Battle Arms Development + Aero Precision AR Build

Welcome back to 2A Patriot Ranch, coming at you from beautiful Old Town, Florida. We've been holding off on this YouTube thing, but we're here now and we're here to stay — and today we're talking about a rifle I just built this week. I am so happy with how it came out. This thing is badass.

The recipe: a Battle Arms Development Workhorse lower mated to an Aero Precision Atlas 16-inch upper with a 15-inch Atlas handguard. The B5 Bravo stock comes along with the Workhorse, there's a Battle Arms bolt carrier group inside, a RISE Armament charging handle, and a Blue Force Gear Vickers padded sling hanging off it.

Now, the elephant on top of this beautiful rifle: a Northtac M10. I know — 'A Patriot Ranch just ain't it if they're putting Northtac optics on their guns.' Calm down, everybody. Normally these run $120-$130, but I saw this one on sale for $59.99 and figured it was worth a look. I knew I wouldn't have time to sight anything else in this week, and honestly? Minus a kind of shitty refresh rate on the reflex, it was almost spot on right out of the box. It stuck, held zero, and it's sturdy as fuck. If you're a budget-minded person looking for a closed-emitter optic, I can't say anything negative other than that refresh rate — the dot is crisp and clear. That said, this optic probably comes off tomorrow and my Aimpoint Pro goes on, and that's how this rifle will stay. And no, I'm not throwing a freshly built rifle on the ground to drop-test it. All you YouTube guys who do that — you're nuts.

The real reason I built this is the Workhorse lower. When you talk bang for the buck, you get a ton with these. The proprietary grip module is divided so you can change the angle of the grip depending on how you like to hold it. You also get an enhanced trigger, enhanced takedown pins, and an enhanced bolt release — just a really smooth gun. The ambidextrous mag release I really love. What it doesn't have is an ambi safety selector; the Workhorse Patrol version does, but that runs about $150 more, and I can literally just buy Battle Arms' $30 safety selector and install it myself. Not doing the Patrol math.

We all know the business on an AR happens up top, and as long as a lower can drop the hammer it'll technically do the job — but there's something to be said about a good lower, and this thing definitely fits the mold. Next tweak: I'm probably swapping the B5 Bravo for an FDE B5 SOPMOD, because I just like that look a little better. Man, what a pretty rifle. Hit me up in the comments and tell me what you'd build.