New Build Complete

Just got the hand guard in today. Many thanks to DiamondHead USA for exchanging the low hand guard for their new high hand guard with no problems or hassle.

.308 built up on an AR platform using AeroPrecision's M-5 Lower and upper, heavy profile barrel, Magpul MOE buttstock, MIAD grip with spare battery insert, Diamondhead USA VRS hand guard and matching T-Brake Muzzle Compensator. I went with my go to KNS trigger pin set and Geissele SSA-E trigger. I just like them. I pulled the Burris scope off of my AR Varmitter. It was too much scope for that caliber anyway. I'm gonna put a bipod on it tomorrow when the adapter for the key-mod comes in.

Honest, it followed me home on it's own...

Can I keep it? Too late, I already am.

She's a 1941 Kovrov SVT-40. Has the SVT not AVT stock. (No cut out for the full auto flip on the safety switch.) Really in great shape for a 70+ year old gun.

Range report will follow when time allows.

I've heard this gun referred to as the Soviet Garand. I think it has a bit more in common with the US's M14 and would make it a more advanced rifle than the Garand. The notable feature being the detachable magazine. But as both the Garand and the SVT-40 were WW2 and the M14 was a development of a decade later, I can see why the one comparison and not the other.

This rifle was planned to be the replacement for the Mosin Nagant and be the primary MBR of the Soviet military but the timing of the war, vulnerability of the factories making these to the Nazi advance during Operation Barbarosa, and just the flat out critical need for millions of rifles NOW, meant the Mosin Nagant remained the primary rifle of the Soviets during WW2 and relatively few of these being produced in comparison.  And we all know the AK pretty much eclipsed anything else coming before it after the war.

I'm thinking about naming her Ivana Onnatop.

New collection addition....

I actually bought this like a couple of months ago, but one thing and another and work and I'm just getting it home today.  They guy I bought it from swore up and down it was chambered in .30-06, and then said it was made in 1903.  Which didn't add up to me.

The serial number checks for a 1903 birthday, so.... confusion.  So, when I was able to pick it up from my FFL, I took one look at it and took it to my gunsmith to have a chamber cast made to find out what caliber it actually was.

Yes, I checked the barrel. It's marked .30US.  Yeah, see, back then they were in the midst of changing nomenclature on how they denoted ammo. So, while we all know and love the .30-30 and .30-06 and .30-40Krag, back then they were called things like .30WCF and .30Army and .30Gov't and .30US.

Oh and just to throw a little more confusion in the mix, in 1903 there was the precursor to the .30-06 called the .30-03 of all things.  The .30-06 was basically a cut down case length on the .30-03.

Yes, I'm incredibly oversimplifying it.  You want to learn, go read a book people!

So, chamber mold seemed to be the smart thing to do.

Anyway.  I'm pretty sure the guy didn't know what he had.  Considering the three holes on the side of the receiver aren't just cut willy nilly like he thought.  They were the saddle ring hole and two holes tapped for a Lyman sight system.  Score!

So, here she is. A Winchester 1895 born in 1903, chambered in .30-40Krag

The ad for Colt is just there because I was so excited to finally be taking pics, I forgot to move it.

Just a note...

I HAVE AMMO FOR THEM ALL!!!! Not zombie apocalypse amounts for all of them, but enough to go to the range and shoot a couple of rounds.  Wanna take a stab at what calibers these are?

Scifi Books Meme.

I can't remember if I'd done this before, so here goes... (maybe again).

The NPR's Top 100 Science Fiction and Fantasy novels with the ones I have read in bold:


