StrangerDanger

I hear ya. I was kicking myself for not manning up and buying a mill when I did mine. It would be one of those jobs where it would be extremely easy then. I think a mill and a small lathe are on the to do list by the end of the year. Did you use a torch or a heatgun to break the locktite? I recently purchased a MAPP torch for some of these jobs the heatgun won't cut.

Thanks. Now you see why I like the Oregon scenery. Everything here is hot and sharp. That area is about five minutes from my house. The Colorado river can be seen off in the distance.

Glad I could help. I know there was minimal information available when I needed to do my 11703. Everyone pretty much said it was impossible to do without destroying the receiver. Did you use a drill press with a vice to make your relief cut?

I only had a couple stoppages with the #8 crap ammo. I bought some polishing compound recently. I've been buffing mainly the bolt carrier lately. Mainly on the rails, where the hammer rides and the notch that actuates the breech latch. The polishing compound is kind of slow going. I need to look into my technique to speed it up some. I've been using a cotton wheel and a Dremel. Here are a couple older pictures showing how close the light is to the muzzle. The rear of the handguard limits how close you can make it without relieving the handguard.

No movie, just pictures.

Took these today. Ran another 150 thru the build.

The SideArmor rail will work fine with the LaRue mount. I had one before and had no issues.

Shooting fast is fun and showing off the capabilities of the weapon and how it and you handle recoil. You should really be trying never to lock the bolt back on your M4. If you're not shooting, you should be reloading. The only thing I could see doing a mag dump on is a bear/wild animal where you're stuck waiting for the thing to be within 50 feet before you start putting a wall of lead between you and it. You probably shouldn't have the M4 if you're in bear country anyway. At the very least, it should be filled with slugs. Maybe full of those steel Duplex Hexolite32 slugs. I don't know, not many bears in Arizona.

If the 2moa dot optic was available when I purchased my M4's Aimpoint T1, I would go with it. I'd rather the option of the precision cleaner dot. It's just as fast as the larger dot. I hear you on the price. I don't add the parts up.

It's mainly LaRue mounts that are no go with the factory rail. Other mounts that use a full cross bolt design that spans the sight channel cut are normally fine. Here is the damage done to a LaRue mount when paired with the factory rail. The damage occurs during recoil. Yes, the mount I use is a LaRue Tactical LT661. The top rail is a carriercomp rail. A FFT rail would also suffice.

Using the T1 with the collapsible stock is the best option. When using the collapsible stock in the middle position, it raises your cheek weld slightly. Even with the low LaRue mount, the Aimpoint sits higher than the iron sights. I noticed an improvement in my cheek weld when I went from the fixed pistol grip stock to the collapsible stock for this exact reason.

My setup around 2005 with an EOTech 552. Wore the EOTech out on the M4. Shot it until the reticle was fuzzy. It was also rather top heavy. Figure the EOTech 552 is about 11.5 ounces.

I'm a fan of the Aimpoint T1 on the low LaRue mount. They're like cheating when it comes to speed and target acquisition.

So, is the Tacstar +2 extension still for sale?

Controlled Chaos does good work and is reasonably fast. Most of my orders took about 3 weeks door to door. They so custom PITA stuff too like these handguards: My barrel/receiver was done in Burnt Bronze Cerakote by another company, WMD Guns. The match is identical between the two coaters. Great job Tango Two, looks much better.

The carriercomp is titanium and steel. It uses a steel tang to reduce wear on the tip where it engages the bolt carrier. Even with it having steel, the cup is super lightweight and doesn't add much weight.

The 24.5 gram GG&G bolt handle I had years ago slowed my action speed enough for me to notice/feel. I think I chucked it in the lake.

I figure if you are cutting an 18.5" down, it might be worth considering. Kip said he would do a custom length if needed. I'd probably need an M300 Scout then! A concept build I was thinking about, this is more like a 10.5" barrel;

Completely agree with the weight assessment. I moved away from full rail systems on my AR15's for the same reason. I had the older SideArmor top rail for a while in order to mount my light. Then I transitioned to the Surefire M80 with an offset mount. I hated the ergonomics and wished I was running the factory handguards again. It bugged me for about a year before I had enough of it and decided I would fix the problem myself. I hacked up a set of FFT handguards and mounted an IWC light mount to the plastic handguard. Fun ensued as I filled around the mounting points with epoxy. Then I had the parts refinished in Cerakote. While it doesn't look 100% perfect, it is 100% functional. The only thing that would make this better would be if it was a 14" rig, or an even shorter 12.5" custom job.

No coating on the ARGO plugs or the barrel itself. Mainly because I couldn't get the ejector out of the barrel without a major PITA. Fitment would have been a nightmare if the insides of the piston housing was coated. Even though I sanded down some of the finish, I didn't sand all the way through it. So the Nickel Boron is still present on the piston "rings." It just has a polished look now. The pistons are meant to free float, but have a relatively tight seal. No force should be required to move the pistons fore and aft. When I went through my 300 rounds, there was some resistance. I was hoping the finish would polish out by itself. This didn't happen, so I figured I'd polish them until they fit. It only took about 3 minutes for each piston with the poor man's lathe. I didn't have a breech latch spare. I think I recently ordered one from Brownells, but it's in limbo. I polished the engagement point on the bolt carrier, but didn't detect any discernible difference. I'll take it out and test it again when my shoulder can take another round.

Fixed the pistons. Used my poor man's lathe (chucked each piston up in my hand drill) and spun them inside some 1200 grit sandpaper for a few minutes. I kept test fitting until they fit perfectly. Now the M4 has that telltale rattle can sound when tipping the muzzle. I'm wondering if the tight fit of the pistons was slowing the bolt travel to the point that it was hanging up on the latch. One thing that worked out really well was the weapon light mount. I didn't have any issues with it getting in the way of my support hand. The few times I reached out for the button, it was easy to find. It also handled all the recoil I could throw at it.