[Tarheel]

Hello!

So I've decided to jump on the AR15 bandwagon after being a longtime AK devote. I've tentatively settled on an MR556. I really love my HK pistols and want to keep it in the family. I set this out in subtopics after reading a few of these "tell me what I should do with my money" threads that seemed confusing.

Anyways...

Purpose: Only carbine I really want to own, can do everything well or pretty well inside 50-600. 3-gun, very occasional whitetail hunting (556 is legal in my state), target shooting, carbine courses, and [ugh] I guess also the whole "grid down scenario" thing [cringe]. But, mostly just fun and awesome range trips!

Overall vision: Build the best "Jack of all trades" MR556. Something to really own the ground between shotgun/pistol (0-100m) and bolt gun (600m+).

Questions
1. Colt Lower: I have a new complete colt lower already. Is there a big difference between the complete gun and just buying an MR Upper? Will I still get the rock solid lockup the MRs are famous for, or will it be sloppy M4 town?

2. Barrel Length: 14.5" or 16"? Does it significantly hurt the value of the gun to chop the Barrel off (Professionally)? Any performance decrease over factory 14.5s?

3. Optics: Initially I had planed to cut the barrel to 14.5 and use the TA31RCO-M4 ACOG. This combo is very familiar to me from the military. However, I am thinking an S&B short dot (or similar?) might give me more flexibility and reduce the need to chop the barrel. What do y'all think? Is there something else out there that y'all prefer? ELCAN maybe?

4. Standard or Competition: I kind of like the competition markings, is there a big reason not to get it?.

5. Where to buy: Where can I get a hold of a complete gun? Seems like everywhere is out of stock and GB is real expensive.

So what do y'all think?

Thanks,

Stew

 

[LCSO264]

I can address some of your questions.

1. regarding the lock up with a Colt lower. My 416 upper has been riding on a Colt A1 lower for as long as I've owned it (several years), it has and continues to lock up solid on the colt lower. I suspect as long as the lower of your choosing is truly to Mil Spec, your HK upper will lock up tight. My CR556 upper is mounted on a San Tan ST15 lower, and that is a super tight lock up. so again, I think as long as your lower is Mil Spec, you are in good shape. That said, I do want an MR gen 1 lower, I just really like the look of them, hence the ST15 it was the closest I could find as far as appearance, "squared and flared".

2. I can't really address, as I have a 10.5 416 upper, and my CR556 is left factory. I guess it would really depend on what your intended purpose is? My CR556 is really more of a bench gun, my kid shoots it, while my 416 is my work/duty rifle. for work I prefer the short 416, which I shoot every bit as accurately as I shoot the CR556, but prefer the short length for maneuverability. Now if you're looking to compete in some type of tactical rifle shooting, you may want to lighten up the barrel (reduced profile)... I don't know, it really depends on your intended use.

3. I currently run a 1X optics on both mine. However, I like where you are heading with the S&B thought. All I will say about ELCAN, is they are big and heavy; going onto an already hefty upper.

4. I the only real difference (currently) is the hand guard. the standard has the quad rail, which I ditched on my 416 in favor of a Geisele. I still have the factory HKey hand guard on my CR, but again that rifle is mostly shot by my kid at the range from a rest.

5. I don't know for sure, but there was a post recently that a new batch of guns are becoming available. I'd keep checking the long gun section here for starters.


good luck, you are about to enter an addictive and expensive endeavor.... for some reason you can't have just one?

 

[dms16]

How new/old is your Colt lower? For a stint in the 90's up until 2008/2009, Colt had larger diameter trigger/hammer pins.

 

[Tarheel]

Thanks for the responses guys. I just bought the lower tried to look the serial number up on colts website, but to no avail. Here's a pic of the lower.

 

[dms16]

Thanks for the responses guys. I just bought the lower tried to look the serial number up on colts website, but to no avail. Here's a pic of the lower. View attachment 88417

You're good, bro...it's milspec pins. The "M4 Carbine" rollmarks haven't been been on the commercial guns for very long. I'm not sure how tall the hammer face is on your gun, but it looks like there's a notch in it. There is a list of aftermarket triggers that do and do not work with the HK's firing pin safety. I recommend the ACT ALG or BCM's tuned version of the same for these guns unless you want to go full-on and spring for the Geissele HK setup.

1) There may be a little play between upper and lower, but nothing out of the ordinary and nothing that will affect performance.

2) At this point, the uppers alone aren't huge sellers. Depending on who does the work (if you have work done on it), you might generate more interest on a resale. Marvin Pitts would be my go-to for any shortening, re-profiling or any other barrel work. I see no performance issues in chopping down to 14.5. You can read here about guys having issues going down to 10.4". A couple have done 12.5" which is kind of a neat length.