1. The Lord Of The Rings Trilogy, by J.R.R. Tolkien
2. The Hitchhiker’s Guide To The Galaxy, by Douglas Adams
3. Ender’s Game, by Orson Scott Card
4. The Dune Chronicles, by Frank Herbert
5. A Song Of Ice And Fire Series, by George R. R. Martin
6. 1984, by George Orwell
7. Fahrenheit 451, by Ray Bradbury
8. The Foundation Trilogy, by Isaac Asimov
9. Brave New World, by Aldous Huxley
10. American Gods, by Neil Gaiman
11. The Princess Bride, by William Goldman
12. The Wheel Of Time Series, by Robert Jordan
13. Animal Farm, by George Orwell
14. Neuromancer, by William Gibson
15. Watchmen, by Alan Moore
16. I, Robot, by Isaac Asimov
17. Stranger In A Strange Land, by Robert Heinlein
18. The Kingkiller Chronicles, by Patrick Rothfuss
19. Slaughterhouse-Five, by Kurt Vonnegut
20. Frankenstein, by Mary Shelley
21. Do Androids Dream Of Electric Sheep?, by Philip K. Dick
22. The Handmaid’s Tale, by Margaret Atwood
23. The Dark Tower Series, by Stephen King
24. 2001: A Space Odyssey, by Arthur C. Clarke
25. The Stand, by Stephen King
26. Snow Crash, by Neal Stephenson
27. The Martian Chronicles, by Ray Bradbury
28. Cat’s Cradle, by Kurt Vonnegut
29. The Sandman Series, by Neil Gaiman
30. A Clockwork Orange, by Anthony Burgess
31. Starship Troopers, by Robert Heinlein
32. Watership Down, by Richard Adams
33. Dragonflight, by Anne McCaffrey
34. The Moon Is A Harsh Mistress, by Robert Heinlein
35. A Canticle For Leibowitz, by Walter M. Miller
36. The Time Machine, by H.G. Wells
37. 20,000 Leagues Under The Sea, by Jules Verne
38. Flowers For Algernon, by Daniel Keys
39. The War Of The Worlds, by H.G. Wells
40. The Chronicles Of Amber, by Roger Zelazny
41. The Belgariad, by David Eddings
42. The Mists Of Avalon, by Marion Zimmer Bradley
43. The Mistborn Series, by Brandon Sanderson
44. Ringworld, by Larry Niven
45. The Left Hand Of Darkness, by Ursula K. LeGuin
46. The Silmarillion, by J.R.R. Tolkien
47. The Once And Future King, by T.H. White
48. Neverwhere, by Neil Gaiman
49. Childhood’s End, by Arthur C. Clarke
50. Contact, by Carl Sagan
51. The Hyperion Cantos, by Dan Simmons
52. Stardust, by Neil Gaiman
53. Cryptonomicon, by Neal Stephenson
54. World War Z, by Max Brooks
55. The Last Unicorn, by Peter S. Beagle
56. The Forever War, by Joe Haldeman
57. Small Gods, by Terry Pratchett
58. The Chronicles Of Thomas Covenant, The Unbeliever, by Stephen R. Donaldson
59. The Vorkosigan Saga, by Lois McMaster Bujold
60. Going Postal, by Terry Pratchett
61. The Mote In God’s Eye, by Larry Niven & Jerry Pournelle
62. The Sword Of Truth, by Terry Goodkind
63. The Road, by Cormac McCarthy
64. Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell, by Susanna Clarke
65. I Am Legend, by Richard Matheson
66. The Riftwar Saga, by Raymond E. Feist
67. The Shannara Trilogy, by Terry Brooks
68. The Conan The Barbarian Series, by R.E. Howard
69. The Farseer Trilogy, by Robin Hobb
70. The Time Traveler’s Wife, by Audrey Niffenegger
71. The Way Of Kings, by Brandon Sanderson
72. A Journey To The Center Of The Earth, by Jules Verne
73. The Legend Of Drizzt Series, by R.A. Salvatore
74. Old Man’s War, by John Scalzi
75. The Diamond Age, by Neil Stephenson
76. Rendezvous With Rama, by Arthur C. Clarke
77. The Kushiel’s Legacy Series, by Jacqueline Carey
78. The Dispossessed, by Ursula K. LeGuin
79. Something Wicked This Way Comes, by Ray Bradbury
80. Wicked, by Gregory Maguire
81. The Malazan Book Of The Fallen Series, by Steven Erikson
82. The Eyre Affair, by Jasper Fforde
83. The Culture Series, by Iain M. Banks
84. The Crystal Cave, by Mary Stewart
85. Anathem, by Neal Stephenson
86. The Codex Alera Series, by Jim Butcher
87. The Book Of The New Sun, by Gene Wolfe
88. The Thrawn Trilogy, by Timothy Zahn
89. The Outlander Series, by Diana Gabaldan
90. The Elric Saga, by Michael Moorcock
91. The Illustrated Man, by Ray Bradbury
92. Sunshine, by Robin McKinley
93. A Fire Upon The Deep, by Vernor Vinge
94. The Caves Of Steel, by Isaac Asimov
95. The Mars Trilogy, by Kim Stanley Robinson
96. Lucifer’s Hammer, by Larry Niven & Jerry Pournelle
97. Doomsday Book, by Connie Willis
98. Perdido Street Station, by China Mieville
99. The Xanth Series, by Piers Anthony (But not all of them, just the first dozen or so)
100. The Space Trilogy, by C.S. Lewis

Fifty out of one hundred.  Not bad, but I see an Amazon purchase in my future.

