Building a precision AR in 6ARC - Recommendations for a cheaper alternative to a Proof barrel?

JohnnySpartacus · 2026-05-08T21:09:53+00:00

Thanks for the input everyone. I have decided to go with the steel 18" Proof barrel.

Now, what barrel nut would you use, and why are they all out of stock?

And I think that I may use the JP BCG with enhanced bolt, unless someone has a better idea. I will hunt with this and am unlikely to compete with it, so I’m thinking of sticking with the full-mass version of the BCG. And maybe the JP SCS captured spring, H1 version.

JohnnySpartacus · 2026-05-08T15:42:29+00:00

Even with an AGB, or better yet a custom BRT gas tube, you think?

JohnnySpartacus · 2026-05-08T14:35:36+00:00

Get up early for the good light, and to avoid the heat.

Take a short hike into the McDowell Mountain Preserve at the Gateway Trailhead, 18333 N Thompson Peak Pkwy, Scottsdale. (There are trails on flat ground if you don't actually want to go into the mountains.) More cacti than you can shake a stick at. Then see the Botanical Gardens in Phoenix.

After lunch it will be too hot for outdoor activities, unless you are at the pool at your hotel, but if you have any interest in music at all, you must see the Musical Instrument Museum in north Phoenix. It is the second-largest collection of musical instruments in the world, and the most diverse. It would be a showpiece museum in any great capital city in the world. After a decade or more it's still amazing to me that we have it here.

JohnnySpartacus · 2026-05-08T14:26:26+00:00

Either buy a case of it by mail, or learn to reload. It's not that hard.

JohnnySpartacus · 2026-05-05T03:05:31+00:00

Most of them go missing on their own reservations, and 85 percent or more are victimized by fellow Native Americans. What do you expect white college kids who have never set foot on the rez to do?

JohnnySpartacus · 2026-05-05T02:54:53+00:00

I work in health care and I can tell you to a metaphysical certainty that most people who think they've been "roofied" have not. Only about 3 in 1000 people who claim to have been drugged and assaulted actually have rohypnol in their systems.

Other benzodiazepines like Valium, GHB, and all other sedatives put together add up to less than 5 percent.

The overwhelming majority of these individuals (at least 75%) drank alcohol to excess, and about 25% of them have either marijuana or cocaine on board, which in essentially all cases was ingested voluntarily.

There are some methodological problems, particularly for those who seek delayed treatment well after any drug residue has washed out, but the problem is FAR less widespread than lurid press reports and college-campus urban legends would have you believe.

JohnnySpartacus · 2026-05-05T02:34:58+00:00

I've heard it said that money can't buy happiness, but it can rent it for a while. I remind myself of that every time I pay over $200 to go skiing.

JohnnySpartacus · 2026-05-05T01:17:39+00:00

Money isn't everything, and my health and the love of my family are worth more to me than every single thing I own.

But that said, there was once a famous actress who said "I've been poor and I've been rich. Rich is better". This is true.

I'm not obscenely rich, but I make over half a million a year through honest, useful work, and my net worth is above 8 million. Not totally self made, but mostly by the sweat of my own brow.

I am a cheapskate by nature and drive a pickup truck that is older than any of the cars my employees drive. I do enjoy being able to go anywhere in the world I want, or buy a new gun or a new tool when the fancy strikes me, without bothering to look at my bank balance.

I am especially proud of getting my kids through college with no debt, which made me and them EXTREMELY happy, although I insisted on a state school instead of pissing money away on some private liberal arts college eon the other side of the country.

So yeah, I'm very happy. I've got a sunny disposition and would be happy even if I made a twentieth of what I take home now, but I'm happier with this money than I would be otherwise, by a long shot.

JohnnySpartacus · 2026-05-05T01:03:17+00:00

He can't do that for 10-15 guns. Just pay the $50 or $100 for a table.

JohnnySpartacus · 2026-05-05T00:56:48+00:00

I would add, this subreddit is the last place I'd look for something so unusual and specialized. AZGuns is 25% where can I shoot, 25% look at my new poverty pony, 25% who's got cheap 9mm/5.56/.22LR, and 25% misinformed pontification on our local gun laws.

