions you're asking. Worth checking out IMO.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZETW1gJJ_rg

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SFbLX6qtRF8

Also, I would absolutely make sure the headspace checks out with the bolt/barrel.

My build is meant to be along the lines of a DMR or CSASS...I mostly shoot paper and steel out to 600 yards and like to be able to make hits consistently and quickly...which this set-up does perfectly. Oh...I've always preferred simple flash hiders to muzzle brakes....but on this build I ended up changing out the flash hider for a brake and I am very glad I did...the rifle feels so much more smooth and I'm able to get follow-up shots much more quickly as well. I've never shot it past 600 (yet) but I feel pretty confident it should have no issues out to 800 or so. Based on what you are asking I think a set-up similar to this would work perfectly for you.

 

Thanks a ton, Fletch. I picked up a Mega 16" and A Geissele SSA-E today. That is a beautiful rifle and exactly what i am looking to build.

[unclemoak]

Stopping in a bit late to the game, but my vote would be for the d.wilson bcg, though I'm a bit partial.

 

[shepp]

35 minutes ago, unclemoak said:

Stopping in a bit late to the game, but my vote would be for the d.wilson bcg, though I'm a bit partial.

 

Up in your neck of the woods right now btw. Just nw of green bay