Accusations fly....

Last weekend I was accused of being a gear-do.  Now, since I'm always on a limited budget and thus I have to be careful about what I get and why, I was a bit surprised, to say the least.  I'm not one to rush out and get the latest doodad or gizmo just because.  Well, aside from the latest AR build that is.  But in my defense, that build took more than a year to finish and on an AR, "just because" is a valid enough reason.

But since I'm labeled as one, I thought I aught to do a gear review.  In for a penny, in for a pound.  Or maybe, damned if I do, damned if I don't would be a better one.  Anyway, here goes. My first gear review.

For my first gear review I'm going to review a rifle carrying case. After the latest slew of builds I was left with two rifles without a carrying case.

The two on the right.

My first thought was, "Cool, two carbines. I'll get a double rifle case.".  The more I thought about it though, the less the idea appealed to me. Because I would only be carrying both rifles at the same time on very few occasions, namely Blogorado and events like that.  The M1 Carbine just wont get shot that often.  The occasional range trip really.  It's not going to be a hunting rifle like the AR or the M14 are.  Also, my rifle bags tend to be bulky for whatever reasons, I figured I didn't want to make one doubly so.

So, I sat down and mentally listed what I wanted in a carbine rifle case.  Since most of my ready range stuff had migrated to a separate range bag, I decided I didn't need a case that could carry everything for a trip to the range.  That cut down on size.  I wanted something that I could carry around easily.  By that I mean in and out of the Jeep without having to fold the back down.  I also wanted something that didn't scream rifle.  So, I had a list of sorts.  Something discrete, with a shoulder strap or straps, needn't carry more than the rifle and maybe a couple of mags,

So, I went hunting and found this.

It's available at Cheaper Than Dirt.  It's called the covert carbine discreet rifle case.  Which aside from being named by the Departmental Office of Redundancy Department, really fit the criteria I had in mind. 

It doesn't scream rifle. It does scream equipment, but unless you're a gunnie, you won't immediately think rifle.  It holds the AR, in a broken down form, and two mags quite nicely.  Has carrying handles or a shoulder sling that can be tucked into a pocket in the back, and three pockets on the front for other items. 

See, it can fit a 16" barreled AR Carbine plus optic and a couple mags with no problem.

Granted with the Trijicon on it, it has to fit crosswise, but that's just the way the optic is mounted.  You could just as easily remove the optic.  Everything will still fit in it. 

Things I like about this.  Size for one.  It's easy enough to move it in and out of the Jeep without having to do any fancy maneuvers. The center padded divider.  Your rifle isn't going to beat itself up when it's broken down and in the bag. In fact the padding all the way around this bag is nice for protection. The carry options.  The carry handles are good enough, solidly double stitched. In fact the construction quality of the whole thing looks to be on the better side and I'll keep you up to date on how it holds up to daily use. But the real ace is the shoulder strap.

It's nice and wide where it needs to be, namely across the top of the shoulder. So, even as light as this bag is, it wont ever dig into the shoulder if I have to trek it in the bag any length of time. And it's truly ambidextrous.  Either bottom strap can be buckled in to the bottom of the shoulder strap and the other either tucked away or buckled to the side of the strap to add stabilization.  So, you can easily set it up for offside carry if that's your concern.  The back of the bag has plenty of breathable fabric to help keep it comfortable in hot weather or if you're carrying it for extended periods.

Things I don't like.  The red straps on the inside of the bag.  Yes, they would be good for extra security for the rifle upper and lower, but I don't see a need for them really and they just get in the way.  The three front pockets are basically useless with the rifle in the bag.  There's no give to them and with the rifle on the inside anything you put in them is gonna be sticking through the front or poking your rifle in the bag.  If they'd made them with some way to expand along the sides, that would have been better. Maybe a bit more MOLLE webbing.  There's some on the shoulder strap, but that's about it. But then, a lot of that would have defeated the idea behind the whole "discrete" thing.

