Category: Guns and Gear

The Soviets Won’t Invade

You know what the gun community hasn’t debated? Whether the AK-47 or the AR-15 is a superior platform. Now that we’ve solved the argument about which is better between the 1911 or the Glock, Caleb over at Gun Nuts Media has decided to tackle the AK vs. AR debate and determine once and for all what rifle is better. Actually Caleb takes the common sense approach and just tells people to buy what they like, unfortunately fanboys on both sides of the aisle aren’t happy wich such conclusions and have started debating the finer points of each rifle platform.

Personally I don’t care, I own an AK and two ARs (one in 5.56 and one in .308) and find them both to be great platforms. The fanatical worshipers of each platform have arguments left and right but the most ridiculous one has to be from the pro-AK crowd: that having an AK will be beneficial when the Reds invade the United States because you can pilfer their ammunition and magazines. Why is this argument ridiculous? Because the days of foreign forces possible invading the United States are over. Invasions are expensive, really expensive, and enemies of America are no longer nation states by small groups working from various locations throughout the world. We’re in the fourth generation of warfare and the rules have changed entirely.

Groups wanting to take down the United States aren’t planning invasions, they’re planning on bankrupting the country. Why spend all that money to raise an army, provide logistics, and invade a foreign country when you can build some cheap explosives, bomb a high value civilian structure, and watch the United States go stroming into some country at the cost of trillions? What good is a massive multi-billion dollar aircraft carrier against a fleet of remote controlled speedboats with high explosives attached to them? How is a massive army any good against targets you can’t see because they don’t war identifiable uniforms?

Warfare has changed and we’re not facing an invasion by a military force. China isn’t going to march its army into the United States, devastating our economy is far cheaper and easier. You’re not going to be scavenging ammunition off of dead foreign soldiers (and if you were why not take their gun as well). In this new generation of warfare people should be defending themselves against economic collapse as that is the weapon now wielded by opponents of the United States. Al Qaeda learned how effective slamming a couple of planes into a couple of skyscrapers can be, it stirred the hornests’ nest of the United States military causing a ramping up of the police state at home and the expenditure of trillions abroad.

Technology has effectively made warfare cheap. A behemoth aircraft carrier is filled with some of the most expensive technology on the planet but a fleet of cheap remote controlled speedboats or aircraft and reign destruction down upon the floating fortress. Look what one speedboat did to the USS Cole.

You can debate ergonomics, calibers, and reliability of the AK and AR platforms but stop claiming the utility during a foreign invasion as a cornerstone of AK superiority. That isn’t the threat anymore and even if it were you can guarantee the United States would start drafting civilians into the military and arming them with far more than a semi-automatic knockoff version of a foreign fighting rifle.

Self Guided Bullets

Are you looking for an expensive, although wickedly cool, means of correcting your poor aim? Worry not for Sandia National Laboratories has you covered:

Sandia National Laboratories have invented a small caliber self guided bullet. The bullet contains an optical sensor, CPU, battery and electromagnetic actuated fins. It is able to track laser designated targets out to 2,000 meters.

Sometimes I feel as though I live in a science fiction universe. Sure we don’t have spaceships, flying cars, or man portable laser cannons but we do have extremely powerful computers that are so small the fit in your pocket, an effective worldwide communication network, and now we have self guided bullets.

When I stop to think about what this bullet entails I’m amazed at the human capacity for engineering awesome stuff. We’ve actually shrunk central processing units, batteries, and optical sensors down to the point that they can all be fitted into a single bullet. How cool is that?

As this technology is new it’s not ready for prime time but if there’s one thing I’ve learned it’s that technology only improves over time so I’m sure we’ll have extremely cheap self guided bullets in our future.

Somebody Thought This was a Good Idea

Remember that somebody, somewhere thought this was a good idea:

Less Lethal Africa, a South African company, had their less lethal .50 BMG rounds on display at SHOT.

So instead of having a mere 110 percent chance of killing you these rounds will only have a 100 precent chance of killing you? These seem to be the most pointless rounds developed in recent history. What’s next? Less lethal nuclear weaponry?

