It’s important to have a plan before starting an assault rifle build. There are so many parts out there that it’s easy to get caught up in needing everything and end up buying a bunch of stuff you don’t need. A large majority of assault rifle owners have a pile of parts they don’t use. Some to the extent that they could scrape an entire rifle out of the parts laying around.
My awesome rifle. Photo by JP Visual Design.
To avoid this fate, that to me generates an image of a crazy cat lady standing a pile of rifle parts rather than a pile of cats, assault rifle owners need to have a plan for their rifle. Whether the gun is being developed as a home defense gun and will need a suppressor, it’s being built for 3-gun, or the gun is being built for distance shooting and will eventually end up with a bi-pod acknowledging the rifles eventual use can help you decide what the gun may need or not.
With this plan in mind it becomes easier, when faced with a fun new toy to put on your rifle, to ask “Does this help me achieve my end?” If the answer is “I only want to put the iPhone mount on my rifle so I can play Plants vs. Zombies, not because I calculate smart distance things.” then you can save yourself some time and money and just buy a Magpul iPhone case instead.
Having said all that, if your plan is to buy a bunch of cool stuff to put on your rifle and see how many Magpul logos you can fit on one set of rails then please don’t let me stop you.
Can we please stop using that term for a rifle?
Why?
If you have to ask why then you obviously aren’t as in touch with the current gun climate as you one would assume by reading your blog posts. Words like “assault rifle” indicate, quite abruptly, “assault”. In law, assault is a crime causing a victim to fear violence. Gun grabbers latch on to the title assault rifle and use something as trivial as a name as our intent for this weapon. I don’t know about you but I don’t plan on assaulting anyone with my Larue OBR but to gun grabbers these mean, military looking rifles, scare the s**t out of them.
I could go on but why bother. You get it or you don’t.
And yet the very name of this blog, gun nuts, was used for the longest time as a pejorative term against gun owners until the community collectively reclaimed it as a badge of honor.
There is nothing inherently negative about the term “assault rifle” unless you allow there to be something negative. It’s also important to communicate in terms that the lay person understands, because to the average soccer mom or Modern Warfare fan, a semi-auto AR clone is an “assault rifle”. The negative connotation to the term has been rendered largely meaningless in the past several years, only preserved by die-hard pedants who are also probably still boycotting S&W for “selling out gun owners.”
We are in a position right now to define the language of the gun debate – why hide from the term when we can make it our own?
Caleb… I’m a big fan… but have to side with the others… tactical rifle – yes… home defense rifle – ok… assault rifle – unless it’s got a select fire switch on it… not the correct term…
Other than that… great points Shelley!
Dann in Ohio
So, a gun nut is not an 8-sided metal ring that threads onto a bolt and is tightened down with a wrench or socket?
If that is true, I know understand why the other mechanics are giggling about the little sack I put the nuts in while I am working on a car.
A few reasons why:
1) Assault is an action, not a description of an item. However, let’s wave this one off (after all, wouldn’t “chewing gum” fall into the same quandary? :-)
2) We collectively realize that “assault rifle” is a term used by the media and gun control personalities to broadly describe ANY rifle that might have a threatening look, and is popularly thought that the “AR” in “AR-15″ stands for “Assault Rifle.”
3) The _correct_ description of an “Assault rifle” is: An assault rifle is a selective fire (selectable between semi-auto and fully automatic) rifle (capable of being fired from the shoulder) that uses an intermediate cartridge and a detachable magazine. (Wikipedia, etc.)
So, using the correct definition, the discussion likely fails because Shelley isn’t talking about a select-fire weapon.
The NSSF (remember those guys? ;-) are trying to get a more common adoption of “MSR”, “Modern Sporting Rifle” to be used, which indicates _similar_ rifles, but are semi-auto only (see http://www.nssf.org/msr/facts.cfm).
Frankly, I think this merits its own post in gun nuts. It’s a worthwhile discussion (you might not like “Modern Sporting Rifle” as a name, but the rifle that Shelley is discussing is certainly not an assault rifle either).
Sorry for contributing to this rant, but I hope my arguments make sense. Clearly this creates an emotional response for many people on both sides, so I definitely think we have to stop feeding the “Assault rifle” fire.
Jeez, guys get with the program! These rifles aren’t ‘assault rifles’, they’re ‘Modern Sporting Rifles’. Didn’t you get the memo? I thought everybody got the memo.
Is that the one about the TPS Reports?
