With all of my time at home over the last year due to the insanity we have been experiencing, I picked up a new hobby, and got into building AR-15 Rifles. In that year I have built several rifles and even a couple pistols, including .223, .300BO, and .308. Then I recently stumbled upon a site that sells parts for a DL-44 blaster (Han Solo's gun) build and thought that would be something a bit different and definitely fun.
This is a dedicated .22lr built on an AR platform. My blaster has:
-4.5" Beyer barrel
- RTB Bolt group
- Aero Precision upper and lower receivers
- CMMG lower parts kit
- Standard barrel nut
- Canto arms muzzle device
- Long eye relief pistol scope, on 45 degree pic rails
- Inexpensive Red Dot (because I wasn't sure how the scope would site in)
- Will be adding a broom handle grip soon to complete the look
Seeing as this is a "smugglers" firearm, I felt that it needed to have some wear and look used. To do this I carefully taped off all of the parts I didn't want paint on/in, then painted the receivers and parts silver. After the silver paint had dried completely, I painted over it with matte black. Again I allowed the black to dry completely. Then I carefully sanded the high spots and areas where you might expect to see some wear. Finally, I wiped everything down and sprayed several coats of a matte clear coat.
My first range trip was a bit of a disappointment, and I had a lot of FTE/FTF issues. I was a bit discouraged when leaving the range, thinking there was something wrong with the blaster. When I got home I cleaned everything well and made sure everything was well lubricated. Not one to give up on a cool project, I decided to return to the range today and had a MUCH better experience.
I believe the issues I had were ammo related. On my first trip I was using some Norma TAC-22 and had almost as many FTE/FTF as I had successful shots. Today I was using Aguila 40gr LRN, and had ZERO issues. I ended up firing 170 rounds and had 100% success. Now I look forward to many more fun days at the range playing with this fun little blaster.
DL-44 3 by Lyle Southard, on Flickr
DL-44 by Lyle Southard, on Flickr
DL-44 2 by Lyle Southard, on Flickr
This is a dedicated .22lr built on an AR platform. My blaster has:
-4.5" Beyer barrel
- RTB Bolt group
- Aero Precision upper and lower receivers
- CMMG lower parts kit
- Standard barrel nut
- Canto arms muzzle device
- Long eye relief pistol scope, on 45 degree pic rails
- Inexpensive Red Dot (because I wasn't sure how the scope would site in)
- Will be adding a broom handle grip soon to complete the look
Seeing as this is a "smugglers" firearm, I felt that it needed to have some wear and look used. To do this I carefully taped off all of the parts I didn't want paint on/in, then painted the receivers and parts silver. After the silver paint had dried completely, I painted over it with matte black. Again I allowed the black to dry completely. Then I carefully sanded the high spots and areas where you might expect to see some wear. Finally, I wiped everything down and sprayed several coats of a matte clear coat.
My first range trip was a bit of a disappointment, and I had a lot of FTE/FTF issues. I was a bit discouraged when leaving the range, thinking there was something wrong with the blaster. When I got home I cleaned everything well and made sure everything was well lubricated. Not one to give up on a cool project, I decided to return to the range today and had a MUCH better experience.
I believe the issues I had were ammo related. On my first trip I was using some Norma TAC-22 and had almost as many FTE/FTF as I had successful shots. Today I was using Aguila 40gr LRN, and had ZERO issues. I ended up firing 170 rounds and had 100% success. Now I look forward to many more fun days at the range playing with this fun little blaster.
DL-44 3 by Lyle Southard, on FlickrDL-44 by Lyle Southard, on FlickrDL-44 2 by Lyle Southard, on Flickr
