I like weapons based on the Armalite Rifle (AR) design and have owned a variety of them over the years including a variety of AR-15s from Colt, Rock River, Palmetto State Armory and others plus a whole slew of pistols.
I also like having cool T-shirts and hoodies that reflect my interests and opinions about firearms and the Second Amendment. So, I did some searching and found there are some great designs on eBay that you just might find of interest:
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I’m always searching for better lubricants. Many of the so-called specialty weapons lubes are just marketing hype with some bulk lubricant poured into their container. In terms of greases, I’ve used quite a few over the years including wheel bearing grease and Tetra Gun Grease. I wanted to find something effective, non-toxic and less expensive.
A name popped up when surfing – Super Lube. To be honest, the first few times I totally dismissed the name because it sounds like some overly-hyped wonder lube that is sold in infomercials. However, the name did keep popping up so I actually started reading up on it.
Super Lube products are made by Synco Chemical Corporation of Bohemia, NU, that was founded in 1980. Their specialization is in the space of synthetic food grade lubricants and hold a number of patents.
There are a number of interesting characteristics about their grease that should be noted:
To apply it, I use either a chip brush that I store in a zip loc bag to keep from getting dirty (as shown in the featured photo above) or a small flux / resin brush that I also keep in a baggy.
So, for the last few months I have been testing it. When I cleaned one of my rifles or pistols, I would replace whatever I had been using as grease with the Super Lube Multi-Purpose grease.
I go by the old saying that if it rotates, oil it. If it slides, grease it. That is my rule of thumb so it goes on AK rails, bolt carriers, where the trigger hook grabs the hammer, etc.
It works great! The weapons feel well lubricated after cleaning and they function great. When I take them apart again for cleaning, the Super Lube shows no sign of breaking down, drying out, becoming gummy, etc.
If you are looking for an excellent affordable grease, check out Super Lube. I’m definitely very happy with it.
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When I first heard of the .50 Beowulf cartridge, it got added to my bucket list immediately. What’s not to like – the ballistics of the .45-70 cartridge in an AR platform that hits like a freight train. Somewhat humorously, I’d also point out that it drops noticeably at 150 yards and like a pumpkin after 200 yards but boy, does it hit hard when it does.
I have fun assembling AR lowers the way I want them and figured I would save time and get an assembled upper. In early 2016, I looked at two different vendors of assembled uppers – Alexander Arms (AA), who was the originator of the cartridge, and Radical Firearms, a discount AR rifle and assembler of uppers and lowers in Texas. A basic AA upper was around $719 that did not have a brake (or threading) and basic handguards. A decent looking Radical unit in the generic 12.7×42 chamber was only $598. It seemed like a no brainer and I went with the Radical unit.
To jump ahead just a bit — I wish I had bought a better AA upper for $923-1190. The Radical upper caused me quite a bit of grief and I am going to chronicle my adventure here because I did get it to work out in the end and was very happy with the results but I had to work for it.
Radical Arms Challenges
When I first ran across Radical, I had high hopes. In an impulse buy, I purchased two 5.56 uppers and the 12.7×42 upper. In case you are wondering why I am listing 12.7×42, that is the generic designation for the .50 Beowulf cartridge that AA owns the intellectual property for. By using the metric designation, Radical could build an upper without paying anything to AA.
When I bought my uppers, Radical was undergoing a huge growth spurt and I had to wait some period of time (4-8 weeks maybe) for the uppers. That was not a big deal to me. The AR uppers arrived and while gritty and needing polishing, they worked. Basically, what you’d expect with relatively low cost mass assembled products.
The 12.7×42 upper was a different story. Sometimes it would cycle and sometimes it would not. Radical took forever to respond to emails and what not so I figured screw it, I’ll just treat the assembled upper as a collection of parts and move ahead. To be perfectly clear, I parted ways with Radical and did not give them a chance to fix it after I got frustrated by how everything was going.
So, I started researching on the web and found that Beowulfs use a bolt head that is slightly different than a 7.62×39 AR bolt. After cycling my rifle by hand over and over, I concluded the cartridge was not seating properly in the bolt face and ordered a true .50 Beowulf bolt directly from Alexander Arms (not Radical). Problem solved. It’s run perfectly ever since. Whether Radical installed the wrong bolt or an out of spec bolt, I don’t know. I threw the offending bolt in the trash and called it even,
Another irritation Radical caused me was when the handguard loosened up because they hadn’t used Loc-tite on the screws. My recommendation is to just use Blue Loc-Tite if you run into this – it worked fine for me. I like the handguard otherwise.
