#spikestactical

This is probably not exactly what you’re thinking, but this is the story of one particular carbine, an AR-15 carbine in my collection. This is one of the very first AR-15 rifles that I cut my teeth on building and modifying. It’s based on the infamous “zombie” lower receiver that is produced by Spike’s Tactical down in Florida. I picked up the lower receiver at a gun show out of all places. In true gun show fashion, it was a blemished lower receiver but priced higher than a non-blemished lower receiver at anywhere else. But despite the pricing being what it was, I had been on the hunt for a zombie lower receiver for some time, so it went home with me that day.

Mid length gas system rifles were all the rage back then so it seems. Therefore this new build had to have a mid length gas system. I had found a Spike’s Tactical assembled mid length upper receiver with a government profile barrel…PERFECT! Just want I needed for this build. This upper had just a basic handguard installed, but I wanted something more. Troy makes a very simple to install free float handguard, the Alpha rail. I picked up one of those from Brownells as well as a Midwest Industries low profile gas block. The F marked front sight post would of course have to be removed…I quickly learned about the patience necessary when dealing with taper pins. A new sighting system would also be needed, so I opted for a set of Troy HK style backup sights from Brownells. I truly wanted a good optic. LPVOs were not very prevalent back then, but Leupold had just came out with their Mark AR scopes and had a 1.5-4 with a green dot reticle. These weren’t inexpensive back then either, so I saved up and went with this optic. A Smith Enterprises Vortex muzzle device was installed in place of the A2 flash hider.

The lower receiver build had to be all Spike’s Tactical. I picked up a Spike’s lower parts kit and buffer tube setup. Magpul stock and grip. I’ve always had a thing for Magpul MOE+ rubberized grips. They seem to feel very good in the hand. A basic mil spec trigger was used as well. And there was a perfect 16” mid length AR build, but as times change, preferences and use changes as well.

At some point a few years ago I got interested in what Geissele had to offer. Even though their parts are top tier in terms of price and quality, they seemed to be the go to for hard use parts for the AR platform. I opted to pick up a Geissele MK14 rail assembly. This was back when they still came with the bombproof gas block (shame on you Geissele for not including the gas block any longer). Installation on the new hand guard was simple and straighter forward. I also changed to a new optic. This time I decided to go with a Riton X7 Tactix 1-8 FFP on a Geissele mount. Wow, what a difference! This scope is considerably brighter than the Leupold, but optics technology has changed a ton in the past decade. It is a bit heavier by comparison however. The other item that needed an upgrade was the trigger. I decided to go with one of my all time favorite triggers (sorry Geissele) a LaRue Tactical MBT-2S. For around $100, this 2 stage trigger rivals a Geissele trigger that costs 2x as much. By now I’m heavily into suppressing everything that I can, so I install a Rugged Suppressors 2-port muzzle brake so that I can run any of my Rugged rifle cans. For lighting, I went with a REIN from Cloud Defensive. Cloud Defensive has been taking the tactical light market by storm in recent years with their OWL and REIN series of weapon lights.

So as you can see, this old carbine is now new and modernized. Was there anything wrong with the old setup? Most certainly not. I could’ve continued to run the Troy Alpha rail and optic setup and been perfectly fine. The AR platform is akin to adult Legos though. It can evolve into whatever you desire so long as the parts are available. So the next time you pull out that old AR carbine from the back of your safe, just remember it too can evolve into something new and modern with just the right parts.