Artsy fartsy er nah?

I was gonna say "very milspec-ish", then I saw the username. You new avatar screwed me up.

Everybody's gonna be confused as shit. Muhaha

Hey you're alive.

Yep I'm still kickin'

For the time being anyways.

Nah. Any picture that uses a flash to wash the image out ain’t artsy

Waiting for the throwback blurry CQD close up

Good to see the wife let you out.

CD

Did you get a new bed spread?  Your girlfriend approves of that?

I assumed that was just the roof of his pillow fort :\.

hehehehhehe

I actually have a surprisingly long leash thankfully. My avatar may or may not have made my guns collect dust the last couple months tho.

Will- wash out, art....tomato tomotto.

Spooled- I actually took some last night but couldn't find a ridiculous enough angle to actually upload it yet

Wait a minute, I probably should be remembering this but I don't....  Did you get married at some point?

20171210_165015 by A K, on Flickr
20171210_184639 by A K, on Flickr
20171210_184707 by A K, on Flickr
20171211_145356 by A K, on Flickr
20171211_145405 by A K, on Flickr
20171211_145416 by A K, on Flickr
20171211_151017 by A K, on Flickr
20171211_145445 by A K, on Flickr

Very nice work.

That looks great! Damned if that wouldn't just snazz the Mod 0 right on up.

What did you use to match the DD FDE on the bare metal?

Thanks!

I used Cerakote on the bare metal.

Ankratz has the color match down, my rail right above his post was done by him a while back.

Yeah he does... some very classy work there. Both your photos and his are putting dangerously expensive ideas into my head :\.

ETA: Maybe it wasn't your photo. I recalled someone posting an Mk18 RIS II FSP a few pages back, and also saw some other pics of another FSP CQBR recently - pretty sure the poster mentioned it had been chopped by ankratz. Somehow I connected those two things in my mind and figured it was your gun, lol. The one posted a few pages back was by ChrisWMT. Do you even have a chopped RIS II FSP?

I sold the first one and it's been passed around like the hottest girl in a small town.

Damn.  Looks good.  I should have my 6920 barrel back from adco this week for my block 2 build.  If I didnt already have my block 1 with the fsp, and my m4a1 block2 with the fsp, this would be the route Id take.  Hell, I may want to do another block 2 for this... Great work!

Darn glitch

My Mod 0

Well blackfriday hit hard. I was actually thinking about doing a FSP M4A1 Block 2 build but saw the Mk18 upper and Colt lower for sale on Brownells. After 11% off and 4% back from AJ upper came out for just under $600 and the lower at $240 after transfer.

Had a 4 prong ready for it and just picked up an older dark taupe 99051. Will most likely swap the upper for a Colt M4 and use a Colt BCG. DD barrel and pinned gas block will stay. This will be my first SBR lower as well. Thinking of just running the naked tube during the wait time.

Had a Gear Sector hand stop sitting around too, feels comfortable with the TD grip panel. I have seen Gear Sector light mounts on here, what's the thoughts on the hand stop?

That was mine, LMT 10.5 upper, but was soon swapped out for a Colt 10.3" barrel :)

I also jumped on the Colt M4 lower deal and am running the same upper as you. The upper fits so ridiculously tight I also got a Colt stripped upper that fits much better. I plan on swapping the barrel and rail onto the Colt upper as soon as my DD barrel nut wrench comes in.

New paint minus the stock. I didn't think it'd be as off as it is, but oh well. Maybe I'll spray that later, maybe I won't. Attached File

That's exactly what I was gonna say! "Hmmm...I think I see why MILSPEC disappeared for awhile!"

I did the same thing last year too, for the same reason.

Yeah mine is the same. I need to use a punch to remove the pins all the way from the DD upper. Kind of annoying if you plan on swapping uppers at the range. I'm not a huge fan of the billboard logo DD puts on the side or the plastic dust cover that stands out. For the price though, I don't think Mk18 cloning has ever been so cheap.

Wonder if the availability and price drop on the DD uppers is due to the Block 3 equipment testing going on and that they will no longer hold the contract for new rails.

Thinking about grabbing the Colt Lower also...where is the best place to get a stripped Colt upper?  I don’t like the idea of having to use a punch to break down the rifle.

So, after sending the first one back, I finally have a Colt M4 Carbine lower mated up to the CQBR. This one isn't much better (aesthetically) than the first one, but I paid a bit less for it. Of course, like the first one, this lower definitely has a few issues; the most obvious being the missing center part of the L and a small part of the O. I had more or less accepted that if I wanted a Colt for a reasonable price, that's what I could expect. In addition to the rollmark, the selector stops are also a bit funky. One stop is milled off almost entirely - and slightly rough if you look closely - and the other has the normal Colt style partial milled stop. Of course, there's the usual Colt flashing that wasn't smoothed out. I ordered another lower at the same time as this one, but it had chatter marks on the mag well below the rollmark and I said, nu uh.

