Gun Shop Blues (3)

Well, for some reason it is true, Colt has the best value, they are much more expensive than other ARs, and they tend to resell a lot higher, but in terms of quality, Colts are mediocre and average. Many companies strive to make better quality and fit and finish than Colts. It just amazes me that many people twice our age make up claims that are not true, and have not been tested, when I have seen for myself that they are not true, and it is just an opinion that they mix up the facts in a blender. It makes me wonder what misleading information gun shop proprietors give to new gun owners.

Magpul Masada

Magpul from what I have seen in recent months makes a lot of devices that make AR-15s run even smoother, such as magazine followers. They also make other supportive devices for .308 powered rifles. Their focus seems to be forward thinking ideas to make current battle type rifles possibly work even better. They just came out with a whole new concept assault rifle, using many modern battle rifle conventions, and showing some improvement ideas. We'll get more into its features soon. This is just to illustrate that in a way, a lot of these smaller companies making new weapons ideas is like when Armalite came out with the AR-15 and the military wanted it and had Colt mass produce a militarized version what became the infamous M16. However, these days I don't see the military adopting anything new anytime soon. It appears that no matter how much many of us complain about some of the 5.56 NATO cartridge properties in combat, it's not going away when so many NATO pact countries have adopted it. Is the military sticking with the M16/M4 for a little longer? It does work very well, extremely accurate, and when absolute shot placement is practiced, it kills enemies. Is the military thinking far ahead of these designs? Are they not even caring and just staying with the tried and true? Are they in a state of 'we'd like to, but we have too much of what we already have, and fielding a new weapon system would take too long'? I don't think any of us knows exactly. But as time goes on, in the near future, aspects of this will be covered in this blog.

AR-15 accessories lessons

Long story short, I have an AR-15, and I am proud of it. It shoots good. I recently started reloading my own ammunition, to have when the retail shelves get low in quantity, and I can shoot my factory ammo and turn it around right into reloaded ammo. Well, I wanted to make sure they shoot consistant, so I put a fairly nice scope on it. One slight problem was that the fixed front right might get in the way of the scope being mounted directly on the flat-top upper reciever, so I bought a raised picatinny base to mount the scope. I got it for like $30, checked it twice, everything seemed to be right, and the left dial adjustment pegged out about an inch and a half to the right of the center of the target, AND I WAS 10 YARDS IN FRONT OF THE TARGET STAND!! It was so bad that I couldn't do it at the normal 25 yards, I had to get closer. I took the mount off, put the scope right on the flat base of the reciever, and found that the scope, even at 3X magnification, was more than powerful enough to look beyond the front sight. Your eyes kind of do the same thing, if you close one eye, then the other and focus in and out at an object well before a wall, it can move and change a bit of perspective. I can take my glasses off, and all of a sudden the fuzzy view of my nose is now bugging me, and it's not like I'm pinnocio. Anyway, I found that the scope lower, worked well, and it sighted in flawless, and the next week when I had more time, it shot 1" to 1-1/8" groups at 100 yards. I am Mr. try out the cheapest and hopefully get lucky. This was not one of those. So it sometimes is worth paying the extra dough, so that the scope base isn't looking in a far right direction.