Build it and "It" will Come

With persuasion from 2 of the guys at the store, I have decided to build a .223/5.56 rifle.  Some call it an AR.

Wikipedia calls it:

The AR-15 is a lightweight, 5.56 mm, magazine-fed, semi-automatic rifle, with a rotating-lock bolt, actuated by direct impingement gas operation or long/short stroke piston operation. It is manufactured with the extensive use of aluminum alloys and synthetic materials.

The AR-15 was first built by ArmaLite as a selective fire assault rifle for the United States armed forces. Because of financial problems, ArmaLite sold the AR-15 design to Colt. The select-fire AR-15 entered the US military system as the M16 rifle. Colt then marketed the Colt AR-15 as a semi-automatic version of the M16 rifle for civilian sales in 1963.^[8] The name "AR-15" is a Colt registered trademark, which refers only to the semi-automatic rifle.

For purposes of this post, I'll call it 'the rifle".

So how do you start building the rifle?

With this part - the "stripped lower". 

This is the part that is classified by the ATF as the actual gun.  This part will contain the trigger/hammer assembly, the safety, the bolt catch, and will accommodate the magazine and the buffer tube.

This part is manufactured following the original specifications (from the 60's) for the military version of the gun. The major difference is the military version (M16) has a "selective fire" option which allows automatic fire. The civilian version (AR15) does not. All manufacturers use exactly the same specifications for the part, dimensions and material. This makes for a huge source of lowers for the consumer, but also a choice. For example, there is virtually no difference between a $65 stripped lower made by ABC compnay and one that costs $185 - they're all made to the same specifications.  Just depends which "name" you want people to see on the side. 

The part I bought is manufactured by Delaware Machinery. Fit and finish is beautiful, anodized aluminum. $65

Now, this is where it gets interesting...

To build out the lower, you need a trigger/hammer assembly, springs, pins, a grip, a buffer tube, and a stock. And of course, you can customize every one of these parts. I chose to buy the "standard parts", predominantly because of availability but also due to cost. My target price on this rifle is <$600. 

I chose the standard lower parts build kit from Palmetto State Armory - $109. Here's what you get for the money.  Note: the stripped lower is not a part of the kit.

With some trial and error, I was able to get all the parts in place in about 45 minutes. The lower build kit I bought does not come with instructions or even a schematic - I found both on the internet.  There are dozens of sources for schematics and hundreds of YouTube videos showing how to assemble the various parts of the lower. At least 10 minutes of the 45 was spent searching for the information. Once you know where the parts go, it's pretty simple to actually install them.

Here's where I am now with the parts installed: 

Next step:  find and purchase a complete upper (barrel, upper receiver, bolt carrier group, and charging handle).  Stay tuned.

Sighting the Target

We need water to survive. It's more important than food. You need bullets to shoot a gun. And to hit the target, you need to aim. Aiming, or sighting, is not as easy as it sounds.

 

First of all, let's check your eyesight. Do you know which is your "dominant eye"?  Here's a quick way to find out.

HOW TO DETERMINE YOUR DOMINANT EYE

• First, form a triangle by clasping your hands like in the picture above. Hold your hands out in front of you.
• Next, with both eyes open, sight through the triangle and focus on an object. Don't focus on your hands.
• Close one eye. If you can still see the object in the triangle, then you're looking with your dominant eye. If not reverse the process.

When you see how the image shifts when you are not using your dominant eye, you can see how much that could effect your aim when sighting your gun.

The next issue to consider is your "sight picture".  Briefly stated, that's the line formed between the rear sight and your final target. In reality, when you sight your gun, you're looking at the target, your rear sight, and somewhere in between is the front sight.  This is your sight picture. But is it possible to focus on all those objects at the same time? The short answer is no. 

While you won't be able to bring all of those objects into focus at the same time, it's important that you focus on the rear sight primarily and look through it to see your target. At this point, you'll see a fuzzy front sight. Without changing your focus, move the gun so the front sight moves into alignment with the rear sight. As long as you can see the target through your rear sight, you should now be "on target". Pull the trigger. Check your results.  

Learn how to make this sight picture quickly. It's important in a self-defense situation, where you need to acquire the target as quickly as possible. Practice by lowering your gun after each shot, so you have to find the target every time. You'll get good at it with practice.

Bersa Thunder 380 Plus

I have to admit that there are very few things that "surprise" me.  It's not that my expectations are low; I've just grown to accept that few products are going to make you smile when you first use them. The Bersa Thunder 380 Plus makes me smile.

First of all, fit and finish on the Bersa is first class. It is a solidly made gun; no rough edges, no obvious machining marks. Our particular sample has an alloy frame with a matte nickel slide. The "Plus" designation signifies that the model sports a 15 round magazine instead of the 7 round found in the standard Thunder 380. Total capacity is 15+1.

The 380 is chambered for the 380ACP round.  While there is a lot of discussion about the merits of this round, the Bersa handles the ammuntion with ease. We shot several boxes of JHP without a single failure.

Out of the box, this gun is extremely accurate. At 7 yards, we were putting rounds into a three inch circle. At 20 oz empty, it has plenty of weight to help dissipate the recoil of the 380 round and feels very comfortable in the hand.

