By Joe Ferronato
There’s something to be said about customizing your gear. You get to make it exactly how you want. Unfortunately, most things in life don’t allow for that complete customization, but you can get damn close when you assemble your own AR-15. It’s not a cake walk, but if you have the tools, patience, and extra takedown pin detents, you’ll get a gun assembled no problem.
Why Should You Build Your Own?
It’s a valid question considering there are myriad options for buying a completed rifle off the shelf. It’s a simple answer: cost. You can assemble a quality rifle with quality components for a far lower price than a similar rifle off the shelf.
The flip side of that coin is time. You will spend time sorting through droves of different uppers, lowers, barrels, handguards, and other accouterment to make your rifle your own. Once you decide on what to buy, you’ll order it or find a store that has it in stock. More time.
After you have all your components, you’ll spend a couple of hours putting it all together. But once you’re done, you’ll have one hell of a rifle that you’ll be all too familiar with.
Building with Aero and Ballistic Advantage
A few years ago, I built one of these rifles to make it my own. The exterior—upper, and lower,—is all made up of parts from Aero Precision, excluding the stock and pistol grip, which came from Magpul. The internals—barrel, bolt, charging handle, etc.—are all from Ballistic Advantage. The handguard and all the additional fun parts came in a kit from BA as well.
The assembly was straightforward, and it came together very well—especially after consulting the expertise of far more knowledgeable folks than myself…and YouTube.
The process was great and the finished product was much more meaningful than buying a gun straight off the shelf. But, after shooting it just a few times, it took up a comfortable spot in my safe for far too long.
Just recently, I grabbed it to compete in The Tactical Games. With only minimal training time with the gun, I was confident in it but didn’t fully grasp its capabilities. I knew it grouped well and ran flawlessly, but I had no idea what the outcome would be playing in the dirt for a weekend in Rigby, Idaho.
Into the Arena
For those unfamiliar with The Tactical Games, it’s a competition designed to test for physical ability through a series of stages that include hard workouts and even tougher shooting. None of the shooting is very long distance, but it’s far enough to make it tough while shooting in awkward positions at small targets. Especially when your heart rate is spiked from dragging or carrying hundreds of pounds right before you squeeze the trigger. Oh, and you’re on the clock. Oh, and every miss counts against your time and your total score.
All in all, it’s a fun event and it points out anything lacking in your training and your gear. Luckily for me, the rifle performed excellently and shot just as accurately as I remember—my pistol choice, not so much—but that’s another story. It was comfortable to shoot and stacked shots on the tiny targets from the vast array of shooting positions required for the different stages.
Competing on a team, we finished in fourth. I would’ve liked to have taken the whole thing, but that was no fault of the rifle. Though the rifle shot well and I was happy with the performance, the LPVO from Crimson Trace that was on there wasn’t the right choice. It worked but needed an update.
Upon returning from the match, I put on a Leupold Mark 5 2-10×30 with a 45-degree mount holding a Delta Point Pro. With the new optics, the rifle will perform in any scenario I need it to.
Fine Tuning the DIY Aero AR
With the new optics on the range, I can be lethally accurate out several hundred yards while being able to engage close targets with the red dot when the occasion calls for no magnification.
To summarize, I couldn’t be more pleased with the rifle I built—er, assembled. It never had an issue being dragged through the dirt and being inundated with dust, and is accurate as all get out. It’s not going to stay in the safe as much going forward…I need to stand on the podium at my Tactical Games event.
Cost: Varies based on selected components.
Pros: Accurate rifle at a fraction of the cost of one off the shelf; customized to your desired needs; great functionality; building your own AR teaches you a great deal about your weapon system.
Cons: You’ll come up with new cuss words when a detent flies across the room for the 20th time. It’s likely you won’t build just one.
