What length for first SBR?

[TriggerHappy]

I would also recommend the LLC or Trust route. And the last 4 forms took 6months +/- a week. Shoot me a PM if you have any questions.

[JohnnyEgo]

7.5" is not very forgiving. You have a very short gas tube and no real barrel to give you any dwell time after the gas block. You end up with high pressures over short distances and short periods of time, which is hard on the gun.

My first go-round with this gun was a Noveske barrel, Vltor receiver and low profile gas block, an LMT enhanced BCG, and a Vltor receiver with H3 buffer. It ran like crap. First it was short stroking. Tried swapping buffers, but that wasn't it. Plenty of high pressure, but it was bleeding off before the bolt fully unlocked. Had to swap out to a non-enhanced carrier (without the extra hole) to stop bleeding off the gas. Then I had bolt bounce. H3 was too heavy, H was too light. Had to go with an H2 to get it to run reliably on cheap 55gr XM193.

I know a bit about ARs, and I have friends who know a lot more about them then I do. I also worked in a gun shop and range with a ton of parts to swap in and out, so none of this was insurmountable. They also wisely kept me from just drilling the gas port. The point of all this is that the shorter you get, the more of a crapshoot things are. Maybe everything works out just fine. Or maybe you end up constantly adjusting a thousand things at some expense until you get frustrated or broke.

If this is your first SBR, and you are going to build it yourself, I'd highly recommend sticking with a more common length. 10.3 is fine, 11.5 is better, 12.5 is the most forgiving.

And to shill for the man I was impressed with locally, Bert of BPTactical does a hell of a job cutting and properly threading barrels.

I don't know Colorado geography very well as a newcomer, but if you are ever up in the Greeley/Windsor/Ft Collins area and you give me enough notice, I can probably let you try a couple different ARs with short barrels and you can get a feel for it yourself.

The super obscure 9.5":

[asmo]

10.5 for your first.. Learn it and then start making more in different sizes shapes and colors.