yellowfever wrote: I read that the army uses a 25 yard BZO, thus making the effective range about 250 yards. I never tried that with a red dot. Do you guys think/know if it will work with a red dot.
Depends on height over bore.. for an ACOG it's 40/250 or thereabout.
The Kimber looks like it has a good "handfeel" for lack of a better word. When I was looking for my 1911 I had made a checklist of everything I wanted in a 1911 and then a list of all the different vendors I wanted from and then I wound up rejecting all of those once I went and rented, and buying from a totally different company, because I didn't like how they all felt.
We got out to the range again this weekend and I decided to try the HK VP9. Speaking of how a pistol feels this just felt exceptional, pointed really well, the trigger was pretty good (little travel before the pick up), and it did a great job of mitigating against recoil. First shot was right on the X, and it did not disappoint after that.
I actually looked online and found a 50 yard zero is good out to 230 yards with the POI only getting 2.5 inches at the highest part. All articles I read said that's good for red dots and flip up sights.
We got out to the range again this weekend and I decided to try the HK VP9. Speaking of how a pistol feels this just felt exceptional, pointed really well, the trigger was pretty good (little travel before the pick up), and it did a great job of mitigating against recoil. First shot was right on the X, and it did not disappoint after that.
yellowfever wrote: I actually looked online and found a 50 yard zero is good out to 230 yards with the POI only getting 2.5 inches at the highest part. All articles I read said that's good for red dots and flip up sights.
Maybe with a full cowitness of irons and red dots of the same height, but height over bore is critical for determining the second intersection point.
I kind of don't like the trigger safeties very much. It's not a deal killer for me - my 9mm standard carry gun has one - but I don't like how they sometimes make the trigger feel creepy. I like grip safeties instead.
I went to my friends farm a couple months ago and we shot a lot of guns. I brought out my Thompson, P-08, Lee Enfield, HK 33, the AUG and some other fun things. My other friend brought his SBR MP5 and UMP and another one brought out his Suppressed AR and M&P. We went through a lot of ammo but it was well worth it! Another one of the guys brought his son with him who had never shot a gun before. We started him off with some basic training with some small arms, then we worked our way up. Now his dad says that his son wants a 270 Remington after shooting my Winchester Model 70.
Shortly before we went out shooting I bought a new Smith and Wesson model 627. Its a fun 8 shot, moon clipped snub nose revolver in 357 Mag. Its one of the Performance Center revolvers and I gotta say its beautiful! The trigger is smooth and being an N frame it has the weight behind it to shoot all day.
Ouze wrote: I kind of don't like the trigger safeties very much. It's not a deal killer for me - my 9mm standard carry gun has one - but I don't like how they sometimes make the trigger feel creepy. I like grip safeties instead.
It isn't something that is a deal breaker for me either, but to me having the safety in the trigger alone is not ideal.
Ouze wrote: I kind of don't like the trigger safeties very much. It's not a deal killer for me - my 9mm standard carry gun has one - but I don't like how they sometimes make the trigger feel creepy. I like grip safeties instead.
I hear you. I also don't consider trigger safeties a real safety. If you drop it and something hooks the trigger, it still goes off.
Lets see, Ill mention my more interesting ones and not the run of the mill everyday stuff
a couple Mosin Nagants
Springfield 1921 .22 rifle
Paratrooper Arisaka in prime condition
Standard Arisaka in prime condition with mum intact, including dust cover, monpod, and AA sights
Series 96 machine gun
Nambu Pistol
CZ-455 .22
Enfield .22
Saiga 12ga
Looking to pick up a Kriss Vector sometime in the near future.
Ouze wrote: I kind of don't like the trigger safeties very much. It's not a deal killer for me - my 9mm standard carry gun has one - but I don't like how they sometimes make the trigger feel creepy. I like grip safeties instead.
I hear you. I also don't consider trigger safeties a real safety. If you drop it and something hooks the trigger, it still goes off.
If I drop one of my M&P's and something gets inside the trigger guard and manages to apply 5+ lbs of pressure to the lower portion of the trigger, then I'm buying a lotto ticket because karma owes me a massive win after that extreme of bad luck.
Ouze wrote: I kind of don't like the trigger safeties very much. It's not a deal killer for me - my 9mm standard carry gun has one - but I don't like how they sometimes make the trigger feel creepy. I like grip safeties instead.
I hear you. I also don't consider trigger safeties a real safety. If you drop it and something hooks the trigger, it still goes off.
If I drop one of my M&P's and something gets inside the trigger guard and manages to apply 5+ lbs of pressure to the lower portion of the trigger, then I'm buying a lotto ticket because karma owes me a massive win after that extreme of bad luck.
I dropped my Kimber once in the bathroom. I screamed like a little girl. Not my Baby!
Alex C wrote: To each their own, but just because a "manual" safety is not visible doesn't mean the pistol is unsafe.
Carry whatever you are comfortable with and can shoot well. Everyone is different.
This is true. I've also been in the woods enough to know that triggers get snagged.
Having said that I sport a DAO with no safety now myself. I just understand where is coming from and don't rely on the "trigger safety." its not different than a 1911's trigger to me.
My everyday carry guns both have a trigger safety. The SD9 has a 8lb trigger pull and travels forever, but I will likely get a new spring kit for it soon to bring it down closer to 5lb.
Trigger safeties are the source for my main carry rules that I always follow (although I still follow them if I am carrying a gun with any other type of safety): no off-body carry, holsters fully cover the entire trigger, and retention holster for open carry.
I also go back and forth with Israeli carry, but I'm still very much on the fence about it.
For me personally if I'm carrying a gun it's in condition 1. I carried a gun like that in the military all the time. Thousands of cops do it everyday with no problem. Except for very rare instances if a gun goes off its operator error. But as always a person should do what they are comfortable with.
d-usa wrote: My everyday carry guns both have a trigger safety. The SD9 has a 8lb trigger pull and travels forever, but I will likely get a new spring kit for it soon to bring it down closer to 5lb.
Trigger safeties are the source for my main carry rules that I always follow (although I still follow them if I am carrying a gun with any other type of safety): no off-body carry, holsters fully cover the entire trigger, and retention holster for open carry.
I also go back and forth with Israeli carry, but I'm still very much on the fence about it.
Out of curiosity what is your everyday?
I'm still carrying a PX4 Storm. I finally reached the 1000 round plateau with it this weekend, and still works great.
d-usa wrote: My everyday carry guns both have a trigger safety. The SD9 has a 8lb trigger pull and travels forever, but I will likely get a new spring kit for it soon to bring it down closer to 5lb.
Trigger safeties are the source for my main carry rules that I always follow (although I still follow them if I am carrying a gun with any other type of safety): no off-body carry, holsters fully cover the entire trigger, and retention holster for open carry.
I also go back and forth with Israeli carry, but I'm still very much on the fence about it.
Out of curiosity what is your everyday?
I'm still carrying a PX4 Storm. I finally reached the 1000 round plateau with it this weekend, and still works great.
Is that or is that not a punk to field strip and re-assemble!
cincydooley wrote: I finally reached the 1000 round plateau with it this weekend, and still works great.
I would hope so. I don't think anyone reputable would recommend a gun that can't handle 1000 rounds. Are there any guns out there with a listed "expiration" or limit after x number of rounds are pumped through it? Assuming the shooter isn't deliberately trying to melt the barrel here.
cincydooley wrote: I finally reached the 1000 round plateau with it this weekend, and still works great.
I would hope so. I don't think anyone reputable would recommend a gun that can't handle 1000 rounds. Are there any guns out there with a listed "expiration" or limit after x number of rounds are pumped through it? Assuming the shooter isn't deliberately trying to melt the barrel here.
cincydooley wrote: I finally reached the 1000 round plateau with it this weekend, and still works great.
I would hope so. I don't think anyone reputable would recommend a gun that can't handle 1000 rounds. Are there any guns out there with a listed "expiration" or limit after x number of rounds are pumped through it? Assuming the shooter isn't deliberately trying to melt the barrel here.
Exactly what I was thinking
be nice now. If it were a Kimber, he would have to change the main springs on it at this point. If it were a brick er Glock ( ) this would be the point he realizes he needs to get a real trigger, front and rear sights and maybe half decent barrel.
cincydooley wrote: I finally reached the 1000 round plateau with it this weekend, and still works great.
I would hope so. I don't think anyone reputable would recommend a gun that can't handle 1000 rounds. Are there any guns out there with a listed "expiration" or limit after x number of rounds are pumped through it? Assuming the shooter isn't deliberately trying to melt the barrel here.
I think 20000 is more the ballpark for replacing the barrel on most firearms, give or take depending on type of ammo, caliber, etc. As for other parts breaking, they should either last as long or longer, or be easily replaceable.
I don't have a link, but theres an interesting set of articles I've read which interview a particular gun store owner who operates a very popular shooting range where you can rent basically any gun, including some fully automatic firearms. They put hundreds of thousands of rounds through dozens of different types of firearms, and it's interesting to see the exact limits of the different guns. For example, apparently most AK's upper recievers will fracture in a specific spot at about 80,000 rounds. Piston driven ARs actually have a significantly shorter life than oldschool DI ARs, with the exception of the 416 which lasts roughly as long. Stuff like that.
cincydooley wrote: I finally reached the 1000 round plateau with it this weekend, and still works great.
I would hope so. I don't think anyone reputable would recommend a gun that can't handle 1000 rounds. Are there any guns out there with a listed "expiration" or limit after x number of rounds are pumped through it? Assuming the shooter isn't deliberately trying to melt the barrel here.
I think 20000 is more the ballpark for replacing the barrel on most firearms, give or take depending on type of ammo, caliber, etc. As for other parts breaking, they should either last as long or longer, or be easily replaceable.
I don't have a link, but theres an interesting set of articles I've read which interview a particular gun store owner who operates a very popular shooting range where you can rent basically any gun, including some fully automatic firearms. They put hundreds of thousands of rounds through dozens of different types of firearms, and it's interesting to see the exact limits of the different guns. For example, apparently most AK's upper recievers will fracture in a specific spot at about 80,000 rounds. Piston driven ARs actually have a significantly shorter life than oldschool DI ARs, with the exception of the 416 which lasts roughly as long. Stuff like that.
I shattered the frame, trigger, and bolt assembly on my first Ruger target pistol after about 100,000 rounds and ten years. I keep it because its family.
DarkLink wrote: For example, apparently most AK's upper recievers will fracture in a specific spot at about 80,000 rounds. Piston driven ARs actually have a significantly shorter life than oldschool DI ARs, with the exception of the 416 which lasts roughly as long. Stuff like that.
AK's do not have an upper receiver; did you mean an AR? I understand you may not remember exactly what you read though, you made that pretty clear.
The barrel on an AK will probably be shot out in about 20k rounds but even then I think it's still probably going to be man-accurate at the ranges that the AK is intended to be used at. Ultimately what will kill them will be the corrosive, military surplus ammunition used in the parts of the world that actually use AK's so hard they eventually fail. If you're in the first world shooting semi-auto I expect an AK will long, long outlive it's owner even with regular shooting and virtually no maintenance.
Alex C wrote: To each their own, but just because a "manual" safety is not visible doesn't mean the pistol is unsafe.
Carry whatever you are comfortable with and can shoot well. Everyone is different.
I absolutely agree. As a novice I would rather have more mechanical safeties in place while I build up my familiarity, but I acknowledge that is entirely personal preference and not something that everyone should adhere to.
Ouze wrote: I've put just about 2500 rounds though my AK, which means it's nearly time to clean it.
DarkLink wrote: I think 20000 is more the ballpark for replacing the barrel on most firearms, give or take depending on type of ammo, caliber, etc. As for other parts breaking, they should either last as long or longer, or be easily replaceable.
As long as you take proper care of your firearm and perform routine maintenance, you should be able to put as much as 100,000 rounds through it. Antiques might not make it this far but modern stuff sure has hell should. I mean, unless you go to the range and spray fire like Rambo, burning through several thousand rounds in a single day, there's no reason for your barrel to fail that soon.
Your barrel will definitely not last 100k rounds and still maintain any accuracy. Mil requirements are pretty generous and don't even approach that type of expected lifespan.
DarkLink wrote: I think 20000 is more the ballpark for replacing the barrel on most firearms, give or take depending on type of ammo, caliber, etc. As for other parts breaking, they should either last as long or longer, or be easily replaceable.
As long as you take proper care of your firearm and perform routine maintenance, you should be able to put as much as 100,000 rounds through it. Antiques might not make it this far but modern stuff sure has hell should. I mean, unless you go to the range and spray fire like Rambo, burning through several thousand rounds in a single day, there's no reason for your barrel to fail that soon.