Just be aware if you're planning on ordering one, I've had 3 of these lowers and they vary from sorta acceptable to "wtf happened". I think the first batch priced at $259.99 were the best and what remains currently can vary pretty widely.

In addition to the cosmetic stuff, it had a few minor functional problems/imperfections that needed fixing. First thing to go was the awful, gritty safety detent - I could barely disengage the safety when I was function testing at my FFL (although the safety itself was fine). It felt like it'd been assembled in a dust storm, lol. I took it out shooting yesterday for the first time and immediately realized that the Colt bolt catch release had to go as well. It was very gritty and excessively stiff - seemed close to binding up just before release. I swapped in the bolt release paddle, detent and spring from my old lower and it's smooth as butter now.

Be that as it may, and despite the previous Spike's lower and DSG LPK combination being superior in almost every way, something about the Colt pony and "M4 Carbine" mated up to the CQBR upper just looks... right.

One other thing worth mentioning - and as others have noted - this is one of the most ridiculously tight fitting lower/upper combos I've ever had. I even swapped in takedown pins that were already worn smooth and fit the DD upper perfectly; they still had to be hammered in. I can't completely hammer in the front pin without tilting the upper 90 degrees forward, and the rear pin needs a good deal of downward force on the upper combined with a rubber mallet to seat it. If you want a tight upper to lower fit, this is the combo for you, lol. To give an idea just how tight this thing is, a hair was pinched between the upper and lower when I first pinned it, and the fit was so tight I couldn't pull it out. Basically, it's so tight as to almost verge on being out of spec. Honestly, I prefer a fit that allows the pins to be removed without tools, but whadiya-gonna-do?

On the positive side, the anodizing is good and a surprisingly close match to the DD upper. I was thinking about getting a Colt upper, but the match is so close I think I might stick with the DD - unless tapping out the pins starts to get old.  It also had very few handling marks: one little speck of anodizing missing on the underside of the front takedown detent/spring fence. The trigger was actually quite decent for a standard mil spec - although I quickly replaced it with an S3G. I'll still probably end up doing a proper 80% with M4A1 US Gov markings at some point in the future and swap this over to the Mod 0, but for now, this will work just dandy. Anyway, didn't mean for this post to turn into a long-winded review here, heh.

Overall, despite swapping almost all the of the LPK out and the cosmetic issues, I'm pretty happy with it. Ordered up some UIDs (a 1.5x.5 rectangle and a .75 square) from Carolina Laser Works the other day; as usual, the service was excellent. I had a shipping notice about an hour after the order was placed. Going to fill out the Form 1 and get that started today.

Brownell's and the place we're not supposed to mention usually have Colt M4 complete uppers. Shark Arms has them for cheap but I've never purchased one from them.

??

Painted the upper the other day... Now to shoot more so it wears in.
Attached File

Attached File

Damn, never heard of Shark Arms; really tempted to grab a Colt upper from them at those prices. Does anyone have any experience actually ordering from them? Their site looks like a cobbled together personal webpage hosted by altavista back in the day, lol. I half expected a midi to start playing at any moment. Guess I'll have to put on my google goggles.

78Staff: Still have the SF3P on it with the 10.3 barrel?

I have information on a pretty sweet deal for Colt Uppers, BCGs, and CHs for the next couple days...is it legal for me to post that information in a post or is that against site rules?  It’s to a company that is not a vendor...

I'd think if you just say the name of it without making a hot link it'd be fine.

ETA: If not, please PM me, I'd definitely be interested.

Shark arms is def GTG know lots of guys that have used them and went well.

Interested.

Same

Okay, no hyperlink then!  Here is the info I have:

It’s Shark Arms.  I just spoke to Chris, and he confirmed that they are not blems or expanse Uppers.  They are first production M4 Uppers, most with the keyhole roll mark, some with the square, with the “C” stamp.  Same for the BCG, and the CHs have the Cage code on them.

The deal is one of two:
- Colt Upper and Colt BCG for $175
- Colt Upper, Colt BCG, and Colt Cage code CH or Lakota CH for $195

He said to email your orders with a subject of “AR15.com Colt Combo” to get the deal pricing.  He said he would take orders at the sale price for a couple days!

Another member on the site suggested Shark Arms and said he’s dealt with them a couple times and they were gtg!

I just ordered two of the CH combos!

Thanks!

Thanks again for the info! Well, guess I'm about to have a Colt M4 upper for the CQBR, lol. That didn't take long.

Finally got it setup

Glad I could finally contribute something!  I have to give a shout out to sbye for letting me know to check with them.

Hnnnng

Jumped in on that Brownells Colt lower shit too! As soon as I found out they were un-barreled lowers that could be registered as a pistol, I thought this would be a nice touch until I get my stamp!

WOW