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Thread: Building a Rifle for your Wife
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11 May 2014, 07:10 #1
Building a Rifle for your Wife
I know several of you have built or setup rifles for your significant others. Did you modify your existing setups for them or just build a rifle to their wants/needs?
I've finally decided to build my wife a rifle as she's finally taken some interest. That's mainly because she saw my CMT Titanium cerakoted receivers and decided that Tungsten cerakote would look good with pink furniture. I know... but whatever gets her interested.
Anyhow, at first I thought about just reconfiguring one of my existing rifles, but realized I don't have many Lightweight barreled uppers, and the ones I do have won't be getting torn apart. So I'm building this around a LW barrel. A few considerations:
Lightweight
Forged Receivers
Top Tier Components
Range Use mainly (100 yards in) but setup for HD
2 point sling
Red Dot Optic
And of course, whether I like it or not pink furniture. I'm building this for someone who has no previous experience with a rifle, so there will probably be a lot of trial and error on particular accessories on what feels comfortable.
Those of you that have built rifles for your ladies or not feel free to chime in as I've figured out not a lot of the components yet.
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11 May 2014, 07:27 #2
I will say this from my experience. Christina was very hands on and wanted to touch and feel how everything would feel on her rifle before she picked. She hated the MOE and the UCWRG grips but loved the way the Hogue overmolded grip with finger grooves felt. She hated my MOE stock but loves her CTR stock. Take her maybe out to Rainier and let her handle a lot of different components show her a lot of different configurations. Whatever you do don't tell her "NO" unless you have a good reason behind it.
She picked everything out except the receiver set.. but me knowing that she is a huge resident evil fan it was a no brainer to get the UCWRG receiver set. She told me she wanted a lightweight barrel so I go it from BCM. Other than that she picked every part on her rifle. Looking forward to seeing your build on this one.Just a regular guy.
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11 May 2014, 07:58 #3
I built my wife an AR from the ground up. Fortunately, she hates all the pink gun stuff.
When I was picking out parts, I went with top-shelf components as well. I gave her a few different options to choose from, explained the differences, and she picked out each part based on which she liked the best. We also went to about 4 or 10 gun shows so that she could fondle all the parts over and over again. She went lightweight on most everyting.
Seekins SP223 billet lower
RA upper, BCG, and Ambi CH
BCM LW 14.5 middy and low profile gas block
RA flash/brake
Noveske NSR 13.5 (BCM KMR wasn't out yet) and QD attachment
ALG ACT
BAD CASS regular/thin
BCM QD end plate
Magpul MOE stock
Hogue overmold grip
Magpul poly BUIS
EO Tech EXPS 2-2
Of course she then wanted a second one and had me get her a matched Noveske N4 chainsaw set from RA. slowly collecting parts for that one now. Probably going to SBR this one.
Sent from the center of the universe!
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11 May 2014, 08:08 #4
Are we taking pink pink? or a "shade" of red pink? The upper I'm going to chop into a car - dissy clone I did a purple tiger stripe pattern on. Rit dyed magpul FDE to make it work. So far it's held up quite well.
BCM makes this setup http://www.bravocompanyusa.com/BCM-B...16lw%20bfh.htm
I'm big on the idea of a fixed FSP for an HD gun, it's one less thing to worry about fumbling with in the dark.
If you do decide to dye or paint it, a magpul ACS-L stock balances out the front end weight nicely.
Also, for someone with little to no experience with rifles, I'd give them as much sight-post distance as possible. It will help with accuracy and in the long run build confidence that you can hold tight groups.Last edited by camomike; 11 May 2014 at 10:46. Reason: taging pic
It's difficult to soar with eagles, when you work with turkeys...
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11 May 2014, 08:11 #5
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11 May 2014, 10:52 #6
Building a Rifle for your Wife
I did the same as airborne. Picked out companies I trusted, and let her pick from there. She really didn't care for lightweight tho. Think she cared more about its looks haha.
York arms custom lower
Cmmg lpk
Ati buffer kit
Mako stock
Stark industries grip w/ Qd point
Matrix upper
YHM low pro gas block
Yhm forearm
Green mountain barrel
Ra minicomp
Sent from my IPhone, please ignore spelling mistakes. Siri is dumb.
