JonF

I did go, and i was very pleased with the AR. Although it was so windy (headwind no less), the targets were folding over and stuff was blowing off the table and people shooting .22's were having hte bullets turn around and return to sender before reaching the berm, it was still a good day. I was able to get the AR to shoot 1 MOA when i really concentrated. I could get 2-3 shot groups under 1 inch at 100 yards if i didn't waver. I don't have a good rear rest for the butt stock to keep it rock solid so its hard to keep totally rock steady. I'll def try to go again and let u know when. Maybe i try to go another friday since the range was not very busy at all! You'll definitely need a mount that is both forward offset and a riser. I found out the hard way and so this is *extremely* important for the following reasons: 1. It moves the scope up high enough so that it is properly in line with your eye when you have you cheek rested on the stock. too low and you have to smash you face down and angle to see--very uncomfortable. A secondary benefit is that you cna now easily operate the charging handle. 2. the forward offset pushes the scope forward so that when you rest you head in a neutral position on the stock, you automatically meet with the scope at a optimal eye relief. Without the offset, you will have to strain to hold your head too far back on the stock and its very uncomfortable. I went with a cheap offset extended rail i found at midway since i already had some tall rings to mount the scope in. The rail gave me that little bit more height to be perfectly inline when my cheek is resting on the stock. The offset let me have the optimal eye relief (abt 3") for this scope. You can see the before and after below. Without the mount, it just sucked.

So, hows it shoot?

I buy these little birchwood casey metal stands that stick in the ground that are made of 1/4" roundbar and hold a 24x24" piece of corrugated plastic for use at the outdoor range. I have enough skill to at least avoid hitting the metal frame but when i bring one friend, his skills are a bit more remedial and always ends up blasting the legs off it. Last time I brought him, he ruined two in one session. Needless to say, he has to supply his own targets from now on.

i bet a little shoe goo will fix that rubber right up!

lunker, i have the AR combo wrench now if you need to borrow it. Its useful when torquing the buffer tube if you don't have a crows foot wrench handy. i remember your other post some time back asking for one but it was too late or something.

Hey Ray, when purchasing .223 ammo, what case metal should be considered, which country of origin is best and in what quantities should it be purchased?

I just recently put together my first AR and bought some wolf to use to plink and sight it in with. I put about 60 rounds through it to get the scope dialed in and was shooting at some clays when one fired shell got stuck in the chamber and i couldn't get the bolt to extract with just tugging on the handle. Being new to AR's, i didn't know what to do so I packed it in a brought it home. I was able to pry on the bolt with the upper separated from the lower and get it to unlock and finally tug that shell out but not without some panic and cursing. lol. I don't think i'll be using the wolf any more in this thing. Now that i got the scope dialed in, i'll stick to more consistent and higher quality brass cased ammo since its more of a target barrel configuration.

i bought one from dicks during the summer for $199 +nics. basic carbine model with parkerized barrel and beech stock. they alos have the stainless bbl model with synthetic stock for like $50 more.

Yea, good to go on both. Its strong enough for 5.56 yet still retains accuracy for .223 which is a nice combo.

Myself and everyone on HKPro.com swear by Bill Springfield. His work is top notch. This is coming from a group of guys that spend $1,000 per handgun. Triggerwork.net is top notch. I can really appreciate the sheer simplicity of tuned factory components and Bills work is a fine example. The options that he provides fills a certain slot between standard field triggers with thier unrefined feel and the high end stuff costing upwards of several hundred dollars. The beauty of hand tuned oem components is they retain the factory mechanisms known to work and give a reliable yet slick action. I actually sent him two triggers to modify, yet i only have one AR at the moment.

I got my offset rail, added a CAA adjustable grip and lastly an accuwedge. The scope position is just perfect now and its ready to go shooting. The sunshade on the end of the scope stops right where the free float handguard ends. lol

I have a DPMS lower parts kit in the AR i'm building. I wanted to build a reasonable paper target punching type rifle with accurate and good quality components and still stay under a certain budget. For the trigger, the out of the box DPMS trigger was 7-8 lbs and gritty and creepy. I sent it to Bill Springfield for his "3lb Service" which entails him massaging the hammer and sear, cutting the tail off the hammer ("speed hammer"), adding an over travel stop (welded on bead), JP competition springs and re-finishing the metal. I measured the new parts with my digital trigger gauge and it came in at 3lb, 6oz and is crisp and creep free. All this cost $50 and you supply him the stock trigger. He has a 4lb service for $35 but i thought the extra $15 got you a lot more "while you are at it" so to speak. I'm happy with the trigger as i think i got a lot for my money without getting into the hi-dollar match components where the law of diminishing returns sets in and you pay a lot more for a small increment in performance. Of course, if you are building a true match rifle, absolutely no expense should be spared but i feel the work Bill provides is quite good for the money. http://www.triggerwork.net/ar15s.html

Here is a very thorough and broad review of many commonly available AR match triggers. http://www.ar15.com/forums/topic.html?b=3&f=12&t=366464

It's a Mueller Tac 8-25x44 in Burris Sig Zee High rings but apparently to mount traditional riflescopes on flat top AR's you generally need either specialty extra-extra high rings or an offset mounting rail to push the scope up and forward to get the proper positioning and eye relief. These are new to me so i wasn't really aware of the issue, i just grabbed the scope and rings off another non-AR rifle where the combo was sufficient.

