AR-15 Casting....

[dk17hmr]

Well kind of. I was looking around and saw lead wedges to fit into the the butt stock of an AR-15. Being me, you know cheap, I looked at that and said I can make those. But how? I went out to the shop picked up some scrape Pine boards built a "mold" fired up the pot and waited. Before I poured the lead I thought I might want to pre burn the pine just to make sure it wouldnt pop on me, out came to propane torch and I was ready.


Pic of the "mold" and the wedge.
http://s48.photobucket.com/albums/f208/dk17hmr/?action=view&current=DSCF0021.jpg

http://s48.photobucket.com/albums/f208/dk17hmr/?action=view&current=DSCF0022-1.jpg

I poured the lead into the mold let it set up a bit and screated, like you would do to cement, the top with a chunk of oak to make it flat. Let it cool enough to unscrew the mold and take out the cast. I ended up having to round the edges over with a knife to make it fit, mold was a fuzz big. All in all it adds about 3 pounds to my rifle. I think I am going to make up a few more tomorrow because the mold held up pretty good, alot better then I would have thought.

[Blammer]

tell me why you want to add wt to your AR? I don't get it.

[imashooter2]

Makes it a steadier target rifle.

[dk17hmr]

With the AR-15 in the pic it didnt matter because it gets shot off the bench, but in general weight is added to aid in offhand shooting.

[mtnman31]

Adding the weight to rifle can help balance it out and also helps make the rifle steadier when shooting offhand. Some competitors will also add weight under the handgards of the AR rifles. It is not a cure all/ fix all solution, just something to help fine tune your shooting and hopefully tighten up the group a bit.

[garandsrus]

Doug,

Great idea on the mold.... I purchased my stock weight before I started casting.

John

[BD]

My DCM came with a 4 lb stock weight from Bushmaster. It adds a lot of stability to standing , off-hand.
BD

[Scrounger]

"Course" shooters I used to know added lead shot to the cavity in the butt stock to increase weight. That was cheating, of course, but not surprising. I've always thought the extra weight might help only if you shoot a lot, practice almost every day to build up your strength to hold it. For the more casual shooter who might practice once a week and shoot a match once a month, he would probably be better served by a lighter rifle; The extra 5 pounds of gun weight could sap his energy pretty quick.

[richbug]

I have been using a rubber glove filled with shot. Thought about making a wooden mould with my router, just never got around to it. I figured hard maple would hold up well enough for quite a few parts.

[BD]

The four pound weight in my DCM made "weight" for high power, not cheating at all.
That's added to an AR with a barrel that measures a full inch in diameter under the handguard. I don't remember the service rifle weight limit but I'm thinking it was around 13 lb. It's not the total weight that wears you down offhand, it's unbalanced weight. The heavier your barrel, the more weight you want in the butt stock. Your "off" hand is under the balance point with that elbow tight to your side above a cocked hip. The rifle wants to balance there, leaving the trigger hand to keep the butt stock tight to your shoulder and free for trigger control without any other strains.
BD

[Scrounger]

I don't think there is a max weight, the rule is against ANY modification. Such as adding weight. It is supposed to be "stock', as issued. The way I remember it anyhow.
Edit: And maybe that's wrong. Or maybe they changed it.... Even the NRA doesn't list any specs: http://www.nrahq.org/compete/highpower.asp

[garandsrus]

Scrounger,


I think the more correct verbage is "Any external modification" although this isn't a completely true statement either. For example, hooded rear sights and various front post width's are allowed. One of my rear sights is even altered by having pins put in to better track the windage when making elevation changes.

Internal modifications such as replacement triggers, free float tubes, recoil buffers, etc are allowed.

Here is a link to the NRA rule book for HighPower (http://www.nrahq.org/compete/RuleBooks/HPR/hpr-index.pdf) if you want to look up more detail.

The CMP "as issued" matches are much more stringent on the modifications allowed.

John

[GrizzLeeBear]

Scrounger, garandsrus is right. The Service Rifle rules don't allow any EXTERNAL modifications that alter the APPEARANCE of the rifle. With the exception of the hooded rear sight and front sight post width this has always been the rule for Service Rifle. Pinning the rear sight does not alter its exterior appearance, just makes it track better. There has never been a weight limit and adding weight has never been cheating. Match Rifles of course can pretty much do what they want.
As he said, maybe it was the CMP "as issue" matches you were thinking about (I think these are special matches that are only shot at Perry?) and not to be confused with the standard Highpower Service Rifle matches that are shot all over the country as well as the National Matches at Perry.

[Scrounger]

Scrounger, garandsrus is right. The Service Rifle rules don't allow any EXTERNAL modifications that alter the APPEARANCE of the rifle. With the exception of the hooded rear sight and front sight post width this has always been the rule for Service Rifle. Pinning the rear sight does not alter its exterior appearance, just makes it track better. There has never been a weight limit and adding weight has never been cheating. Match Rifles of course can pretty much do what they want.
As he said, maybe it was the CMP "as issue" matches you were thinking about (I think these are special matches that are only shot at Perry?) and not to be confused with the standard Highpower Service Rifle matches that are shot all over the country as well as the National Matches at Perry.

Could be; I obviously don't know a lot about it. Going out on a limb again, I think those "special matches" you speak of are what they call "Leg Matches". I believe these matches are used to accumulate points or "legs" to reach the status of Distinguished Rifleman and wear a gold pin.

[garandsrus]

Scrounger,

You are correct that the Leg matches are special Service Rifle High Power matches where you accumulate points towards Distinguished Rifleman. As a civilian, you can only shoot in three matches per year, plus the nationals at Perry. For these matches you must shoot either a Garand, M1A (M14), or an AR-16/M16. The 03 and 03A3 Springfields have been dropped for some reason. If you go to a match you will see about 95% AR's and 5% M1A's. Every once in a while you will see a Garand.

There are also NRA High Power matches where you can compete in either the Service Rifle or Match Rifle category. You can enter as many of these as you like.

Leg matches are not an "as issued" match such as a Garand, Springfield, or Foreign Military Bolt match, but they must be shot with one of the rifles mentioned above.

I shoot both Service Rifle and "as issued" matches and enjoy both. I am fortunate that it is only a two hour drive to Camp Perry.

John

[btroj]

The CMP has basically the same rules as NRA service rifle. The biggest difference is no sighters. You gotta know the sight adjustments cold. Both allow the pinned rear sight, different width front sights, hooded rear sights- with a lens if you want.
As for weight- my competition AR weighs around 13 pounds. Holds better offhand and moves a bunch less in rapid fire. In rapid prone the front sight pretty much stays on the target- before the weight it moved way off teh target with each shot.

And Yes, the CMP LEG matches are what gets you a "distinguished riflesman" badge- if you are good enough. Gotta be in the top 10 percent of non-distinguished shooters and even then you need to do that for 4 or more matches.

Brad- DRB 1679

[yammerschooner]

Thanks for the info., especially on pre-burning the wood. I tried using plaster paris for a mold for my 700 vs butstock last weekend, and it bubbled; failing miserably.

I will give this a shot next time I heat up some lead.

[hunterldh]

I'm going to give this a shot Thanks for the idea. - Hunter