It could be because I'm basing that number off of something I recall about the service life of military firearms, in which case they can burn through a lot of rounds in one sitting.
NuggzTheNinja wrote: Your barrel will definitely not last 100k rounds and still maintain any accuracy. Mil requirements are pretty generous and don't even approach that type of expected lifespan.
My gun is a 2" snub so I think we're already past the idea maintaining any sort of accuracy.
Definitely have to agree on the P22s. A friend of mine experienced a slide crack on his P22. To be fair though, the pistol had been fired so much it was basically a smoothbore handgun (the rifling was completely shot out).
DarkLink wrote: After some digging, I found one of the articles
Thanks for posting that. Very interesting read. I was quite surprised to read how reliable the M4 was.
Yeah. The M4 has a bad rep because it was basically an unfinished design when it was rushed into service, but after 50 years of continuous improvements, the rifle itself actually performs extremely well. Even in the army reliability testing, most of the M4 malfunctions were magazine related, not the rifle itself.
I found it interesting that the DI AR's last longer than the piston equivalents. Weren't the piston AR's originally made to try to get the reliability of an AK but with the better accuracy of the M4/AR.
yellowfever wrote: I found it interesting that the DI AR's last longer than the piston equivalents. Weren't the piston AR's originally made to try to get the reliability of an AK but with the better accuracy of the M4/AR.
I thought piston AR's were originally made because mall ninjas decreed the DI system was bad, for some reason.
The problem I think with many piston AR designs is that they're trying to hamfist a different method of operation onto a weapon that wasn't designed to function in that way, especially when they try to stick to the exact same dimensions/profile. Some work, some don't.
More to the point, most were designed for civilian semi-automatic weapons, not automatic weapons at what is effectively a tourist center where they're going to be experiencing far more intensive use in full auto-matic than even battlefield weapons in most instances, which is likely to account for many of the failures in this instance. What might work fine for 200,000 rounds of casual semo-auto fire might fail at 4,000 rounds of intensive automatic fire.
DI has its advantages and disadvantages.no weapon is perfect, but, as noted, most of the big problems with AR's have come from the weapons not being deployed properly.
DarkLink wrote: Yeah. The M4 has a bad rep because it was basically an unfinished design when it was rushed into service, but after 50 years of continuous improvements, the rifle itself actually performs extremely well. Even in the army reliability testing, most of the M4 malfunctions were magazine related, not the rifle itself.
I've seen something similar in my AR, although it's not "magazine related" and more "user error" - I had some magazines that would fail to lock into place, sometimes. I was worried they were crap mags, or that there was a problem with the catch, but what it actually turned to be was - ahem - you could load 31 rounds into the mag, if you weren't keeping count, and it would then sort-of lock, but not reliably. Just stupid people gun things.
yellowfever wrote: I found it interesting that the DI AR's last longer than the piston equivalents. Weren't the piston AR's originally made to try to get the reliability of an AK but with the better accuracy of the M4/AR.
I thought piston AR's were originally made because mall ninjas decreed the DI system was bad, for some reason.
Basically. And it certainly didn't help that early versions would eat their own buffer rubes due to carrier tilt.
I was looking into what I am going to get next and it was a debated between a Spikes Compressor or making my own suppressed rifle using a BCM 11.5'" upper. After reading about the Spikes I have to say I'm a bit disappointed in it. The rifle is really short coming in at 25" with the stock full retracted and suppressor were as the BCM will be 30" without the can. But the Spikes suppressor is really subpar to a Silencerco that I will already have for my 6.8 SPC.
Anyway, with the money I save with the BCM, not only am I getting a better rifle that will not required a lightened bolt carrier it will also be a lot more quite and I can shoot it right away and not have to wait for the whole upper to get out of NFA jail. I won't have to get another suppressor and I have enough money left over to buy a HKVP 45 when it, hopefully, comes out next year. Then I can send it to SSVI for a custom paint job and suppress it to .
Ruberu wrote: I was looking into what I am going to get next and it was a debated between a Spikes Compressor or making my own suppressed rifle using a BCM 11.5'" upper. After reading about the Spikes I have to say I'm a bit disappointed in it. The rifle is really short coming in at 25" with the stock full retracted and suppressor were as the BCM will be 30" without the can. But the Spikes suppressor is really subpar to a Silencerco that I will already have for my 6.8 SPC.
Anyway, with the money I save with the BCM, not only am I getting a better rifle that will not required a lightened bolt carrier it will also be a lot more quite and I can shoot it right away and not have to wait for the whole upper to get out of NFA jail. I won't have to get another suppressor and I have enough money left over to buy a HKVP 45 when it, hopefully, comes out next year. Then I can send it to SSVI for a custom paint job and suppress it to .
Not really surprised that Spike's failed to deliver. I bought one of their .22 BCGs and it was pretty awful. I picked up a CMMG kit and never looked back - no jams at all, no gas in my face, better machining, etc. BCM is great though...you'll be happy with it.
Col. Dash wrote: Anyone tried the Ruger Precision Rifle? I saw one at a show and have read great reviews. Looking at getting one in 6.5 Creedmore.
I've been dying to shoot one. I got to fiddle with one but didn't get the chance to actually shoot it. Without actually getting any trigger time on it, I can't tell you too much, but I was really impressed, everything felt great.
On a side note, I finally got to try some .357 through my LCR. One cylinder was...enough. The rest of the box fed the levergat which shot beautifully.
I've been eyeing one but my monies have been allocated elsewhere lately.
Thought about putting a brace on it while you wait for the SBR paperwork?
I thought about it, but then I realized it'd be another ~$150 I'd just be replacing once the SBR stamp came through (which, between stock kit and Uncle Sam is gonna be ~$400), so I'll probably just leave it as a gimpy pistol in the meanwhile.
yellowfever wrote: Can you get back on how that scorpion shoots. I've also been thinking about getting one.
Hopefully I'll get a chance to take it out in the next couple of weeks here, I'll follow up once I do
I've been eyeing one but my monies have been allocated elsewhere lately.
Thought about putting a brace on it while you wait for the SBR paperwork?
I thought about it, but then I realized it'd be another ~$150 I'd just be replacing once the SBR stamp came through (which, between stock kit and Uncle Sam is gonna be ~$400), so I'll probably just leave it as a gimpy pistol in the meanwhile.
yellowfever wrote: Can you get back on how that scorpion shoots. I've also been thinking about getting one.
Hopefully I'll get a chance to take it out in the next couple of weeks here, I'll follow up once I do
You don't need a stock or brace for that! You just need stronger wrists!
MWHistorian wrote: I love those CZ's. I'll probably just end up getting an AK pistol, but man, I got tons of love for those CZ Scorpions.
As someone who owns a full-length AK, I wish I had gotten an AK pistol as well.
I have an AR pistol and it's my favorite gun probably.
That's why I want the AK pistol. I have a full sized one and already have all the mags and ammo for it.
AK pistols are awesome. I have a Bulgarian SAM7K that will be getting a stock as soon as my Form 1 clears. The SAM is the first AK I bought already built. My first build was a Russian Ak with full Russian red wood then a Hungarian AMD with that awkward metal hand guard with the reversed pistol grip and the extremely small wire stock . I keep making my AKs shorter and shorter . I still have one more Nodak receiver that I might build with either a Bulgarian parts kit or a Romanian, most likely with synthetic furniture.
Vaktathi wrote: Hopefully not necro'ing this thread too bad, have something relevant for it.
Got a new toy this week, a CZ Scorpion Evo3 S1
I will probably soon form-1 it and slap a stock on there, need to get to a range and put some rounds through it
It's a fun gun.
I highly recommend the right side safety delete if you shoot right handed. Some folks make an extended safety lever, it's sort of AKish.
I too plan to form-1 the pup but not in till next year.
Also, Mr Nior just did vid on two carbine versions!!
I have fired guns a fair few times in my life, at firing ranges naturally (Ashiraya has used guns? Shock! Horror!) and despite being right-handed, I much prefer resting the weapon in my right hand and holding the grip in my left. Is this wrong? I see the opposite almost everywhere, from TV to my 40k models.
Most long guns are designed to be shouldered on the right shoulder, but often left-handed models are available, or a firearm may even be convertable from right to left.
I have fired guns a fair few times in my life, at firing ranges naturally (Ashiraya has used guns? Shock! Horror!) and despite being right-handed, I much prefer resting the weapon in my right hand and holding the grip in my left. Is this wrong? I see the opposite almost everywhere, from TV to my 40k models.
I know a few people that are right handed but shoot left handed. As Alex said, whatever you are comfortable with. When I first held a rifle many years ago it felt better in my left hand but I shot it right handed anyway because it was a bolt action.
I have fired guns a fair few times in my life, at firing ranges naturally (Ashiraya has used guns? Shock! Horror!) and despite being right-handed, I much prefer resting the weapon in my right hand and holding the grip in my left. Is this wrong? I see the opposite almost everywhere, from TV to my 40k models.
You may be cross dominant where your strong eye does not match your strong hand. There is nothing wrong with this, my wife is the same way. Just find something that is comfortable for you to hold, and pay attention to the ejection port on bullpups You don't want to catch brass with your teeth.
Might want to stay away from the Steyr AUG though.
If you're looking for a tactical rifle, there are a few popular ones that can switch the ejection port side. The Tavor (.223/5.56) can switch sides and takes AR magazines, while the ARAK-21 can shoot either .223/5.56 or 7.62x39 (i.e. AK caliber) and switch sides. Ruger also makes a scout rifle kind of like the mini-14 in a left hand side model, and they have left-handed hunting rifles that are in larger calibers (30.06, .308).
Ouze wrote: Might want to stay away from the Steyr AUG though.
If you're looking for a tactical rifle, there are a few popular ones that can switch the ejection port side. The Tavor (.223/5.56) can switch sides and takes AR magazines, while the ARAK-21 can shoot either .223/5.56 or 7.62x39 (i.e. AK caliber) and switch sides. Ruger also makes a scout rifle kind of like the mini-14 in a left hand side model, and they have left-handed hunting rifles that are in larger calibers (30.06, .308).
That was just the gif I was thinking of Also the Beretta ARX160 might be a good choice. It also takes AR magazines and the charging handle/ejection port can be switched in seconds with no tools or dis-assembly. Other good choices include the FS2000 also works as even though it is a bullpup design the brass ejects out the front of the rifle, or the PS90 which ejects the brass straight down.
That ^ is hilarious. I own a couple Steyrs and that is not comfortable . They do make a small tab that clips onto the back of it that deflects the shells straight up rather than into your face.
I have fired guns a fair few times in my life, at firing ranges naturally (Ashiraya has used guns? Shock! Horror!) and despite being right-handed, I much prefer resting the weapon in my right hand and holding the grip in my left. Is this wrong? I see the opposite almost everywhere, from TV to my 40k models.
I've actually got the same thing going on, so no, not at all.
What's more amusing is that I'm apparently more accurate with my left hand with pistols than my buddy (who owns all the guns) is with pistols in his right. And I don't really shoot all that often.
I have fired guns a fair few times in my life, at firing ranges naturally (Ashiraya has used guns? Shock! Horror!) and despite being right-handed, I much prefer resting the weapon in my right hand and holding the grip in my left. Is this wrong? I see the opposite almost everywhere, from TV to my 40k models.
My dad is the same way when he had to do pistol training. Although with him it's that he's left handed and shoots right handed (same for bows).
Ashiraya wrote: You're correct in that I am cross-dominant. That may be it.
Well, there's hand dominance, and then there's eye dominance. And it's easy to check which eye you are more dominant with, which may explain your more comfortable position in shooting.
Make a triangle with your thumbs flat together and the points of your pointer fingers touching. Put your arms straight out, and with both eyes open, look through that triangle focusing on some object within it. While you're focusing on said object, slowly bring "the triangle" in to your face until it touches.
What should happen, is your hands will naturally go toward the more dominant eye and that will be the one youre more comfortable shooting from.
I'm right handed, and practically blind in my right eye.
So I end up shooting rifles left handed, which can be a pain with bolt actions and ejection ports.
But I still shoot handguns right-handed, which I think isn't affected by which eye is dominant as much since you are holding the gun out further in front of you?
Ashiraya wrote: You're correct in that I am cross-dominant. That may be it.
My wife is the same way. She can compensate for it easily because when she shoots a pistol she uses the isosceles stance so she can favour her dominant eye. She hasn't worked out how best to hold a rifle yet - an unmagnified/low magnification optic designed for use with both eyes open may help though.
