A couple years back I picked up an AR-10. Nice gun but was in need of some upgrades. Unfortunately, some of those upgrades needed the expertise of a machinist and tools and that's where Black Bart graciously came to the rescue.

At first, I started with this AR-10. Nothing special about it and really wasn't fond of the furniture.



The first few things to change was the furniture. In hindsight, I should have gone with all black instead of matching the existing green. Oh well. In any case, the AR-10 got a new collapsible butt stock and a new floating forearm. Won't get in to how much of pain in the ass it was to replace that forearm. Let's just say it got done. End result was an AR-10 that looked something like this:



It was OK, but was missing a few things that required the work of Black Bart. Most important was that barrel needed to be threaded and re-crowned. Neither one of us was overly thrilled with the stock Armalite scope mount, so BB had some "ideas" kicking in his head. I showed up at his place a few weekends ago, got the full tour of his facilities, chatted for quite a while and left my AR-10 with him as I disappeared out of the country for a while.

He kinda went all Superman on the project. Like "wholly crap BB, tha's the coolest stuff I've ever seen!" kinda on the project.

Not only did he thread and crown the barrel, but he manufactured a couple of set's of custom scope rings for the scope! You'll never come across a set of rings as nice as these anywhere. Guaranteed.

I'm going to just let the pictures he sent to me explain the rest of what he did:

After threading and crowning the barrel, he slapped on the adapter. Adapter for what?






















The project was almost complete. Only thing it needed now was the suppressor. Oh wait, it's right here.

Here's the completed AR-10 in it's full glory.



I can NOT thank Black Bart enough for his generosity and services. He's truly a world class guy and I'm still shaking my head at those that turned their nose up at what he offered you. Simply amazing that you turned him down. If and when Black Bart ever offers you *ANYTHING*, get your ass down to his house ASAP! Bring 3-4 bottles of the best hootch you can find and you'll still feel bad for what he just gave you.

I owe Black Bart big time...besides reading his papers. Just shows again how awesome some of the people are here that I've met!

C-mon parker ... You now know how easily I can be bought. I'm not real proud of it but as you found out I can be easily manipulated when when someone shows up with a very nice 7.62 rifle, a darn near full bucket of chicken, and a nice box of wine to wash it down with.

Enjoy enough of that fine box wine and a man can actually see things inside a block of raw material ... Strange ... I know ...




Sometimes one view is just not enough.





I'm very interested to hear your views on the efficiency of the suppressor. Cool job and I am so relieved that you were happy with what I conjured up for you.

Cheers .. Marv

Nice work !

Even if he offers a case of fine box wine all the way from Walton's, I would not let Paker touch any of the machines.

Bart, is your bow still available? I know someone who is desperately wanting to get into archery ....

Damn - nice work.

Driftfishnw ... I 'm just going to let that bow, along with the others, reside on the rack and collect dust so as to serve as a reminder to myself not to make this type of mistake again.

No problem, Bart, I understand ...

Quality guy right there.

A fine craftsman is always impressive. A fine craftsman that practices his art on firearms is awe inspiring.

Nice rifle Parker and dam fine work Bart!

Few things that were bugging me - so I fixed 'em.

Here's the final version of the rifle - at least no longer have any mods in mind for it.

It could use a new trigger or trigger job.

Very Nice...bring on the X-10 High Cap drum...