I mean, people living in huts with goats and without electricity can do it. You have no excuse. But building an AR it is not.

 

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49 COMMENTS

  2. The actual AK I have kinda sucks and that’s what motivated me to find a different path. ARAK. Best one I’ve built so far. Bear Creak has the parts.

  3. I’d love to build an AK, and have the means to do it, but I just don’t know anyone yet to point me in the right direction.

    Meaning, finding someone to consult and do some of the critical work required so it’s done correctly…

    • I hear ya Geoff. I ain’t paying anyone to help either. Completely self taught. Thank God for YouTube…

    • I’m one of those that – in the back of my mind – always sees an AR as “Murica” and an AK as “Taliban/Vietcong/Russkie”. Can’t shake it. I’ll stick with my ARs.

      • I get that, I really do. OTOH as I have iterated before, I do find delicious irony in fighting them with their own weapoons they greedily sold us evil capitalists.

        I mean, they have no qualms in doing the same. See referenced Taliban. Rules? There are no rules.

        Would recommend upgrading/building them to the maximum extent in performance and force multipliers so you have the advantage though.

      • Spot on Haz.
        My 7.62 piston driven SHTF rifle is a Patriot Ordinance Factory AR-10. In 7.62 NATO. 👍

    • An AK can be made from flat sheet metal bent into shape and riveted.

      A SKS will take bar stock and a milling machine.

      • I bet someone has an 80-percent SKS lower available somewhere.

        An 80-percent AK or a bare ‘flat’ are out there…

  5. A friend of mine built some AKs about 10 years ago. He bought the receivers as flat pieces of metal and built a press to form them. They worked well. We worked together every day until he left the company in 2011 or 2012. Saw him again a while ago…… He’s change some since when we worked together.

    That guy is now a gal, went through the change three years ago.

    • “That guy is now a gal“

      That’s not surprising, there are many studies showing that exposure to petroleum solvent vapors and volatile organic compounds can cause the testicles to shrink as well as impairing production of testosterone.

      That’s why everybody used to call Hoppe’s #9 ‘Love Potion #9’ in an ironic twist.

    • “That guy is now a gal, went through the change three years ago.”

      No, he only thinks he’s a gal, unless he’s capable of getting knocked up.

      Here’s the thing – I refuse to recognize someone’s delusion as being reality…

      • EDIT –

        If he wants to think that, he can go right on ahead.

        In no way will I allow him or anyone else to force me to believe or recognize his mental illness is reality…

        • Calling it a mental illness is not accurate.

          “In some cases, infants have external sex organs that don’t match their internal reproductive organs. For example, a female infant can have external sex organs that resemble male genitals but have typical internal female organs — ovaries and a uterus.

          In these so-called “intersex” cases, treatment may be delayed until puberty or adulthood so that patients and doctors can make shared decisions, according to the study’s first author, Dr. Banu Kucukemre Aydin, a researcher at Istanbul University in Turkey, and her colleagues.

          For their study, the researchers analyzed data on nearly 14,200 newborns. Of those, 18 had ambiguous genitalia. That’s a rate of 1.3 in 1,000 births — much higher than the rate of one in 4,500 to 5,500 reported in previous studies, Aydin said in a news release from The Endocrine Society.“

          https://www.webmd.com/parenting/baby/news/20190503/study-about-1-in-1000-babies-born-intersex

        • Miner, how is gender dysphoria not mental illness? Rare intersex cases aren’t anything like getting a sex change

        • “Rare intersex cases“

          It isn’t all that “rare”…

          “For their study, the researchers analyzed data on nearly 14,200 newborns. Of those, 18 had ambiguous genitalia. That’s a rate of 1.3 in 1,000 births“

          Do the math.

          That’s over 400,000 Americans who may suffer from gender ambiguity.

        • So, MinorLiar, what is the statistical instance of ACTUAL intersex people born. Go on, look it up, we’ll wait.

          Too f***ing lazy to do it, or does it just blow your stupid narrative right the f*** up??? Which is it MinorLiar????

          Well, since you’ll either be lazy, or just lie about it, the actual statistical incidence of “intersex” is 0.017%.

          https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/12476264/

          And you and your IDIOT, LYING Leftist/fascist morons want to make public policy based on an actual incidence rate of 0.017%.

          Go fornicate yourself, you lying, Leftist/fascist idiot.