Ouze wrote: Oh yeah, the Kel-Tec RDB. That's what I was thinking of, thanks.
The P90 also ejects the shells straight down. Then there is the FN FS2000 that ejects the shells from the front rather than the back like most bullpups.
Alex C wrote: I was under the impression that AUG ejection ports are reversible, is this not the case?
They were interchangeable on the A1 and the A2 but not on the new A3. Plus you need to have a different bolt that has the ejector on the left side. Most of the ones out on the market today are A3s, both of mine are. You can buy the older A1/A2 stocks from PJS for $350 or you can get the Rat Worx brass deflector for $30.
Alex C wrote: I was under the impression that AUG ejection ports are reversible, is this not the case?
Yeah, they used to be. When Australia first got them, they were (we were still using the L1A1 SLR at the time (It's like a FN-FAL but semi-auto, no full auto switch).
The SLR was no fun to fire left handed, either (I'm left hand dominant, left EYE dominant also.) OR to charge (bolt on the "wrong" side.
Vaktathi wrote: Augs are always so cool....but so expensive, and seemingly available nowhere
Yeah, AUGs really don't show up that often and when they do they are normally priced too high for most people. My 20" barrel one I bought brand new at a local gun shop that had it for way too long. They gave me a good discount just to get rid of it. My 16" barrel one was lightly used and I got it recently at the same place. Some might call me crazy for spending that much on my Steyrs but my 6.8 spc AR I built cost the same. Difference is, I did go crazy on my 6.8 with all the fancy gadgets, not including optics on any of them of course.
LethalShade wrote: I've always wondered what kind of firearms you people have access to in the US. I know it depends on the state, but not much more.
Can someone sum it up for me ?
Sure.
First, lets go with normal old long rifles & shotguns (like hunting rifles with a minimal internal magazine). These are generally unrestricted, some states require you must be 16 or 18 to own/purchase. Some states require hunter safety courses before actually going out to hunt with one, but generally speaking owning a long gun for home defense is very lightly regulated.
Then you have semi-automatic rifles with removable box magazines; think AKs or ARs. These are generally unrestricted as well: the federal minimum is a 16" barrel - well get into that more in a moment.
Some states have restrictions on the size of the magazines (like California, New York, and I want to say New Jersey) - you can own a larger capacity magazine as long as it's pinned to allow no more than the allowed amount, usually 5 or 10 rounds. California also requires that magazines cannot be changed without the use of a tool - so an AR15 or AK have what's called a "bullet button" where you cannot change the magazine without an external tool; in this case you can literally use the point of a bullet - hence the name. Again, we're talking 3 states out of 50, although California is very large.
California also regulates rifles in the .50BMG caliber.
Handguns:
As long as you are an adult with no criminal history / mental issues/ etc, you can buy a pistol. There is sometimes a waiting period, sometimes not, this varies by state. One notable outlier is New York City, where the law indicates the Sheriff's office may issue (as opposed to shall issue). As a result, it's nearly impossible to legally buy a pistol in New York City, which is probably ripe for a court challenge. Some states require you to take a course and show proficiency, some do not.
Some states allow open carry without a permit, where you can legally wear a gun visible to all in a holster without further licensing. Other states require certain things to get a concealed carry permit, which then also allow open carry if you choose (you shouldn't, open carry is a terrible idea, but that's a different issue). To qualify for a concealed carry permit varies wildly by state, some require a test, some require a test and showing proficiency, some require almost nothing. Many states recognize concealed carry permits from other states, some do not, and so on - it's a real patchwork. Federal law generally protects travelling through a more restrictive state with an item you are legally allowed to have in your own state. There are not generally restrictions on pistols in terms of caliber or capacity, although at least one state I am aware on restricts hollowpoint ammunition.
NFA: The National Firearms Act of 1934 restricted access to a few categories of weapons. I'll touch on them briefly - a rifle with a barrel length of 16" is a short-barreled rifle, a shotgun similarly is short-barreled shotgun, a firearm with a barrel of more than a half inch is a destructive device, automatic weapons (machine guns), suppressors, and "all other weapons" - these are all restricted. You must pay a $200 tax stamp for these (which was a lot of money in 1934 but the law was not pegged to inflation), go through a lengthy background check and waiting period, and so on. The items are registered and must be produced for ATF examination on demand, I believe. There was an additional ban on producing new machine guns (which is any firearm that fires more than one round per trigger pull be it rifle or pistol) in 19... 68? I want to say. As a result, there is a very limited supply of lawful automatic weapons grandfathered in, so they are very, very expensive; as we discussed earllier you're looking at $15,000 USD or so to get a foot in the door.
Some states ban some of these items even if they are legal on the federal level, for example I live in Iowa and I am free to file the NFA paperwork for, say, a short-barreled rife, but Iowa bans all NFA items so I can't posses one legally. There are lots of other little details here that are probably beyond the scope of this post.
Grey areas:
AR & AK pistols: These are both pretty popular, for example an AR15 with a less than 16" barrel but that does not have a stock. This is legal, since you are intended to shoot it with one hand. You can install a "brace" which is essentially a rubber stocklike device that you can strap to one arm, and this is legal.... ish. The ATF recently said that shouldering such a pistol would then be converting it into a short-barreled rifle. So far as I know no one has ever been charged in this way and it's kind of a weird twilight zone now; the idea that the way your hold a gun could make it illegal.
Additionally, adding a vertical foregrip to such a pistol changes it to something that is fired with two hands, which would mean you have built an NFA item (and illegal without the stamp). This last bit actually isn't a grey area at all - it's very clear legally - but I put it in here because it doesn't make sense without the prior background.
LethalShade wrote: I've always wondered what kind of firearms you people have access to in the US. I know it depends on the state, but not much more.
Can someone sum it up for me ?
In theory, a US citizen can basically own anything.
At a federal level, certain things are regulated, these are NFA items.
This category includes machine guns, short barreled rifles (barrel under 16" and overall length under 26"), short barreled shotguns (similar but not quite identical to SBR's), suppressors, the nebulous "any other weapon" (e.g. putting a vertical foregrip on a pistol), and "destructive devices" (e.g. grenades, cannons, etc).
These require an ATF tax stamp and months long approval for each item, and machine guns can only be owned if they were in civilian hands before May of 1986. It's perfectly legal to own an something like an anti-tank gun, you can go on Gunbroker right now and buy one if you have $50k and are cool with waiting 4 months for the ATF to issue you your $200 tax stamp before you can take possession.
Various states have their own restrictions. Some don't really have any, some further restrict/ban NFA items, and some, particularly places like New York and California, have further restrictions still on certain characteristics such as magazine size, grip type, stock type, muzzle attachments, etc. These vary wildly from state to state and are hard to TL;DR, but basically some states have a "yeah own anything you want" policy, others like NY or CA tell you "if it looks vaguely military then we don't like it and were going to ban it or make it really annoying to own".
Then there's also weird import requirements, pistols under a certain size can't be imported, certain types of firearms have to have minimum numbers of US made components, etc.
Ashiraya wrote: Just our of curiosity... what use would you have for anti-tank weapons?
I can see the argument for pistols, rifles and the like. But taking a deer-hunting trip with your Javelin seems counterproductive.
Whenever people mention "anti-tank" guns or rifles I believe that they typically mean a firearm chambered in .50cal or higher. The main reason that people have for owning such a rifle is long range target shooting - 1000 yards or greater.
My knowledge of this area is not complete so if anyone else has better information I defer to them. It is my understanding that a Javelin would be prohibitively expensive and I believe that each single munition for it would need to be registered with the ATF as a destructive device, which is another set of rules entirely.
Yup, anything modern and chambered over .50 is a "destructive device" and needs NFA paperwork.
Lots of the Boys AT Rifles that are in the country were converted from .55 to .50 to get around this.
As far as Javelins go, not gonna see them on the open market. I've never seen or heard of anyone legally possessing any kind of operable missile launcher*, let alone a Javelin.
*Except possibly a WW2 Bazooka, but I'm not sure if it was operable or deactivated.
Ashiraya wrote: Just our of curiosity... what use would you have for anti-tank weapons?
I can see the argument for pistols, rifles and the like. But taking a deer-hunting trip with your Javelin seems counterproductive.
Whenever people mention "anti-tank" guns or rifles I believe that they typically mean a firearm chambered in .50cal or higher. The main reason that people have for owning such a rifle is long range target shooting - 1000 yards or greater.
My knowledge of this area is not complete so if anyone else has better information I defer to them. It is my understanding that a Javelin would be prohibitively expensive and I believe that each single munition for it would need to be registered with the ATF as a destructive device, which is another set of rules entirely.
Adding to you Javelin comment, I do believe you are correct. If I am not mistaken not only do you need to pay the $200 tax stamp for the launcher itself but you also have to pay a $200 tax stamp for each rocket, this goes for any Destructive Device including 40mm grenade launchers.
Ruberu wrote: Adding to you Javelin comment, I do believe you are correct. If I am not mistaken not only do you need to pay the $200 tax stamp for the launcher itself but you also have to pay a $200 tax stamp for each rocket, this goes for any Destructive Device including 40mm grenade launchers.
I believe that the ATF also recently reclassified chalk rounds for 40mm launchers as destructive devices too.
Ashiraya wrote: Just our of curiosity... what use would you have for anti-tank weapons?
I can see the argument for pistols, rifles and the like. But taking a deer-hunting trip with your Javelin seems counterproductive.
I'm not sure that you can legally own heavy weapons of that type - I don't believe the second amendment's interpretation of "arms" extends outside of small arms. I've never heard of legal private ownership of a rocket launcher or similar, though.
If you're referring to .50 BMG, then that is not an antitank weapon, and it has hunting applications (although not really in the US, IMO - it would probably be more for Cape Buffalo in my opinion).
Ashiraya wrote: Just our of curiosity... what use would you have for anti-tank weapons?
I can see the argument for pistols, rifles and the like. But taking a deer-hunting trip with your Javelin seems counterproductive.
kicks and giggles? There doesn't need to be a particular use-case. In reality, most of this stuff is museum pieces or re-enactment items and movie props.
However, the US actually has something of a history with privately owned heavy weapons, during the revolutionary war, many cannons were privately owned (from rich dudes buying the big guns to use with his privately raised militia to ship captains owning two dozen cannons for their privateers, etc) and there are a number of people who own such things....just for kicks and giggles.
Super modern stuff generally tends not to be available simply because the companies will not sell them to private citizens (and few could afford to buy them), but in theory they could go through the ATF process of selling them as a "Destructive Device".
Ruberu wrote: That would not surprise me. I don't even think you can buy 40mm fireworks with out a professional license.
And if that weren't enough, there are different licenses that must all be applied for individually. Two family friends of mine had a federal explosives license, I seem to recall them explaining that it was done on a letter system (A-D) or a number system (1-4) where the lower the designation the more destructive the explosives were. The one friend was a demolition man, so he had the class A/1, while the other one had a fireworks license and was C-D.
Remember cost is a prohibitive factor. You wont find javelins on the market since the workings are still considered classified. But even if you did, in 2000 a Javelin launcher was $125k, each missile was $75k. We did a 3 week training class with them with 30 guys, we only had 5 live shots at the end, chosen by picking straws. First prone live fired missile
Note that as far as I am aware, there has not been a crime committed with a .50bmg and actual rifle crimes are less than 2%.
One thing not mentioned was I think its federal that to buy a pistol you have to be 21.
And there is no such thing as a gun show loophole, all vendors must do a background check when a weapon is purchased.
A .50BMG rifle would be pretty unwieldy for pretty much any crime short of shooting someone inside a armoured vehicle. Even if you were trying to kill someone from range, a normal rifle (for a given value of normal) would probebly do the job far better. Cheaper, lighter, easier to hide, ect.
What's funny is that there really probably doesn't need to be much, if any regulation of the bigger stuff, if only for the cost reasons- that, and because it's so distinctive. Someone gets shot by a .22 in a mugging, you're looking through, what, hundreds, thousands of potential weapons in the area? Someone's house gets imploded by a Pak-40, you know exactly who's responsible, or at least have a good, solid place to start your investigation.
As for why we'd want that sort of stuff... Ever seen or heard about "Red Dawn"? It's a silly, far-out-there concept, but the idea of the 2nd Amendment is for us to be able to defend ourselves- the Amendment is mostly worried about a corrupt oppressive local government, but the idea behind people having the big stuff is that, someone invades, they're gonna have to deal with a lot more than a couple Molotovs and some cut phone lines.
