Building a new blaster...

BigWaylon

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2A Bourbon Hound 2024
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OK, so I’m bored enough I’m going to document this instead of just posting a finished pic.

First, the backstory. I own a 16.5” Beowulf, and as I told @Jerzsubbie last night, it’s the one firearm I say I “accidently” bought. Several years ago I had a buddy that wanted a 6.5 Grendel from Alexander Arms. He placed an order with them and it took ~18 months to receive the upper. I thought I’d like a Beowulf for some reason, but not at the moment. So, I decided to place a backorder for the upper and figured I’d be ready for it in a year or more whenever it came. They weren’t going to charge my card until it was ready to ship. Well, as luck would have it, I get a notification <72 hours later of a charge hitting my card...and the upper shows up a few days after that. I built it out using Magpul Foliage Green accessories. Ended up with this (came with the tank brake):

8F68C817-EFF9-44DD-B3A4-4CE56C853ED1.jpeg

Wanted some ammo to test it out and it cost me $215 off gunbroker to have 100 rounds shipped, but AA didn’t have any in stock at the moment. I wasn’t a member at any range at the time, but I wanted to test fire it. Headed to the indoor range, and the only open lane was a 25-yard one up next to the cinderblock wall. First pull of the trigger and half the blast went sideways, and the other half bounced off the wall and headed the same direction. It was like prairie dogs, with every person in the range leaning back and looking my way...wondering what I the world I’d just shot.

To give you an idea, in case you’ve never messed with 50 Beo, it’s made for the AR-15 platform. Single stack mag that holds 10 in about the same sized mag as a 30rd PMag. I also have a 7rd, and I’ve seen 4rd mags as well. The ammo I bought was 335gr, both in FMJ and JHP. I think they offer ammo up into the 500-600 grain range. Here are two compared to a 55gr .223 and a 200gr 300BLK:

7D92CBCF-A193-4937-A7EC-B7DA42C12C34.jpeg

I was just getting into the NFA world at the time and thought a Beowulf SBR would be fun. Useless, but fun. I even filled out a Form 1 and was going to have my dad get the CMPD Chief to sign off on it. I could’ve used my trust, but thought it would be awesome/ironic to actually have approval to build such a firearm. (My dad worked directly for the chief at the time as basically the chief technical officer for the department after spending 30 years at BellSouth). I never ended up getting that form signed, mainly because I didn’t want to spend the $800-$900 AA wanted for their 12” upper...
 
...which brings me to last weekend. My birthday was ~2 weeks ago and I had the “one time use” birthday pricing from Midway. It was expiring last weekend and I just never found anything I needed or wanted. Then, for some reason I searched for Beowulf. The first thing that popped up was an AR Stoner upper chambered in 12.7x42mm, which is the generic term for Beowulf. The upper had a 10.5” barrel, and regularly priced at $449...including BCG/CH. It happened to be on sale for $100 off, so $349. And my birthday pricing knocked it down to $286. Found a free shipping code, but did have to pay tax. So, ~$300 later I’d ordered the upper:

360834AF-460D-46BE-9F12-CDC4FA2FE61B.jpeg A4E01107-F693-4A6B-B3D9-2BD5040F5329.jpeg

But, I didn’t really want to pay another $200 for a stamp. I also didn’t think I wanted a pistol brace on a 10.5” 50 cal.

I built an AR57 SBR years ago. Then last year (or maybe the year before) I decided I’d rather have it on a braced lower so I could conceal it when needed and have it covered by my CHP. I built a lower with an SBA3 and moved the upper over, which left me with an unused registered lower. Decided I’d build an unsuppressed 7.5” 5.56 using that lower...and opted for a riot brake just to see how obnoxious it could be. The concussion is quite incredible, but the recoil is almost non-existent (as expected).

Since that upper really doesn’t need a stock, I decided I’d build another braced lower for it. Then I could repurposed the registered lower a second time and use it for the short Beowulf upper. I ordered an SBA3 lower build kit, and then this lower:

8D9B450F-8BAF-48BF-A745-C7559FE7FD87.jpeg
 
Watching the build!
 