3) Trijicons are neat, but optic tech has surpassed them and they aren't getting cheaper. They are the standard for fixed prism optics, but as I said...we're beyond that. I do LOVE me some Schmidt & Bender, but as much as it pains me to say it, the old 1.1-4x Short Dots are not the lead dog anymore...unless you can get them for a song. Sometimes that's doable, but there is till S&B and some nitwits that think they can demand $2300+ for them; they can't. Their 1-8x and 1.5-8x offerings are cool but expensive. Quite honestly the value of the Vortex Razor HD II 1-6x is nearly impossible to overlook, and the Kahles 1-6x coming in at $1800ish makes it very, very hard to shell out the coin for some of the S&B's unless you really understand what you want out of your optic.

4) Markings...they mean jack s**t to some; thousands of dollars to others. I'm of the mind that a lower is either works/in-spec, or it isn't. I've run 416 and MR556 uppers on several lowers and only have a few personally-owned HK lowers now by dumb luck. If you like it and are willing to pay for the competition markings and like the feature set go for it, but you will also be fine with an MR upper on a Colt lower.

5) I'm not much help on this one. Honestly, I would wait and see what's going to go on with this HK addition in the Georgia unless you MUST have one right now.

The HK's are cool guns, but they lack the "diversity" shall we say to be tuned to a jack-of-all-trades AR in many cases. Scoped AR work is my bread & butter, and I have a few 416's set up with a lot of Geissele kit and very high-end optics, but they aren't the end-all, be-all of the do-all AR. You could no doubt build the MR556 into such a gun, but it wouldn't be cheap. In the DI world, you can build/have built a lighter, softer-shooting, more accurate, and very reliable gun for far less; however, it's far easier to cut corners and end up with 7-9 pounds of disappointing aluminum.

Feel free to PM if you want follow-up or want to toss some ideas around.

 

[LCSO264]

How new/old is your Colt lower? For a stint in the 90's up until 2008/2009, Colt had larger diameter trigger/hammer pins.

I forgot about this.....

Glad yours is a mil spec' do lower

 

[RegularGuy461969]

Hello!

So I've decided to jump on the AR15 bandwagon after being a longtime AK devote. I've tentatively settled on an MR556. I really love my HK pistols and want to keep it in the family. I set this out in subtopics after reading a few of these "tell me what I should do with my money" threads that seemed confusing.

Anyways...

Purpose: Only carbine I really want to own, can do everything well or pretty well inside 50-600. 3-gun, very occasional whitetail hunting (556 is legal in my state), target shooting, carbine courses, and [ugh] I guess also the whole "grid down scenario" thing [cringe]. But, mostly just fun and awesome range trips!

Overall vision: Build the best "Jack of all trades" MR556. Something to really own the ground between shotgun/pistol (0-100m) and bolt gun (600m+).

Questions
1. Colt Lower: I have a new complete colt lower already. Is there a big difference between the complete gun and just buying an MR Upper? Will I still get the rock solid lockup the MRs are famous for, or will it be sloppy M4 town?

2. Barrel Length: 14.5" or 16"? Does it significantly hurt the value of the gun to chop the Barrel off (Professionally)? Any performance decrease over factory 14.5s?

3. Optics: Initially I had planed to cut the barrel to 14.5 and use the TA31RCO-M4 ACOG. This combo is very familiar to me from the military. However, I am thinking an S&B short dot (or similar?) might give me more flexibility and reduce the need to chop the barrel. What do y'all think? Is there something else out there that y'all prefer? ELCAN maybe?

4. Standard or Competition: I kind of like the competition markings, is there a big reason not to get it?.

5. Where to buy: Where can I get a hold of a complete gun? Seems like everywhere is out of stock and GB is real expensive.

So what do y'all think?

Thanks,

Stew

I love my Elcan SpectreDR 1-4. Yes it's a little on the heavy side but over a two day period at Marine0303's rifle class I put over 2000 rounds down the pipe and I never noticed the wieght. It is on a 416 10.4" upper and MR556 Comp lower. I also like the larger control surfaces of the Comp (some may call me a heretic for saying that, but I do!)

I do NOT work with these firearms professionally so I'm also not humping it around day-in and day-out.

If you are looking for a complete gun contact Marine0303, he's based in NC. He posted a pic of a recently received 556 Comp rifle. It literally just shipped to him. Or as others state, you can wait out the year to see what announcements result from the new facility.

There is also a Marvin Pitts cut shorty for sale on GB. It's been there for a bit of time.

You can also think of looking at 416 uppers. They aren't selling like they were last year and there don't seem to be as many posted for sale as before. But they are out there, I've noticed prices from $3200 to $8000. You can even occasionally find them in the $2k's without bolt groups and hand guard.

Whichever way you decide to go, you'll have a blast wth it. Good Luck and please report back with how you end up.

David

 

[Tarheel]

I love my Elcan SpectreDR 1-4. Yes it's a little on the heavy side but over a two day period at Marine0303's rifle class I put over 2000 rounds down the pipe and I never noticed the wieght. It is on a 416 10.4" upper and MR556 Comp lower. I also like the larger control surfaces of the Comp (some may call me a heretic for saying that, but I do!)

