Updating your .22 trainer!

[The War Wagon]

I think I posted the build thread on this rifle many moons ago (some wiseguy deleted the thread a while back, though...   ), as I built it in 2010. 

In those dark early days of the Obamanation Insurrection, .223/5.56 ammo was more scarce than frog's teeth.  Building a dedicated AR .22 trainer was all the rage.  Granted, a lotta cheap plasticky .22 AR's were also sold, but the advantage of a dedicated rifle, is the lower.  With REAL fire controls and furniture, you can build it to mimic your 5.56 rifles - the controls FEEL the same - and should the need ever arise, pop a couple of pins, and you've got a backup lower ready to go for your 5.56 upper.

THAT said, here's what my rifle looked like for the past several years.

  I got the Aero Precision lower with ARF-X stock as a great deal off another board in '09.  The ARF-X is an awesome stock, but I wasn't interested in running it on any of my other rifles.  With the solid hammer (Tactical Solutions .22 upper - they RECOMMEND full hammers, and having first tried it on a Colt lower, I can confirm - it's prefers the Aero trigger to the Colt!), it made sense as is, to be my lower for this dedicated build.

In those days, TacSol only had the black oval handguards for it.  Since I had no retro '70's/'80's AR's, those had to go.  Getting the loc-tited barrel nut and front sight post off (who thought THAT policy up?!?!) required some professional gunsmithing.  I replaced those with a set of DD 12.0 FSP rails and an Airsoft (!) A.R.M.S. 41-B front folding sight (.22 doesn't have a gas tube, so you could stick a Popsicle stick up front if you like!).  Besides, I started out with an Aimpoint Comp M2 on it - years later, I switch the the Aimpoint Pro you see there now.

The similarity with my 5.56 HD rifle is obvious enough, although it had a 4moa T-1 Aimpoint on it.




Welllll... 2019 comes along... I have one keymod AR, and my Bren 805 is M-lok equipped.  And the HD rifle now looks like this;

  STILL similar... but evolving.  And I decide to go with BCM's new MCMR handguard.


  So in fact, the ONLY rifle I have left with quadrails, IS my trainer!!!     Kinda hard to "train," on something dissimilar to what you're training FOR.

Lo' & behold, I find some cheap, no-name M-lok's on another board (they're heavy - probably made of Chinese lead - & feel cheap, like Airsoft or some such, BUT... for a .22 trainer, they're close ENOUGH!), and it's time to upgrade!



Now she rides with Troy BUIS, rear AND front, for a similar feel.  And as the slimmer M-lok forend is more easily grasped, I've lost the AFG on both.

I'm all T-1's all the time now on my other AR's, so I might hafta swap that out eventually.  But she handles now a LOT more like the other AR's, for which I'm supposed to be training...