Another issue I have is my OCD with my caliber color-coding system using Magpul accessories. 5.56 is black, 300BLK is FDE, 6.8 is ODG, my AR57 is now gray...and the full-size Beowulf is Foliage Green. (I do have some other stuff like AR-9s and and AR-45 that are also mainly black, but the mags are different enough I don’t worry about it).

The problem with this new build is foliage green was discontinued back in 2016 or so when they brought out the Stealth Grey. So, the hunt began. I couldn’t find much in stock anywhere. In my google search, I ran across an ad on AR15.com from late 2019 with a bunch of NIB foliage green parts. Only ~1/3 of them were marked sold, and the ad was Archived. I reached out to the guy and he said he had a lot of the stuff still on a shelf. We agreed on a price and there’s a stock, grip, XTM handstop kit and front MBUS due here tomorrow. I priced those four pieces out in black at Primary Arms, and the total was $132.80 before tax and/or shipping. So I didn’t feel like I got a bad deal paying $135/shipped for the FG stuff considering it was NIB and not really available anywhere.

I found a trigger guard still in stock as PSA for $8.99...and sucked it up and paid that plus $8.50 :mad: shipping. Sure, I could’ve gone with a black one and nobody would’ve really cared...but I found it and decided to buy it anyway. I also got some XTM rail panels from an airsoft company. They haven’t arrived yet so I’m not sure if it’ll match or not. I also ordered some rail sections that I’m still waiting on. Two 10rd mags are also in route.

I did order a black rear MBUS to use for now, hoping my WTB ads on a couple sites might get me one in FG at some point.

(As of this moment, the lower hasn’t even shipped from PSA).

The upper came with a flash hider, but I wanted a brake. The concussion on the 16.5” with the tank brake is more than the braked 7.5” 5.56...but I want to see just how bad it can be on the 10.5” Beowulf. The tank brake would actually work decent on the shorter one, I think, as the straight part would tuck inside the end of the rail.

D7C42DAB-3DAE-41B2-943A-3A63947F9D02.jpeg 27CF6F71-2ADD-48E7-AD20-0B63E3690FBA.jpeg

However, I thought I might want some ports on the top to help with muzzle rise. I first considered this one:

A7630BCF-CC90-43BB-A8C4-9F1F7E283142.jpeg

...but then I found a blog with a guy raving about the Heartbreaker, which does have a couple ports on the top. I went ahead and ordered one.

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08F1F499-E6F3-4599-9664-1CFCCC7BC839.jpeg

I’m still waiting on it to arrive to make sure it’s going to fit with the rail. I think the jam nut is going to push it out just enough that it’ll fit. I can’t get a wrench the jam nut to tighten it, and I doubt the rail will slide over the brake. So, I’m going to use the jam nut as a spacer, tighten it to the shoulder, and use a crush washer to align the brake. Since it won’t be suppressed, I think this will be good enough.

I did try to get the flash hider off last night but none of my previous methods work. Shame on me, but I don’t have a vise. I headed to see @Jerzsubbie and use his vise and upper receiver vise block. The FH wouldn’t budge, so out came the torch...which explains the discoloration in the earlier pic and this one:

DC995781-DCA4-4C1B-BF39-B27E8B10DC82.jpeg
 
Here’s where we stand...

88217A95-408F-4E28-8A22-4680160AE7B6.jpeg

1. Completed non-NFA Beowulf
2. 7.5” 5.56 SBR
3. 10.5” Beowulf upper
4. SplitFix
5. SBa3
6. Lower build kit

Waiting on the lower and all the accessories. I’ll build out the lower with the SBA3 and LBK. It’ll also get the black Magpul parts from the 5.56 SBR lower. Then I’ll put the Foliage Green parts on the SBR lower and finish the Beowulf build.
 