LR-308 Review

It came to my realization that I’ve had my LR-308 for roughly one year now and so far haven’t actually written a review about the gun. Since I’m writing canned posts for your amusement I figured this is as good of time as any to finally write my review.

For those of you who don’t know the LR-308 is DPMS’s AR pattern rifle chambered in .308. While many often refer to it as an AR-10 it’s truthfully closer to an SR-25. Like the SR-25, the LR-308 shares many common components with the AR-15 including the trigger group, buffer tune, and stock. The LR-308 also uses SR-25 magazines so you can get inexpensive quality magazines from Magpul (which works perfectly in my rifle) instead of having to track down the far more expensive proprietary magazines used by the AR-10.

For reference this is a picture of my rifle:

I know it’s not the best picture but it was taken with the camera on my iPhone is less than ideal light. Since taking this picture I’ve removed the Magpul pistol grip and replaced it with the original A2 grip. Unfortunately the storage compartment in the Magpul grip kept falling out every time I fired the gun. Some people may ask why I didn’t just continue using the Magpul grip without the storage compartment and to those people I can only reply that I’m somewhat obsessive compulsive and if something doesn’t work 100% I don’t want to use it at all. I’m not actually a fan of the standard A2 grip as I find it a bit small for my hands, which are more accustomed to the large grip of the Glock .45 pistols. In time I plan on swapping out the grip with a Hogue but for now I’m just leaving well enough alone.

Beyond that I also replaced the standard DPMS trigger group. The stock trigger was extremely gritty and not at all uniform in its pull weight so I decided to replace it with a Geissele SSA. The SSA is an amazing trigger that breaks clean and requires little in the way of pull weight. Of course for the price they’re asking it should be making me breakfast in the morning as well but as they say buy once, cry once.

You can also see that I attached a Magpul Angled Fore Grip 2 (I first purchased an first model Angled Fore Grip but the wings wouldn’t allow me to slide it one past the front sling attachement point). The vertical fore grips I’ve played with before have left me wanting whereas holding onto a Picatinny rail is nothing but an exercise in pain so I went somewhere in between. I have to say I really like the angled fore grip as it offers several different methods of gripping onto it and the angle is more comfortable to me than placing my hand against the hand guard flat.

Finally I swapped out the standard DPMS charing handle for a BCM Gunfighter Mod 4. While the AR style charging handle ensures one will always have to remove his face from the butt stock to charge the rifle I can at least do it with one hand easier. I like the larger latch as it allows me to manipulate the handle while wearing gloves much easier than the stock one.

Beyond the above mentioned modifications my LR-308 is basically a DPMS affair. The upper has a forward assit (which I’ll never use but it looks kind of neat), free floating quad rail hand guard, and a 20″ heavy barrel. What may not be apparent is the fact that the upper receiver is a flat top with an attached sight/carry handle combination. Why not fancy optics on a .308? It’s because I setup the rifle for use in 3-gun heavy metal division, which requires a .308 or larger caliber and iron sights only. I can always unbolt the carry handle and drop an optic onto the rifle if I so desired.

Now that I’ve talked about the features of my rifle you’re probably wondering how it shoots. I one word beautifully. While I’m not sure on the maximum accuracy of the rifle since I only have iron sights and nowhere beyond 200 yards to shoot it I can say it’s more accurate than I am. Without issue the rifle holds 1 minute of angle at 100 yards (the best I can do with iron sights).

Recoil is very mangeable. While my M1A SOCOM 16 isn’t very difficult to shoot I can say I notice the recoil on that rifle more than my LR-308. Most of this is probably due to the fact the M1A is a far lighter rifle but part of it is also likely due to the way an AR pattern rifle operates. Since the bolt goes straight back into the butt stock and is inline with your shoulder you don’t get the rifle attempting to pivot up at the grip.

