ar uppers

[starmac]

About all I truly know about ARs is how to pull the trigger.
There is some left handed Ar uppers for sale here. Can these be used to convert an Ar to left hand or is there more needed??
I see uppers and lowers listed all the time, there is even an outfit building lowers here, would that be considered the action on a standard rifle?

[MtGun44]

Upper and bolt need to be left handed. The upper has the ejection port on the left and
the bolt has the extractor and ejectors rearranged to eject to the left.

All else should be the same.

The lower holds the hammer, trigger and the mag, plus the stock and pistol
grip attach here. The upper has the bolt and carrier. The bolt locks into the
barrel extension, a small steel ring directly attached to the barrel - think
Mauser front action ring, so there is no real "action stress" on the upper, unlike a
Mauser or Win bolt gun. The upper only aligns the barrel and bolt/carrier
group and holds the rear sight.

Bill

[starmac]

Thanks, That is pretty much all I need to know for now. There is a guy here that has a couple left hand uppers listed for sale. I had thought about buying one and saving it, just in case I ever got the hankering to own an Ar if that was all that was needed to convert it to left hand. I guess common sense tells me that a different bolt would be required, but I wasn't sure what an upper consisted of.

[Dale in Louisiana]

Picked up my first AR in 1968, courtesy of Uncle Sam. Being cross dominant, I shoot more comfortably left-handed.

Seems to me that the controls on the upper aren't the issue, it's the stuff on the lower.

dale in Louisiana

[john hayslip]

Stag and Rock Island are two I am aware of that make left handed uppers.

[GabbyM]

I'm no AR smith. However I think its the bolt carrier and bolt that needs to be left handed. To place gas ports and cut out on left side. Bolts extractor and ejector are at about ten and four o'clock positions. Thus inverting a right handed bolt 180 degrees won't work.

[xacex]

Some of the kits I saw also had a new barrel extension. I don't know why you would need to replace that, but you may want to look into it because replacing a barrel extension is not a job for the average home-smith. Honestly, with the Brenton bump on the standard upper there is no issue for us south-paws. I would invest in a ambi charge handle, and safety. My though on this is it is best to stick with a standard upper because you will limit yourself on caliber choice due to the bolt. No 6.5 Grendel, 6.8 spc, Beowulf, 458 SOCOM or any of the other useful calibers now. You could do 5.56,300 BO, and the 6.5PCC and that is about it as a lefty gun.

[starmac]

I really have no plans to get an AR. I just noticed these and thought I might pick one up, incase I ever changed my mind, but I think I will pass.

[Jailer]

I'm no AR smith. However I think its the bolt carrier and bolt that needs to be left handed. To place gas ports and cut out on left side. Bolts extractor and ejector are at about ten and four o'clock positions. Thus inverting a right handed bolt 180 degrees won't work.

This is correct. Bolt, Bolt carrier and upper receiver are mirror image parts and will not interchange.