Cav Arms Build Complete

I know it's been a while, but my plastic AR-15 is complete, and it looks good!

As you can read from earlier posts, I started with an OD Green Cavalry Arms lower receiver. I've documented the lower build, which was not without it's hardships.

Building the upper receiver had a whole new list of difficulties. I started by ordering a DPMS light profile 20" barrel. A deployment and a total of 7 months later, it was still backordered. I canceled the order with DPMS and ordered a similar Bushmaster barrel, which arrived in less than a month. It is a standard 20" barrel with a fixed A2 front sight post/gas block. It came with a rifle-length gas tube and black rifle length handguards. Basically, it was ready to install.

I also ordered an A2 upper receiver. It arrived long before the barrel, and I just stashed it away and forgot about it. Turns out it was an A1 upper(I checked the invoice, and it did indeed list an A2 upper. They sent the wrong one), and I had an A2 rear sight kit. All of it was ordered from Brownells. I kept the A1 upper, either to sell or for a future build, and ordered an A2 upper.

When the A2 upper arrived, installation of the rear sight kit wasn't hard, and didn't require all the special tools that some websites advocate. I did it with a punch set and a screw driver.

Installing the barrel wasn't hard, either. I borrowed a can of lithium grease from Josh at Abilene Indoor Gun Range, where I do most of my gun related business. Great guys. I sprayed the receiver threads with grease, installed the barrel and torqued the barrel nut to spec with a cheap torque wrench. I left the black handguards in the closet and installed a set of OD Green Cavalry Arms rifle length handguards to give it that two-tone look.

With the upper complete, I had to install the bolt carrier group, which I had ordered months before. Standard, cheap BCG. It went in just fine, but somewhere along the line I had forgotten to get a charging handle. I cannibalized it from my M4gery (which is now known as Tactibeast- that's another post) to test the rifle.

First time I took the gun out was on a trip with my sister and her boyfriend. I shot it first to make sure it functioned safely, but then both of them shot it and enjoyed it, even without a forward assist. That's another part I forgot to order. Along with the flash hider, but that is going to be permanently cannibalized from the Tactibeast.

At the end of the day, here's a bad picture of the rifle.