I wanted to put up a post with some details of the experience. It is possible some of the details may appear in other threads regarding compatibility between receivers by different manufacturers but I thought I would share them here for people to reference if they are about to build a new 8.6 BLK caliber rifle.
So barrel choice, currently Faxon and that's all folks. Manufactured in 8", 12", and 16" lengths when available. I went with a 16 inch because anything shorter is blasphemy ( do NOT get me started on SBRs, I know they exist and I know some people like them, but to me it is like driving a screw into 2 pieces of wood with a hammer, sure it works.. but..)
Next I went with an Aero Precision M5E1 enhanced upper (SKU#APAR308504AC). I wanted a truly free floating handguard,(ie something that didn't even bolt to the barrel nut) which is where the fun starts... so I ordered this model about the time the barrels started the 7 day prerelease timer on the Faxon site. I also grabbed a standard gas block (0.875 ID) and carbine length nitride gas tube.. you know because BLK is in the name and I wanted it ALL black.
For the lower I had a Palmetto State Armory carbine lower sitting in the gun safe so that seemed a good foundation.. well it SEEMED that way.
The magic day arrives, the barrel is here, the upper is here, all my other parts I thought I would need were here. Oh glorious day. I doubt I need to go through the full upper assembly details on here as I am sure they are available elsewhere.. so I assemble the upper .. you might notice by now that I haven't mentioned a handguard, well the reason for that is that the last one went out of stock as I was filling my cart with goodies, funfun. Wait, it get's worse.. I lovingly place the upper on the lower and slide the pivot pin through, then I "close" the rifle and ATTEMPT to insert the rear pin. Not so much. The alignment is off maybe a half millimeter and will go if I force it but I am kind of twitchy about using a hammer to assemble an AR. Also there is a noticeable fitment issue where the upper and lower meet. Even with the pin started through by moderate force the seam where the upper and lower meet is wide enough to slide a credit card through. So back to the gun safe. To make this saga a bit shorter let's just say that a Bear Creek Arsenal lower doesn't fit much better. However for obvious reasons my Aero Precision rifle lower from my 6.5 PRC build fit just fine. But now I have a full stock on a 16" barrel (not my preference.. see again the comment on driving screws with a hammer). So back to the internet for more parts.
In for a penny in for a pound. I grabbed a stripped Aero lower (SKU# APAR308003C), a VLTOR EMOD 7 position buffer kit (VLOR p/n AEBK-A5B), and a Sig Tango MSR 1-10 x 28 (1/2 MOA adjust with 34mm tube diameter) online. Once those arrived I pulled a CMMG parts kit, my Magpul MOE K2+ grip, TRYBE ambidextrous charging handle, Greyman 45/90 degree ambi safety, and a Rise RA140 drop in trigger out of the safe and commenced work on 8.6 BLK 2.0. Everything went together nicely. Mostly. The CMMG bolt catch is squared off in the back and hit the lower housing towards the middle of the frame where it needs to pivot up to grab the bolt after the last round ejects. Aero Precision kits use a rounded catch so there was a bit of grinding.
But finally she was all done (see picture 1). I also think she looks pretty sharp, just cost significantly more than originally planned, and also wasn't the "LEGO" build you usually get from an AR. Oh well thems the brakes.
During break in my first 2 shot groups were pretty tight for just messing around. So on group #3, #4, and #5 I went ahead and tried to shrink them and then adjusted my scope zero. Might be a mistake and have to readjust later but as you can see in the pictures, not too bad for the first 15 rounds out of a new build. Pic 2 is group 2 and 3(@ 6mm total size) while pic 3 is group 4(@ 7mm) and 5(@ 9mm). I pulled the last shot of group 5, I knew it was bad before I even felt the recoil. But I was getting excited about the size of the groups, so of course I ruined it. Shots were at 100 yards with wind at 5 MPH and roughly 80% value. Ammunition was the Gorilla 8.6 BLK 210gr Barnes TSX supersonics.
So barrel choice, currently Faxon and that's all folks. Manufactured in 8", 12", and 16" lengths when available. I went with a 16 inch because anything shorter is blasphemy ( do NOT get me started on SBRs, I know they exist and I know some people like them, but to me it is like driving a screw into 2 pieces of wood with a hammer, sure it works.. but..)
Next I went with an Aero Precision M5E1 enhanced upper (SKU#APAR308504AC). I wanted a truly free floating handguard,(ie something that didn't even bolt to the barrel nut) which is where the fun starts... so I ordered this model about the time the barrels started the 7 day prerelease timer on the Faxon site. I also grabbed a standard gas block (0.875 ID) and carbine length nitride gas tube.. you know because BLK is in the name and I wanted it ALL black.
For the lower I had a Palmetto State Armory carbine lower sitting in the gun safe so that seemed a good foundation.. well it SEEMED that way.
The magic day arrives, the barrel is here, the upper is here, all my other parts I thought I would need were here. Oh glorious day. I doubt I need to go through the full upper assembly details on here as I am sure they are available elsewhere.. so I assemble the upper .. you might notice by now that I haven't mentioned a handguard, well the reason for that is that the last one went out of stock as I was filling my cart with goodies, funfun. Wait, it get's worse.. I lovingly place the upper on the lower and slide the pivot pin through, then I "close" the rifle and ATTEMPT to insert the rear pin. Not so much. The alignment is off maybe a half millimeter and will go if I force it but I am kind of twitchy about using a hammer to assemble an AR. Also there is a noticeable fitment issue where the upper and lower meet. Even with the pin started through by moderate force the seam where the upper and lower meet is wide enough to slide a credit card through. So back to the gun safe. To make this saga a bit shorter let's just say that a Bear Creek Arsenal lower doesn't fit much better. However for obvious reasons my Aero Precision rifle lower from my 6.5 PRC build fit just fine. But now I have a full stock on a 16" barrel (not my preference.. see again the comment on driving screws with a hammer). So back to the internet for more parts.
In for a penny in for a pound. I grabbed a stripped Aero lower (SKU# APAR308003C), a VLTOR EMOD 7 position buffer kit (VLOR p/n AEBK-A5B), and a Sig Tango MSR 1-10 x 28 (1/2 MOA adjust with 34mm tube diameter) online. Once those arrived I pulled a CMMG parts kit, my Magpul MOE K2+ grip, TRYBE ambidextrous charging handle, Greyman 45/90 degree ambi safety, and a Rise RA140 drop in trigger out of the safe and commenced work on 8.6 BLK 2.0. Everything went together nicely. Mostly. The CMMG bolt catch is squared off in the back and hit the lower housing towards the middle of the frame where it needs to pivot up to grab the bolt after the last round ejects. Aero Precision kits use a rounded catch so there was a bit of grinding.
But finally she was all done (see picture 1). I also think she looks pretty sharp, just cost significantly more than originally planned, and also wasn't the "LEGO" build you usually get from an AR. Oh well thems the brakes.
During break in my first 2 shot groups were pretty tight for just messing around. So on group #3, #4, and #5 I went ahead and tried to shrink them and then adjusted my scope zero. Might be a mistake and have to readjust later but as you can see in the pictures, not too bad for the first 15 rounds out of a new build. Pic 2 is group 2 and 3(@ 6mm total size) while pic 3 is group 4(@ 7mm) and 5(@ 9mm). I pulled the last shot of group 5, I knew it was bad before I even felt the recoil. But I was getting excited about the size of the groups, so of course I ruined it. Shots were at 100 yards with wind at 5 MPH and roughly 80% value. Ammunition was the Gorilla 8.6 BLK 210gr Barnes TSX supersonics.
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