Solid, light, and ugly. what more could you want? - DoubleStar AR-UL Ultra Lite Stock Assembly

I bought this stock for a lightweight build, and I am very pleased. As you can tell from the photos, it's essentially a rifle-length tube with a butt pad. The foam tube and sling mounts are nice, but what I really bought this for is the low weight. The thing comes in at only 17.4 ounces with the included buffer and spring, and only 10.05 without. And, it's tough as can be. I wouldn't hesitate to pry open a door with the tube or the butt plate (yes, it's metal too!)

The good:
-It's light, of course
-Very durable. You can crank on this thing as if it were a machined 7075-T6 aluminum pipe, because it is.
-Comes with buffer and spring
-The foam is good quality. Not as squishy as it looks in the photo, so it won't pick up much dirt.
-Super simple, there are no small parts to break
-All machined, nothing forged

The Bad:
-Not adjustable. From the back of the lower receiver to the middle of the butt pad is 10.5 inches. Plan accordingly
-Expensive for a stock
-Foam tube is a royal pain to install (more on that)
-The included sling "swivel" mount isn't really a swivel, and it will damage the threads on the mounting hole if you screw it in tight. I suggest you ditch it.
-The rubber butt pad must have shrunk in storage, because the holes needed some help to line up with the holes on the metal butt plate

The Ugly:
-The foam, but that's just a personal thing
-For me there's a very slight gap between the top of the butt plate and the butt pad. The rubber is squeezing away because I had to tug on it to get the screw holes to line up. It's the least of my worries, but be warned.
-Sling "swivel" doesn't actually rotate, and so it just hangs out doing nothing

So, I'd like to address the elephant in the room with this stock, and that is: How do I get the darn foam onto the tube?
The instruction manual says to use a little bit of soapy water to make it slide. I don't know how well this method works.
It also reads in the manual that you can use the jet of air compressor to "float" the foam onto the tube. I would have tried this, but I wasn't near my compressor. I am sure this will help considerably to break the friction between the metal tube and the foam tube.
One reviewer said he used WD-40 to lubricate it, and still it wouldn't go on. I am impressed!

I just worked the thing on by hand. It took me half an hour straight of twisting and tugging, but I got the foam exactly where I wanted it. The first inch and a half is easy, because the foam tube is actually sort of rigid and so you can twist and push it on easily. After that however, it becomes much more difficult. This is because the inside of the foam tube is a clear rubbery glaze (sort of like clear caulking goo). This makes the inside of the foam bind with friction to the metal tube as soon as you put any downward pressure onto it. I found that you can grip the foam just light enough to twist it, and then push hard to work it down about 1/16" at a time. It's slow going and your arm/hand/wrist will probably get tired, but you'll mnake steady progress. When I got the foam about 1/2 way, it got too hard to move the entire thing all at once. I would push the outside end onto the tube as far as I could so it would bunch up on the tube, and then I would pull the slack from the other end and make slow progress that way. I'm not a big guy, so it took some real effort to squeeze it even a tiny bit at a time. I'm sure there's a faster way to do it, but this worked for me and it can for you too.

So, pick yourself up a Doublestar AR-UL stock! It's purpose-built to be light and tough, and it does both these things without compromizing on comfort, ease of use, or (in my opinion) looks. I can undoubtedly say this stock is "high quality" and "does what it's supposed to do." And in the gun world, that's enough to earn it full 5 stars.