Building an M-4 Carbine

I've already posted about being in the Army and getting to know the M-16.  Well, in the Army we were never allowed to disassemble any part of the lower receiver other than the buffer and buffer spring in the stock.  So I would look down into the lower receiver at the trigger and sear assembly and just figured that it looked too complicated for me to mess with.  Hey I am a soldier, I follow orders, if they say leave it alone I did.
So I started looking at M-4's and thinking about how cool it would be to have one, and as I looked at prices, the thought of building one from a stripped lower receiver got more and more interesting.  I decided to look on youtube and see just how hard it would be and how many tools I would need to buy.  I discovered it was easy and all I would need is an 8.00 tool to tighten the castle nut on the stock.

I bought an Anderson MFG stripped lower from a local store for 89.99 plus tax.  That is the only part that is controlled.  I had to buy that just like I was buying a weapon.  I found a complete kit minus a stripped lower for 499.00 plus shipping from a great company called http://coldhandarms.com out of Oklahoma (a really nice guy who even sent me a free tee-shirt!)

The entire operation took less than 15 minutes!

This is what I got from Cold Hand Arms.

This is the stripped lower receiver I bought locally.

These are all of the parts I had to put together.

The trigger, spring, and disconnect.

The trigger is in the receiver!  Note my laptop with youtube video about assembly in background that I watched and paused and re-watched as needed!

Looking better all the time!

Now the buttstock.

The upper receiver comes pre-assembled and head spaced, I just added a detachable rear sight.
It was actually a lot of fun to do and I liked getting to know the guts of the AR system better.  Yeah, I wanted to be an armorer until I found out that I could spend 4 less weeks away from my wife if I became a combat engineer 12B instead.
This is a great weapon and a lot of fun to shoot!