I've had friends point out that some states get all PSH'y if you have an assembled rifle in your car and this would be perfect for toting your AR to the range and back, rather than that giant blue plastic case that it came in.

Others of you out there are going to scream that the rifle is disassembled and therefore useless if I happen to need it in a hurry.  First off, I'm not a first responder.  I'm probably never going to need the rifle in a hurry like that.  If, by some wild stretch of the imagination, I did end up like that, my situational awareness is shit and I deserve what I get.  Secondly, come on guys, it's two take down pins.  Last night, because I knew you'd make this argument, I had the thing out of the bag, assembled and loaded in under 30 seconds.  In the dark. If you can't slap two take down pins in faster than I did without the blindfold, then you need to review your understanding of the AR platform.

So, there you go Vine, this geardo has done a geardo review for you.  I didn't rush out and buy the shiny, or pick the first thing I saw that had "tactical" in the title.  I figured out what I needed, what I wanted and got the best bag to fit the requirements. Although maybe that makes me a thinking man's geardo. hmm....

Piston AR build Report.

For one reason or another it's taken me a bit longer to do this build than usual.  But it's finally together. 

Specifications:  It's an AR-15 built up using AeroPrecision's upper and lower receivers.  I have to say that these are a very snug fit with no play at all between the two receivers.  In the lower I used a Rock River National Match 2 stage trigger,wolf springs in the buffer and non-trigger related springs.  All the pins, roll pins and internals came from a DPMS kit.  But, considering that everyone gets their fiddly pieces from the same couple of manufacturers, one kit is as good an another.  Although I did get a KNS anti-roll pin kit for the trigger and hammer pins.

I put MagPul's extended trigger guard, BAD lever and the UBR buttstock on it.  In fact it's all MagPul furniture, including their MIAD grip and MOE Midlength Hand Guard.  I'm waiting on a rail to arrive and when it does I'll have MagPul's AFG attached to it.

The upper, as I said was AeroPrecision, is an A3 flat top with M4 feed ramps.  On to this I stuck a BCM stainless steel 16" midlength barrel.  I am also using BCM's GunFighter charging handle.  The BCG is an Adam's Arms made for their piston kit.  Which also means that the gas block and piston, piston rod, etc. are all from the kit.  On the front of all this is AAG's 51T flash hider.  And yes, I do plan to someday put a can on it.  I'm just waiting on paperwork and money for that.

On top is a Trijicon ACOG T31H 4x scope.  I went with the horseshoe reticle for a couple of reasons.  It tends to cover up less of the target and, for me, it's a little easier to do the hold under/over for range shots.

On the dust cover you can see I engraved the model name of this rifle. Yes folks, this is the TACTICAL SCHMOO rifle (TM pending).

Below are a few quick snaps I took of it. With some closeups of the various parts. There were a couple of parts that needed to have the loktite set on, so I'll put up a range report for it on Wednesday.

Now before the flames start, this AR build was all about "because I can". So, why the piston? Because I can. Why all MagPul? Because I can.  Why the ACOG? Because I can.  Do you see a pattern developing here?  So, when you start screaming at me in the comments about how a piston will never run right or that trigger teh suxxors or whatever bee you have buzzing in your bonnet.  My reply to you will be... because I could. 

I only have one more project gun on the books right now.  And I'm expecting the last few part to finish it to show up in the mail this week.  So, keep your eyes open for another build report sometime this month or the next. 

p.s. The last pic is the parts I have for that last build.

BAG Day Zeroing and Range Report

As most of you know by now. I bought a new rifle from Sal’s Funstore back on the 7th.

Yeap, it’s a Barrett M82A1 in .50BMG. Kinda purty, ain’t she. I went with the Trijicon 5-20x50 optic with standard MilDot reticle.

Anyway, I picked up 20 rounds of Barrett’s 660gr M33 for zeroing and another 10 rounds of American Eagle XM33c for fun and went to the range yesterday.

I had crunched some numbers on a ballistics calculator and while Barrett recommends a 100 yd. zero. I opted for a 250 yd zero this time. For two reasons. One, the bullet drop beyond 250 basically lined up with the mildots on the reticle. First dot down was almost 400, next was about 500, etc. With the top of the bottom post at 800. This would make hold over easier to judge on quick shots. And two, I could set the zeroing target up at 50 yds and that would correspond to 250. Since the longest range I have is 300 yds and the 200 yd berm would have been in the way of an actual 250 yd shot, this seemed like the best solution.

