I'm looking for recommendations on putting a lower together. I've got a frame with Rook rails F/R. The only other parts I have are Trigger bar with trigger and a Trigger housing with ejector. I do not have any other parts so I need everything. Where are good places to shop for parts? I've never put one together from individual parts so which parts will work good with 1 another? I'm not looking high end but I don't want junk either. The gun will mainly be used for competition style shooting, mainly IDPA. I was looking at the glock store but I've heard a lot of ngative things about them.
top of page
Builders Tribe
bottom of page
Thanks
Being a competition build, I would use as many OME part as I could to start with.
I start off every build with parts kit from Rook, or LW, or some of the venders we support here.
My target builds have OME upper parts. I might change out the safety plunger and I change out the back plate (I like aluminum back plates). I use a LPK at first and I prefer them to be OME parts, but I end up changing them out for custom hand fitted parts I fit myself. I have used a lot of Tyrant lower parts like the magazine release and slide release. I just like the looks and feel but mostly I like that they are aluminum.
Building a competition shooter, I would look to balance the build by adding as much weight as possible in the frame like an aluminum mag well and lighten up the slide by using one with window cuts. A barrel with ports may or may not help in balance. I have not noticed any difference in one with ports and one without ports, but the lighter slide helps balance the build with the frame.
The reason I build first with OME parts is to get a functioning firearm. One that passes test and shoots fine at the start. When you start off building with random parts from different venders you may end up tracking down one problem after the other because you don't know where the problem stared from using out of spec parts, start off with parts you can count on.
I think most people that build missed the point of hand fitting aftermarket parts from a reputable vender is all about. The tolerance in OME parts and the quality control is why they work all the time. Think about how you would tighten-up a build that is working fine. The first thing that I think about is taking out any sloppy fitting parts by hand polishing aftermarket parts for a tighter fit. The biggest slop I find is in the slide at the nose of the frame. Most poeple call this nose drop and should be fixed for a target or competition build. This slop will cause a wider grouping in shooting. If there is a side-to-side wiggle this too is bad if you want tight grouping, you can fix tis by using Rook rails or tightening of the slide.
The most hand fitting I do is on the trigger assembly. I like using OME trigger bars because they seem to fix problems that seem to show up when replacing trigger shoes. I like to use a gen 4 trigger housing and I do some of Jonny's Glock trigger tips. You can check out his videos, they are a must to watch in my opinion when doing trigger work unless you use something like the Timney drop in triggers. Once you get your trigger working at 3-4lbs pull the rest of the lower parts are easy to replace if you want to. Just do it one at a time and check for functionality. That way if a problem shows up you know where to start looking for the problem.
This is how I look at using aftermarket parts usually they have to be hand polished and fitted for that close tolerance that tightens up everything on the build that in turns tightens up groups.
It's the same thing in race cars, they don't use a lot of OME parts. Parts or custom fitted for more power out of the motor, better brakes, tighter steering and so on.
So, what I am saying is learn how all parts work then when tightening up what needs to be fitted with a closer tolerance. I prefer to hand fit and polish all my parts, especially stamped parts, they have a tendency to have burs and sharp edges.