High Exposure

A few options: Century C93 (HK 93 .223 clone) Vector V33 (HK 93 .223 clone) HK SL8 Sig 556 classic MSAR STG-E4 Tavor Robinson XCR SCAR 16 FN FS2000 Remington 7615 (pump action) Mini-14 Beretta ARX Betetta RX4 Kel-Tec SU-16 VEPR .223 Saiga .223

I have cleared many structures and run more shoothouses than I can count. I see very minor advantages to the SBR vs the 14.5". For me the SBR shines working in and around vehicles, and that was the mission requirement that led us to them. The ability to remove the rifle from a rack, sling it, and charge it - all without getting out of the car or smashing a window out - is a huge advantage. Most people don't have that requirement, and I get that. But the SBR also has a very high CDI factor.

The more I shoot them, the more I think that a 14.5" midlength is THE answer for a general use carbine.

I regularly shoot a 11.5" Colt R0933 'Commando' as that is what I am issued at work. I am also the Agency armorer and am responsible to keep our Colt R0933s running. I use a standard BCG with standard extractor, replacing them often, and after many thousands of rounds have had exactly zero issues with it. It does run harder, and PM schedules are compressed because of it, but as long as you keep on top of it, you should have no issues. That being said.... The ONLY reason for having a short barrel is to have a shorter barrel, essentially making the gun "handier" in CQB/FISHing/VBSS or other tight spaces and to cut some weight. Everything else about a short barrel is a negative - Inferior terminal ballistics, premature wear on the barrel (I have been through 2 in 4 years due to extreme gas port erosion), less reliable gas system, and if you shoot a lot like I do, increased PM rates (plan on replacing your action spring, BCG, Gas Tube, and muzzle device at accelerated intervals). I also wouldn't shoot anything lighter than 62gr for best results in it, and don't expect stellar terminal ballistics past 75 yards even with 75gr OTM rounds. Personally, a 12" barrel with a 4" comp makes absolutely no sense to me. You arehoping to havealan of the negatives of a SBR while enjoying zero of the positive attributes. Why you would not use every required inch to improve the terminal ballistics of the rounIFAK beyond me. We use SBRs at work for a specific reason and in that niche role it works. If I had a choice, or the ability to have my cake and eat it too in this instance, I wouldn't carry a rifle with less than a 14.5" barrel. Mipafox, where are you getting your short barrel = increased precision data from? That is counter to my experience. All thing being equal performance from 0-150 yards was almost identical on a 11.5" vs a 14.4/16" gun. After 150 yards the accuracy of the SBR suffered greatly.

Yes

The Federal HST offering is the bees knees. I just swapped my agency to HST as our new duty ammo. As far as SD/Duty type ammo, if your gun will run the HST, that's the answer.

I thought if two more: Bren Ten .44 Automag

These are not great "Patrol Cars". They are good for traffic enforcement/traffic safety, anti-crime, investigators, admin-types, etc.... It is all about choosing the right tool for the right job. A visible police presence is good for deterring some kinds of crime, but it is not always so good for investigating or solving crimes that already occurred or staying hidden to catch people "in the act". This style is like a hybrid of a marked patrol car and a true stealth car. Sometimes knowing that an agency has a "stealthy" car that can hide anywhere in plain sight also does a lot to create safer traffic conditions and deter some kinds of crime. If that "stealth" car can be anywhere, people start to believe it is everywhere and drive/act accordingly. No one that I know of is switching their entire fleet to this type of car.

I just threw up in my mouth.... That thing is hideous. ETA: Oh, and I have no interest in a JJ designed gun, especially after seeing what he wanted done to a BAR on SoG.

NYPD ESU started carrying SBR Mini 14s in the 70's because it didn't look as "militaristic" as an M16... Ruger made a special run of 13.5" bbl semi auto only mini's for ESU, some with folding stocks, and some with conventional stocks. I don't think these configurations ever became a standard Ruger offering. ESU wanted some more in the late 80's and Ruger told them they would't make any more 13.5" guns. NYPD said no problem, we'll order M4's and Ruger quickly changed their mind and made some more... After 9/11 they figured they would assign a carbine to each E-Man (ESU Cop), plus they had the creation of the Hercules Units. They initially bought 400 additional Mini's, and Ruger gave them 100 more. By then they decided to dump the mini's for a Colt M4 (R0979) with a 1/9" 14.5" bbl. I hear that there are apparently still some Mini's around for HQ security guys and such, but all of the new ones were put in storage a few years ago.

Anxiously standing by! My family from the Vaterland all passed when I was young, way before I had a chance to learn how to cook anything from them. Also, my uncle reports a few small bass over the last few days off the beach in Deal and AP.

Very nice. I am planning on converting one as soon as I get my shop setup in the new house.

I freely admit my experience with USO was second hand - although I did witness what happened, it did not happen to me - and it was a sample of one. I also travel in a more RDS oriented crowd and as such am not nearly as well versed as Shane when it comes to long range shooting and it various sundries. I defer wholly to Shane on thihs topic and recommend following his advice.

I carry a Glock 22/23/35 loaded with 180gr GDHP or Fed HST in an IWB holster and an OWB mag pouch and a BUG (on my ankle or in a pocket). Everyday.

I hear this often from people that have no clue regarding how fast violence occurs or what can go wrong once the balloon goes up. This is an indication of a poor mindset and should be corrected. Here is some real world for you - If you carry a gun, you should carry a reload.