Ah! Yeah. It’s just we’re putting new coversheets on all the TPS reports before they go out now. So if you could go ahead and try to remember to do that from now on, that’d be great. All right!
I went through buying an AR with a plan, but it turned out to be the wrong plan. I assumed that operating an AR was all about the furniture and the sights, and that the factory would provide the rest. I now realize that I should have had a better plan for the controls.
The furniture and sights are important, but I would have been a happier shooter if I had spent more time worrying about the trigger, buffer, safety, and charging handle. It took a full day carbine course to show me that the parts used to keep the rifle running have a bigger impact on performance than the bran of stock or grip I have on the gun.
I second Shelley’s post. Buy exactly what you want the first time. Spend the extra money on anything that is adjustable or configurable. Don’t need extra rail space? Get a handgaurd that you can put rails where you want them and no where you don’t. Spend the extra hundred bucks on an after market trigger. Do not under any circumstance visit the site AR15.com! Just pretend that the mechanics of what makes your rifle go bang is magic and the only person that is qualified to touch it is a gunsmith, preferably one that just retired from NASA. The more expensive the better.
That little bag of extra parts will turn into a box of parts. Then the box turns into a closet and the closet turns into a storage unit. All the while random franken-rifles will crawl out of this pile of parts and seek refuge in your gun cabinet.
Caleb, you should know there are two divergent meanings for “assault rifle.” Unlike media slang, this is an actual term with specific definitions which the MSM has incorrectly co-opted to generate FUD among the public and the Clinton Administration bastardized to create the AWB legislation of the ’90s and early ’00s.
The key differentiator in military, LE, and “gun nut” lingo is the “selective fire” capability. If it is a magazine-fed rifle or carbine of intermediate caliber and can be fired in both semi-automatic and automatic modes, you’ve got a legitimate Assault Rifle.
If not, it’s just another magazine-fed semiautomatic rifle which the Bradys, NBC, and Michael Moore call an “assault weapon” or “assault rifle.” As a blogger, er, New Media Publisher, the difference here is important as your voice gives voice to our entire community and it’s important to get some of this stuff right.
I was also surprised to see the term on here. While I’d love to wish we could take back the lingo, I think this is a case where that just doesn’t work. There’s already enough confusion in the media thinking that AR means assault rifle. “Assualt weapons” is just as bad because those were “BANNED”.
Of course, Modern Sporting Rifle is just plain stupid, and black rifle is equally lame. I propose instead that we just call them BFDW, big f*ing deadly weapons. This way it’s clear that they are dangerous and should only be used by responsible and safe people. Also, calling a gun a BDFW helps teach new shooters to avoid limp wristing because now they would be rightfully afraid of their gun.
Good luck
Or… just call them what they are – semiautomatic rifles. This need to sex up the names we give to a Stoner-patterned rifle is little more than pseudo-intellectual self-gratification.
I don’t own “assault pistols” – just pistols. I have one for competition, one for home protection, and a couple for concealed carry. They’re just handguns.
As for Shelley’s point, having a plan for most things in life is generally a good idea.
Folks, like it or not, the term “assault rifle” is here to stay. You might as well get over it. It has lost its perjorative status amongst most people, except the MSM.
In the military, we don’t generally call them “assault rifles,” we just call them “rifles” or “M4″ or “M16.”
*shrugs* I usually tell people the term is applied to whatever arm is appropriate to the time period. In the Revolution, an “assault rifle” was a musket. In the expansion to the West, an “assault rifle” was a .45-70. In WWI, the 1903 Springfield was an “assault rifle.” In WW Twice, the Garand was the primary “assault rifle.” And so on.
I think the general public is so inured to the term “assault rifle” that the only people who get their undies in a wad over it are on the extremes of the gun argument, for or against.
*Note: Before anyone thinks of accusing me of being a moderate on gun rights, I am STAUNCHLY pro-gun and am one of those “don’t give up an inch” types of people. I just don’t think the term “assault rifle” matters that much these days.
Kent, I’d be inclined to agree, but for two reasons;
1- Assault Rifle is not slang, it is a specific class of firearm that does not apply to the vast majority of AR-pattern rifles sold today.
2- Assault Weapon in its use is an affront to those of us who had to sit through the bullshit AWB which stripped the rights of law-abiding gun nuts for a decade.
There’s another word in the cultural vocabulary which once carried derogatory and vicious perjorative meanings and is frequently used by those it was designed to malign – I’m not sure that’s a modeling want to follow.
I loved you list of reasonably priced 1011s. How about the same for ARs?
