Forum Member Crafts Wood Fore-Arm for his AR15
Forum member Brian V. (aka “Carbide”) wanted a new look for his “modern sporting rifle”. He was tired of looking at black plastic (or FDE, OD green) and aluminum components on his AR15. So he decided to fit wood “furniture” on the rifle. He ordered a wood butt-stock and fore-arm set made by Lucid, but he didn’t like the two-piece fore-arm of the Lucid stock set. He decided he could build something better than the commercially-available, Lucid-made wood fore-arm.
So Brian took his existing AR tubular fore-arm and epoxied a walnut sleeve to it. With a lathe, Brian then turned the walnut sleeve to his desired dimensions: 2.250″ diameter in back and 2.200″ diameter in front, so there’s a little taper. Brian says “I could have gone a little thinner.” The wood fore-end was then sanded and stained to match the Lucid-made rear section. Brian says “the stain is not quite a perfect match, but but it looks a lot better.”
Does Brian like his new wood-stocked AR? Absolutely. He says the conversion makes the gun more user-friendly: “The wood is warmer to carry in winter and quieter.” He adds that the wood sleeve added about four ounces of weight to the fore-end, but that did not affect the handling.
We think this is a good “do-it-yourself” project that could be done by many of our readers. You can simply install the Lucid stock set or customize the front end like Brian did. Either way, you end up with a good-looking rifle that feels better in your hands.
LUCID AR15 Wood Stock Sets Are Sold by Brownells.com: CLICK HERE to ORDER.
Where do you acquire one of those round sleeves for the forend?
I have been wanting to do the wood hand guardon an ar15 for a long time now. How did you make the hole in your “sleeve”?
My father had a Walnut set from Colt in the 70’s on his SP1, made that rifle the most popular whenever it came out of the safe…..it was only a 2 piece set, butt stock and triangle hand guard, the pistol grip wasn’t included.
What is the cost of this AR15