by Bmt85 » Tue Nov 20, 2018 8:15 am
When does deer season start for you?
For a quick build that is still moderately priced, I would say (off the top of my head) Tromix, Gryphon Trading, or maybe Satern. Reason I say those is because they have been around longer and they require little work (if any) to get running. They also produce very good results. Gryphon is $330 for a barrel, bolt, and muzzle device. Tromix is $300 for barrel and bolt, another $20 for thread protector or $60-65 for one of their muzzle devices. Obsidian arms has one 18" Satern with stainless finish and bolt for $283.50 and another $9 for a thread protector, or $80 for a brake. Obsidian also has black teflon finished Satern's for $297. I would stick with one of those. The Brownells melonite 450B is newer and I have yet to see anyone running one. I also am not a fan of the 1:14 twist rate, and I also don't prefer the carbine gas length (not a huge problem, as I own a 16" barrel with carbine length gas system). I believe mid-length is much better. From what I have mentioned, I only own the Tromix, and love it. I almost bought a Gryphon instead of my Tromix, because it also had good reviews and they are made in my state. Tromix won out because of a sale, and I wanted something a little lighter at the time. As to the Satern's, a couple years back there seemed to be a surge of people buying them. I don't remember any issues with those, and accuracy seemed to be inline with the Gryphon's and Tromix's.
Gas block is whatever size you need. As to which type, I prefer SLR set screw blocks because you can order one of there jigs and have it done right in a matter of 10min. They do cost more, though. Cheapest is going to be a clamp-on type block. You have to make sure you get it lined up properly, or you could end up with cycling issues. They aren't that hard to install properly, though.
All 450B bolt's will swap in regular BCG's.
For magazines, I use Bushmaster factory, and ASC for the most part. Brenton's are suppose to be the best, but I have yet to try one. You could modify/convert 5.56 mags, but that will take time to tweak. I have modified a couple 5.56 mags, and they work, but I really recommend 450 specific mags. I personally won't try Stoner mags, because I'm not a fan of there quality, and so far some people have had issues with them.