Another vote for calling it a semi-automatic rifle. Good post otherwise.
Assault rifles are select fire. We drew our line in the sand in ’94 and we’re not budging on the term.
Speaking as someone who has built two AR’s from the parts in the spares bin, pick a narrative; stick to that narrative!
Good read. I’m not going to repeat what the others have stated, just if we (gun owners and enthusiasts) want to keep our rights, we all need to be on the same page for language.
Caleb ,
If a lie is repeated enough times and not challenged, the general public accepts it as truth.
Somewhere, Sarah Brady is laughing, because she and her minions have so successfully spun the public image on these firearms to make them appear scary to those who do not know better, that some of those who should know better casually use this term, which is misapplied.
There was a long time when we in this country were on the brink of losing many of our 2A rights, which is why many of us have a very strong (negative) reaction to this term, which was part of the strategy of the antis.
Words matter.
These are NOT “assault rifles”. Please do not refer to them as such. Please do not (even unintentionally) further the propagangda of those who would deny us our rights by using their pejorative labels.
The antis have not gone away, they are still looking for ways to advance their agenda.
Knowing this is Gun Nuts, and you don’t make dumb mistakes like calling a magazine a clip or a clip a magazine, I got really excited to read about how you were going to build a select fire rifle. Semi auto AR builds have been done to death, so I was really excited to hear how you were going whole hog, filing the paperwork, paying through the nose for a NFA registered auto sear – building the true dream rifle, budget be damned – that would be beyond cool.
But nope, our favorite non political gun blog is calling semi automatic rifles a scary name.
By way of apology, steal my idea. Build us a true assault rifle. Say, “We meant to do that” and all is forgiven.
Caleb, you can spin it any way you want but you’re not going to win this one. Whether it was intentional or not, in the future leave “Assault” on the streets or in the sand. I understand your argument, but in this case you are without question wrong!
Tim, I already have won. “Assault rifle” is the term for these guns with the mainstream public, and if we want to win these people over, flying into a frothing pedantic rage about it won’t.
It’s not a rage. You’re simply incorrect and you shouldn’t be doubling down on the wrong because people are trying to set you right.
Win? Perhaps like Charlie Sheen.
Assault rifle was a specific defined term BEFORE Sarah and her minions came along. They attempted to change the meaning to scare people. You using it like she does doesn’t make me think I can take anything you say seriously any more.
See how this works? By getting technical terminology wrong you are establishing that you cannot be trusted with details that may matter. After all, there’s only one millimeter’s difference between 9mm Parabellum and 9mm Makarov; why quibble over ONE LITTLE WORD? But it does matter, doesn’t it?
You don’t like that it matters, but it does.
Ah yes, the plan …
Unfortunately my plan has need of some of the more “spendy” parts (barrel, trigger etc.). Consequently, it’s proceeding at an excruciatingly slow pace. Think snail … one that tires easily, thus requiring frequent naps.
So far the only thing not given a lot of thought is the buffer system. But at the rate i’m going, there is still plenty of time for that. Mostly Yankee Hill parts for the upper, Spikes lower, Rainer Arms barrel and bolt and haven’t yet decided on which Geiselle trigger to use.
Would like to use an Ace stock, but being a lighter stock, don’t know how it might effect the balance. I realize most are going to be a bit heavy in the front, but after adding a BDC scope to an 18″ SPR …
As far as the term “assault rifle” is concerned, i find it distasteful since i could assault someone with this keyboard. However, i’d probably go old school and just use a sharp pencil. IMO, the results would clearly be more devastating …
I represent an entire generation of gun owners.
I was in high school when the assault weapons ban ended. It NEVER affected me.
A majority of the clientele who shoot at my range refer to it as an “assault rifle” because to the public that’s what “AR” stands for – they don’t understand the whole “ArmaLite Rifle” thing, it’s an assault rifle.
Assault rifle is a generally accepted term for my generation, that’s why I used it. It’s also something the general public understands, another reason to use it.
Shelley:
So we’re back to this … its’ black, it’s synthetic, it has a magazine (a clip in Clinton speak), and may or may not have an adjustable stock … so it’s an “Assault Rifle”?
Now anyone can go on the internet and learn how to build their own “Assault Weapon”.
A lot of people spent a lot of time and money working for a number of years to try and overturn the “Assault Weapons Ban”. Thankfully the ban eventually expired. At one time, my Benelli SBE was on the “Assault” ban list because it qualified in more than one of the catagories that defined “Assault”.
I think I’d prefer not to go back there.