With all this said the rifle isn’t perfect. One ding against it is the sheer weight, the gun probably weighs between 11 and 12 pounds. This isn’t a big deal for a 3-gun competition since you’re only moving with your rifle for a few minutes at a time but carrying this monster around in the woods during deer season wouldn’t be a lot of fun. Most of this weight can be attributed to the 20″ heavy barrel. Although I fully admit the barrel is heavy it also doesn’t heat up to the point of throwing rounds as quickly as my M1A SOCOM 16 does (once you dump a magazine through the rifle the barrel has heated up an absurd amount).

Beyond that there isn’t much to say. If you’re familiar with the AR-15 platform you’ll be right at home with this rifle. The only major difference is size, the LR-308 is scaled up to accomodate the larger .308 round. The controls including the magazine release, bolt release, and safety all function identically to a standard AR-15. Like a standard AR-15, the LR-308 also utilizes direct gas impingement, a system many mall ninjas revile for its lack of tacticoolness. Then again the people complaining about the gas system are also likely the people complaining about the rifle being a DPMS, a cardinal sin to the mall ninjas who feel the quality of the rifle directly correlates to the price.

Those looking for a quality .308 that won’t bust the bank I can highly recommend the LR-308. While I admit it isn’t as wizbang cool as a SCAR 17 it also won’t cost you even half as much and you can actually find magazines for this rifle (with that said I really want a SCAR 17 so if you’d like to donate one please e-mail me and I’ll let you know where to send it).

Mossberg’s New Marketing Strategy

Mossberg has announced a new rifle, the 464 SPX lever-action:

I’m not sure what the fuck that is but I’m pretty sure it breaks several laws of common decency. I can understand the rails, everybody love mounting absurd amounts of shit to their rifles, but an M4 style collapsable stock? Seriously? It doesn’t even look good.

It appears as though Mossberg’s new marketing strategy is to make the most retarded guns imaginable. If that is their strategy I must commend them for going through with it so completely though.

Exactly What I Need for My AR-308

I love my AR in .308 but it has one limitation; the 20-round magazines make it slightly harder to blow through an entire bank account during one range drip. Apparently XS saw the blight of AR-308 owners and is offering a ridiculously awesome solution:

Serious firepower in a small package. The X-25 is a .308 caliber 50 round single stack compact drum designed for AR .308 SR/25 rifles.

Now if they would just make a 100-round version of this.

Glock 30 10-Round Magazines

As my company is shutdown all week I have a nice little vacation going right now. For the first time in what seems like forever I was able to hit the range and decide to do a little practice with my Glock 30SF. While I love my 30SF there is one thing about it I don’t like, the 10-round magazines. I’m not sure what Glock was thinking when they manufactured these magazines but getting that last round into the magazine is tough. I don’t mean tough like a math test but tough like 300 Spartans being expected to hold back Xerxes’s entire fucking army. Worse yet if you do get the 10th round into the magazine without destroying your thumb or magazine loader you’re going to have a fun time slamming the magazine home if the slid isn’t locked back. Did I mention having the slide locked back and lead to another issue, when you release it there is no guarantee it will fly forward as that 10th round is often in no mood to move forward.

With all that said the magazine spring wears down over time and becomes usable. I honestly recommend pulling the magazine springs out of new 30SF 10-round magazines and working them for a while (just compress a few coils again and again until you’re bored. Why this is required on new factory magazines is beyond me but I know Glock isn’t one to admit mistakes and thus this problem will likely never be corrected.

Herp Derp Kaboom

I’m sure we’ve all seen gun kabooms online before and usually the involve the shooter doing something, shall we say, less than intelligent. More times than not kabooms are directly related to improperly reloaded ammunition or bullet setback caused by chambering the same round too many times. This kaboom hs a result of doing something, getting a bad result, and doing it again:

When DoubleTap started offering ammo for it, I bought a bunch of their ammo loaded with 165 grain Gold Dot bullets. It was supposed to be the ultimate 10mm self defense round.

But I noticed some of the brass looked like this:

Below that is a picture of a 10mm brass casing with a huge fucking bulge in the back. From there the poster did a smart thing, followed by a not so smart thing:

I called Glock, and they asked that I send the gun in for inspection. I asked if I could just send in the barrel, and they said no. The whole gun. Screw that. I’ll just use the KKM barrel.