Since it came up, by the way, I'd like to also mention that's another problem I see with the NFA and it's implementation, specifically how it interacts with the machine gun ban of 1986. I think the original intent behind the NFA was pretty legit; some items have so much destructive power they need to be regulated. Fine. Then along comes the machine gun ban, which discontinued production of new machine guns, which is weak but whatever, but it also grandfathered in old ones. This is, I think, a little morally problematic. The status quo now is that machine guns are very dangerous so they are regulated, but the government has stuck it's thumb on the scale and now the price is so high you have to be pretty wealthy to own one. I don't believe that the inherent danger of a select fire weapon scales with your tax bracket.
Truthfully I'd really like to see the NFA get updated; I don't think suppressors should be on there at all. I don't see that happening any time soon though.
Government has no business making me register and pay tax on a suppressor, or if I want my rifle to have a 14.5" barrel instead of a 16" one. Want to put a forward grip on an AR pistol to make it easier to control? Too bad, tax and paperwork please. The whole thing is horse gak.
Ouze wrote: Truthfully I'd really like to see the NFA get updated; I don't think suppressors should be on there at all. I don't see that happening any time soon though.
I agree that suppressors should be removed from the NFA. I would also like to see the restrictions on barrel length rescinded, as well as the regulations on what accessories may be attached to a firearm repealed. The inability to easily transfer NFA items should be scrapped too.
Roughly 950 all together. If I could go back in time I'd pick an OPAP (actual military gun) or WASR (newer guns are the best bang for your buck) instead because this thing has had some issues. I mean, it eats its rifle food without a hiccup but I had the replace the shepard's hook (firing pin fell out and the BCG locked up http://i.imgur.com/OK8wpxv.jpg ) and the secondary release button for the cover came off (hole next to the stock).
But it runs and runs lubed or dry, and looks sexy as hell, so that's going for it!
Dreadclaw69 wrote: Very nice rifle. You're going to give us the low down on it after a range trip, right?
We have an area on the property to shoot. Landlord used his backhoe to set up a berm for me. It is at the end of a cleared lane about 100m long with woods on 3 sides, one of the 'short' sides comes up towards our horse pastures. If you don't mind either moving the horses (or firing over their heads, but I avoid that) you can actually get about a 500m shot by going up on a small rise that allows you to look down the lane from across the pasture areas.
Hope to get it ready and shoot a few 100 rounds in the next couple of weeks.
MWHistorian wrote: You'd be surprised with how far you can reach out with slugs in a shotgun. They're quite versatile.
Cheers! I think it'll depend on my ability to match the proper load. Had no problem punching out 5 round groups about half the size of a fist at 25 yards with Federal Truball Foster slugs. Winchester Super X on the other hand was all over the place.
The draw to the shotgun for me is, as you say, a flatter shooting round past the 40 yard effective range of my bow. That said, I'd prefer a rifle in 5.56 or 7.62 as it's basically POA=POI +/- ~3" out to the longest shots I'd take on this property (about 180 yards).
So far, the only issue I've had with the shotgun is in quietly and quickly switching out rounds depending on range. I'd originally tended to walk to my stand with buck loaded (there's the opportunity for some pretty close contact on that property walking in) then swap to slugs but I'm thinking that just sticking with slugs is ideal at all ranges.
I schwacked a deer a few weeks ago with Federal Flight Control 00 buck at 58 yards. It wasn't as clean as I would have liked...even with the shot cup to control the projectiles it was pretty much throwing beach balls at that range. I'll report back when I've had a chance to ballistic test these Truball slugs on something that moves.
Ooooh Kriss has a new 9mm version of their Vector out.
Justifications
1. I don't have any 9mm weapons.
2. 9mm ammo is cheap and easier to find than .22 for plinking
3. It looks frikkin cool(and has good reviews)
4. Rumblings from the bad guys in DC have me worried. Not that anything will come of it this session or that the nullification states will allow it to happen anyway.
5. Originally wanted the .45 version but the cost of ammo was prohibitive so I never pulled the trigger.
Breotan wrote: Anyone know the legality of the CornerShot in the US?
It's just a framework for a pistol but given the bizarro way gun laws are written, I don't know if is legal or not.
The shoulder stock may cause it to be classed as a rifle, like those AR pistols with the cheek weld try to get around. However it could be argued that the barrel itself is still the regular length due to being in the movable part of the gun. Regardless of that though I'm not sure if that overcomes the stock thing.
Ignoring that, how would the regulation be any different from WWI era periscope rifles (which are legal in the US)?
Breotan wrote: Anyone know the legality of the CornerShot in the US?
It's just a framework for a pistol but given the bizarro way gun laws are written, I don't know if is legal or not.
It would be legal and non-NFA due to the overall length being >26 inches - It looks pretty long to me. Once you put a pistol into that framework it is no longer a pistol, legally. If it were less than 26 inches it would be an NFA item due to having a barrel of less than 16" and not being designed to be shot with a single hand.
Breotan wrote: Anyone know the legality of the CornerShot in the US?
It's just a framework for a pistol but given the bizarro way gun laws are written, I don't know if is legal or not.
It would be legal and non-NFA due to the overall length being >26 inches - It looks pretty long to me. Once you put a pistol into that framework it is no longer a pistol, legally. If it were less than 26 inches it would be an NFA item due to having a barrel of less than 16" and not being designed to be shot with a single hand.
A SBR ceases to be a SBR if the OAL > 26"? I don't think that's accurate. My AR pistol is longer than 26" and is classified as a "firearm" so it can have a vertical foregrip but definitely not a stock.
A Glock in a Cornershot is the same as a Glock with a stock - SBR all day.
Now if you really wanted to use a Cornershot without the paperwork just take off the stock and replace it with a Sig brace
I believe barrel length is also a requirement. If the barrel is less than 16", it's an sbr regardless of overall length.
Edit: yeah:
"Short-barreled rifle (SBR) is a legal designation in the United States, referring to a shoulder-fired, rifled firearm with a barrel length of less than 16 inches (40.6 cm) or overall length of less than 26 inches (66.0 cm)." wikipedia
The CX4 is pretty fun and its a tack driver. I just wish I bought the one I had in 9mm rather than 40. I got rid of it because I could only use a 14 round magazine, at least the 9mm make a conversion piece that lets you slap in the 32 round beretta 92 mags. Now I have an Uzi that I built this year and love it!
This years project is going to be either a SBR 9mm AR or a SBR AR57.
That's a hell of a lot of flash hider you've got there!
It's just a cheap shroud covering the barrel to make it look like the BSG gun, not actually a flash hider. The TV ones were SBR'd to MX4 length and had custom "space-looking" muzzle devices fitted, this was the closest I could get to that look.
Ruberu wrote: The CX4 is pretty fun and its a tack driver. I just wish I bought the one I had in 9mm rather than 40. I got rid of it because I could only use a 14 round magazine, at least the 9mm make a conversion piece that lets you slap in the 32 round beretta 92 mags. Now I have an Uzi that I built this year and love it!
This years project is going to be either a SBR 9mm AR or a SBR AR57.
I've got a PX4 in 9mm so that was the obvious choice for me
The 9mm ones are damn hard to find currently, I had to order this one cross-country after a good amount of internet scouring (especially for an NIB one, not a used one). The .40's and .45's are pretty easy to get (despite the .45's being discontinued for nearly 2 years, I don't think anyone wants them...with their 8 round capacity ), but the 9mm guns are almost impossible to find currently. Beretta apparently is putting all CX4/MX4 production toward fulfillment of military contracts currently and hasn't imported any into the US for months and likely won't again until well into 2016 and possibly even 2017.
I had a PX4 in 40 which is why I ended up getting the CX4 in 40. I really did like them but I ended up selling them both and bought a Sig Sauer M11 instead and I never looked back. At the time I had a Sterling SMG so I really had no attachment to the CX4, then I sold the Sterling to my brother and found myself without a small caliber carbine .
I love SMGs, even if they are semi auto . After I sold my CX4 and my Sterling I found myself missing out on the fun of shooting a small caliber rifle. That's when I bought my Auto Ordnance Thompson. The Thompson is one of the most fun I have ever had shooting a SMG. The sound alone coming from that 45acp out of a rifle is truly hypnotic. Although I love the Thompson and it is on the list of guns I will never sell, it has its problems. First off, the 45acp round is not cheap enough to go out and dump hundreds of round off, granted, with the weight of a Thompson this is a self correcting problem because your arms are too darn tired of holding it after a few drum loads. Second, the magazines... The Thompson and the Sterling both have new stick mags that can be bought for a ridiculous price or you can use old WW2 Sten/Thompson mags for a lot cheaper. Both require some fine tuning to get them to work, a lot less with the new ones, but they still don't work 100% of the time. The Thompson however has one of the best Drum magazines I have ever used. The drum works all the time regardless if its clean or not, but it prices itself out of the market at $300 each and that you need to have a key for it to work. And the last problem is that it NEEDS to be clean. The owners manual tells you to never disassemble the trigger group, however, if you abide by this you will find yourself with a single shot Thompson. The trigger housing is loaded with grease from the factory which mixes with hair, dirt, brass chippings, and carbon which prevents the trigger from resetting after about 1000 rounds. So unlike most of my guns, the Thompson gets fully disassembled after every shooting session and every single piece gets polished clean.
And that's why I built an Uzi. 9mm is a lot cheaper, its a lot lighter, functional magazines are a dime a dozen, and the design is really simple so it is very forgiving if I forget to clean it. Although the Uzi does have a problem as do most military SMGs, firing from a closed bolt... Since SMGs where full auto they were originally designed to fire from an open bolt. To make them semi auto they had to redesign the mechanics of the gun to fire from a closed bolt to prevent the gun from firing in the full auto mode, usually by changing the bolt itself and making a new receiver. This tends to have some quality issues that you cant get around because you have to use an old de-milled full auto kit and piece it together and fit it with the new semi auto parts. I built my Uzi because most of the prebuilt ones are from companies that tend to not fine tune their guns before they ship them out, it keeps them cheap, but not really quality. I spent around $400 more on mine than it would have cost to buy one already built, but I got the satisfaction of building it myself and building it right. It only took me about 8 months of searching and waiting to get all the pieces I needed .
Now I am looking at building an AR9. The bonus to the AR9 is that its a new design and they are not converting old full auto ones. I also like the AR9s because you can build them to use either colt magazines, which they still make new ones, or you can make it to use 9mm Glock mags. Plus the AR9 will uses all the same accessories as an AR-15, so piles of stocks and rails to choose from.
Sorry for the short story, I just really like my toys .
Ruberu wrote: I had a PX4 in 40 which is why I ended up getting the CX4 in 40. I really did like them but I ended up selling them both and bought a Sig Sauer M11 instead and I never looked back. At the time I had a Sterling SMG so I really had no attachment to the CX4, then I sold the Sterling to my brother and found myself without a small caliber carbine .
Your first mistake
I love SMGs, even if they are semi auto . After I sold my CX4 and my Sterling I found myself missing out on the fun of shooting a small caliber rifle. That's when I bought my Auto Ordnance Thompson. The Thompson is one of the most fun I have ever had shooting a SMG. The sound alone coming from that 45acp out of a rifle is truly hypnotic. Although I love the Thompson and it is on the list of guns I will never sell, it has its problems. First off, the 45acp round is not cheap enough to go out and dump hundreds of round off, granted, with the weight of a Thompson this is a self correcting problem because your arms are too darn tired of holding it after a few drum loads. Second, the magazines... The Thompson and the Sterling both have new stick mags that can be bought for a ridiculous price or you can use old WW2 Sten/Thompson mags for a lot cheaper. Both require some fine tuning to get them to work, a lot less with the new ones, but they still don't work 100% of the time. The Thompson however has one of the best Drum magazines I have ever used. The drum works all the time regardless if its clean or not, but it prices itself out of the market at $300 each and that you need to have a key for it to work. And the last problem is that it NEEDS to be clean. The owners manual tells you to never disassemble the trigger group, however, if you abide by this you will find yourself with a single shot Thompson. The trigger housing is loaded with grease from the factory which mixes with hair, dirt, brass chippings, and carbon which prevents the trigger from resetting after about 1000 rounds. So unlike most of my guns, the Thompson gets fully disassembled after every shooting session and every single piece gets polished clean.
