Thursday, August 18, 2011

Hmmmmmmm...

So, the losses of the Republicans in 06 and 08 were a solid rejection of the Republican/Bush polices. The huge losses of the Democrats in 2010 were not a rejection of Obama/Democrat policies. The fighting in Wisconsin with all the recalls for the Republican's was a solid rejection of Walker/Republican polices. The Republicans holding on despite millions spent form out of state groups is a ..rejection of Walker/Republican polices and not the Democrats at all.

Goodness if one can't see though the smoke and mirrors this all could be confusing.

Friday, August 5, 2011

More on the AR 15

I'm running a bit behind schedule with updates, classwork and VA Hospital visits and little hellions keep me pretty busy. However I did get a chance to test fire that previously mentioned AR 15. I just dropped a scope on to it from another AR 15 to see how it shot, so I was not doing more than a testing of it. 25 yards, solid bench leadsled rest had five shots all touching each other. 100 yards, and using a bit of Kentucky windage had four shots in a one inch cluster with one called flyer. This was shot with 10 stamped Lake City 55 grain Ball ammo.

My general impressions on it is it is flawless in operation. The Surplus Ammo    upper bolt, bolt carrier, upper receiver and lower receiver are more than acceptable for the task at hand. For those that have not done a lot of this work those parts are -tight- fitting. And putting the upper receiver on my rock river arms lower is even tighter still. And it takes a good covering of lubrication on the bolt and other internals and a few minutes of manually cycling the action to break the parts in properly. However at the range there was not a hitch. I fired 25 rounds though it and everything operated as it should. My one complaint about the parts from Surplus Ammo was the firing pin retaining pin (cotter pin) bent up on me a bit and due to the newness of the whole assembly I found it difficult to put in to position. However an order to Brownells.com had replacements for a few years on hand. It is actually something I would suggest to anyone that has an AR. Replacement bolts? Firing pins? If you have anything made in the last 20 years your wasting money. Get the firing pin retaining pin, a few extractor springs and the extractor retaining pins for a replacement repair kit.

Other impressions are the DPMS basic trigger/lower kit is rough. While it is to be expected with any basic single stage trigger, I will be taking it apart to do a bit of polishing to take up the gritty feel to the trigger. This rifle shows great potential which is not unusual for most AR 15's. Here is a hint, generally speaking unless you really have some slop between the upper and lower receivers the name brand does not matter. So long as the upper and lower are in the specs needed you have all the basics that you should care about. The barrel and trigger are the most important things for a high accuracy rifle.

Because I was asked I will give the approximate price for the items and the retailer I went with for each part.

Midwayusa.com provided the following:

Gas tube roll pin       2.00
DPMS Barrel  200.00
DPMS gas tube   12.00
Model 1 Free float handguard  35.00
Model 1 Buttstock Assembly A2 style   55.00

Shipping approximate on these items    20.00

SurplusAmmo.com parts:
Lower Receiver Parts Kit  (I got mine on sale for 105.00 each, currently 120.00)
Upper Receiver assembly assembled, with Bolt and Bolt Carrier group  170.00 (A steal. More on this later)

Shipping approximate 25.00
Transfer fee for lower 25.00.

Comes up to 649.00 for the approximate cost to build for me. Pricing is a bit closer to 700.00 now. Again this is a very basic heavy barreled rifle. If I make any adjustments it will be a new fire control group, and the addition of buttstock weight to help balance the rifle more. I would also look at a ventilated free float tube if I was planning on this being a prairie dog /high volume shooting rifle. Also a sling swivel in the hand guard would allow the use of normal slings. (Or I could drill and tap it for inclusion of one)

The bottom line is if you want a plain fun plinking rifle its hard to beat the manufactured ones out there by various companies. They will do your three gun shoots, basic pest control, target shooting and anything else just fine. It would be hard to build your own cheaper due to shipping, but you can do it. However if you want to customize something out or do a heavy hunting rig or anything else it is possible to do it cheaper, generally than what others offer. The catch is the investment in to the proper tools to do it. Tools are never cheap but I have been fortunate enough to accumulate everything over the past few years.
I had mentioned the steal of a deal for the upper receiver and bolt assemblies. First of all assembled uppers range from under 100 to 150 depending on the brand. That is just the receiver shell. And you get to pick from several different caliber options. Their lower receiver prices are not bad either, very competitive with anything else you will find. That is once again    http://www.surplusammo.com

Their prices are as competitive with ammunition out there as you will find, stellar service. Fast shipping, but keep in mind for those of us in flyover country and the east cost, this stuff is coming from Washington so shipping transit times are a bit longer than most of us are used to. However give them a look.

Disclaimers:
1. All links posted are property of the respective websites.
2. I have not received any compensation for any of the reviews or links provided, this is strictly my opinion and my opinion alone.
3. I am not legally liable for any damages to anyone's respective firearms or responsible in anyway for someone screwing something up. What I provided was a list of what I did, not how I did it. If in doubt seek a competent gunsmith.
4. If you do not like seeing/reading about/are offended by the graphic depiction of real life firearms and the citizens that use them reach down, clean the sand out of your bits and suck it up and move on. Go find a tree to save.