Noticing the failure and contacting the manufacturer was a very smart move. Not sending the gun in upon request wasn’t so smart. At least the poster replaced the barrel which appeared to be the source of the case bulges. It’s not like he would be stupid enough to use the old barrel anyways… fuck:

So I went to the range this morning.

With the original barrel in the pistol, I used calipers to measure the overall length of a round. I loaded it into the magazine and then put another round on top. I chambered the round that was on top and fired it into the berm. I then ejected the first round and remeasured the overall length. Identical to what it was.

And there was no bulge on the fired DoubleTap brass.

Thinking it might take a few rounds to cause bullet setback, I loaded the first round again, and then two others. Chambered the round, and fired into the berm. KaBoom.

Damnit.

That’s strange whenever I fire this firearm the ejected brass always have a huge bulge in the back of the case. What should I do? I know! I’ll keep firing this gun in this configuration with this ammunition!

Seriously people don’t be this guy. If your noticing potentially dangerous issues with your firearm do not continue to fire it. Diagnose the issue and correct it or have somebody qualified diagnose and correct the issue. Remember that firearms are basically devices that harness controlled explosions in metal tubes and thus a failure has the potentially to be incredibly dangerous.

The poster was lucky that he didn’t get seriously hurt and I really hope he learned a lesson from this.

Checking for Bullet Setback

Because defensive ammunition is expensive I find myself seldom shooting it at the range. Due to this I end up cycling my carry ammunition through my gun with notable frequency. When you cycle the same round through a gun with any frequency you can cause a problem called bullet setback; this is when the bullet gets pushed back into the casing by slamming against the feed ramp numerous times. After a while the bullet can get setback in the case enough to cause a dangerous buildup of pressure when you finally fire the cartridge.

Knowing this I periodically take a micrometer and compare the overall length of the cartridges in my carry gun with factory ammunition of the same time that hasn’t been chambered. If the cartridges in my carry gun start becoming shorter then it’s time to switch out ammunition. Since I did my ritual of ammunition check and cleaning last night I though I’d post a reminder that those of you carrying pistols should do the same once in a while.

I would also like to present a tip for alleviating bullet setback. Instead of chambering the same two rounds all the time (the top two in the magazine) place the previously chambered round at the bottom of the magazine. This takes a bit of time but it ensures all of your ammunition has been chambered roughly the same number of times and reduces the number of times each bullet has been chambered.

The End of a Very Long Era

I always believed that Russia and the AK-47 were tied at the hip; never did I imagine that I’d see the day when one would exist without the other. Sadly the era of the AK appears to be coming to an end as the Russian army has stated they will no longer be purchasing AK rifles:

The Russian army says it is halting orders of the famous Kalashnikov assault rifle until a newer model is developed by its manufacturer.

The AK-47 became the most recognizable firearm in the world and stood against the test of time. Even today AK type rifles are very effective at what they do, and that’s kill capitalist pigs dead (or whatever else they’re pointed at). Although the ergonomics could use some updating and the platform could certainly use a longer site radius, I’m not really sure what needs to be fixed on the AK. Firearms are the very definition of a mature technology and no major advancements have been made around World War II (I’m considering the proliferation of automatic and semi-automatic rifles becoming reliable enough to be primary battle rifles a major advancement).

It also seems people are underestimating the badassery of the AK-47’s designer, Mikhail Kalashnikov:

News of the army’s decision is reportedly being kept from the rifle’s designer, Mikhail Kalashnikov, now 91.

“We do not want to take it upon ourselves to tell him,” an unnamed member of his family told Russia’s Izvestia newspaper.

“It might kill him.”

I don’t think you can kill him. Perhaps he plans to fade away with his rifle but no mere mortal on this planet could actually kill the man. Honestly if I were him I’d be happy my designed lasted so long; the AK probably enjoys the record for longest platform design to continuously serve in a major military. With out quickly militaries like to swap out equipment these days I’m doubting the AK’s record will ever be broken.

While I’m excited to see what Izhmash’s new rifle looks like I’m betting it’s going to be heavily influenced by the AK-47.