The one thing they got right was the barrel. I heard Satern made the barrel but don’t know for sure. It is wonderfully accurate with the big 350gr XTP hollow point cartridges that AA makes. I am very pleased with that combination.
Yes, I eventually got it to work. No, will not buy from Radical again but I definitely would buy more stuff from Alexander Arms. I dealt with them on the phone a few times for ammo as well as the website. The staff were pleasant to deal with and shipping was always prompt.
Addressing Recoil
I was not impressed by the muzzle brake that Radical supplied and started researching the best brake for the Beowulf. Bear in mind the muzzle has a pretty unique thread at 49/64″-20 threads per inch (TPI). In addition, I knew I would need a jam nut to address the timing so the brake could be level on the barrel and it needed to be steel and not aluminum.
The Timber Creek Beowulf Brake Rocks!
To make a long story short, Timber Creek makes a Beowulf brake that does a great job. It seriously cut the recoil back and made the biggest difference of all my modifications. They make them with two different threads so make sure the one you order matches your rifle.
Here it is on my rifle – notice the big ports that redirect some of the gasses backwards:
Added a Limbsaver Recoil Pad to the Magpul ACS Stock
The next important element I did to reduce recoil was to add a mixture of bird shot and epoxy into the compartments of the MagPul ACS stock. I just stirred up a mixture of #7 lead bird shot with epoxy, filled all the voids I could and wiped off the excess liquid epoxy checking all the seams until it gelled enough. Here, you can see a hint of it sticking out.
The last thing I did was to try different buffers. Bill Alexander designed the cartridge to work with a normal AR buffer. I went from a normal/H1 buffer to an H2 and finally to an Enedine Hydraulic buffer, which is in it right now. With each step, the recoil seemed to go down a tad but did not make a huge difference.
Vortex Scope
I was thinking about using the rifle either for hogs or deer so I wanted a scope that could go from a fairly wide field of vision at 2.5x all the way up to a decent zoom at 10x. Vortex is always my first choice in scopes so I bought a Viper PST 2.5-10×44 scope and Vortex rings.
This is a wicked combination. I have thoroughly enjoyed this scope on the Beowulf. It holds zero and is nice and bright. You can’t go wrong with Vortex scopes in my honest opinion. Because of the Beowulf’s recoil, use quality rings and be very sure to torque all the screws down to spec so the optic stays put.
By the way, you may scoff at the notion of buying quality rings. A lot of the cheap imported rings are just aluminum. You’ll notice they don’t list a torque spec. Quality rings such as the ones fro Vortex will tell you a torque spec to hit and they often have steel inserts for the threads. You get what you pay for.
Note, in mid-2018 Vortex came out with what they call the “PST Gen 2” series of scopes and this first generation model has been discontinued. The closest scopes now are 3-15×44 and 2-10×32 -I don’t think you can go wrong one way or the other. I’d probably opt for a 2-10×32 MRAD scope to have the widest field of view at a low power.
I use the D&H 5.56 30 round magazines at PSA. They are often on sale for only $9.99 and list is $12.99.
End Result
The rifle turned out great. The final “felt” recoil was about that of a 20 gauge slug gun, if that. I could shoot round after round without regretting the kick 🙂
I had fun building and shooting it. As I get older the more I realize I enjoy learning about the engineering and history of arms. The “Wulf” has a new owner now and I hope it serves him well.
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My apologies but I have no way to filter out items that the vendors have sold out such as ammo. For example, most places sell out of the ammo fast but you should keep an eye on both Midway USA and going to Underwood Ammo directly – Underwood makes very good ammo by the way. I usually run Alexander Arms ammo but they are sold out most places and while you can place an order directly, you will need to wait quite a while for it to be made and shipped.
When Bill Alexander decided to make the .50 Beowulf round, he really got me excited 🙂 The idea of a heavy thumper round in an AR platform really appealed to me so I bought one and one issue that popped up was where to find magazines that were not really expensive.
D&H 5.56 30 RD Aluminum Magazines are perfect for this.