And that's why I built an Uzi. 9mm is a lot cheaper, its a lot lighter, functional magazines are a dime a dozen, and the design is really simple so it is very forgiving if I forget to clean it. Although the Uzi does have a problem as do most military SMGs, firing from a closed bolt... Since SMGs where full auto they were originally designed to fire from an open bolt. To make them semi auto they had to redesign the mechanics of the gun to fire from a closed bolt to prevent the gun from firing in the full auto mode, usually by changing the bolt itself and making a new receiver. This tends to have some quality issues that you cant get around because you have to use an old de-milled full auto kit and piece it together and fit it with the new semi auto parts. I built my Uzi because most of the prebuilt ones are from companies that tend to not fine tune their guns before they ship them out, it keeps them cheap, but not really quality. I spent around $400 more on mine than it would have cost to buy one already built, but I got the satisfaction of building it myself and building it right. It only took me about 8 months of searching and waiting to get all the pieces I needed .
Now I am looking at building an AR9. The bonus to the AR9 is that its a new design and they are not converting old full auto ones. I also like the AR9s because you can build them to use either colt magazines, which they still make new ones, or you can make it to use 9mm Glock mags. Plus the AR9 will uses all the same accessories as an AR-15, so piles of stocks and rails to choose from.
Sorry for the short story, I just really like my toys .
Nice stuff, a thompson would be tons of fun. I've gotten to shoot an open bolt automatic Uzi, but it was a jam-o-matic on that day (stuff kept flying into the chamber thanks to the wind & sand)
I keep hoping one day I'll have the scratch to get into the "for real real" NFA game, even if it's just the minor leagues. I'd love to get a Mac11 with LAGE upper and triple stamp that thing with a folding stock and a suppressor.
But alas...that will be an aspiration for future me. $8-10k on a toy like that is hard to justify when saving up for a property down payment
I still have an AR I need to built out, but it's just a naked upper/lower assembly thus far
CptJake wrote: Santa, besides the HK, a slew of magazines and ammo, magpul folding sights and other goodies brought this:
Spoiler:
There is also a frame that fits on the base to hold paper targets (you take off the gong).
The home range set up just got a bit nicer!
I'm 200% jelly, I'd love to have a home range, alas, being an urbanite, it is not to be :(
I also truly wish I had enough property to have a range on; I have to go to a nearby public range which is free, but also does not generally have a range safety officer available so it's probably the most dangerous place I go.
I have a much nicer indoor range available but it's sort of expensive-ish, and also it's only handguns. I really, really like hangduns but I'm not a particularly good shot so I'd prefer rifles with optics, all in all.
Well,we have horses, so we need land. Right now we rent a place on about 15 acres, but it is a sub-parcel of a couple hundred acres the land lord owns and has given us complete access to. It backs up on a river we go kayaking on. Land lord is also a shooter and he and his wife are having a home built a few hundred meters away from the house we rent.
There is a 150 meter lane cleared in some woods just past one of our horse pastures. The far narrow end has several 100 meters of woods beyond it. We had set up targets at that end and land lord decided to make it nicer. He drove his backhoe over and put a huge berm at that end and cleared a bit more of the scrub brush on the edges to give a cleaner lane. He had used the lane to zero his deer rifles by sitting on a little rise and shooting across the area we have since fenced in for the horses.
That was the beginning of the berm. In this picture it is probably 7 feet high. It got just a bit higher but is about 3 times as wide now.
My land lord even taught my daughter the basics of using the backhoe.
He got an AR10 for Christmas and we'll probably take it and my new toy out this weekend, weather permitting.
Ouze wrote: I also truly wish I had enough property to have a range on; I have to go to a nearby public range which is free, but also does not generally have a range safety officer available so it's probably the most dangerous place I go.
I have a much nicer indoor range available but it's sort of expensive-ish, and also it's only handguns. I really, really like hangduns but I'm not a particularly good shot so I'd prefer rifles with optics, all in all.
I'm lucky in that the local range I use allows pistols, shotguns (slugs only), and rifles up to 7.62x54mm
Ouze wrote: I also truly wish I had enough property to have a range on; I have to go to a nearby public range which is free, but also does not generally have a range safety officer available so it's probably the most dangerous place I go.
I have a much nicer indoor range available but it's sort of expensive-ish, and also it's only handguns. I really, really like hangduns but I'm not a particularly good shot so I'd prefer rifles with optics, all in all.
I miss having that. When I lived in Michigan we had 10 acres that ran back into state forest. The first 5 acres was grass land, with a forest back stop, not a house for maybe 15 miles. Was a perfect range.
We have a range on Campbell that is open for personal firearms, but it's a PITA to bring your weapons on base. There is a nice indoor range in town, but I've never used anything more then my XD-9. Not sure if I could take my rifle in there.
Rifles
30-06, 30-30 are both for large game hunting
Shotguns
10 gauge, 12 Gauage, 20 Gauage, .410 for various types of small game hunting
Pistols
.22 small game/pest control/target shooting
.45 combat design semi-auto target shooting and home defense
.38 compact combat design semi-auto target shooting and home defense
Semi-auto Rifle
Wasr-10 target shooting and in case the government goes rogue or the zombie apocalypse happens
I have a backstop with a mound of sand in front of it style shooting range on my farm that is 75 yrds. max
We have a range on Campbell that is open for personal firearms, but it's a PITA to bring your weapons on base. There is a nice indoor range in town, but I've never used anything more then my XD-9. Not sure if I could take my rifle in there.
There's an indoor range in Hop-town that I know for certain you could only take pistols in. But they also consider the range part of the shop as part of the "gun club".... It's only 10 bucks per year to shoot there so it's really not that bad.
We have a range on Campbell that is open for personal firearms, but it's a PITA to bring your weapons on base. There is a nice indoor range in town, but I've never used anything more then my XD-9. Not sure if I could take my rifle in there.
There's an indoor range in Hop-town that I know for certain you could only take pistols in. But they also consider the range part of the shop as part of the "gun club".... It's only 10 bucks per year to shoot there so it's really not that bad.
Clarksville has a place called Tennessee Gun Country, down Ft. Campbell Blvd a ways. It's a pretty nice location. I don't go to Hopkinsville at all.
Wife got me Maglula loaders for my HK91 and the new MR556.
My goodness these are amazing! I just loaded 12 HK-91 magazines (20 rounds each) in under 15 minutes, most of that spent ripping open 20 round boxes of .308. No wear and tear on the thumbs, super easy.
I highly recommend the product if you ever are loading more than one magazine!
CptJake wrote: Wife got me Maglula loaders for my HK91 and the new MR556.
My goodness these are amazing! I just loaded 12 HK-91 magazines (20 rounds each) in under 15 minutes, most of that spent ripping open 20 round boxes of .308. No wear and tear on the thumbs, super easy.
I highly recommend the product if you ever are loading more than one magazine!
I might have to look into that. I don't mind my .308 mags, but I hate my 9mm.
We had previously got the pistol version. I use it on my glock and the Kimber 9mm mags we have. Especially with the Kimber mags it makes a HUGE difference. I could barely get the last round in manually and there was no way my wife could do so. With the device even my daughter can fully load them.
As for the .308, I loaded 4 magazines by hand over the weekend (just got the device yesterday). It took me more time to load those 4 than to load the 12 I did today, and I cut my damned thumb doing so (those metal HK mags have sharp edges!).
CptJake wrote: We had previously got the pistol version. I use it on my glock and the Kimber 9mm mags we have. Especially with the Kimber mags it makes a HUGE difference. I could barely get the last round in manually and there was no way my wife could do so. With the device even my daughter can fully load them.
Yeah, the last round of my Springfield Mags are like pulling teeth. Even the mags that I've had since I bought the gun, the springs are still so stiff on them you can barely tell I've been using them for years. I'm so looking forward to my 7 month tax free, tax return this year. I'm going to buy so many toys.
The depicted mag loaders are a must have. I own 3 - AR, AK, and the pistol one works on multiple caliber magazines - and they are worth every penny. You can find them on Amazon by searching for Uplula.
Shot 2 fat does today. Not sure if I'm allowed to post pics. A friend and I executed a perfect L-shaped ambush. I shot mine at around 80 with a Foster slug (federal hydrashock) and he got his at around 25 with a Hornady sabot slug.
SHOT show looked interesting. New carbine length CZ EVO and Bren, new shorter M1A socom, Magpul's intergraded suppressed pistol that uses Glock magazines and sights and a pile of other updated goods from a slew of manufactures.
Out of everything, the ones that stood out to me as future purchases will be the MKE MP5SD, the Korth Sky Marshall, and possibly a reproduction of the Colt Python by Pietta.
A lot of new stuff coming out this year. I have a feeling my wallet might get a lot lighter.
This thread is very alien to me. I've used rifles while in service training, as well as being involved with 4.5" Mark 8 naval gun firing. That was part of a job though.
For pleasure, we Europeans tend to go to restaurants, pubs, the cinema etc - I don't see the excitement in shooting and it's not a hobby many have here.
I have a .22 bolt action rifle I got basically to teach the kids about firearms. And I like .22s tbh, I'm pretty little so it's nice to have something easy for me to shoot. Where I grew up, we used to have a public used shooting area. We all went plinking at the usual targets, pop, fruit, paper targets. It was a really nice area and everyone always was very careful to stop when a new person entered the area, to pick up as many shell casings as you shot. Something I wanted my kids to experience as part of their growing up. They have to go to a shooting range here, but at least they have learned to respect firearms, how to use one properly, how *not* to use one and to appreciate that they're able to use them.
One of my favorites is a Colt/Walther .22 M4 (licensed by Colt). Great fun for plinking, and now that .22 is somewhat available and cheap again Daughter and I can go burn through a few magazines for fun.
Speaking of .22 - I went to the range the other day and shot my PMR30 some more. I am trying to sell it now.
On the one hand, it has virtually no recoil, it holds 30 rounds in the magazine, and it's a very loud gun, and it shoots a giant fireball pretty much every time. That's like, almost 100% of why I'm into shooting - if fireworks were legal here I doubt I'd own most of what I do.
The downside is the ammo, .22 WMR, is very hard to find, and fairly expensive. It's running about 50 cents a round right now, which is sort of a dealbreaker - and that's before we get into the fact that this gun only likes 3 specific brands of .22 WMR. Even with the ammo it does like, FTF's and jams are fairly common. So, that sucks.
On top of that, it's not a particularly accurate gun in my opinion - which matches the opinion of others. So what does one do with a gun that's not super accurate, can't be used for self-defense, and is expensive to shoot, and hard to find ammo for? I guess I'm sticking with selling it.
This would be my favorite gun probably if it used a more common ammo.
Wulfmar wrote: This thread is very alien to me. I've used rifles while in service training, as well as being involved with 4.5" Mark 8 naval gun firing. That was part of a job though.
For pleasure, we Europeans tend to go to restaurants, pubs, the cinema etc - I don't see the excitement in shooting and it's not a hobby many have here.
Good for you. Go do that instead of coming into gun enthusiast threads and telling us how pointless you think our hobby is.
Ouze wrote: Speaking of .22 - I went to the range the other day and shot my PMR30 some more. I am trying to sell it now.
On the one hand, it has virtually no recoil, it holds 30 rounds in the magazine, and it's a very loud gun, and it shoots a giant fireball pretty much every time. That's like, almost 100% of why I'm into shooting - if fireworks were legal here I doubt I'd own most of what I do.
The downside is the ammo, .22 WMR, is very hard to find, and fairly expensive. It's running about 50 cents a round right now, which is sort of a dealbreaker - and that's before we get into the fact that this gun only likes 3 specific brands of .22 WMR. Even with the ammo it does like, FTF's and jams are fairly common. So, that sucks.
On top of that, it's not a particularly accurate gun in my opinion - which matches the opinion of others. So what does one do with a gun that's not super accurate, can't be used for self-defense, and is expensive to shoot, and hard to find ammo for? I guess I'm sticking with selling it.
This would be my favorite gun probably if it used a more common ammo.
I wanted one for a while but then the complaints kept coming in and were similar. The cons on that pistol suck because the idea of the thing just puts a smile on my face
Wulfmar wrote: This thread is very alien to me. I've used rifles while in service training, as well as being involved with 4.5" Mark 8 naval gun firing. That was part of a job though.
For pleasure, we Europeans tend to go to restaurants, pubs, the cinema etc - I don't see the excitement in shooting and it's not a hobby many have here.
I feel like we have a lot in common. I like to go to restaurants, pubs and the cinema too. Oh, but I like to shoot firearms for fun in addition to that! And I know a lot of my fellow Americans do too! Aren't cultural differences interesting?
So, on topic, has anyone done anything with .300 AAC Blackout? I've noticed it's started to show up in places like Wal-Mart and not just specialty gun shops and online.
And is anyone a fan of 5.45x39? I know a lot of people were upset with the steel-core 5.45 ammo ban, but it seems like there is still a lot of 5.45 on the market for reasonable prices.