Ammo: Barrett M33 factory reload ammo, 661 gr projectile, ballistic coefficient of 0.620, muzzle velocity of 2750 ft/sec.

Atmospheric conditions: Alt: 640 ft., Temp: 68 degrees F, Pressure: 29.70 inHg, Winds were 310 at 13kts according to the airport. (It was a really nice day yesterday.)

It took 4 rounds to get it onto paper and then another 7 to zero and confirm. (Both Geoff and I shot confirming shots. By the way, I want to thank Geoff for the excellent pics of the rifle. Most of the pics here are his doing.)

After that, we were joined by Levi, the range master, and we moved down the bays to one that had some cars sitting on it. I had to see what shooting through the engine block on a car would do. The three fresh holes in front of the tire are mine.

And the gigantic exit hole in the same position on the other side too.

I would have taken pics of the giant divot in the berm behind the car, but we were laughing too hard at the time to remember. Come on, that was just fun! So, yes. The .50BMG will shoot through the engine block of a car, no worries.

After that we moved to the 300 yd berm and knocked over some steel plates there. I mean literally knocked them over. I guess even at 300 yds there’s a butt load (that’s the technical term for ‘a lot’) of kinetic energy left in a .50BMG bullet.

This is an artsy shot by Geoff.

And another.

Useless Gun Trivia # 346

I've had a lot of people ask me this question over the last few month. "Who makes the best AR receivers?" Well, a better question would be who actually makes the receivers. I've found a couple of places that list who and for the record and to make it easier for me to answer this question in the future, here's the most accurate one to my knowledge.

Lewis Machine & Tool

• LMT
• Lauer
• DS Arms
• PWA
• Eagle
• Armalite
• Knights Armament
• Barrett

Continental Machine Tool

• Stag
• Rock River Arms
• High Standard
• Noveske
• Century (New)
• Global Tactical
• CLE
• S&W
• MGI
• Wilson Tactical
• Grenadier Precision
• Colt

LAR Manufacturing

• LAR
• Bushmaster
• Ameetec
• DPMS
• CMMG
• Double Star
• Fulton Armory
• Spike's Tactical

JVP

• Double Star
• LRB
• Charles Daly

Mega Machine Shop

• Mega
• GSE
• Dalphon
• POF
• Alexander Arms

Olympic

• Olympic
• SGW
• Tromix
• Palmetto
• Dalphon
• Frankford
• Century (Old)

Sun Devil

• Sun Devil forged billet receivers

Superior

• Superior Arms
• Lauer (New)

Aero Precision

• Aero Precision

I hope this helps.

Gun Pr0n, Surprise Edition

Saw this today at the fun store;

Yes, it's a glock. But before you say, "Wow, another glock..." and roll your eyes. Look closely.

Yeap. It's a G18. I giggled, I handled, I flipped the go faster fun switch.

I didn't get to shoot it. :(

Another day, another....

Piece of trivial.

Today I learned that Ka-Bar stands for Knife attachment - Browning Automatic Rifle.

It seems the acronym comes from a US Army request for a bayonet for the end of the BAR's. I thought that was pretty cool.

Latest Projects

Guess what arrived today. A bunch of us went in on a group buy from Aero Precision. I got two lowers. One for now, one for later kinda thing, and an upper.

My immediate project is a Carbine length flat top with a piston conversion kit from Adam's Arms and a Trijicon ACOG. I'm getting the barrel from Bravo Company. They have a good cold forge hammered barrel for not a bad price. Rock River's NM two stage trigger and parts kits will finish out the rifle.

The other receiver, I don't know yet. I'm toying with the idea of doing a classic 20" A2. But then Magpul is supposed to be doing a rifle length hand guard and I'd like to do the furniture that way.

Sigh

Decisions, decisions.

Edit: Unix Jedi reminded me of something. This current AR project is all about "because I can". So, before you go all mall ninja on me about "ZOMG! The piston is the shiznitz!", or "Son, that gun was killing commie pinkos with direct impingement when you were still in diapers." Remember, the AR is arguable one of the most customizable rifles on the planet. And this rifle will be customized. So there!

