You have a few choices on the actual AR-15 upper receiver. Many are available in both forged and billet aluminum. Forged aluminum upper receivers are made by pressing the aluminum into a basic shape and them milling out the holes after. A billet upper receiver starts as a block of solid aluminum and the entire shape is milled out. Some folks like forged and some like billet. Some say billet is better. There are even custom upper receivers with non-standard shapes and of course, colors are available. Cerakote colors are popular coatings for aluminum and have good durability.

(The stripped lower receiver is the actual firearm that requires FFL purchase (and background check), but after that drill, all other parts are readily available everywhere on-line or your local gun store, but in part two we will talk about mainly the upper receiver assembly.)

There a two items that need to be assembled on your stripped upper receiver. The forward assist is a spring loaded button that engages the serrations in the BCG (bolt carrier group) and help push the BCG forward in case it doesn’t slide forward into battery (lock into the barrel extension). Some say that is a holdover from the original M16 design and isn’t really needed any more. Certainly, some folks have abused this device by banging on it to drive a bad cartridge into battery. You can buy stripped uppers with no hole for the forward assist and save a few bucks. The plunger on the forward assist can be the standard round button or there are a number of aftermarket ones that have elongated buttons.

The other item installed on the stripped upper is ejection port cover or dust cover. These are usually stamped metal but we are now seeing them in polymer. Polymer means colors too. The stamped metal varieties have can have laser engraved caliber, quotes, pictures and so on. The inside and outside surfaces of the dust cover can be engraved.

Stay tuned for part three – The Barrel