Once in a while the answer is really straight forward and this is one of those times. You do not need to change the feed lips or the follower on a standard 5.56/.223 magazine, you just need to bevel the front lip at about 45 degrees (the exact angle doesn’t seem to be a big deal) so the giant .50 Beowulf bullet goes up and, this is the key part, the leading lip of the brass case hits the little ramp and goes up it vs. hanging. In this next photo – see how the lip of the case will catch? It may catch sometimes or all the time – for me it was practically all the time.
The magazines I convert are D&H 5.56/.223 magazines that Palmetto State Armory sells. They are reliable and well made plus they are very affordable with sales prices starting around $8.99 and normal price around $12.99 for buyers in a rush. They also have regular combo deals such as a case and seven mags for $89.99. You have to love PSA’s deals. Click here to see what they have.
All I did was use a medium grit little sanding drum in my Dremel to bevel the magazine’s front lip – you are basically making an ad hoc feed ramp so the case doesn’t catch. The round you see has the big 350 grain XTP bullet – they hit like a freight train.
Note this is just to show the drum. The magazine is empty when I do the sanding.
This is a really quick operation and you don’t need to take a ton off. I do it with the magazine empty of course, insert a round into the magazine and test then do a bit more. I’d repeat the removal and testing until the round went right up into the chamber. After the first few magazines, I had it down pat.
In this next photo, see the shiny little ramp?
That’s all there is to it. I just used quality aluminum magazines and did the tweaking. Polymer mags, such as MagPul take more work and I simply didn’t feel like bothering with them. I did use quality magazines and avoided cheap stuff and I also used the anti-tilt followers – just regular 5.56 followers – nothing special.
In a standard 20 round aluminum 5.56/.223 magazine, you can fit up to seven Beowulf rounds. In a 30 round magazines, you can fit up to 10. I never tried any of the higher capacity magazines so I can’t speak to them at all.
This approach worked great for me and I hope it helps you as well.
I came up with an even faster way to convert the magazines that I wrote about in December of 2019 – click here to read it.
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Hey folks, if you are looking for an affordable book on how to assemble an AR rifle that is step-by-step with a ton of photos – check out Rob Reaser’s book “AR-15 Rifle Builder’s Manual: An Illustrated, Step-by-Step Guide to Assembling the AR-15 Rifle”. I bought this because I have the Amazon Kindle app on my Samsung tablet and the book was real cheap so I figured why not – I might pick up something new.
This book is aimed at the novice and, to be clear, is an assembly guide. It is not aimed at engineers or guys who want to really get into the guts from an armorer’s perspective. The author literally walks a beginner through everything. I’m not at that stage any more but I could really appreciate his attention to detail.
I know a lot of guys are intimidated by the thought of assembling an AR rifle but Mr. Reaser really does a nice job of stepping you through everything. So, if you want to build your first AR – get either the Kindle ($7.99) or print edition of this book ($13.49).
This is a purpose-built target rifle. I like my precision rifles to be very heavy as the weight helps absorb my tremor. Granted I still have to control my breathing and pretty much meditate to get to the right point to pull the trigger but the weight really helps. The rig as shown without ammo weighs 13.7 pounds. Now let’s get into the details of the components used in this rifle.
In this case, the upper was the most important item I focused on first. This is a 26″ White Oak Armory (WOA) complete upper and these folks are known for building accurate rifles. White Oak Armament is in Carlock, IL, and owned by John Holliger. John has a ton of experience with competition shooting starting in 1980 finishing 15 times in the Presidents 100, earning the Distinguised Rifleman Badge, 2000 CMP Pershing Trophy winner and more. Needless to say, he knows his way around a competition firearm. John founded White Oak Precision in 2000 and then While Oak Armament after that as he noticed that custom gunsmiths and picky shooters (me) needed a reliable source of high end AR parts. What I think is especially remarkable is that his prices are very fair especially given the quality of what he delivers.