Ain't the innerwebz grand?

I hear they're putting it on computers now even!

h/t to the illustrious phlegmmy for this one.

You can now send e-postcards to the ISS teams. Cool huh. Don't forget the ground crews. Without them, it couldn't happen.

Happy Christmas everybody.

AR Build Update.

I know it's been a while. I haven't left it on the back burner, believe me. Today, I picked up an M16 bolt carrier group and assembled it. I thought I had found an AR BCG, but when I got there, the guy said all he had were M16 carriers, so for only $20 more, I went for it. Below is a picture of the current state of the build. As you can see and I blogged about a while ago, the lower is completed.

And that's an EOTech 556 holographic sight in the upper right hand corner.

Trust me, putting the bolt together is a pretty easy task. If you have one of these.

Astronomical Debt.

Okay, everybody is going on about the amount of debt the US Congress and Executive branch are racking up. So I decided to crunch some numbers.

The length of a US dollar bill is 6.14"
The current stimulus package is somewhere between 787 and 825 Billion dollars.
The Apollo missions averages about 2000 mph.
The fastest man made object is the Helios 2 solar observation satellite at approximately 150,000 mph.
The speed of light is approximately 3.0x10^8 m/s or 186,000 miles/sec.
One inch is approximately 2.54 centimeters.
5280 feet per statute mile.

Are you ready?

800 billion 1 dollar bills laid end to end measures 4,912,000,000,000 inches or 409,333,333,333.33 feet or 77,525,252.53 miles.

Still just big numbers.

The average jet would take about 20 years to fly from one end to another.

The Apollo mission would have taken around 4.4 years to do the distance.

The fastest man made object ever would take about 21 and a half days to travel from end to end.

Light itself would take about 6.9 minutes to travel from one side to the other.


The bills would stretch from the Earth out past the orbit of Mars.

So astronomical. Yeah, pretty much.

AR Build Update.

It's been a while. But the Brown-Truck-o-Goodness came today! And behold!

The lower, she is finished! That's an Ace ARFX skeleton buttstock and if you squint really hard you can see the Norgon Ambi-Mag catch. Pretty cool, huh. I think I increased the VPC's spinning another 10 or 15 rpm. Bonus.

The Black Widow

My apologies for not putting a picture of the P-61 up when I mentioned it in a previous post. I tend to forget that not everyone is as complete a propeller head as I am. Anyway, to rectify the error, here is a picture of one. It links to the wikipedia article on the aircraft. Also, if you want to read more, here is a link to Amazons available of books on the aircraft.




by the way: Bayou Renaissance Man does a weekend wings series that is outstanding. If you have time go and read a few of them. He covers everything from planes to engineering to missions to, well, I guess A to Z (or Zed for him) would be the quickest way to say it.

A partial list.

I'm wandering the internet today with the Military Channel playing in the background. They ran a series of great planes shows. One of the ones they spotlighted was the Republic P-47 Thunderbolt. And this got me to thinking on what were my favorite planes. Now, I'm a propeller head from as early as I can remember, much to the chagrin of my parents. So, in the interest of creating discord and controversy on the internet. (Because we don't have enough of that already.) I'm just going to quick name a couple of my favorite airplanes of all time.

First, and these are in no particular order, the one that got me to thinking. The P-47. Arguable the best fighter of WWII. The J model is the fastest. A fighter that weighed more than some of the AAF bombers of the 30's it was adapted to more roles than the lightning or the spitfire. It carried the reputation for being able to take more battle damage and still get home than any other fighter in any theater. A quick search will find stories of Luftwaffe pilots firing at a Thunderbolt till their guns ran dry and the Jug would just keep flying along.




Second, the Consolidated PBY-5a Catalina. Here's another ungainly looking bird that had that can do attitude. Sub hunter, Search and Rescue, Night Raider, Airliner, Bush Plane, she did it all and years after she was called obsolete to boot. In fact, it was considered out dated by many at the beginning of WWII. She may not go fast, with a top speed under 200 knots and a cruise like some of todays piston singles. But, very few planes could go 2000+ miles on a single tank. I'd love to get one, convert it to a flying camper and just go. Sort of a "send ya an email from polynesia" dream.



