Trusty II, after the project, with a Holosight on top and a SureFire 900 light below. For close-range shooting, keep both eyes open, and put the Holosight reticle two inches above where you want the shot to go. With a sling, Trusty II will be complete.

"Trusty" was done. I had been practicing on the rifle-plate rack, and I missed. The day had come; the barrel was done. Many of you might think that I'm being arrogant when I say, "I missed, and the rifle is at fault."

You haven't shot Trusty. I picked up this rifle for a song back in the very early 1990s. Trusty was assembled on an Essential Arms lower. I say "assembled" because Essential never made rifles; the company only made lowers. And then it went out of business. I picked it up for a song because it was "defective." The previous owner had tried to assemble it himself, didn't know what was wrong when it wouldn't work and figured he'd fix it by drilling the gas port larger. Since there is almost no problem that an AR can be heir to that is fixed by drilling the gas port,

I replaced the trashed barrel with a cheap used one. What I picked up was a skinny, 20-inch 1:12 twist off an M-16. It fit the look of the A1 upper and the triangular handguards. What I didn't know was that I had picked up the most accurate barrel Colt ever made.

That skinny barrel was a tackdriver. And miraculously, it shot Winchester 63-grain softpoints like an NRA High Power Match rifle--well, at least to 100 yards, which is all our gun club has. It would plunk five of them into a group you could cover with a single paster. It shot any load with 55-grain FMJs into less than an inch. It was so accurate it wasn't really useful as a test-bed for reloading as it would accurately shoot ammo that wouldn't group in other rifles. I have no explanation for this; I am only reporting what I observed.

I used Trusty and didn't think twice about it. I used it for practice in IPSC 3-Gun and on bowling pins. I set the iron-sight record on our club's rifle-plate/pin rack, five pins off-hand, iron sights at 90 yards, in 4.11 seconds. Later I used it as a loaner when I taught rifle classes. If someone had a rifle that broke, they'd get mine while I fixed theirs. Usually, I had to hunt down the officer involved and force him to take his departmental rifle back because his scores were invariably better with Trusty than with his issued rifle.

On the fateful day when Trusty failed, the sights were centered on the pin, and the trigger broke cleanly. The pin should have fallen, but it didn't. So I promptly set up the shooting bags and shot a group off the bench--a disappointing three inches at 100 yards. Perhaps the bore was just copper-fouled; I cleaned and retested. No change. Time for a new barrel.

While I was at it, why not make a few other changes, too? Why not build a new tactical AR on the base of my old A1 rifle? The first task was to decide what to change.

When you slide the stock off, be sure you don't lose the rear takedown retainer-pin spring and plunger.

The barrel had to be a faster twist to allow the use of heavier bullets. As I already have plenty of full-size rifles, I went with a 16-inch barrel. Brownells carries many, and I'd always heard good things about DPMS, so I had the folks at Brownells ship me an M-4-looking shortie barrel. (I actually ended up with two, a subject for a later article.)

Now, should I simply use the existing upper or change that, too? Essential Arms receivers were cast, and they looked it. The upper was serviceable, but the carrying handle was clumsy when it came to mounting optics, lights or anything else. EGW provided a flattop upper with integral Picatinny rail.

Earlier, at the SHOT Show, Brant Sabau, national sales manager of GG&G, had tempted me with the company's new free-float tactical handguards. "Sure, we can send you a set." Great, the upper was all set.

Or was it?

To access the batteries on the Vltor stock, you turn the latch and pull it forward until it comes free.

Wait a minute: A flattop upper lacks sights. I placed a quick e-mail to Brant and soon had a folding rear sight in the mail. The new GG&G folder has a built-in lock, so once you stand up the sight, it won't get knocked down.

Since EOTech is a neighbor, it was an easy choice to clamp on its Holosight as the optical sighting system. For most work I'd use the Holosight, but in the case of battery or catastrophic electronic failure, I can pop the irons and keep going.

With the choice of upper settled, there was the matter of the legal status of the lower. As the Essential Arms Company went out of business years before the Assault Weapons Ban was passed, and I had this rifle in my possession before the ban was signed, there is no question that it is a pre-ban gun. As a result I could not only have the DPMS barrel shipped with muzzle threads, I could swap the fixed stock for a tele (remember, even if the ban has sunset when you read this, I'm building it before the sunset date).

But which telescoping stock?

There are many, and one thing you should know is that there are mil-spec (or Colt) tele stocks, and then there are all the others. If you have a Colt or mil-spec buffer tube, you can swap Colt or mil-spec tele stocks on it. If you have a "non" (non-Colt or non-mil-spec), you can't.

Another tempting product I discovered was the Vltor tele stock. Its mil-spec-compatible stocks recognize tactical realities and have integral battery storage.

Shortie stocks get the short buffer and spring, above. Standard ones use the longer buffer and spring.

On to building the new Tactical AR. The first thing to do is check headspace of the new barrel. I stripped the bolt, removing the extractor and ejector from the bolt head, and with Dave Manson headspace gauges, I found the chamber to be too short. Perfect. I then reamed the chamber and checked the headspace until the chamber would just accept a "GO" gauge but not a "NO-GO" gauge. If in testing I find the chamber is still a bit too short for reliable function, I can always ream a little bit more.

Next we installed the barrel into the upper. Unlike many other rifles where the barrel screws into the receiver, the AR barrel is clamped into the receiver via a barrel nut. Trusty is getting a free-float handguard, so the delta ring, spring and C clip that would retain the regular handguards aren't needed. As the EGW is a flattop upper, I couldn't clamp it in my standard AR upper blocks and had to use barrel blocks.