If it’s high and tight, very comfortable for hiking and dodging in and around trees and swamps, able to get on target instantly, the shell deflector bumps me right at the bottom of my sternum. Have not figured out a path to engineer my way out of this. Makes me not want to carry it. Grinding it off seems a really poor solution.
Do I have to wear amour in the summer?! I’m seriously considering a plate-carrier style vest, just can’t find one that could replace my backpack. I’m kinda needy in the woods, pack out a kitchen sink kinda needy. Carriers look quite nice, and would keep my gear out the water when I wade or slip, don’t seem to carry much.
Maybe get a simple one and attach bags? Maybe attach more crap to my Fighting Load Carrier (FLC)? OK, you talked me into it. Thanks rubber ducks!
https://palmettostatearmory.com/ar-15/barreled-upper-assemblies/left-handed-uppers.html
Why are you running a right handed upper if you’re a lefty?
Get a left handed upper so brass isn’t ejecting on the wrong side and gas isn’t burning your face.
I’m not a lefty so unfortunately I don’t have any good tips for running your sling. But if it were my rifle the first thing I would try is sticking a big wad of Sugru over the area between the deflector and the forward assist, and mold it so it flattens the area out, or rounds it out, so it doesn’t poke as much.
Beyond that, you can get upper receivers that don’t have a forward assist or brass deflector at all. It’s more common for pistol-caliber uppers, but they do make them for 5.56 as well. Probably just be conscious of the size of the ejection port so you don’t accidentally buy an AR-9 or AR-22 upper.
Also, you can get just full-on left-handed upper receivers as well. They’re basically just a mirror opposite of a regular one. These tend to be on the expensive side though because they also need a left-handed bolt and bolt carrier to work.
If I remember right the brass deflector is there because of lefty and offhanded shooting situations. Without it brass can fly back and hit your face
You can tune your gas system to mitigate that if you need to. There are some variables involved, but it’s usually not too hard to get your brass ejecting around a 3 o’clock angle.
Use the Stag Arms left handed upper and bcg. If you need it white, get it cerakoted (if the rest of your rifle is white, it’s likely cerakoted already.)
You can offset the cost a bit by selling your old upper and bcg on tacswap or armslist if you want, too. Or leave it in a box in case you want to sell that whole rifle, then swap the OG back on for value (or you may be able to make more on a custom in this one instance, being a lefty and lefty builds being a bit more rare.)
Afaik they’re the only ones who make a lefty, most lefty completes you can buy are built off the Stag. Iirc there is one other brand I can’t remember but it’s not as good (though I also can’t remember why I didn’t like it, my gut says it was the door.)
Other option would be getting Catholic nuns to beat you until you stop writing with the Devil’s hand, though that won’t fix your eye dominance, so I’d recommend using the proper gear instead lol.
Hadn’t thought of that! I’d still be leary that the cerakot wouldn’t match. It’s a funky slightly off white color, tiny bit of yellow in it.
Well,
A) Yeah probably. Cerakote ideally needs to be done in a batch, as the way it works you can have two different batches of the same color sprayed by the same guy with slight variations in the batches. You mix it with a catalyst and temperature can make a difference yadda yadda but yeah for the best results you’d want to get them to do the handguard, lower, and upper (etc) at the same time. It’d be more expensive that way, but that’d give the absolute best results.
B) If you can find a local place, they can do as best they can to color match. It won’t be perfect but if they’re any good they can get close enough that only you will notice (and probably only under very good lighting at that).
(If you can’t find a local place, you could ship it to someone and they can send it back to you directly without an ffl as long as the serial isn’t changed, so that’s nice. You could also just send a nonserialized part to color match.)
C) A black upper with white other stuff looks pretty fucking cool anyway. You could just leave the anodizing on there.
D) I always argue having the gear work and work for you is more important than flashy colors. Imo it’s a worthy trade off, unless you’re actively fighting people in the snow and need the camo, but then Rustoleum matte white gotchu until you can cerakote it.
If I can ever afford to build another, I’ll make it left handed and do own thing. Can’t afford to pay someone to cerakote, but looked into doing it myself a bit, got a few other guns that could benefit.
What’s your take on learning DIY cerakote? The main thing I remember is having to fabricate a drying oven.
It can be done for sure but idk it might be more expensive than getting a pro after the airgun/compressor, sandblaster, screens, oven, cerakote tester bottle, acetone bath, etc.
Unfortunately idk much about the DIY side, I use a nearby shop with a full set up. It isn’t that hard to do though if you have all the stuff, though white is easier to get light sprays.
If you get good you could make some side money though, tbh.
Honestly I’d swap the upper and leave it black, personally.
What kind of kit do you wear? I’m not a lefty but for me a chest rig is enough to keep the rifle away from my body most of the time
No chest rig except in the winter! And really not much more than a backpack. Your question hits to the heart of mine: What if I’m just wearing a T-shirt?
And the tips on replacing my upper? Can’t afford it and I doubt Ruger makes a matching, white, left-handed version. :)
If you’re just in a tee not much you can do with the rifle as it is. The brass deflector is supposed to help lefties when they shoot so going without one isn’t a great option but yeah like you said going with a lefty upper is a problem too…