The action is DA/SA with a thumb safety which acts as a decocker. The pull weight on SA is very low.  The rear sight is drift adjustable, although we didn't think it needed any adjustment in the short time we shot it.

If you're looking for a well-built, economical handgun, in a relatively compact frame, put the Bersa Thunder series on your list. At less than $400 retail, it is well worth the money.

Triple Target Range

What better way to start off Independence Day than a trip to the shooting range?  Wednesday morning, we went to Triple Target Range in Sophia, NC.  

The check-in station at Triple Target Range. 

Located "in" Sophia, NC, Triple Target Range offers outdoor, covered shooting for rifles, pistols, and shotguns. We didn't visit the rifle section, although there were several people there as we passed by on our way to the pistol range.   

The ranges are positioned in an arc and each section is approximately 15 degrees apart on that arc.  That and the high earth berms make it impossible for any errant shots from any of the ranges hitting anybody at one of the others. 

At the end of a long gravel road, Triple Target Range is a well-thought-out range where you get to shoot any or all of your weapons in a relaxed, outdoors, woodsy setting. Limited to firearms at this point, they are building stands for the archery range. Don't have any information at this point when to expect their access. Please check with the range directly. 

While we didn't encounter any zombies at Triple Target, there was enough lead-slinging all around to pretty much put a "hurtin" on them if they had been there. 

Triple Target Range in Sophia, NC.  Owners Shelton and Joann Bradshaw.  Check it out!

http://www.tripletargetrange.com

Drive-By Shooting

You hear about them on the news and see it in the movies, but you never think you're actually going to be involved in one - a random drive-by shooting. My daughter and her son experienced that yesterday during lunch in the Charlotte (NC) area.

They were just sitting down, when a bullet came through the front door, striking the chair in which my daughter's son was just getting ready to sit in.  It passed through an oak slat in the back and grazed his forearm. Fortunately, nobody was seriously hurt.  The police later discovered the bullet (.22cal). They said this was the third time this type of event had occurred in that area. 

I guess that's why we sell guns. Seems like everyday, people are in situations where they need to protect themselves from the crazies and criminals out there. What if the shooter had actually come into the restaurant and started shooting innocent bystanders. You would want to either have a weapon to defend yourself or hope that somebody else there had a weapon to fight back. 



We are fortunate and extremely happy that nobody got hurt. Unfortunately, there is somebody still out there that thinks it's perfectly okay to shoot into a crowded restaurant. Sad but true.

UPDATE: there were actually 6 shootings in a 12 hour period;  apparently the shooter's target is automobiles.

See the coverage here: 
 http://www.wsoctv.com/news/news/6-shootings12-hours-has-charlotte-residents-high/nPP6j/

Care and Feeding of a Taurus 738TCP

When taking a new gun out of the box, you don't expect it to not work AT ALL, but that's what we discovered when tried to put a brand new Taurus 738TCP into service for a customer.

At Patriot Aims, we do a basic QC check on every semi-automatic pistol, which at a minimum consists of racking the slide to check for any resistance, checking the operation of any manual safeties, and chambering and ejecting a round from the magazine (we use snap-caps in the store).

While these basic pre-sale checks don't tell us anything about the accuracy or long-term reliability of the gun, they do indicate whether the gun can actually be used as a gun and is more than just a bunch of metal and plastic parts.

When we performed this check on a new Taurus 738TCP, this is what we found:

1). The magazines (2) locked into the handle, but the base plate would not fully seat against the base of the grip.

See the picture. 

 This caused the top of the magazine to be fully 1/16" lower in the chamber. Because everything was lowered in the receiver, when the slide was released and the cartridge was stripped off and pushed forward, the bullet "dead-headed" into the ramp.

2). The slide spring was so tight, the slide release button could not be depressed. You had to loosen the tension by pulling back on the slide (two handed operation), before the slide button could be disengaged. This issue would probably have gotten better with successive firings (breaking in) but the magazine issue forced us to reject this gun as a usable weapon.

In other words, what we found was this gun was totally unusable in its current state. Luckily, we were able to verify the problem by substituting a magazine from another 738TCP.  With the magazine firmly seated in the handle, the bullets chambered and ejected as designed. This one is going back to the manufacturer.

Store your water in Bricks

Of the 3 necessities for survival - 1. shelter, 2. food and water, and 3. protection, water is perhaps the most important.  A person could survive for days and weeks without food.  You can only survive for a few days without water.

To complicate matters, the average person needs a minimum of 1 gallon of water per day for drinking and basic cleanliness.  When you do the math, a family of three would require over 20 gallons of clean, potable water a week.

The issue then becomes, where do you store that volume of water?  There are all kinds of ideas, milk jugs, 2 liter drink bottles, waterbed mattresses... All these choices have some serious downsides. 

Consider this option - the WaterBrick.  

Think of the WaterBrick as a lego you can fill with water - 3 1/2 gallons per brick. Then they can be stacked, stored in closets, under beds, in the garage...

They are designed to be stacked, they have carry handles, and they have pass-through holes that allow them to be lashed to ATV's, trailers, etc. 

In addition to holding water, they can also be used for bulk food storage, dog food, and even ammunition (the bricks are watertight). 

Check out this link to see some innovative ways to use WaterBricks in your setting.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=im1mFUXiGiw