BUILDING MY OWN AR15 PISTOL

THE CHOICES CAN BE MORE CHALLENGING THAN THE ACTUAL BUILD.

- MIKE TRAVIS

As I write this, I think back to January 2020. Life in the United States was normal. The economy was booming, and citizens were going about their business and living in relative peace. At that time, the news outlets were just starting to talk about a strange, new virus taking hold in China.

The media and politicians were telling us that COVID-19 was nothing more than a severe case of the flu and that we had nothing to fear from it (as a famous comedian is fond of saying, “Here’s your sign”).

I had long wanted to build an AR15 pistol but continuously put the project off. At that time, ammo, guns and parts were cheap and plentiful. However, with red flags of impending trouble popping up on the horizon, I decided it was time to start building.

Building an AR15 has been described as “LEGOs for adults.” In many ways, this is a fairly accurate assessment: Unless you're installing barrels or fancy rail systems, building an AR is a mostly plug-and-play proposition that requires only basic tools and simple instructions.

While I’ve been an armorer on the AR platform for many years and have all the tools needed to assemble everything from barrels and gas blocks to rail systems and match triggers, I took a simpler approach.

DESIGN GOALS

It’s difficult to build a rifle to meet your needs if you haven’t defined what they are. Start by asking yourself what you want the weapon to do. From there, decisions about barrels, stocks, optics and other options will become much easier to make.