      • Yep, no matter what they cut off or added on you are defined by your DNA. Rachel Levine looks like a man in drag because that is what he is, and despite the award from Babylon Bee he clearly didn’t deserve “man of the year” funny joke though!

        • “no matter what they cut off or added on you are defined by your DNA“

          Where did you receive your medical degree? You might want to ask for your money back…

          “Congenital sex chromosome abnormalities occur in at least 1 in 448 births [1]. (See “Genetics: Glossary of terms” and “Genomic disorders: An overview”.)“

          https://www.uptodate.com/contents/sex-chromosome-abnormalities

          “Turner syndrome is a condition of females who, in the classic form, carry only a single X chromosome (45,X). Turner syndrome is characterized by a collection of symptoms, including short stature, webbed neck, and incomplete or absent development of secondary sex characteristics, leading to infertility. Although Turner syndrome is seen in about 1 in 2,500 to 1 in 5,000 female live births, the 45,X karyotype accounts for 10 to 20 percent of the chromosomal abnormalities seen in spontaneously aborted fetuses“

          https://www.britannica.com/science/human-genetic-disease/Abnormalities-of-the-sex-chromosomes

        • “Where did you receive your medical degree? You might want to ask for your money back…”

          Bad argument tactic. Don’t argue from an presumed authority you don’t hold. It can just as easily be used right back at you.

          So, Miner… Where did you get your medical degree?

        • “Don’t argue from an presumed authority you don’t hold“

          Exactly, the original poster was presuming an authority he did not have, as I pointed out.

          And I’m not presuming an authority, I am providing three different reference links supporting my position that hundreds of thousands of Americans have ambiguous sexual characteristics and chromosomal abnormalities that show the juvenile claims of ‘only male or female humans’ to be misinformed.

        • MinorLiar,

          You just can’t help but spew lies, can you, MinorLiar? Please post the definition of “Congenital sex chromosome abnormalities” used in your supposed “study. Go on, we’ll wait.

          As I’ve already schooled your lying @$$, actual “intersex” births have a statistical occurence of 0.017%. There are other “abnormalities” that occur, ALSO very rarely. The COMBINED incidence of ALL of these “abnormalities” as 1 in 448 is a crock of shit, but MOST of these “abnormalities” have nothing to do with sexual differentiation, do they, you lying piece of canine excrement.

          MinorLiar, I hate idiots, and I hate Leftist/fascists, but I hate f***ing LIARS most of all – you hit the trifecta, you useless pile of camel dung.

  7. I’ve been through several building phases. Started by assembling a few FN-FALs when kits were inexpensive and contained all the parts, including the barrel. Still had to do the compliance part thing. I sandblasted them to bare metal and parkerized them with chemicals from Brownells, then Ceracoated a couple of them, even shortened the barrel and gas system to make a carbine. They were fun, but took some specialized tools (which I built) to torque the barrel to spec and adjust the headspace correctly.

    Next phase was assembling a bunch of AKM kits, when they were $89 each! Built jigs to bend the flats and some rivet setting tools for front and rear trunnions, and spot welding in rails, etc. They were fun, and a lot more to building than assembling an AR from a pile of pre-built parts.

    My latest thing was AR building. 80% lowers are pretty easy, so after one of those I went to building 0% lowers from raw forgings. I have a vertical mill and a lathe, so all doable, but it requires precision work and takes some time. I have a pile of a few forgings with unrecoverable errors…. The fun part of the AR building was putting together my own anodizing tank and learning to etch in the markings and then anodize.

    I bought a couple of HK91 kits, but never could work up the gumption to build the tooling necessary to bend one of those receivers. Of the less exotic builds (not counting de-milled Browning BMGs, etc. ) I suspect the HK or CETME builds are likely the most difficult. Requires precision bending and some pretty intricate TIG welding.

    Next endeavor will be some 3D printing. DEFCAD has a lot of fun stuff, including plans to electromachine your own 5R, gain twist rifling in high strength seamless tubing for barrels.

  8. I have both a heavily modified AK, a SAM7R which is a milled high-end Arsenal Circle 10 and then my AR build in 300 AAC.

    The question being, which would I rather build and work on? The AR. While the AK is a simple design and simple to field strip, building them is a different story.
    Everybody and their drunk sister with a machine shop wants to have and market AR accessories, not so with AKs. The ability to widely customize with a gazillion options simply isn’t there for the AK platform, certainly not to the extent of the AR.