Hello, my crazed gunmen friends! I have a question that I'd like to ask for your help with.
I am writing a story as part of an assignment in my studies. One of the characters in the story is going to be armed, but as I'd prefer to include a gun that actually exists rather than just making one up, I need your scholarly knowledge on the subject (as the number of guns I can name is unimpressive). To those of you familiar with many different guns I'll ask, which gun do you say would fit the following criteria the best?
- Rifle-type, or similar
- Semi-automatic
- Reliable in use, even if it requires high maintenance
- Modern (though not necessarily shining new)
- Highly accurate
- Not too large of caliber
- Preferably suppressor-compatible
Ashiraya wrote: Hello, my crazed gunmen friends! I have a question that I'd like to ask for your help with.
I am writing a story as part of an assignment in my studies. One of the characters in the story is going to be armed, but as I'd prefer to include a gun that actually exists rather than just making one up, I need your scholarly knowledge on the subject (as the number of guns I can name is unimpressive). To those of you familiar with many different guns I'll ask, which gun do you say would fit the following criteria the best?
- Rifle-type, or similar
- Semi-automatic
- Reliable in use, even if it requires high maintenance
- Modern (though not necessarily shining new)
- Highly accurate
- Not too large of caliber
- Preferably suppressor-compatible
There was one rifle in particular I remember from my CoD4 days that seemed suitable, the M14, though I didn't go for it for two reasons despite it 'feeling' right and looking right as well:
1. It's pretty old if I recall correctly (1970?)
2. Obviously, CoD should not be taken as a reliable source or depiction of anything.
But it may help to give you a good idea of what I am looking for - the MR556 and AR-15 seem mostly right, though is there something more... sleek?
You could also go for any modern rifle chambered in .300 Blackout. It's a round that lets you go from supersonic (lighter bullets, better range and ballistics) to subsonic (quieter for use with a suppressor, heavier bullets, lots of power up close) with just a simple magazine change.
AR15s are available in 300 Blackout but conceivably any 5.56 rifle could use the round with just a barrel swap.
CptJake wrote: One of my favorites is a Colt/Walther .22 M4 (licensed by Colt). Great fun for plinking, and now that .22 is somewhat available and cheap again Daughter and I can go burn through a few magazines for fun.
ooh my youngest would love that!
now we just have to find a closer range that'll let us use rifles >< or a friend's land... GA's not TX but we have a lot of hunters and enthusiasts
I had (and Son2 renting the place now has) an are on our GA property where we could shoot. It wasn't a fancy as what I have now in NC.
One thing on the .22 M4, it is about as heavy as a regular M4, o smaller kids will have trouble with it. My daughter likes it but is still more comfortable with a semi-auto .22 Remington we have.
I've used weapons in the reserves and I've also gone hunting for food (part of a deer cull - it was part a job that had to be done and resulted in sausages), but range shooting has never really been much of a thing. Here in the UK most people find the idea of guns repulsive unless they are owned by the military or police. I've always viewed them as a destructive tool, much like a sledgehammer.
What is it about guns in the US that makes them a must-have item? (and do you agree with what that BBC article summarises?)
- actual question here, not an attempt to make a point.
What is it about guns in the US that makes them a must-have item? (and do you agree with what that BBC article summarises?)
- actual question here, not an attempt to make a point.
Three weeks ago we had an incident where a road raging psycho tried multiple times to run us off the road while we (wife, daughter and self) were on the way home. Wife called 911 (the cops) and in over 25 minutes on the phone with the operator they could not vector us to a cop or a cop to us. I unfortunately was not carrying as we had gone shopping on Ft Bragg (can't have a weapon on post). When the gak bag slammed his brakes in front of us and came out of his car and tried to punch though my window, I REALLY wish I had the Glock. Clearly relying on the cops wasn't working.
A few months ago someone broke into an impound lot on one border of my property. We called the cops and it took them about and hour and a half to respond. My landlord's daughters house (about 2 miles from mine) was robbed, cops took over and hour to respond because 'no one was in danger'.
I also have animals (dogs, horses, a handful of goats and a couple of pigs which unfortunately are 'pets' and not allowed to be put on the smoker...). I've had to shoot coyotes, wild dogs, a fox (after land lords chickens) and a few snakes (copperheads, rattlers and a couple moccasins).
A gun is a tool. I like tools.
And they are fun.
And honestly, it is my right to have them, and I don't need a reason at all to justify exercising a constitutionally protected right.
I've used weapons in the reserves and I've also gone hunting for food (part of a deer cull - it was part a job that had to be done and resulted in sausages), but range shooting has never really been much of a thing. Here in the UK most people find the idea of guns repulsive unless they are owned by the military or police. I've always viewed them as a destructive tool, much like a sledgehammer.
What is it about guns in the US that makes them a must-have item? (and do you agree with what that BBC article summarises?)
- actual question here, not an attempt to make a point.
You appear to have misread the intent of this thread. From the OP
djones520 wrote: Lets discuss the firearms you own, what you use them for, and online resources that you use to enhance your shooting experience. ANYONE is welcome post in here, but please keep it on the topic. Also share any online resources that you have for purchasing equipment, or just learning about the differant aspects of firearms.
This thread is not a discussion of why we enjoy firearms. It is about how we enjoy them.
Indeed. It has been made clear several times throughout this thread that it's pupose is not the gun debate. It's purpose is shinies what go bang and to give me severe attacks of jealousy.
- Rifle-type, or similar
- Semi-automatic
- Reliable in use, even if it requires high maintenance
- Modern (though not necessarily shining new)
- Highly accurate
- Not too large of caliber
- Preferably suppressor-compatible
Most people don't realize how old many gun designs are. Even the modern looking bullpup Steyr AUG is a 1970's design.
The AK-12 is hot off the press and has a lot of the better features of it's predecessors but remains as of yet unproven in the field.
Highly accurate is a bit subjective. A weapon that's been carefully tuned either by yourself or your local gunsmith to your personal specs will likely be more accurate for you than a similar weapon 'off the shelf'.
In theory, other than being 'modern', an AK 47 *can* have all the traits our looking for, and can be easily acquired, cheaply, in most countries, regardless of legality.
In theory, other than being 'modern', an AK 47 *can* have all the traits our looking for, and can be easily acquired, cheaply, in most countries, regardless of legality.
And if you get away from the "cheap", an AK-47 can even fulfill the "modern" look:
motyak wrote: Indeed. It has been made clear several times throughout this thread that it's pupose is not the gun debate. It's purpose is shinies what go bang and to give me severe attacks of jealousy.
You can always come over and visit some time and enjoy a range session
Ruberu wrote: SHOT show looked interesting. New carbine length CZ EVO and Bren, new shorter M1A socom, Magpul's intergraded suppressed pistol that uses Glock magazines and sights and a pile of other updated goods from a slew of manufactures.
Out of everything, the ones that stood out to me as future purchases will be the MKE MP5SD, the Korth Sky Marshall, and possibly a reproduction of the Colt Python by Pietta.
A lot of new stuff coming out this year. I have a feeling my wallet might get a lot lighter.
So much cool stuff...so little money. Of course right after I file the form 1 on my scorpion, they come out with the Carbine...
But then the new BREN rifle (as opposed to the pistol they were importing) looks so cool...just twice as much as the Scorpion. CZ's really hit the spot of late.
H&MGW's STG44 looks awesome, if they actually start shipping and they turn out to be functional, I'm totally buying one.
In theory, other than being 'modern', an AK 47 *can* have all the traits our looking for, and can be easily acquired, cheaply, in most countries, regardless of legality.
And if you get away from the "cheap", an AK-47 can even fulfill the "modern" look:
Indeed, AK's can be made to do anything most other rifles can, and I'd certainly take the Pepsi Challenge with a service-issue AK-74 next to a service issue M4/M16, L85A2, AUG, and most other weapons out there...
Speaking of which, I got another new toy this week to share with everyone.
5.45x39mm Bulgarian SLR-104-32 (AK-74M clone in Plum color).
I like the Plum synthetics a lot (though US plum and original Russian/Bulgarian plum are different). The black synthetics I'm "meh" on, the sand/tan synthetics look like GI-Joe guns. I'm a fan of a nice wood furniture set, but you can't get factory-built AK-74's with wood furniture for the most part. The ones you can find are parts kit guns (aside from a couple of expensive "Krinkov" style 74SU type guns for...a lot of money). As this gun was bought as a "go-to" gun, I went with a factory built model, I just cannot trust parts kit guns for anything other than range-toys. I learned that lesson the hard way, and I like the plum furniture enough to not bother trying to source 922r-compliant wood furniture :(
Wulfmar wrote: Managed to unintentionally light some peoples fuses with the last comment.
I didn't really understand the whole shooting for fun thing so I looked it up on Google and found this on the BBC site
I've used weapons in the reserves and I've also gone hunting for food (part of a deer cull - it was part a job that had to be done and resulted in sausages), but range shooting has never really been much of a thing. Here in the UK most people find the idea of guns repulsive unless they are owned by the military or police. I've always viewed them as a destructive tool, much like a sledgehammer.
What is it about guns in the US that makes them a must-have item? (and do you agree with what that BBC article summarises?)
- actual question here, not an attempt to make a point.
I'll try and address your point within the confines of the topic "Firearms you own, and their uses". Shooting for fun has a lot of draws to it.
Shooting in and of itself can be a lot of fun. Target shooting has its own challenge and reward for obvious reasons, in the same way any accuracy based skill challenge has be it Archery or free-throw Basketball shots. Aside from that, the simple feel of a firearm operating is its own kind of thrill, putting the target in your sights, pulling the trigger, feeling the mechanical operation and moving of parts in your hands, the recoil and muzzle blast, etc, they're all their own sorts of experience that can get people hooked. Even people from places like Japan, where civilian firearms ownership is practically nonexistent even compared with the UK, and where almost nobody has a problem with that, often come to the US and enjoy renting & experiencing firearms (it's actually a huge tourism hook in Hawaii).
Then there's the firearms themselves. In the same some people can be into cars, or watches, or motorcycles, some people are into guns. There's a lot to admire. The history, the look and visuals, the engineering & machining, heft & feel, etc. Some people want to own a piece of history or a cultural icon, some people admire the engineering, etc. Even the anti-gun superhero, Batman, clearly understands the attractions in Gotham Knight.
That said, many people also view them as tools, as you said, the difference is that there's a greater need, both real and perceived for such tools in the US (have to remember the US has a lot of open land with wild critters that the UK does not have and a much more thinly spread population). One must remember that the US has had conflicts within its borders (or what the US declared to be its borders, I'm sure Baronlveagh may have something to add on that) almost within living memory. Conflicts with Native Americans and raiding Mexican groups occurred within the last hundred years. For some people living on the US-Mexican border today, owning a firearm for self defense if they come upon a group of Coyote's engaged in human trafficking is a very real thing. Aside from Northern Ireland, the UK hasn't really had the same issues (though one will note, in Northern Ireland, people can still own handguns for this very reason, where citizens in England/Scotland/Wales cannot). The need, real or perceived, for firearms is much greater in the US and are very much seen as tools by many.
For me, I own firearms for all of the above reasons. Some are there simply because I think they're fun (Ruger 10/22 and CZ Scorpion). Others I see distinctly as tools for use in a life threatening situation (my carry LCR for instance, and my AK's). Yet others are a piece of living history (my Swiss K-31 and hopefully eventually a WW1 rifle collection) or cultural icons (my Berreta CX4 for instance, the "Battlestar Galactica" gun, and also AK's simply because they're so distinctive). They have a lot of uses that many can appreciate.
Of course, I have my AK finished with a quad rail because I like bolting a lot of dumb mall ninja tacticool stuff to it. But for pure collecting, I find that beautiful.
After like... a decade... of civilian life I finally got myself a firearm. Adorable little Mossberg Plinkster
because I was tired of not shooting things. It's fun, but man, belt fed weapons really ruin you for anything else. Plus having to pay for ammo... yuck.
You can pick the caliber and it shows current prices (you see price by round and by package) and then links you to the seller's website.
I've used to source .22 and others.
My go to source is BulkAmmo.com, but the Bot is nice when you want to shop around. Their price per round does not include the retailer's shipping add on, so you do need to watch that.
CptJake wrote: I had (and Son2 renting the place now has) an are on our GA property where we could shoot. It wasn't a fancy as what I have now in NC.
One thing on the .22 M4, it is about as heavy as a regular M4, o smaller kids will have trouble with it. My daughter likes it but is still more comfortable with a semi-auto .22 Remington we have.