I do NOT work with these firearms professionally so I'm also not humping it around day-in and day-out.

If you are looking for a complete gun contact Marine0303, he's based in NC. He posted a pic of a recently received 556 Comp rifle. It literally just shipped to him. Or as others state, you can wait out the year to see what announcements result from the new facility.

There is also a Marvin Pitts cut shorty for sale on GB. It's been there for a bit of time.

You can also think of looking at 416 uppers. They aren't selling like they were last year and there don't seem to be as many posted for sale as before. But they are out there, I've noticed prices from $3200 to $8000. You can even occasionally find them in the $2k's without bolt groups and hand guard.

Whichever way you decide to go, you'll have a blast wth it. Good Luck and please report back with how you end up.

David

I think I'll be heading more towards a 1-6 or 1-8 as i'd really like to push the distance on this gun. I took a class with James last year, Instruction was outstanding! Didn't know he did civilian sales though.

I saw the upper on GB, shortest i'd want to go is 14.5 pinned, not trying to get into the SBR world just yet.

I actually like the heavy barrel profile on the MR556.

 

[RegularGuy461969]

I think I'll be heading more towards a 1-6 or 1-8 as i'd really like to push the distance on this gun. I took a class with James last year, Instruction was outstanding! Didn't know he did civilian sales though.

I saw the upper on GB, shortest i'd want to go is 14.5 pinned, not trying to get into the SBR world just yet.

I actually like the heavy barrel profile on the MR556.

I think if asked politely James would order it


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[Tarheel]

That's good to know! When I get one I'll definitely go through him. With all the fuss around the Georgia plant, I might just hold what I've got. With the political climate the way it is and the amount of DOD contracts HK has been able to pull, it would make sense for them to fix the MRs hangups.

 

[AGG]

Thanks for the responses guys. I just bought the lower tried to look the serial number up on colts website, but to no avail. Here's a pic of the lower. View attachment 88417

2012+--- you are good!!! :biggrin:

Tony

 

[Augee]

I hear the "ELCAN is so heeeeaaavvvvy" thing fairly often, but when compared to other optic setups with similar capabilities, it is comparable in weight.

Because it is such a compact scope, it is "denser" than many other scopes, so holding the optic by itself in your hand, it "feels" heavier, but and it's been a while since I actually did the weights, but IIRC, an S&B Short Dot with a LaRue mount is actually heavier than the ELCAN. The Vortex Razor HDII 1-6 is also a heftier optic. Moreover, given the "quick flip" ability of the ELCAN between 1x and 4x, instead of a rotating focus knob, it is arguably a closer comparison to an RDS with a magnifier with FTS mount, which is again, quite a heavy setup, not to mention the balance penalties you face when the magnifier is flipped to the side.

This is not to say there may not be other reasons some might prefer other optics to the ELCAN, which is now an over ten year old optic, but the weight "issue" is a red herring for the most part, and, IMHO, has more to do with perceived weight while holding the optic in an "administrative" setting, usually not on a rifle, than having much experience using it on a rifle.

As for some of your other questions that have received less attention:

IMHO, a good 14.5" rifle, whether an HK or not, is a great general purpose rifle, but "stock," the MR556 is not it. The barrel profile is simply excessive for what is already a front heavy gun, even with more practical barrel profiles.

This leads into your next question, about whether or not professional barrel work hurts the value of the upper--from what I have seen, professional barrel work rarely "hurts" the value of the upper relative to a standard MR556 upper, but you are unlikely to recover whatever costs you put in to getting the barrel work done, the more you use it, of course, this will "hurt" an upper's value, but with a more reasonable barrel profile, perhaps you'll be more likely to use it, so there's that.

Beyond that, if you do want to get the barrel professionally cut, as I would recommend personally, you are probably best off getting the barrel cut to a "standard" HK416 profile of some sort, the modified barrels that tend to sell fastest, easiest, and for the most money tend to be ones that mimic standard HK416 10.4" or 14.5" barrels as closely as possible. While the MR556 has enough "meat" for you to come up with all sorts of creative profiles, fluting, finning, dimpling, and whatever random weight you might choose, this kind of "custom" barrel work often tends to have more limited appeal compared to something that looks "standard."

Insofar as the buying the Competition versus the A1, I'm in the "do not care" camp when it comes to markings, as long as the lower is a semi-auto HK416 lower--which is what an MR556 lower is, for the most part I could care less what it says on it. As for the "features" of the two models, almost none of the parts that set the two apart would end up staying on the rifle anyways, so it's really a non-issue for me, hahaha. I do actually prefer the MagPul CTR to the HK stock, though.

That being said, if it was not clear by now, I have always been heavily on the "modify it!" side of the "modify or leave stock" debate, so my answers are colored by that sentiment.

~Augee