From their website they note “Receivers are all forged and mil spec or higher quality, and have the baked-on, anti-friction coating on the inside for long life. Bolts are held to proper tolerances for correct headspacing. Bolt carriers have M-16 style shrouded firing pins for reliable function and added weight. Handguards are top quality compression molded and fiberglass reinforced, not the cheap injection molded plastic. Our NM floating handguard assembly is our own design using heavy walled tubing, a solid welded end cap, and a sling swivel. Many parts are custom manufactured to our specifications. And of course everything is 100% made in the USA!“
What I decided on was one of their 26″ varmint upper. Now at 26″, it’s pretty much overkill but is nice and heavy weighing in at 7.88 pounds all by itself. While WOA does offer fluting, I did not opt for it as I wanted the weight. By the way, fluting increases surface area for cooling and reduces weight but it is not something magical. The unfluted barrel is stiffer. I am going to try and word this very carefully – a fluted barrel is stiffer than another barrel of the same final weight due to the thicker walls. In other words, take a thin barrel that weighs X pounds and a fluted barrel that weighs the same X pounds, it will be stiffer because it has the thicker walls around the fluting but it is not as stiff as a the original unfluted barrel. Now this matters if you are shooting a lot and the barrel is warming up such as lots of target or varmint shooting at prairie dogs. So, stiffer and heavier is the route I will always take. If you told me I would have to carry a rifle around a lot then my answer would change 🙂
The barrel itself is a 26″ stainless match grade unit with an 11 degree crown to protect the muzzle and their own “WOA Varmint Chamber” to allow the use of either .223 or 5.56 ammo. The twist rate is 1:8. I like to shoot heavier bullets to buck the wind and 1:8 will stabilize bullets from 75-80 grain quite well. I have both Black Hills match ammo as well as just got some IMI RazorCore specifically for this rifle.
Last point, this complete upper – including the matching BCG and charging handle – was only $645 + S&H. That, my friends, is quite a deal. [Click here if you want to see what other complete uppers they have for sale.]
The lower is an Anderson. They are my goto lower receiver as they are mil-spec and work just fine. I’ve never had an out-of-spec problem with them actually.
It has Yankee Hill Machine (YHM) oversize pivot and takedown pins. I just like the extra leverage when I have to open or remove the upper.
The buttstock is a Magpul PRS II. I always like these stocks as I can get my length of pull and cheekweld exactly the way I want. Under the stock is a rifle length tube with a normal spring and an H2 buffer.
The grip is an Ergo Tactical Deluxe with palm shelf. I like the rubber overmold they do and appreciate the palm rest on a target rifle.
I’m proud of the trigger – it’s a Geisselle (pronounced like “GuysLee”) Super Semi-Automatic Enhanced (SSA-E) and feels fantastic. The first stage is 2.3 pounds, the second is 1.2 pounds, which totals 3.5 pounds. It’s not adjustable but that’s no big deal to me. For now on, if I build a target rifle, this is the trigger I will use. Wow.
The Vortex is a bright, clear and rugged Vortex HS-T 6-24×50 scope with a MOA reticle. Normally I would go with MRAD but Vortex was sold out at the time so I went with MOA. I’m firing from known distances so it’s not a big deal for me. The offset scope mount is also from Vortex and gives me a better distance from my eye to the optic. I used to go with generic rings and mounts but am pretty much just using Vortex now unless I need something specialized such as an RS!Regulate mount for an AK. Lastly, those are Vortex’s new Defender Scope caps and they are way better than their old ones. They stay on well and are rugged.
With the big scope, I have a BVM Mod 3 charging handle sticking out. It really pays off with big optics.
So, this rifle is a lot of fun. I just fired off 20-30 rounds to break it in and need to get back to the range with some match ammo I have from Black Hills and IMI’s RazorCore ammo to see what it can do.
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ARs are a fun, quick build and because they are modular you can take them in a ton of custom directions. When you build an AR, you need to first ask yourself “what am I going to use this for?” and then plan your components accordingly. In this case, I wanted a 16″ carbine that was relatively light, chambered in 5.56 and had an optic for short to medium ranges. In some ways you could say my plan was to build a tactical style rifle.
So, let me explain the components used and why I selected them:
At the heart of the AR is the receiver and I tend to use Anderson. They are Mil-Spec, inexpensive and well finished. In short, I’ve never had a problem with them and I don’t know anyone else who has either.
I like PSA’s lower build kits as a starting point for all the internals. Sometimes I have left overs depending on what all I upgrade but even their based build kits is solid.
The fire control group (FCG) is PSA’s enhanced set meaning the trigger and hammer are Nickel Boron (NiB) coated for lubricity and ease of cleaning. In general, PSA already has some of the best feeling triggers out there in terms of the Mil-Spec out-of-the-box AR triggers. The Enhanced set feels a tad slicker but still falls in the 5.5-6.5# pull range.
The grip is a Magpul MOE.
The butt stock is a Magpul STR. I like the Magpul stocks that clamp in place – they are rock solid. The STR can do this and has a great angled top for a solid cheekweld.
It has a Spikes H2 buffer to soften the operation up a bit.