You’re right when you say that a lot of people use the term incorrectly, but that should not make it acceptable. It’s slang. Another reason I personally don’t use the term, “Assault” is a crime that people go to prison for.
Caleb, I apologize in advance for my “frothing rage”.
So… Using the wrong term — not “wrong” as in “unpopular slang” but truly incorrect — for something is OK if everyone at the range thinks it’s fine and a largely gun-illiterate media-biased public have acquiesced to it?
Shelley, I’ve worked as a full-time range pro (like you), continue my firearms career as a trainer, and remain active in competition shooting. Folks look to us for our experience and knowledge. In this case (as has happened to me countless times), it may be wise to kick back over to “student” mode. I wasn’t around when “carbine” or “minie
(sorry, stupid phone)
…”minie ball” we’re coined, but they’re specific terms and I’ve had more than one chance to help educate my shooting friends (new and old) and I’m just a 30-something.
Sorry to thread-jack a little, but this stuff is kind of important and deserve more attention than “our blog, we said so” approach.
Maybe one day I’ll did myself in your neck of the woods and get to drop by your range.
Cheers!
I think an easy way to look at the historical definition of an “assault rifle” is any rifle carried by the infantry that was used to assault the enemy. The common AR’s would never be used by any self-respecting soldier. The same can be said of the readily available “AK’s” and “SK’s” The look really scaaaarrryy, but they simply don’t fit the bill.
You notice that I don’t include select fire on my requirements? In my mind the venerable M-1 Garand was an assault weapon, one of the finest assault weapons ever made, yet it’s legal and OK “because grandpa has one in his closet from the war.” Every piece of “assault weapon” legislation crafted has to be carefully taylored to avoid snaring the M-1, otherwise all the grandpas out there would scream bloody murder, and all their grandsons that hope to inherit grandpa’s old gun.
And those features that make a rifle good for shooting at the enemy? Most of them are also good features for hunting.
The “everybody’s else is doing it” defense? Worse, the “everybody at the gun range is doing it” defense? So I guess we all just start calling magazines clips then. It’s wrong but everyone does it and we all know what they mean.
Or maybe we start muzzling each other with our unloaded guns at the line – everyone does it, it’s no harm, all the kids are doing it.
Of all the gun blogs, I think Gun Nuts should be held to a higher standard – the proprietors are non-”operator” gun professionals, this blog is one of the most technical and equipment focused, it has shooting sports focus, and Caleb works for the NRA for chrissakes. You just can’t say assault rifle unless you mean it. You guys are like the educated urban professionals of gun blogs. You live in a blue state even. You’re not some loveable backwoods curmudgeons/bubbas – nope, you have no excuse for using this term incorrectly .
Assault rifle has a specific meaning, ask the old guys. And it does mean select fire. I don’t care what the kids say, they’re just wrong.
Worked for the NRA, past tense. Our point, stated simply is that “assault rifle” has lost its negative meaning for the incoming generation of gun owners. Think about it – there is an entire generation of kids in their very early 20s for whom the AWB had no effect on whatsoever. They’ve grown up calling ARs and AKs assault rifles with no negative thoughts whatsoever.
Who cares if the die-hard anti-gunners still sling the term around? They still call us “gun nuts”, and that doesn’t seem to matter.
Caleb, please listen to your audience and please be willing to admit when you’re wrong and move on.
By her own admission, Shelley wasn’t around for the time that phrase was even more onerous than it is today — how is that in any way justification to support inexperience, defend lack of contextual knowledge, and protect a writer who, in this case, is actually mis-stating something and your readers are trying to help you fix? Declaring the phrase no longer carries distinct pejorative connotations because the “guys at the range don’t seem to think it’s bad” simply demonstrates a frightening ignorance of what’s going on in the “anti” camps and among the public at-large among writers who are self-identifying as true enthusiasts.
So, if I walk into my local death merchant and talk to the gun pimp about what I what in a gat, I should be able to acquire the parts and pieces I need to make one sweet klling stick? Is that the hard truth you brothers are laying down?
If you are not smiling after reading those questions, switch to decaf. Hot rod was a pejorative with negative connotations. Hell, the “N” word has even jumped the shark. This was a post about designing the rifle you will use. Her remarks reflect sound advice.
Or you can squabble about the coversheet on the TPS reports….
Shelley & Caleb,
Piston or direct impingement?
D.I., piston guns are overrated and heavy.
Sorry, I meant “killing stick”. My wife is taking me to buy new eyeglasses today.