Thirdly, and this is by no means the end of the list, the Cessna 177 Cardinal RG. And I don't know why. The first fully cantilever wing from Cessna. It was only produced for a short number of years, 1968-1975. Nothing like the life of the 172 or 182. Plagued with gear troubles the first years it was out, it never overcame that stygma and that may have lead to it's short production life. Still, with the wing set back on the cabin, you've got an excellent view both up and down. The RG version made for a limited payload. And yet, it still looks good to me.



Now, there are more airplanes that I drool over. Jets, props, rotors I'm an equal opportunity plane nut. Plain nuts? Anyway, discuss, flame, lambast... what are yours?

AR build update.

Old_NFO made a comment on my build blog about the EOTech 516. I've looked into it and read any info I could find on the model and the batteries it uses. I'm sold. Change my holosight to the 516 from the 512. I've talked with many people around here about NV (night vision) compatibility. I haven't found one yet that has actually used the feature. If there's anyone out there that has actually used the NV feature, please pipe up and let me know.



Thanks Jim.

My New Project.

As I'm sure none of you remember. Last year and the year before I had an M-14 project. Basically it was all USGI NOS parts built up on an Armscorp receiver. I went with an outstanding armorer in Colorado for the final head spacing/build and the thing is a tack driver. Even with iron sights I can shoot 4 to 6 inch groups at 200 yards. And yes, that's freestanding unsupported, so all you sub-MOA mall ninjas can suck it. If you hit the deer in the breadbasket on the first shot, it doesn't matter if you can send the second shot through the same hole. You didn't need to shoot the second shot.

But I digress.

As I mentioned in a previous blog I bought a DPMS AR lower after voting. That's become my new project. I've always had a tool box of one sort or another. I've done 3 MG B's over the years, as well as balsa wood airplanes, plastic models etc. I'm an unrepentant tinkerer.

I figure a few months for gathering all the parts and a day or so for the build. I've talked with an armorer friend and since the head space on the AR platform isn't as hard to do as on the M-14, it's very much a do-able thing on a home workbench. In fact, the workbench and tools are probably going to be the most expensive single item cost.

Anyway, here's what I'm thinking.

DPMS for both lower and upper receivers, as well as parts kits. It's just convenient that way. It will be an A3 flat top upper. I've heard opinions that the high riser flat top that DPMS makes is supposed to be stronger and more accurate. While that is true, MIL Spec is MIL Spec and if the A3 can take the abuse the Army can dish out on equipment then it ought to be strong enough to take the occasional weekend plinking.

Barrel: I'm still up in the air for who to get this from. The specs are 16", mid length gas block, Gov't contour. This is a carbine project, so I don't want the weight of an HBAR hanging out there and the lightweight barrels are too thin to stand up for very long in my opinion. Feel free to comment on who makes good barrels or why I'm all wet about my opinion regarding heavy, medium or light weight barrels. In fact, please comment. I'm learning here. The only experience with AR platforms I have is the old M-16A1 I carried in the army back in the eighties. So, the whole M-4/CAR/A2/Flattop revolution is new to me.

Now for the other stuff. In no particular order.

EOTech for the holosight. The 512 most likely.

Badger Ordinance makes an ambidextrous charging handle. Not the tac latch, but a true ambi.

Norgon LLC makes an ambi mag release that looks good.

Yankee Hill Machine for the back up iron sights (BUIS). They make a gas block with integrated flip up front sight that looks good. Criteria here is the sights have to fold down. I guess there's a crowd out there that is all fired up about co-witnessing, but I don't want them sticking up in the EOTech's view.

If you haven't noticed a trend here. An ambi-safety. Of course. Manufacturer doesn't really matter here, but if you've got an opinion, feel free.

Rock River makes a national match two stage trigger. I've heard people poo poo Rock River, but half the TPD and surrounding forces carry RR AR's for work and I've neither seen nor heard anything bad from these guys. And a lot of them have them at home too. This ain't New York either folks. A lot of the cops here are gunnies too.

Ergo for the grip.

Ace makes a skeleton buttstock that looks nice with plenty of attachment points for the sling. I looked at collapsible stocks, but several people have said they were uncomfortable and I can't think of the good enough reason to mount one. And fixed is stronger.

Specialized Armament has an armorer tool kit that has all the punches, roll pin holders, ejector tools, etc. All I'll need is a vise, receiver blocks, barrel wrench, go/no go gages for the tool box.

That's it for now. I'll post updates as needed on the build.