I love the tok round... i have a tok and a CZ52 tha see's regular use. A Thompson Center Contender or Encore in 7.62x25 would be fun. I've pondered getting one chambered in .308 and installing one of the .308->.30 mauser chamber adapters from McAce. http://www.mcace.com/adapters.htm Semi-auto PPSh (uses nj unfriendly 36 rd mag) http://www.militarygunsupply.com/shop2/ ... cts_id=383 There's also a guy making tokarev uppers for AR's but they use the NJ un-friendly PPSh mags. http://www.heavymetalco.com/content.aspx?Page=TOK%20FAQ

Here it is as-is. There's a problem with the scope though as it sits too low off the top of the receiver so you can't really get a good position unless you smash your face down an tilt your head. to remedy this i recently ordered a riser rail and also a different grip that has adjustable palm swell since the stock grip is kinda spindly. Its actually uncomfortable to try to use the scope like it is so i'll have to wait for the rail to arrive before i go shooting.

How was the crowd today? Was there a waiting list and did they limit you to 1 hour? They did this to me after driving an hour to get there last weekend and i was there by 9:30am.

My RRA upper arrived in the mail today and i just finished degreasing it (smelled like it was dunked in WD40 before it left the factory) and inspecting/lubing it. I'm going to steal a scope off my other rifle and if the weather clears up a bit, head to Dix this weekend and test it out. I've got a combination of cheap and expensive ammo to sight it in with and then see how well it can group. I'll try to put a pic up of it soon.

I bought a Mosin M44 at the middletown store last winter for $99. The barrel was counterbored the bore was rather worn but it shoots ok. It was just an ordinary Izhvesk M44, nothing special.

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StriderTB and I went to Ft. Dix range today but since its fast approaching hunting season, the place is knee deep in people getting thier stuff ready. Unfortunately, that means waiting list and while we got there relatively early, they limit you to only 1 hour on the range to accomodate the people waiting. I say F them, if they want to shoot, get your damn ass out of bed earlier in the morning and get there before anyone else. Driving 2 hours round trip to only be able to shoot for 1 hour is ridiculous. Does anyone encounter this at other rifle ranges like CNJ RPC? Anyways, i had this heavy ass 7"x10"x1" metal plate lying arounf the garage for a long time that i thought would make a fun target especially since my mosin can shoot fairly well out to those distances now that it has a scope. I'm just not sure whether it was steel or iron but i'm leaning towards iron since it has a more porous makeup. Any guesses here? I was shooting the Mosin and Strider was shooting a 30.06 and we were hitting it fairly consistenly and with each shot it was making these cool little craters and both displacing the metal of the plate and depositing lead/copper at the same time (can't really tell one impact/caliber from the other). I originally thought it would just splatter upon impact like .22's do but i guess these calibers pack a little more energy! Here's some pics for your enjoyment.

Money pit 1: Target shooter. Money pit 2: plinker.

Over the past year or so that i've been browsing various general gun related forums and google searches for info, i would occasionally notice links to local forums around the country (Cali, PA, etc). One day i thought i would Google search to see if there was some sort of local NJ forum and found this site. Voila.

Looks good! I just got my bolt back after send it out to have a swept back bent bolt welded on to clear the scope mount i also installed. I'm looking forward to your write up on the bent bolt and the action tuning. I have some images from the russian mosin tuning manual that i got from the surplus forums and also used to get the trigger pull down to about 3lbs. Perhaps you have also seen them?

A few months back i acquired a my first AR lower and just recently began determining the build specs. Its going to be primarily for target shooting at Ft Dix where the range is 200 yds max. I just received a DPMS LPK and an ACE skeleton stock and i'm sending the trigger to Bill Springfield for his 3lb service. Just today i found a vendor selling new RRA Predator Pursuit complete uppers and more importantly, they're in stock so i jumped on that! These uppers are a flat top, 20" stainless heavy barrel 1:8" twist that have been gathering favorable reviews in terms of accuracy. Its not quite a "bull" barrel in the its less than .920 OD and its a pound or so less overall weight. When that and the revised trigger arrives, i'll scavenge the scope off my other rifle and be all set to shoot my first AR. Hope the combination works out! RRA Predator Pursuit upper http://www.rockriverarms.com/index.cfm? ... ory_id=271