Complete Parts List

I finally found some barrel and gas system parts that I liked and finished ordering everything. Hopefully things will start coming in toward the end of the week and early next week. I would love to be able to assemble everything this weekend, but we will see. So now that I have everything ready to go I will list everything for this project.

Upper Receiver Portion:
LAR upper receiver
PSA charging handle
Badger Ordinance Tactical Latch
RGUNS NiB BCG
Troy VTAC Extreme 13" Rail
16" Rainier Arms SS Match Barrel - .223 Wylde chamber
YHM micro gas block
Rainier Arms SS mid length gas tube
Spike's Tactical Dynacomp Extreme Short Compensator
Magpul MBUS front and rear sights
Magpul AFG2 (taken from my shotgun)

Lower Receiver Portion:
LAR Skeleton-ized lower receiver
PSA MOE build kit (milspec)
- MOE Stock
- MOE Grip
- MOE Trigger Guard
- Buffer tube assembly
- LPK
Magpul PMAGs (30 rd w/ Ranger Plates) x3

There she is folks. I really can't wait until everything gets here. I feel great about my purchases and for the most part I stayed with my budget. I only went over around 80-100 bucks which isn't bad when dealing with building a custom AR. There are so many options and upgrades out there that you could easily spend thousands of dollars building the "ultimate" rifle. I will admit that some pieces may be replaced soon after depending on how they all fit together. I am mainly speaking about the stock. The MOE seems to have a very small profile for a cheek rest and I would much rather have something like the new STR stock, but the PSA lower build kit was an amazing deal. So maybe I will use it for a while and see how it fits. I can always sell the MOE stock and put that money towards the STR. Our local news station has a great online classifieds ad system.

Aside from that there are some additional "accessories" that I wouldn't mind acquiring along the way. Most are small things that aren't completely necessary for normal functionality and don't cost a lot but do add up when buying them all at once. I am thinking about Magpul's B.A.D. lever, some KNS anti-rotation pins (Mod 2),  Magpul A.S.A.P. latch plate, MOE grip core for CR123 batteries, Mission Spec IAS sling, and then some more magazines, either PMAGs in FDE, Lancer translucent magazines, or even Troy BattleMags. My birthday is around the corner so maybe that will help get some of these non-essentials added to the build.

I am sticking with the iron sights for now because I want to become very familiar with shooting from that platform before I make the move to adding an optic. Because this is a multipurpose type AR I want an optic that can bridge the gap between a reflex sight and a scope. I can think of two different setups that can achieve this - either use a holographic sight with a secondary magnifier (usually a 3x) or use a 1-4x scope. I like the open eyes sight picture with the holographic sights but their price tag is downright brutal. For a good sight you are looking at 500ish minimum for the sight and and another 400ish minimum for magnifier. That doesn't even include mounts (ridiculous). The other method is using a small 1-4x scope, which are becoming very popular. At their lowest setting they act like a holographic sight but it is difficult to use the open eyes sighting. One other benefit is the variable zoom. The zoom can be changed from no magnification up to 4x and anything in between. You aren't limited to one single magnification power. Their price tag is lower with higher end scopes being in the 600-1000 range, mid range ones being around 500, and some very nice entry ones in the 200-400 range. They use normal scope rings which can be cheaper than proprietary holographic mounts.

I am really pleased with how everything has come together so far. I have found some great deals that have kept costs down while still getting everything that I wanted with this build. I will keep this updated with everything as they start to trickle in.