CptJake wrote: Heckler and Koch MR556. A piston AR, based on the HK416 that a lot of our spec ops use.
Just coz you got one, lucky git
Just put an Aimpoint PRO on it last week.
CaptJake:
Did you look into the S&W M&P 15-22? All the features and size of a regular AR but extremely low on weight. I have a seven year old who is pretty thin, but he loves shooting the ARs. He shoots prone because it is impossible for him to wield the AR. The M&P 15-22 takes car of that so he can shoot safely. It's also alot of fun to shoot indoors:
Ouze wrote: I think my favorite AK furniture is red wood, as:
Of course, I have my AK finished with a quad rail because I like bolting a lot of dumb mall ninja tacticool stuff to it. But for pure collecting, I find that beautiful.
If it was going to be for just collecting and sitting in a glass case that is beautiful. I would love to get an AKM pattern at some point, and yes it would probably end up with rails for a sight and light.
On a gun that's going to be run hard I prefer synthetic furniture, That way when it gets scratched I don't care. To me an AK is a gun that's meant to be run hard.i save the Nice looking wood for my hunting rifles.
yellowfever wrote: On a gun that's going to be run hard I prefer synthetic furniture, That way when it gets scratched I don't care. To me an AK is a gun that's meant to be run hard.i save the Nice looking wood for my hunting rifles.
Ehh, if it's an AK, if it has the "original" wood stock I don't think i'd care too much about it getting scratched.
I mean, i have seen gold plated, pearl/ivory (looking type stuff) handled AKs in Iraq being carried around by regular check point guards and whatnot.... Always a bit of a laugh, but I'd be crazy if I said I wouldn't take one of them as well.
CptJake wrote: I don't think my land lord nor the wife would approve of me shooting indoors.
If I get another 'tactical rimfire' gun it will probably be one of the HK MP5 looking ones, just to get something different.
The MP5 is a fun gun to shoot, but it is heavy dues to its Zamac construction (die cast metal). Its a good gun, just heavy to wield (something to consider for younger shooters or slight of build).
@ensis ferrae. I've seen that also. But that still goes with what I'm saying. I wouldn't have a gun I plan to run hard gold colored. And an AK just begs to be run hard. Just my opinion of course. Different strokes for different folks.
Ruberu wrote: SHOT show looked interesting. New carbine length CZ EVO and Bren, new shorter M1A socom, Magpul's intergraded suppressed pistol that uses Glock magazines and sights and a pile of other updated goods from a slew of manufactures.
Out of everything, the ones that stood out to me as future purchases will be the MKE MP5SD, the Korth Sky Marshall, and possibly a reproduction of the Colt Python by Pietta.
A lot of new stuff coming out this year. I have a feeling my wallet might get a lot lighter.
So much cool stuff...so little money. Of course right after I file the form 1 on my scorpion, they come out with the Carbine...
But then the new BREN rifle (as opposed to the pistol they were importing) looks so cool...just twice as much as the Scorpion. CZ's really hit the spot of late.
H&MGW's STG44 looks awesome, if they actually start shipping and they turn out to be functional, I'm totally buying one.
In theory, other than being 'modern', an AK 47 *can* have all the traits our looking for, and can be easily acquired, cheaply, in most countries, regardless of legality.
And if you get away from the "cheap", an AK-47 can even fulfill the "modern" look:
Indeed, AK's can be made to do anything most other rifles can, and I'd certainly take the Pepsi Challenge with a service-issue AK-74 next to a service issue M4/M16, L85A2, AUG, and most other weapons out there...
Speaking of which, I got another new toy this week to share with everyone.
5.45x39mm Bulgarian SLR-104-32 (AK-74M clone in Plum color).
AH, another AK74 lover.
I own a RedJacket ak74. My brother asked why i bought an ak. I told him, "because ak's always work."
When i was in afghanistan, i had my m4 stop working after putting as few as 8 mags through it. Thats fine at the range, but not when you are being attacked by a bunch of guys yelling "allah akbar"...
Well, despite my inner OPSEC alarm beeping, I'll share some pics of some of mine. Here is a small selection of what I have, mostly pics of some of my handguns:
Thanks, folks. That was just a sampling. I spent a long time acquiring them. It's more expensive than 40k, but sometimes I wonder with the Forge World stuff added in. lol.
And yeah, that 1911 (An Auto-Ordnance WWII G.I. Replica) is parkerized. I always loved that look on 1911s too.
Ruberu wrote: SHOT show looked interesting. New carbine length CZ EVO and Bren, new shorter M1A socom, Magpul's intergraded suppressed pistol that uses Glock magazines and sights and a pile of other updated goods from a slew of manufactures.
Out of everything, the ones that stood out to me as future purchases will be the MKE MP5SD, the Korth Sky Marshall, and possibly a reproduction of the Colt Python by Pietta.
A lot of new stuff coming out this year. I have a feeling my wallet might get a lot lighter.
So much cool stuff...so little money. Of course right after I file the form 1 on my scorpion, they come out with the Carbine...
But then the new BREN rifle (as opposed to the pistol they were importing) looks so cool...just twice as much as the Scorpion. CZ's really hit the spot of late.
H&MGW's STG44 looks awesome, if they actually start shipping and they turn out to be functional, I'm totally buying one.
5.45x39mm Bulgarian SLR-104-32 (AK-74M clone in Plum color).
A SBRed Evo will be a lot more cool than a carbine one . The Bren would be cool but I have way too many 556 guns as it is now. If they would have released it before I bought a second Steyr I might have considered the Bren instead. Also I completely forgot about the HMG STG44 clones . I agree, if they actually function I will get one. They will make them in the original 7.92x33 Kurz so the caliber debate has already been made for me.
I am currently on a form 1 for my Bulgarian Sam7k. For some reason I like the 47 more than the 74. I have three and am really looking forward to getting the stock on my Sam and making it a real Bulgarian Krinkov.
@oldravenman. Its nice to see another Steyr and a HK usp. I carry a USP in 9mm at work. They can take a beating and don't give up, ours have around 40-50K+ rounds through them and still hit center after 20+ years of service.
The AUG is actually a clone produced by MSAR. I couldn't find a Sabre Defense example, and the Steyr A3 wasn't available in the States when I bought it. But I have been pretty satisfied with it. It has a Gen4 stock that is supposed to take Steyr factory mags. But I had to do a slight touch-up with a dremel to get 'em to work 100%.
Need some advice on 22LR, if you would be so kind.
I recently got a 22/45 Lite, which is my first 22 pistol, and it seems like a great little gun. It seems fairly accurate - I was able to keep all 10 initially within about an inch and a half at 25 feet, which is pretty good for me.
That being said, after shooting about 150 rounds through it, my groups started to open up pretty badly - by the 200 round mark, I was seeing flyers everywhere, 3-4 inch groupings. I wasn't rapid firing, so I don't think the barrel was overheating. I have the model with a ventilated barrel, if it matters.
I asked the guy at the range, and he said it was likely that the barrel had just gotten really fouled - I was shooting Remington Thunderbolt. I don't really know much about .22LR - my previous pistol was a .22WMR which didn't seem especially dirty. I guess .22LR is really dirty by default, but he was saying that Thunderbolt is way worse than that, that it's the dirtiest ammo you can buy. I'm inclined to believe him - i was only at the range for an hour and my fingers were absolutely filthy by that time, it seems like there is some kind of waxy coating on those rounds (as I side note, I also had at least 4 or 5 duds and lots of FTF's).
Can you guys make suggestions as to what brands run a bit cleaner?
Also, how often does this need to be cleaned? Normally I field strip and clean my guns after every range trip, although I sometimes slack a bit with the AK. However, I remember Frazzled saying you don't generally have to clean .22LRs. I might be misremembering that, so if it's not true, I'm sure it's my mistake. Should I be bringing a boresnake with me to the range?
Also, I burned the gak out of my neck today when a hot shell landed in my collar and got stuck. That's not really related to the above issue, I just thought you all would enjoy hearing it.
Automatically Appended Next Post: Well, I guess I should have cleaned it before posting this, because that's one mystery solved, I guess.
Spoiler:
So, going back to - what brands do you guys recommend?
My .22 Colt/Walther M4 Ops seems to be pretty picky when it comes to the .22LR it takes. I use CCI or Federal in it and it seems to do well. It hates the couple types of Remington I've tried to put through it. It definitely runs better with high velocity ammo. I tend to stick with the Federal instead of CCI because I can still find bulk packs and get it for between 7 and 8 cents a shot, and seeing as when I take it out I tend to go through 2-300 rounds a session it makes a difference.
Question; is the scope on that revolver more practical or rule of cool? I only ask because in video games you can almost always put an oversized scope on the big bad pistol, but I've never been clear on if that's actually useful irl XD
LordofHats wrote: Question; is the scope on that revolver more practical or rule of cool? I only ask because in video games you can almost always put an oversized scope on the big bad pistol, but I've never been clear on if that's actually useful irl XD
It's quite practical. There's even special pistol scopes with a long eye relief. Lots of people who hunt with handguns use them.
yellowfever wrote: I'm lost. Can someone explain why my gun pic can't be posted but others can. I've posted gun pics on here before with no problems.
The other picture in this thread probably just managed to slide by.
The problem is with uploading them, or attaching them, to DakkaDakka.
Pictures take up a lot of the bandwidth, hosting space, and processing of the Dakka servers. Because of that Dakka doesn't want any non-wargaming related pictures hosted on the servers, to try to keep some of the costs down.
Just upload your pictures to any of the other sites and just link them to your posts here instead of attaching them to the post or uploading them to the Dakka gallery, then you won't run into any problems.
Here is a recent discussion about what image hosting sites people like to use here:
Ouze wrote: Just to be 100% clear, none of the photos in this thread are hosted on Dakka.
If you filter the thread, he has one picture that looks like it was attached to the post he made. That may be why he was wondering about getting it removed this time but not before. Attached pictures don't show up in the gallery (I don't think), but still take up space.
Also, this doesn't just apply to firearms, this was a big issue - bigger, really - when there was a thread for people were posting pictures of themselves.
For what it is worth, I post my pictures to Photobucket and then use them here...
Just got done firing 3 magazines from the Kimber (had finally gotten around to adjusting the lasergrip sight to align with the iron sights) and 3 from my Glock.
Then I played with the new HK. The factory setting on the Magpul sights needed a LOT of adjustment, and since I was dumb and forgot to bring the instructions with me I had no clue how much each 'click' adjusted so it took a while to get them where they needed to be. (Too lazy to walk the 150 meters back to the house and get them...) I then adjusted the Aimpoint PRO I put on it (it co-witnessess) so the rifle is now fully zeroed decently. By decently I mean as best as I could with without a bench. Ground was a bit muddy so I fired from a kneeling position instead of prone (yeah, I'm lazy like that) which I'm sure contributed...
I think the land lord has a bench I can use when he gets back from his vacation so I can get it perfect.
Getting my Ak Krink back this weekend. Had the guy slap some Cerakote burnt bronze on it, might be too bling but hell my father always says the gun you carry speaks a lot about a persons character. I am also going to have an old trade in Browning High Power shipped to my local FFL this weekend. I plan to drop it and my 1911 off to get matching Cerakote, then I want to get a custom wood case made for the pair of them.
Back from vacation last night, and had a basic pistol class today. The ladies outnumbered the fellas to the tune of 60/40. I had the opportunity to use an M&P9C and really liked it. A lot of creep on the trigger, but nothing that training cannot remedy (or an after market part)
Dreadclaw69 wrote: Back from vacation last night, and had a basic pistol class today. The ladies outnumbered the fellas to the tune of 60/40. I had the opportunity to use an M&P9C and really liked it. A lot of creep on the trigger, but nothing that training cannot remedy (or an after market part)
Women are beginning to wake up and take serious responsibility for their own safety.
As for your M&P, I would recommend an Apex Tactical for that trigger. They are highly regarded by many M&P owners that are in the know.
Is it just me, or did it seem like he wasn't realizing he was out of ammunition when he tried to shoot some times? Now maybe I'm just a freak with good memorization, but it's not that hard to count. Although possibly not when trying to be an action hero.
Well, the AK Krink is done, the Uzi is done, my 1911 is off getting Cerakoted, and my other AK is waiting for a press before I can "finish" it. So off to a new project! Looking at building a lightweight AR-15. So far its looking like the parts will be ~$1300. I'm currently deciding if I want to go with a lightweight cut out lower and upper combo that will drop 4 ounces off the total weight. So far I don't think 4 ounces will make that much of a difference.