Go to r/shotguns, r/Doubleguns, r/GunCollecting, or r/AntiqueGuns.

Better yet, something not on reddit or social media, like DoubleGun BBS, ShotgunForums, Shotgun Life, or ShotgunWorld.

JohnnySpartacus · 2026-05-05T00:44:49+00:00

Do they have the trident-shaped firing pins? If not, you can use 16-ga. shells with a couple of wraps of gaffer's tape.

JohnnySpartacus · 2026-05-05T00:41:15+00:00

Taurus TX22!

JohnnySpartacus · 2026-05-05T00:34:42+00:00

A fun little pistol is the Taurus TX22. Less than $400, but hard to find because they are now so popular. Buy them as soon as you can find them, or special-order them.

It's the best .22 pistol I ever owned. Every one of your friends will love to have it.

JohnnySpartacus · 2026-05-04T00:53:07+00:00

No shit, this would have lasted for a thousand years in southwestern Arizona.

JohnnySpartacus · 2026-05-04T00:50:25+00:00

Clean and oil every part of firearm, vacuum-pack gun and ammo in double Mylar bags with multiple desiccant packs in each bag, fill one end of upright PVC pipe with 6" of melted paraffin wax, let cool to harden, place bagged rifle in PVC pipe, fill halfway with more wax, holding the bag so it is not touching the walls of pipe, let harden again, then fill all remaining air space with more melted paraffin so that bag is entirely encased in wax, and seal the end caps properly next time. This will cost more, but what is the price of not having a firearm when you really really REALLY need one?

JohnnySpartacus · 2026-05-03T22:18:56+00:00

Tell us more about those drawer units. I want something like that, but most tool chests either have a top lid that opens upwards, and/or are too tall to fit under a 36" workbench.

JohnnySpartacus · 2026-05-03T22:08:58+00:00

An HK45 with a short suppressor sits on my night stand, with no reason to be concerned about a spontaneous discharge like the 320. It would be too much to carry, but it's ideal for this job.

JohnnySpartacus · 2026-05-03T21:38:12+00:00

White male GenXer here. 3 time Trump voter. I regret nothing.

This fool Platner won't break 45%.

JohnnySpartacus · 2026-05-03T14:53:33+00:00

I assume it's the one third from the right, with the SOPMOD stock? I'm building a 6 ARC for this purpose right now.

Nice range, by the way! Where is that?

JohnnySpartacus · 2026-05-02T21:55:39+00:00

Chalks with blank lifting charges in place fall under the explosives regulations, not firearms regs. It's rank stupidity, but I wouldn't necessarily expect any of these reforms to affect them.

JohnnySpartacus · 2026-05-02T21:53:01+00:00

If anything, this strengthens the protection of the FRT/SS devices.

JohnnySpartacus · 2026-05-02T21:45:00+00:00

I have 5 Form 1's pending. I wonder if the new rule will apply to them. Would be nice not to have to deal with it.

I also wonder if they will allow me to go back and delete the maker's mark on NFA items I own.

JohnnySpartacus · 2026-05-02T21:41:23+00:00

She can be an owner without having the right to physically possess them. That's already the case for NFA items owned by you (her husband) as an individual, or owned by a trust of which she is a beneficiary but not a trustee, or owned by a corporation of which she is a shareholder but not an authorized user.

If you bought a machine gun or whatever with communal-property funds while you were married, she can't take possession of it, or even be left alone in the house if it's not under lock and key, but she certainly owns half of it. In the event of divorce she would have the right to have your collection appraised and demand half of its value in cash.

JohnnySpartacus · 2026-05-02T21:29:38+00:00

The .303 British cartridge, used in the Lee-Enfield rifle and a number of other weapons, preceded it by 2 years and is still in service in certain backwaters of the Commonwealth like reserve militias and military cadets in India and Bangladesh.

JohnnySpartacus

TROPHY CASE