I like Yankee Hill Machine’s (YHM’s) oversize pivot and takedown pins and get them from Brownells.
The selector lever is PSA’s ambidextrous model. To be honest, I’m going to stop getting the ambidextrous selectors – the capability sounds great in theory but what I find is that I am so used to the traditional selector lever that I rarely use the operating-side lever.
The slide release lever is a GIANT Wilson. I bought it sight unseen via Brownells and had no idea it was going to be this big. On the plus side, it sure is easy to find and operate. On the con side, it is big and kind of fugly if you ask me. My go to release lever these days are the Strike Industries models. By the way, if you use the Wilson, be sure to apply Loc-Tite to the set screw that locks the paddle in place or it will loosen up.
The upper is a 16″ Palmetto State Armory with a 5.56 M4 profile barrel with a 1:7 twist hidden under their cool slim Keymod handguard. Honestly, I think PSA makes great uppers. They are running a budget operation and you may have to wait to hear from their customer service department but I have never actually had an upper from them have a problem. They’ve missed a part in parts kits before but always moved fast to ship me a replacement part. By the way, PSA also soures some really barrels, that is one of the big reasons I use their uppers.
The bolt carrier group is a Nickel Boron (NiB) coated assembly from Fail Zero. Boy are they slick. In general NiB BCGs are cool – you can feel they slide easily without a gritty feeling and clean easily. With Fail Zero you are buying experience – they know BCGs and they pioneered the very slick polished NiB process they call “EXO Nickel Boron”. I’ve not had the coating flake on me and it is slick.
The charging handle is VLTOR/BCM Mod.3 with the large handle. I like the oversized handle both for working around optics and it is really easy to find and operate. This is my preferred charging handle and has never let me down. Beware of the cheap import ambidextrous knock off handles. You will get what you pay for. Stick with name brand.
For magazines, I like MagPul.
The optic is a Vortex Crossfire II 1-4×24. In general, Vortex scopes are excellent and they have a no-nonsense “if it breaks we will fix it” warranty that you can’t beat.
The offset scope mount is a generic unit sold by TMS. It’s my third TMS but I now just use Vortex mounts.
The offset backup sights are something I do now on my rifles with optics. If you have any kind of optics failure you rotate the rifle 45 degrees and use the iron sights. They look awkward but the transition is actually very smooth and fluid. If you haven’t tried this, I’d recommend giving them a whirl. These are surprisingly inexpensive ADE brand sights and they’ve held up just fine. This is my third set from them via Amazon.
The light is a test unit. The light itself is a LiteXpress X-FIRE1 LED unit that is sold on Amazon. The mount is from them also and is the only part I am not too keen on as it flexes. They do have a new model now so I am not sure how the mount is. The light itself has held up just fine.
You can build an AR-15 in an amazing number of different ways. There are so many options out there. Helping you get started, PSA has a huge variety of kits you can select from. They’ve always worked great for me.
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Folks, I saw the Cold Dead Hands (CDH) ambidextrous charging handle ad on Facebook and figured for $34.94 delivered I might as well give it a try so I ordered it on 6/22/17. The first thing I noticed after I placed my order was that it was shipping from China but was hopeful that wasn’t a bad thing. Well, it arrived today (6/28/17) in a brown cushion mailer and I immediately noticed the bare bones generic packaging it was in and was still hopeful because it looked pretty good.
Here it is next to my favorite model of charging handle, the BCM Gunfighter Mod 3 Large Latch.
It fit just fine in terms of installation and locking in place.
The problem is the unlocking. It is a tad rough from the left side (the non op side looking down from the top where the normal handle release is) but it works.
From the right side (where the ejection port is), if you pull back slow using the right tab the handle’s catch hook pretty much digs in and locks the handle in place. If I yanked hard and fast from the right, it would release. If I went slow, it would not release. This pretty well defeats the ambidextrous function claim.
There’s nothing odd about the upper – just a normal Palmetto State Armory upper. In the next photo, I stopped the handle short on purpose to take the photo of the locking area on the upper.
So, the CDH handle was gritty on the left and unpredictable on the right. Out it went and the BCM Mod 3 went in. By the way, a Mil-Spec charging handle worked just fine as does the BCM. I had a Mil-Spec handle in there before trying the CDH unit.
Bottom line, based on my experience, I would recommend against buying the Cold Dead Hands model. Stick with Mil-Spec or a name brand charging handle.
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