On the drawing board currently are a mixture of Spikes Tactical and Bravo Company parts. BCM stripped upper, mid length flutted lightweight barrel, gas block/tube, KMR 10" rail, Spikes lower and BCG, topped off with Magpul furniture, Troy iron sights, Aimpoint Micro and maybe a Larue Tactical trigger. Total weight should be around 5lbs! It will be 2-3lbs lighter than a standard AR.
Co'tor Shas wrote: Is it just me, or did it seem like he wasn't realizing he was out of ammunition when he tried to shoot some times? Now maybe I'm just a freak with good memorization, but it's not that hard to count. Although possibly not when trying to be an action hero.
I did not see what you saw. Did notice his shotgun reload was solid. He was been working that move for a long time to be that natural. You can find video of people on their second or third time through a combat shot gun class, a week long class, that aren't that smooth. Whatch it again in case you missed it, he does the underside palm feed.
Co'tor Shas wrote: Is it just me, or did it seem like he wasn't realizing he was out of ammunition when he tried to shoot some times? Now maybe I'm just a freak with good memorization, but it's not that hard to count. Although possibly not when trying to be an action hero.
I didn't see that happen once in the video. What specific time points are you referencing?
Ruberu wrote: Well, the AK Krink is done, the Uzi is done, my 1911 is off getting Cerakoted
What color did you go with?
On an extreme impulse, I picked up a .308 AR upper that was on sale, since it was already cerakoted FDE and cheap, with free shipping atop that. Now I guess I have to build an AR-10? Still building a parts list. I'll probably get a complete lower to avoid that hassle.
Nurgle wrote: I will just list my go to firearms since I have many.
sig p220 .45 is my go to for carry in my area. Crackheads are common so I have to be prepared at all times.
12 guage 870 for home defense and hunting. Once again, hypes and other assorted scum are common in my area.
Norico SKS was purchased because I wanted to go all flashgitz on a rifle and AR15s just arent my style.
10/22 Ruger for plinking.
Norinco SKS rifles are getting harder to find, and cost a premium nowadays. I got mine back in '93 when an unissued rifle and full kit cost less than 150 bucks at any K-Mart.
I was in a gun shop today looking for a suppressor to purchase. The salesman said that if I get a class 3 item I'll give up my search and seizure rights. Does anyone have info on this or where I can look to get it. I Google searched it but got no luck. Thanks in advance.
yellowfever wrote: I was in a gun shop today looking for a suppressor to purchase. The salesman said that if I get a class 3 item I'll give up my search and seizure rights. Does anyone have info on this or where I can look to get it. I Google searched it but got no luck. Thanks in advance.
Whoever it was is handing you a load of crap. You DO NOT give up your Fourth Amendment protections just because you own a NFA device.
Here is a source covering all of the top myths relating to the NFA:
I thought that was wrong too. He said that when you have a class 3 item that law enforcement can come into your home to look at it without permission. I wanted to check here first to make sure. You guys are more knowledgeable on this stuff than I am.
yellowfever wrote: I thought that was wrong too. He said that when you have a class 3 item that law enforcement can come into your home to look at it without permission. I wanted to check here first to make sure. You guys are more knowledgeable on this stuff than I am.
Since I last posted in this thread a year and a half ago I've made some more purchases.
1.Micro Pistol Uzi, fun gun only
2.pw87 lever action shotgun. Mostly amusement, finger slapping trigger action here.
3. Kel Tech KSG. Home protection. I had to bling this one up with a muzzle break, aluminum rails and a vertical foregrip.
4. Kel Tech Sub 2000 in 9mm with glock mags. Aftermarket sights, aluminum trigger, buffer, stock extension, and smaller foregrip. This is my hiking rifle/ wife's bug-out rifle.
5. Taurus 738 TCP 380 auto. This is my wife's carry gun.
6. Mech Tech Rifle upper with glock 22 pisol lower conversion kit with wireframe collapsible stock. 40 cal. Fun gun and my bug-out gun of choice. Also useful for rabbit, raccoon, and great for home defense.
7. HK93 with upgrade sights, collapsible wireframe stock, an a bayonet (just because it looked cool and all ready had a lug on it) hunting, self defense and bugout rifle. For those that want to shoot 5.56 without being an AR-15 fanboy.
8 Remington 870 12 gauge with 18 inch barrel. I installed a birds head pistol grip, laser sight, Witt Machine muzzle break, and a heat shield. Home defense and fun gun.
Nurgle wrote: I will just list my go to firearms since I have many.
sig p220 .45 is my go to for carry in my area. Crackheads are common so I have to be prepared at all times.
12 guage 870 for home defense and hunting. Once again, hypes and other assorted scum are common in my area.
Norico SKS was purchased because I wanted to go all flashgitz on a rifle and AR15s just arent my style.
10/22 Ruger for plinking.
Norinco SKS rifles are getting harder to find, and cost a premium nowadays. I got mine back in '93 when an unissued rifle and full kit cost less than 150 bucks at any K-Mart.
I had a Norinko sks I bought back in 93 also think I paid $100 for it.. Could pick up ammo so cheap for it back in the day. I remember buying 1000 Russian rounds cheap came in a big paper brick. My buddy begged to buy it from me a few years ago so I sold it to him.
I have the older generation 1 sub 2000. I've been using combination of Glock factory 17 round mags and Korean 33 round mags. I don't have it broken in yet, so it's bound to get better. However, I've still only 3 jams and no fails to fire with the 150 rounds I've shot out of it. Other users have stated this gun has an unusually long break in period of about 400 rounds. I did however (before firing it once) totally disassemble it, replace the plastic trigger with an aluminum one, added a recoil buffer, and polished all the internals of it. With the upgraded trigger and new front and rear sight this thing is very accurate. I'd actually take it over a Beretta CX4 storm.
Dreadclaw69 wrote: Back from vacation last night, and had a basic pistol class today. The ladies outnumbered the fellas to the tune of 60/40. I had the opportunity to use an M&P9C and really liked it. A lot of creep on the trigger, but nothing that training cannot remedy (or an after market part)
Run about 500 rounds through it. The trigger becomes quite smooth with a decent break at ~6.5 lbs. Apexes are excellent. BUT this is designed for relatively deep carry. Unless you have the variant with the manual safety I wouldn't go below what the stock is (once it smooths out). Apexes are great for OWB holster carry and competition. I typically compete about once every two months with an M&Pc to keep in practice with it, though and for what its purpose is I find the trigger to be very appropriate.
On the personal front I think I've convinced the wife (which means myself because she doesn't give a ...) to get a smith fitted Bar-Sto or one of the new Apex barrels for my M&P pro. I'm digging a 1-2in group at 25 to 50 yards depending on which manufacturer and how much you believe them.
I typically carry an M&P 45c for most of the year, and a Shield in the summer. The trigger really does smooth out nicely after a while. They are my favorite striker pistols.
I shot my friends Springfield XD 45 last Sunday. First time shooting one and I gotta say it was a nice gun. Not much recoil at all. I was able to achieve double taps to the chest at 15 yards without much effort. I'd like to try the 9 mm version.
Nostromodamus wrote: I typically carry an M&P 45c for most of the year, and a Shield in the summer. The trigger really does smooth out nicely after a while. They are my favorite striker pistols.
Does the trigger creep work itself out, or is that a feature rather than a bug?
Nostromodamus wrote: I typically carry an M&P 45c for most of the year, and a Shield in the summer. The trigger really does smooth out nicely after a while. They are my favorite striker pistols.
Does the trigger creep work itself out, or is that a feature rather than a bug?
If there is any, I don't notice it. Very comfortable and points naturally. I've thought about Glocks or CZs but then I pick up my Smith again and start wondering why I even thought about anything else
For those guys out there that have a larger collection, have you ever just looked at a gun and thought to yourself "Dang, that thing is ridiculous and would serve no practical purpose..... I must have it"?
I have a few of those all ready, and there are a few more on my list to buy. Included on that list is an Excel XP-22 (Imagine a .22 version of a Tec-9 that actually works) and a Remington 7615 (Imagine a Remington 870 shotgun rechambered for 5.56 nato and takes AR style mags.)
cuda1179 wrote: For those guys out there that have a larger collection, have you ever just looked at a gun and thought to yourself "Dang, that thing is ridiculous and would serve no practical purpose..... I must have it"?
I have a few of those all ready, and there are a few more on my list to buy. Included on that list is an Excel XP-22 (Imagine a .22 version of a Tec-9 that actually works) and a Remington 7615 (Imagine a Remington 870 shotgun rechambered for 5.56 nato and takes AR style mags.)
I used to be bad for that. After filling two safes, I realized that I really didn't have the room for more.
It's been a while since my last impulse buy, despite having drooled over a few since then.
cuda1179 wrote: For those guys out there that have a larger collection, have you ever just looked at a gun and thought to yourself "Dang, that thing is ridiculous and would serve no practical purpose..... I must have it"?
Yeah, I bought a tactical shotgun on impulse once because it had a pistol grip, rails everywhere, ghost rings, and heat shield. Turned out to be a huge POS. I try to avoid impulse buys now, with mixed success.
As a UK target shooter we are limited to no "proper" pistols and no semi-automatic rifles above .22LR.
But I have a good collection and use them regularly for target shooting and competition.
I like to take part in the CSR (Civilian Service Rifle) competitions at Bisley, the home of the British NRA, it's a good mix of shooting at ranges from 25 up to 600 yards, and involves "rundowns" down the range, like shoot at 500, run to 400, shoot, run to 300 and shoot again.
Here's a video of one stage, I am the 4th chap along in the light t-shirt with the AR-15 - note the manual operation between shots!:
I am happy to answer any questions you might have about shooting in the UK
Nostromodamus wrote: Nice stuff Slinky! That No.4 looks just like the Long Branch sitting in my safe
Mine's a LB too - 1950 dated, lovely condition and shoots well when I do my part
They're a slick shooter for sure. Dad had one in the RAF and always loves shooting it when he visits. My LB is a '44. Also got a '43 Savage No.4, a '46 Fazakerly No.5 and a '18 Enfield No.1 Mk.3.
Slinky wrote: I do have a SMLE too, not pictured, but it's a .22 trainer - Lithgow 1943, converted to no 2 Mk IV in 1949 or so.
Very jealous. I really want a want SMLE .22. Once I finally pull my finger out get my FAC sorted (I need to actually shoot something other than an air rifle on a regular basis, and sort out somewhere to bolt down the safe that won't have my wife complaining about it being damaging the walls or floor) that is high on my list of "toys I want" after I have got the requisite cz/rugger .22lr and a shotgun for clays.
As a UK target shooter we are limited to no "proper" pistols and no semi-automatic rifles above .22LR.
But I have a good collection and use them regularly for target shooting and competition.
I like to take part in the CSR (Civilian Service Rifle) competitions at Bisley, the home of the British NRA, it's a good mix of shooting at ranges from 25 up to 600 yards, and involves "rundowns" down the range, like shoot at 500, run to 400, shoot, run to 300 and shoot again.
Here's a video of one stage, I am the 4th chap along in the light t-shirt with the AR-15 - note the manual operation between shots!
First, nice collection. It is great to see other than us US types enjoying shooting.
But manual operation between shots for an AR type rifle? That makes me sad. I guess for the types of competition shooting you do it does not make much of a difference, but I know it would take a lot of joy out of the type of shooting I do.
Limits on the amount of ammo you can possess? How much is the limit? Between my various calibers I own approximately 25,000 rounds of ammo. Admittedly about 9,000 of that is .22 LR, but still.
The reason they banned suppressors in the US wasn't because of violence. In the Great Depression people were going onto federal land and poaching animals with suppressed rifles to feed their families. Can't have that now.
Slinky wrote: It tends to be between 400 and 1000 rounds per calibre you use.
That is funny. I tend to buy the calibers I need in bulk, 500-1000 round lots minimum. If I'm under an amount, find a good deal, or plan more shooting than normal I buy more. The UPS man LOVES when I restock...
The other day I was getting a pair of pants out of my dresser and I bumped into it. To my surprise a secret drawer open up that my wife and I did not know about. We just bought a new bedroom set in December and the salesman didn't show us this secret drawer. Perfect for my Sig 45
For a second I thought you said you bumped into your dresser and a secret drawer you didn't know about containing a Sig 45 popped out and was about to congratulate you on the free gun.
) this would be the point he realizes he needs to get a real trigger, front and rear sights and maybe half decent barrel. 
. I agree, if they actually function I will get one. They will make them in the original 7.92x33 Kurz so the caliber debate has already been made for me.
