Business-Class Carbine

So when I was declaring the awesomeness of AIM Surplus the other day, I had good reason.  They recently had a deal going where you could get 5 free PMags with any complete Spike's Tactical upper assembly, and it ended a few days before my next paycheck, sucky, since I needed an upper along the lines of the 14.5" lightweight.

Bryan from AIM heard my laments on one of the major forums, and let me know that as long as it was in the next 10 days or so, they could hold my order and I wouldn't miss out on the mag deal.  Like I said, awesome.  So I ordered and let them know to hold it until last Thursday.

So the problem/major complaint of my primary AR carbine is that she's freakin' heavy.  Between the rail system, the 16" mid-length bull barrel, and other bits hanging off, it's probably pushing 9 lbs. (I need a scale...)  I decided that I want to get back to basics and slim things down.  I needed a simple, lightweight build, what I've dubbed a "Business-Class Carbine."

Inspired by the "all business, no fluff" aspect of my idea, and the smooth lines of the two Magpul EMags I have, I decided to go with a simple black carbine, with a pencil barrel, and a midlength gas system (I never liked the carbine system, seems too rough on the action for my tastes.)  I drank the Magpul polymer Kool-Aid years ago, and a while back I snagged a mini-vertical grip that a guy on ARFCOM was making  for MOE handguards (I think there's less than 200 of the grips in existence, but I loved the concept) so the MOE handguard fit the bill.

So a 14.5" 1:7 lightweight barrel with a pinned Spike's Dynacomp fit the bill perfectly, and coming from AIM with the handguard already installed was just icing on the cake.  Toss in a Spike's chrome-lined full-auto BCG and ST-T2 buffer, and I'm more than pleased with the setup.  And to fully round out the awesome, AIM even tossed in the Magpul sticker that came with the handguard in the box.

Anyway, UPS dropped off the package as I was heading out for my morning class.  Power through an hour long Remote Sensing lecture, and zip home to assemble things.

Click to make big!

Unfortunately the deal was quite popular, and they ran out of black PMags before my order was processed, but Bryan continued the awesome and swapped in OD Green windowed PMags in there place, sweetening the deal (I like the windows.)

Also, the place I ordered the rear sight from apparently decided I meant "foliage green Troy BattleRail Covers" instead of a "Troy BattleSight fixed rear..." so we'll see how that goes (and weather I sing more praises of another place, or badmouth the crap out of them.)  I want to stick with a fixed rear iron and get back to fundamentals for a while, and keep with the "light and simple" aspect of the B-CC concept.

Eventually I'll need to swap out the mil-spec charging handle for a BCM Gunfighter, swap the selector for an ambi, and probably toss a BAD lever on, but for now, I've got me my sweet little handy black carbine.

Eventually I'll get more detailed photos, full review, and range reports (assuming I can get the sight issue straitened out...), and probably some comparisons between the fantastic BattleComp and the Spike's Dynacomp.