AR caliber and make advise

[threejones]

I'm making my first jump into Black Guns, and I know next to nothing about them, so bear with me a little on this one. First, 223 is not an option, I've got a 223 remmy bolt gun, that I don't care to shoot. This build is mainly for deer, coyote, and wolves, but might see a little duty as a hog gun in Texas (if I'm lucky) I don't see it being used at much more than 300-400yds. And I'd like something my wife can pack around and enjoy shooting (she's ok with the recoil of my Tikka T3 in 243 but I don't think she'd like much more)

I'd like to use a SI Defence lower because they are a local builder, and with the way national gun laws are changing, it might be in my favor to have a lower made in Montana. The problem is that I don't know enough about ARs to know if SI is even building a good lower.

If SI lowers are good enough to build a accurate, reliable, rifle. I figured I'd pick up an upper in maybe 6.5 creedmore, 6.8spc, or 6.5 grendel... I just don't know. I don't want to move up to an AR10, so that seems to rule out most of the big kid calibers(at least most of em that I hand load for), so what does that leave me, and how much money am I going to have to drop on this thing? I don't need anything fancy or impressive, just the best upper for the dollar. I've hear Rock River is a good one, but I don't know if they're still making the Creedmore, or if the cost isn't worth it.

Any input I can get would be great. I asked about this kind of build on the AR 15 site, and I got a bunch of BS from AR shooters, not hunters. Plus, they all expected me to dump a grand worth of extras on it. I just want to slap on a scope and sling and go... that's it.

Thanx guys
Cody

 

[threejones]

Anyone? Maybe I should just work on cycling my bolt faster. Poor mans semi auto...

 

[brentc]

Anyone? Maybe I should just work on cycling my bolt faster. Poor mans semi auto...

A 6.8 SPC with a spec II chamber would work for what you want in your choice of a standard AR lower. There is some fantastic ammo available for it and it packs plenty of punch for for deer out to 400 yards.

Bison Armory has a solid selection of upper assemblies in your choice of configuration for decent prices. Bison Armory

 

[texas]

For the punch and mild recoil, I would say 7.62x39. Might get some flak about it but plenty of cheap ammo and Hornaday has some new stuff out.

 

[texas]

For the punch and mild recoil, I would say 7.62x39. Might get some flak about it but plenty of cheap ammo and Hornaday has some new stuff out.

 

[Malchira]

Cody,

The 6.5 Creedmoor won't fit in an AR15 receiver. You'd have to go to the AR10 for that.

 

[Kino74]

Like the above post the 6.5 Creedmoor will require a .308 sized lower. If you go with a 5.56 sized lower, you could swap back and forth between the 6.5 grendel and 6.8. The good news on the 6.5 Grendel is that since SAMMI has now adopted the cartridge, Alexander Arms has relinquished its trademark on the cartridge and Hornady now makes ammo for that caliber. I'd go with the 5.56 sized lower and mate it with either the 6.8 or 6.5 Grendel. I'm partial to the Grendel mainly due to its longer range capabilities but either one of those calibers should be able to do the job.

 

[threejones]

Like the above post the 6.5 Creedmoor will require a .308 sized lower. If you go with a 5.56 sized lower, you could swap back and forth between the 6.5 grendel and 6.8. The good news on the 6.5 Grendel is that since SAMMI has now adopted the cartridge, Alexander Arms has relinquished its trademark on the cartridge and Hornady now makes ammo for that caliber. I'd go with the 5.56 sized lower and mate it with either the 6.8 or 6.5 Grendel. I'm partial to the Grendel mainly due to its longer range capabilities but either one of those calibers should be able to do the job.

Kino74, thanx, that sounds like the way to go. I've heard the grendel has relatively mild recoil (at least it shouldn't be much worse than a 243), and the Hornandy website shows a couple different bullet choices for hand loading, so it seems to fit the bill.

Does anyone other than Alexander make an upper in the grendel? I'm also curious as to the quality of the SI Defence lower. The guy at one of the local gun shop mentioned that SI stuff is way overpriced and nothing special at all... but the same guy told me that the AR15 lower won't work with a 6.5Grendel upper assembly...

Any thoughts on the SI Defence stuff? If it's not up to par, I figured I'd go with a DPMS lower or maybe Rock River. Unless someones got a better idea.

Thanx guys,
Cody

 

[Kino74]

Have you considered a stag arms lower? They're very nice and have a large stag imprinted on the side. I have a stag arms lower I am using on my M4 style AR15 and its a nice lower. On the Stag Arms website you can see the Stag imprint.

Stag Arms - Worldwide Leader In AR Manufacturing

There are a lot of good lowers out there so don't pay an arm and leg for one.

 

[brentc]

Another good manufacturer is Mega Machine in Tumwater, WA. They are some of the best receivers I've seen and they are a great price. They have standard forged and billet if you prefer.

Mega Arms :: Component Catalog

 

[threejones]

Have you considered a stag arms lower? They're very nice and have a large stag imprinted on the side. I have a stag arms lower I am using on my M4 style AR15 and its a nice lower. On the Stag Arms website you can see the Stag imprint.

Stag Arms - Worldwide Leader In AR Manufacturing

There are a lot of good lowers out there so don't pay an arm and leg for one.

Just checked out the Stag site, They look pretty good. I'm a southpaw, so their lefty guns really caught my eye. That might just be the way to go.
thanx

 

[threejones]

How adout some feed back on the SI Defence stuff? Their shop is about 10 min from my house, so I'd still like to go with them, unless they suck...

 

[Outlaw6.0]

Just checked out the Stag site, They look pretty good. I'm a southpaw, so their lefty guns really caught my eye. That might just be the way to go.
thanx

Southpaws unite!! lol I have two Stag setups, one in 6.8SPC & the other in 5.56. I also run a Rock River lower on my .50 Beowulf.... & a DPMS AR-10 in .243.

The Stags are treating me really well, I can't say anything bad. The Rock River is still pretty new (first one I assembled myself) but so far function is 100% with the whoppnig 30 rounds of .50 cal i've run through it. I can't help you with the lower you are talking about, haven't gotten my hands on one. Stag caters very well to the Lefties of the world so they got my business....

 

[threejones]

Southpaws unite!! lol I have two Stag setups, one in 6.8SPC & the other in 5.56. I also run a Rock River lower on my .50 Beowulf.... & a DPMS AR-10 in .243.

The Stags are treating me really well, I can't say anything bad. The Rock River is still pretty new (first one I assembled myself) but so far function is 100% with the whoppnig 30 rounds of .50 cal i've run through it. I can't help you with the lower you are talking about, haven't gotten my hands on one. Stag caters very well to the Lefties of the world so they got my business....

I just took another look at the Stag site. They are showing a different lower for the 6.8 than the 5.56. What's the difference? I thought the point of the 6.8 was that it fit a standard 5.56 lower.