Some Background
My wife is an excellent shooter with her Zev Oz 9mm pistol equipped with a Trijicon red dot sight. Good to at least 25 yards and she has held a concealed handgun license (CHL) in Texas, a concealed weapons permit (CWP) in South Carolina, and now again a License to Carry since we moved back to Texas from South Carolina (where we spent ten great years) awhile back.
She is an even better marksman with an AR-15 and/or an H&K SP5 or MP5. She would be a formidable opponent in a gunfight. She is a badass but you'd NEVER know it by looking at her. She is beautiful, extremely feminine, and somewhat demure.
What To Do About Her Birthday?
With all of this in mind about my woman, about four years ago, I had a dilemma as to what to do about a birthday present for her. Unlike me, who places no particular importance on my own birthday, she is a big-time birthday girl, expecting gifts, dinner celebrations involving very good (meaning expensive) wines, homage from children and grandchildren, and, well, you get the idea. In my mind, who wouldn't want a custom-built gun as a birthday present? So, I set about designing what I thought would be the perfect gun for Barbie Badass. It was to be an AR-15 in 300 Blackout, capable of being suppressed, and it was to be accurate, easy to shoot, with the best possible components for reliability and accuracy. And it had to be UNIQUE and totally a perfect fit for my birthday girl. I conceived of this whole thing at least six months before the big day.
Here are the pieces that it took to build the Barbie gun:
Wilson Combat matched upper and lower receivers, Mission First Tactical Battlelink Minimalist stock, Radian Weapons Extended Latch charging handle, Primary Arms buffer tube, JP Rifles Silent Captured Spring, Primary Arms Ratcheting castle nut and end plate, plain old AR-15 polymer grip from the leftover parts box, Geisselle SSA-E trigger assembly (fire control group), Primary Arm ejection cover, spring, and retaining rod, CMMG upper parts kit, Trijicon MRO RDS, JP Rilfles handguard and barrel nut assembly, Wilson combat 300 BLK match barrel, FailZero nitride bolt carrier group, Superlative .750 adjustable gas block and roll pin, Wilson Combat gas tube, Lantac ASR muzzle brake and fast attachment for suppressor.
The Cerakote was my specification for the finish coating and is called "Sprinkles." The application of this pattern was a challenge but that challenge was met by the BEST in the business at custom cerakoting: MAD Custom Cerakoting of Anaheim, California (https://madcustomcoating.com). The job took a couple of months but when I got the components back to build out the gun, I was ecstatic! MAD CC did a simply incredible job. Perfection.
As it turned out, while my parts were out in California with the MAD boys, AMEND2 built a "Sprinkles" magazine so several of those were acquired to complete the look.
I snuck the Barbie gun out to the range to function test it and to dial in the RDS for 100 yards. Put a couple of magazines of both 300 supersonic and 300 subsonic unsuppressed and suppressed to get the gas block perfected. Used a SilencerCo Omega 300 and it did a great job with both varieties of ammo.
The Birthday Girl When She Received Her Present
This was one HAPPY BIRTHDAY! She loved, loved, loved her present! That evening, we had a great dinner out with friends who came back to our house to ooh and aah over her gift. She and I took it to the range the next day and she shot at least 100 rounds, mostly of the subsonic suppressed as she loves the zero noise, zero recoil when shooting that round. I can tell you that I don't believe she has missed a single target from 25 yards to 200 and all points in between. This is just the perfect gun for her and, of course, no one thinks it's a real gun because "it's SO cute!" Girls love it!
Many of her girlfriends (and some guys) have shot this and cannot believe how cool it is. It, to this day, floats her boat. I've had several requests from her friends to duplicate this setup but, in each case, I've declined as I wanted this to be the one and only, just like she is for me.