    I love my SAM7R as much as I do my AR 300 build which I sunk a hefty chunk into buying the best of the best of the best SIR, but the AR is much funner to work on. The AK is just too limited.

    • Nice, but you haven’t been shopping the right places if you can’t find many AyK tuning bits. Sure you can’t find a monolithic flat top, but… I will agree to the AyR having greater availability here and more diversity, much worse if you had limited yourself to this side of the pond. With sanctions on that tip, we’re pretty well SOL on the Rus market now.

      Oh, you can try, but Cust0ms seizure chances are high. To the point where certain retailers, even those Russian entities with a DBA’s operating in the states won’t endanger their margins. 4Shooters for instance. They will on the other hand, attempt to drop ship for you as long as you accept the risks involved. Some make use of a very expensive re-mailing service located in another country with repackaging. Ivan the Bear and a couple of others do this.

      Don’t even consider doing a charge back if they seize your package. Responsibility is on you, because I am fully illuminating you on the wager.

      Won’t bother with listing other Russian companies I used to deal with. Won’t be of any use until sanctions are lifted, which may very well be never. Prices on remaining Rus inventory over here are ludicrously high. Going rate is 3x pre-war prices on almost everything. Missed the boat in that respect. Mostly everything was sold out in a rush as of the first opening week of hostilities.

      39Bullets in Kazakhstan (sanctioned obviously, same hazards as above for ordering) will get you almost anything you want on request for a nominal charge even if they do not carry it in inventory. IPSC Store in Estonia used to be flush with competition parts, but unfortunately Estonia sanctioned Russia as well, so that’s a mostly dead avenue except for the ever dwindling remaining inventory.

      I ordered a Ti gas piston from Ivan right before hostilities kicked off, incorrectly shipping one for an AyKM instead of the V3pr 12. Unfortunately sanctions were levied and took effect about 3 days before it hit my doorstep and discovered the problem. So no opportunity to rectify the situation and I can’t justify the reshipping methods expense. Still have a few FB Rad0m 80’s I am collecting parts to build out, so it’s of use regardless.

      Stateside manufacturing companies such as RS Regulate, Midwest Industries, Krebs, Warsaw Wood, (some) CSS, and others have decent repertoire you might want to look into.

  9. People living in huts with goats can do it.
    in some countries people dont have to be in the hut
    – – –
    “I made an AR”.
    No you didn’t, all you did was assemble and fit parts.
    Home made Ice Cream starts with raising a cow.

    • “Home made Ice Cream starts with raising a cow.”

      Or goats. Some of the best ice cream we made on the farm was made with fresh goat milk. Gotta be fresh, or it can get “goaty” as Mom described it. A bit of Jersey cream from the neighbors, and sweetened with buckwheat honey or maple syrup. The honey recipe takes a bit more stirring, because honey doesn’t incorporate as readily as maple syrup, but oh man.

      Now, one hand on the ice cream freezer crank and the other on the drill press would be the ticket, but the gun building didn’t come until later.

      • We always put a folded towel on top of the ice cream freezer, you can sit right on top and crank with left, then right, makes it much easier.

        Be sure to sprinkle a little rocksalt in as you’re loading in the ice, lowers the temperature of the slush.

  13. I don’t think it’s too hard but the thing is you need a lot of specialized tools. You need a press, riveting tool attachment for your bolt cutters, bolt cutters if you don’t have them, receiver folding tool, one of those extremely long drillbits which I forget the name of, a drill press, and I think I’m missing something else.

  15. In answer to Miner49er and his reference to the occurrence of Hermaphroditism in Newborns, American Academy of Pediatrics studies show that the actual rate is between 1:1500 – 1:2000. 99% of the time, only one set of genitalia functions. Typically, if the babies chromosomes are XY, the babies male parts function. If XX, the female parts function. Hermaphroditism can be caused by a number of factors, including Congenital Adrenal Hyperplasia, but typically in humans, it’s the result of Fetal Hormonal Imbalance.
    I object to the term Intrasex. The term assumes that both sets of genitalia function normally, and that’s not the case most of the time. The hormones responsible for ontogeny, begins secreting at 8 -9 weeks and fully developed at 17 to 18 weeks gestation.

    C.Cochran RN (Ret), BSN, MS, ACLS, PALS, Acredited Neonatal Nurse.

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