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11 May 2014, 11:13 #7Contributing Member
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I'm glad your wife is getting interested. I've been going though some of the same general exercises with my wife - across all three platforms (9mm pistol, shotgun, AR). I think you've made the right decision to make sure her stuff is hers, not yours. Thank goodness I didn't have pink color constraints.
Like others have mentioned, I found it crucial for my wife to put hands on assembled firearms. We pulled EVERYTHING out for her to handle and that allowed her to make pretty rational decisions even without tons of range time. From there, everything we have considered for her has been "up-sizable." If she doesn't like it, I'll get it. In fact, I hope she'll dislike the Sig 226 Elite SAO we're eyeing for her, cause I know I want it.
Onto your build, though....I'm going to offer a suggestion to discuss with your wife.
Hydrodipping instead of solid pink.
It opens up a lot of component choices for stock and grip that you don't have if you're trying to source factory parts. It might be a pain, sending out more parts, but you're already doing that to coat the receivers and the eyesight you save might be your own.
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11 May 2014, 11:15 #8
Unfortunately, several of you guys are correct. She cares a lot about how it looks, but whatever gets her on the range is my thing, so if it looks a little hokey, that's something I'm willing to do. I'll have her try out several stocks and grips to see what she likes. In the mean time, I'm going with a Forged Receiver set (manufacturer yet to be determined) and a LW .625 at the gas block barrel. BCM or DD.
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11 May 2014, 11:22 #9Contributing Member
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Forged SET that you're then coating? If you're not dedicated to the set, it might open some options......like getting a lower roll mark she likes (cough....Noveske chainsaw...cough) but putting it with an Aero or Rainer slick side upper. I know you said this might have an HD configuration, but she prefer omitting the FA (either for aesthetics or simplicity).
EDIT: Ooop, I see from another thread you're mulling over UCWRG. Another good rollmark and coating a HUUCR seems like an interesting option too.
And it sounds like you're going 14.5" on the barrel? At least that's my take if you're talking .625 blocks.Last edited by RiverRat; 11 May 2014 at 11:28.
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11 May 2014, 12:01 #10
RR,
I might have another 14.5" LW DD Barrel like the one you have floating around the house somewhere. If I do, then that's what I'll use. Otherwise, I'm thinking of a 16" BCM LW.
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11 May 2014, 12:06 #11Contributing Member
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Ah.
You know what's keeping me from building that DD barrel out? I'm missing a gas tube roll pin.....funny.
For your wife, I would have suggested a 16", simply because unpinned muzzle devices seem like a good thing for a person's first AR. But I think you might have enough experience to pick a suitable device for her :) Just don't coat it pink.
I was having trouble envisioning the combination your wife was chasing. I found this on Cerakote's site
Image credit: Cerakoteguncoatings.com
Note: edited to get titanium/pink instead of tungsten/pinkLast edited by RiverRat; 11 May 2014 at 12:22.
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11 May 2014, 12:13 #12
I think there was a slight misunderstanding. The receivers will not be cerakoted pink, they will be cerakoted in Tungsten. The furniture, stock, grip, rail covers, ect will be pink.
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11 May 2014, 12:25 #13
All of you have cool wives......like Comp; he has an uber-cool wife!
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11 May 2014, 12:32 #14
I truly did get lucky. And thank you Browcs for the compliment.
UWone77 I will say I have been extremely happy with the UCWRG receiver set. Jamie from Umbrella was extremely helpful and went above and beyond with customer service. The 14.5 LW barrel from BCM has been solid. No complaints from that either.Just a regular guy.
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11 May 2014, 12:39 #15
It may just be best to start with an A2 anyway. It shoots fairly straight and doesn't have the associated "scary" loudness to it. The first time I took my wife (then GF) to shoot an AR, it had a brake on it (it might have been a BattleComp, but I can't remember). She was leery of shooting it because it was loud and she was worried about recoil (despite there not actually being much on an AR). After we got married, we went to the range one day and were just shooting .22. A guy down the line had a mostly stock MOE 6920 and offered to let her shoot it. It wasn't quite so scary this time, but it was "still loud."
I had her shoot a few rounds with a can for the first time yesterday while shooting through an ACOG out to 100 and it was a much more enjoyable experience for her. 9/10 rounds within 3-4" of center, which is pretty good for the second real time behind an AR.