Not sure with your gun. I picked that interval because when I waited to I swap them at 3 year intervals, I started having having issues. Also, Glocks are more mag sensitive than most guns as they rely on the mag for ejection of the fired case. Shoot it and see. If you have 8 mags and are using the mags evenly, I would say swap springs in your mags every 5k-7k through the gun. If you are using three or four a lot more then the rest, I would say swap those 3 every 3k-4k through the gun.

The Trijicon 1-4 is supposed to be pretty good. I would get one at that price if I had the $$ available... Avoid the US Optics. Bad QC lately and even worse customer service. I watched an entire turret assembly walk off a guys gun in a class. He called US Optic right there on the range and they basically said, "oh we'll, you lose. Sorry" and hung up. Clownshoes.

I keep 10 training mags and 5 carry mags for the 2 duty guns I train with. It helps that they take the same mags - Glock 22 and 2 Glock 35s. I keep 5 mags for gun that are qual and carry only and see very little training - Glock 27, Kahr PM9, Ruger LCP. If it was a gun that would see a lot of training in addition to carry/HD/SD, I would go under 11 mags, 8 for training/comps and 3 for carry/HD/SD. Number the mags and keep an idea of how many rounds go through them so you can put in new springs when appropriate. I put new springs in my training mags every other year.

My post above wasn't about quality issues, that was a related issue but not the intended crux of my post. I certainly wasn't aimed at your gear. Just wanted to point out that sometimes dot and irons identical doesn't equal them both being zeroed. When is the last time you went to the eye Dr? I have seen some pretty strange accuracy issues resulting from previously undiagnosed eye issues. I am talking an 8" to the left deviation at 15 yards simply by occluding the RDS and shooting using 2 eyes open with similar results using irons and closing one eye vs 2 eyes open and an unoccluded RDS. It was ultimately raced back to an astigmatism in the shooters Left eye - he was right handed shooter.

What? That makes zero sense and shows that you have zero grasp of Police Work or of constitutional law pertaining to the 4th amendment as used in Law Enforcement.

A bit about cowitness and dot/irons being "lined up" when zeroed. When somebody says "Your dot should rest atop your front sight post," it's possible for them to be right and wrong at the same time. It's more accurate to say that, "Presuming that you have chosen to zero both irons and your RDS to the same distance, your dot MAY end up atop your front sight post". If you've zeroed your irons first, as is standard, then install the RDS and clicky-clicky on it until the dot is atop the post, that's a great way to save time/ammo in terms of getting the RDS zeroed, because it practically guarantees that you'll be on paper IOT track groups and adjust from there. And, upon shooting said group, that might even put you where you need to be.....but that's circumstance, not design. Ultimate point is, the dot doesn't have to appear to rest atop the post. In fact many times it won't, and that's OK. Many explanations of RDS co-witnessing are incomplete, and make many folks vapor-lock on where the dot is as a primary goal, instead of where the rounds end up. Ex: My 2 MOA T1 dot, when I establish sight alignment/sight picture with my irons, is in the same horizontal plane as the tip of my front sight post, but about 3 clicks to the right - and it's going to stay there, because each is zeroed independantly at 50/200, and that's where each hits when I use them. Here's a partial answer as to why that could happen and why where the dot ends up in relation to the front post is of no real consequence: Think of all the parts of the upper receiver there are between your eye and the muzzle, presuming a standard M4 type rifle. Receiver, barrel nut, barrel, FSB (assuming flat top and proper "F" marked FSB). Given the number of areas where one thing fits into/onto another from front to back on that, there's room for one sighting system to not line up in precisely the same plane as the other in relation to the line of bore. Yet, still have the gun print to the same spot, regardless of use of irons or RDS - as long as they are zeroed independently of each other. Take away the FSB from that, add a FF forend and rail-or-otherwise mounted BUIS front. Is that rail installed dead-nuts-prefectly? Are the irons? Again, room for slop that may manifest itself in the dot not being perfectly atop the front sight post. So, I'm not saying that your RDS dot will not end up on the tip of your front sight post, but that once you've established that both irons and RDS are zeroed as you wish if your dot isn't there, please don't rend your clothes, gnash your teeth in frustration, or have some other apoplectic fit as I've seen some do. As with most other things relating to guns, quality matters, and quality costs. A gun built to the TDP in materials and manufacturing that was properly built and inspected is less likely, but not universally, to show these signs of tolerance stacking, and if they do it is likely to be much less. This is also one if the times where the false prophets of the "It's just as good as crowd" get a chance to see the truth.

FYI: these are down to $105! That's a steal!

Damn you Satan's child!

As MWPX said the Mega stuff is good to go. As far as ambi controls, it really isn't necessary. I know plenty of wrong handed dudes that are studs in "special" units and I have taught plenty of "satan's children" to shoot long guns over the last 10 years. None of them had ambi controls and they all eschewed them when given the option to have them installed saying that the standard controls were just fine. I also train a lot shooting withy left side - the whole "a warrior knows neither right not left" thing... - and have had zero issues running the gun. It is very easy to run a standard AR with standard controls with either hand. In fact, in some ways running a standard AR with the wrong hand is "simpler" then running it righty. Save your $$ and buy ammo to practice with. It will serve you better in the long run. ETA: I love your photo! That is one of my all time favorite you tube clips!!!

Touching them also works well. Real Police love to be touched.