This is gonna be a really detailed in-depth update. If it’s beyond your gunsmithing skills, let me know and I’ll try to explain it better. :D

Started with 5.56 SBR:

EBAFE32F-A5EE-4D21-A417-C40A1470D0EC.jpeg

Swapped the upper and now it’s a .50 SBR:

85A81C61-5633-469A-A973-E4AA8BCDEDF5.jpeg

Saw the foliage green stuff shows Out For Delivery, so I removed the black stock and grip. Went ahead and swapped the black trigger guard for the green one I got from PSA:

B819EA60-F150-43FB-83EE-DC3C1E1F9886.jpeg
 
This is gonna be a really detailed in-depth update. If it’s beyond your gunsmithing skills, let me know and I’ll try to explain it better. :D

Started with 5.56 SBR:

View attachment 218642

Swapped the upper and now it’s a .50 SBR:

View attachment 218643

Saw the foliage green stuff shows Out For Delivery, so I removed the black stock and grip. Went ahead and swapped the black trigger guard for the green one I got from PSA:

View attachment 218644


I’m confused. Could you explain the exact sequence and steps a little more clearly? ;)
 
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Great build. Let us know how it runs!
 
I’m confused. Could you explain the exact sequence and steps a little more clearly?
So I need to make sure to use words of two syllables or less? :eek:
 
It was showing on sale for $349.99 before I logged in.

B4546ACF-A7EC-4ABB-8BF0-FB804B0C92F0.jpeg
 
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Foliage green stuff made it here from Alaska. Rail pieces from Cali.

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Still waiting on brake (got a shipping notice today), rear sight (ordered today, black for now), XTM rail panels (no shipping notice so far), magazines (supposed to be here today, didn’t happen), and crush washer for Beowulf. Waiting on lower for 7.5” 5.56 (still no shipping notice from PSA), but I did install the SplitFix onto the SBA3.

Here’s where we stand with the Beo Duo:

0E4B5EC6-1427-41A2-86B2-1A69C6C4C40D.jpeg
 
AK!?!? That’s a heck of a long distance shipment. Glad you found the furniture of choice...
 
Still waiting on brake (got a shipping notice today), rear sight (ordered today, black for now), XTM rail panels (no shipping notice so far), magazines (supposed to be here today, didn’t happen), and crush washer for Beowulf. Waiting on lower for 7.5” 5.56 (still no shipping notice from PSA), but I did install the SplitFix onto the SBA3.
Got a shipping notice for the black rear MBUS
Got a shipping notice for the lower
Crush washer and the brake are due Friday, MBUS and lower haven’t moved...just labels created so far.

But these did show up today:

369B5AEC-727C-4F51-91C3-1E686BCAAAEC.jpeg CBAFF568-CFD0-4430-BB88-4CC6EFA8438E.jpeg


Other than that, the XTM rail panels are the only thing I don’t know about. Definitely won’t be a show stopper. I’m trying to just get the order canceled, but can’t get an email reply or anybody on the phone.
 
Heart Breaker arrived today. It actually fits without the jam nut.

7DB38D6C-F21C-452F-A200-261BC711E242.jpeg

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But I’m going to stick to my plan to use it as a spacer. Looks like this with the jam nut in place:

75A4282D-E983-498F-B58D-E259DB019163.jpeg

Just waiting on the crush washers to arrive. Then I might run up to @LeeMajors’ place to test fire it, so I’ll have a witness. :D

Still waiting on rear MBUS and some dress-up pieces. Found some Magpul FG rail covers in stock for the 16.5”, and some XTM panels for this one.
 
Somebody needs to video that first shot.
 
Time to form one a can for it really finish it off nicely....ish

Also you did good cause Beowulf always beats Grendal
 
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Crush washers showed up today, so now that’s handled. Didn’t take another pic because it really doesn’t look much different. :cool:
 
Crush washers showed up today, so now that’s handled. Didn’t take another pic because it really doesn’t look much different. :cool:
Now go buy some watermelons, get someone to video and shoot that thing!
 
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