Recommend a lightweight AR 15 upper

L

lhitchcox

Member
I am in the first stages of putting together a light as possible AR. The lower is a Plum Crazy from JoeBob, and I want to match it with a lower cost lightweight upper. First question is how much weight do I save by using a pencil profile barrel as opposed to a standard M4 profile? Second question, are the Del-Ton and DPMS uppers of a good quality? Finally, where is a good place to purchase at the best price?

Thanks

Leon
 
That one won't work for me. I am left handed and that one doesn't have a brass deflector. The next one up is $419 with deflector and forward assist. Most likely, I will order it tomorrow. A local builder was supposed to call me last week with a quote to build one. Tomorrow I plan to call him and if he hasn't got the quote ready I will order the DPMS from Midway. In the builder's defense, he is moving his shop and it would be easy to lose the sticky note that had my information on it.
 
Last edited:
I built a lightweight using a model 1 kit with the 16" pencil barrel and a dpms lower that came in at 5.5lbs without scope. It shot well but as you would expect it did heat up fast.

Having a lot of different lowers laying around at the time i messured them all out just for grins and the dpms was 1/64th thicker than the others so it would have been just a tad heavier.(don't know if their still that way or not.)

The pc on that kit would be a great carry rifle.
 
A right hand upper doesn't bother me at all if it has a brass deflector. What I really have to have is a left hand or ambidextrous safety. It is looking like I will order the DPMS pencil upper from Midway @ $419 plus shipping. That would put the cost of the entire rifle under $600, maybe as low as $575.
 
Last edited:
Well I ordered the DPMS pencil barrel upper from Midway. My total cost on this complete rifle is $578. Now I just wait for the upper to arrive. Midway says seven days for it to arrive, but it usually only takes two days from the time they ship. I ordered late yesterday afternoon, so it should ship this afternoon.
 
That is not in the plan at all. My son has a couple of ARs tricked out and they are heavy. My goal was to get a very light weight rifle and put a simple 3-9 Ballistic plex scope on it. All parts are in place. The only possible change in the future would be to add a free float hand guard if the accuracy is not quite what I want.
 
I put together one with the same concept that you are striving for...Using a PC lower and I picked up a light weight upper from JSE Surplus when they were running a special on their uppers for $335... I picked up a 2.8-10x scope at my favorite pawn shop for $50, so my total investment at the time was $524...I've since installed a Levang type compensator on it for another $30 and the whole rifle weighs in at 5.5#, a full pound less than my DPMS bull barrel competition rifle..And, it's as accurate as I could ask it to be...

My "Lightweight":
PCAR2.jpg


My DPMS competition:
DPMSARa.jpg
 
This rifle's pretty light. If it had a PC lower, it would shave even more off.

DSCN0569-1.jpg


Fluted stainless 16" H-bar and a free-float tube. Fluting's expensive, though. A lighter barrel profile would lower the cost and likely be even lighter weight.

I wanted stainless because half my stands are in the rain.
 
Last edited:
Back
Top