HOLY SHIT. Sometimes, you find something that is too good to pass up. When a friend of mine picked up a 10.4 Heckler & Koch 416 upper with a Geissele SMR rail, I threw my hat in the ring in case he ever decided he would part with it. At the time, it was just a shot in the dark as I didn’t think he would ever part with such an awesome upper. Lucky for me, two months later, he hit me up to tell me he was willing to part with it and to offer me first go at it. Obviously, I was all over it. Normally, finding a assemble 10.4 416 upper is damn near impossible for south of $3,000, with the civilian version of the complete rifle called the MR556 going for around $2,400, so I always figured I would never get one. With this one, being just the upper, it leaves me with a ton of flexibility with how I want to proceed with building this upper into a complete rifle.

If you don’t know what the HK 416 is, you’ve missed out on one of the coolest firearms of the last thirty years. It’s a rifle based on the AR15 pattern, but instead of operating on the gas impingement principle like the AR has since it was first designed by Eugene Stoner, it works with a short-stroke piston instead. This gives the rifle extreme reliability in dirty environments and the ability to run much more efficiently suppressed. Originally, it was adopted by a certain US Army Special Mission Unit in 2004, and has seen consistent use with a certain Navy SMU, the Marine Corps in the guise of the M27 IAR, and a good amount of foreign militaries.  While being very heavy, it’s an extremely well made rifle with more features than the standard M4A1 that is currently issued.

This upper is all original, except for the barrel, which is a Hurricane Butterfly cut with the same profile as the barrel sold with the 10.4 416 from the factory, and the Geissele SMR handguard that is currently in use with the Army SMU. The charging handle has also been swapped out for a Geissele Airborne charging handle, that is also in use with the Army SMU.

My plan is to swap the rail and charging handle for black ones, if that doesn’t happen I’ll get them coated to match the upper. The muzzle needs a device so I’m going with a Surefire WARCOMP-556-CTN-1/2-28, both as a suppressor host and to combat recoil, which happens to be more than say a MK18. Obviously someone will cry “iT’s NoT cLoNe CoRrEcT”, but I’m not trying to go with a clone. Though I plan on throwing a Surefire M600, a PEQ15, and rotating between a EXPS3-3 and a Vortex 1-6×24 Razor, I’m using some of the “unit” used equipment as the basis for building what I want this gun to be once I know what it’s purpose will be. Once my suppressor is available it will be used on that as well, but that won’t be for some months because of the ATF being a garbage organization.

The lower is still in question. I could go buy a BRN4 lower from Brownells, which is a 80% 416 lower that was made by HK, imported by Brownells, and machined out by POF, an American company that also makes excellent piston AR15 rifles. I could also find a MR556 lower to slap on there. I have yet to decide, but I’ll probably go with the BRN4 simply because $400 vs. $1800 is a real struggle and I would save a ton going with the BRN4. I’m probably going to run a H3 buffer and a 416 spring when suppressed and a H2 buffer when not. The only trigger worthy of this rifle is the Geissele SSA, and despite my trepidation about ordering anything from Geissele after my URG-I debacle (I’m writing another post on that experience currently) I’ll risk waiting two months for it to arrive.

I’ll be posting updates as this build progresses, because of my current location those updates probably won’t occur much until August when I get back stateside. If you have any recommendations, please don’t hesitate to let me know.