Reviews

Our thoughts on an item.

Optic of the Week: ARMS 40 Std A2

Disclosure:  I don’t mean this as a proper review as this was broken and missing parts when I received it.

The ARMS 40 Std A2 rear sight is an older designed BUIS that is spring loaded to flip up and does not lock.  Windage adjustments are .75 MOA.

A few years ago now, I received a disassembled ARMS 40 rear sight.  It was missing the aperture and was reassembled incorrectly.  I had tried contacting them about purchasing the missing parts or sending it in to be rebuild.  If I recalled correctly they never responded to me.

I thought that it would be easy to get an A2 aperture to drop in it and get it operational.  Oh boy was I wrong.

Each time I ordered some part or accessory I needed, I tried to order an A2 aperture to go along with it.  Every time until now the A2 apertures were out of stock.  EVERY TIME!

I even tried to get one from White Oak Armament, they discontinued carrying the standard A2 rear sight aperture.  WTF?  I guess A2 sights are truly dead.

Finally I made an order from MidwayUSA and they had only had a couple DPMS A2 apertures left.  So I got one.

That aperture installed just like how you would install one into a carry handle.  Now I am able to use the sight.

To install one of the ARMS 40 series sights, you unscrew a nut.  This nut has a wide slot on it so that you can use a screw to remove it.  It is suppose to be secured with a wire tether to the sight, but this old abused sight lacks that.  The base of the sight is slid onto the rail, the cross bolt inserted and then locked in place with the nut.

 

On the right rear of the sight is the latch that securely holds the sight down.  It is quick and easy to release the sight and the sight springs up.  You can also easily secure the sight down one handed.

The sight springs up.  It is suppose to lean slightly backwards so that if the weapon is dropped the sight folds.  It does not lock with the intent to hold to prevent damage.  Mine seems to lean a little forward.  Letting it spring up on its own makes noise, but I wouldn’t call it loud.

The sight is notched so that if it is pushed down it has clearance for the latch so that nothing is damaged.

With the A2 aperture this sight provides the same sight picture of any other A2 sight.  The first ARMS 40 models had a cut down peep to make the sight shorter.  They also offer the ARMS 40 STD A2 that has a standard A2 aperture like this one.

I had initially intended to fix this sight and then sell it.  But I think I found a home for it.

I remember a short time back in the day when flat top uppers were first getting popular that the ARMS 40 was considered the best BUIS out there.  But that quickly changed.  MSRP is $136, so there are cheaper excellent options.  The tall height of this sight prevented many optics from fitting over it.  I found I couldn’t put an ACOG or several of my standard scopes over this BUIS when it was mounted to an AR15.  ARMS later made the ARMS40L a low profile version of this sight.

I’d still love to have one of the low profile ARMS 40L-P models, but I’m not going to spend the cash for one.

This was a good rear sight, but when options like the Troy flip up sights came out, these seemed to be quickly forgotten.  Locking sights were perceived as being more durable.  Not to mention many of the good alternatives were cheaper.

Now, the ARMS 40 series is an expensive obsolete relic.

Auto Ordnance Thompson “SMG” Carbine

Dredging up another old post for those who may never dip into our back archives. I know I said we would start doing this back in the early summer. I forgot.  Anyway…  Here is a look back on a review of an utter piece of crap no one should buy.

Howard – I had an Auto Ordnance Thompson back in 2002.  It was garbage.  The sights fell off.  It was unreliable.  Extremely heavy horrible trigger pull, etc.  All the Auto Ord guns I have seen since then have been bad.  The fit and finish and the profile of the wood stocks have improved, but the sights and reliability have not.

 

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A few weeks ago I got my hands on one of the  .45 ACPThompson Semi Auto carbines. The gun is obviously a semi auto copy of the iconic WW2 Submachine gun that every one has seen knows it on sight if not by name.  I have been curious about these for years ,I have fired Class III full auto originals before and it is very fun SMG and very, very easy to use and control.  So when offered a chance with one I was more than happy to get some time with it.  My fun ended very fast once I started to work with it.

The gun is a heavy brute like the original and the 16 inch barrel does not do it any favors. That is to be expected though since it is what it is.  One thing I noticed right off the bat was the butt stock was not made correctly. The angle of the butt plate was at such a degree the gun stock would slide off the shoulder. It was very hard to keep it on the shoulder during firing. It required a very awkward effort to keep it up  while fighting the weight.   The next problem was the tolerances of the gun around the magazine well and breech. When firing the gun, your off hand would get burn up with burning and un burnt powder and anything else it felt like spitting out of the gap. Very hard to concentrate while shooting and not pleasant at all. At times, even with gloves and long sleeves I was had some real painful small burns.

As far as the sights go, the rear aperture was not even close to zero. The POI was often a 10 to 12 inches low  from 25 to 50 yards. Once I used the open notch at the top of the rear sight intended for very close range, I was able to shoot close to point of aim.

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The shots at the bottom were aimed at the highest dot. I tried several distance and got no better until moving to the open notch.

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This group is fired form 25 yards off a bench with an old bunch of Winchester silver tip .45 ACP. I was shocked to say the least. The gun is certainly capable of very decent accuracy.  The group below was fired at 25 yards under the same conditions but using Federal Hydra Shock.

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Both groups are 5 round strings. Of course I had to use the rear sights open close range notch on the top of the sight. Otherwise there was not way to get close to POI or even shoot a group of any quality.

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The group above is from 100 yards using Winchester Ranger T   230 grain hollow points. Again I had to use the close quarters notch. Not too bad considering what we are using. Since it was starting to get dar I was not able to move the bench and fired prone using only the old elbows in the dirt method. It is not to bad regardless,and some conclusions can be drawn from this target and the 25 yard groups. I would  expect the gun to be fairly accurate.

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Lastly I fired a little over 10 rounds at the head of the Q target from 50 yards off hand, This was very hard to pull off thanks to the improperly made stock and its freakish angle that made holding it on the shoulder for a cheek weld is  an Olympic level event.

Now, the biggest problem in addition to these other complaints is… The gun just will not work.  I was able to sometimes get as many as 10 consecutive rounds to feed before I was clearing malfunctions. Often it was failure to feed, bolt not going fully into battery. Double feeds, failures to eject or any number of strange things. While helping me test the gun I and my friend found that sometimes we could use our thumb to close the bolt  when the gun would not fire and often we would have to pull the trigger four times before the FCG would work. The bolt is small and smooth and hard to get a hold on. Both of us had our thumbs and hands mangled trying to clear it and keep it working. After about 500 rounds and a bucket of oil to try to keep it working we gave up.

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Do not buy this “gun” it is pure garbage.  This is typical of my experiences with Auto Ordnance products personally from this POS to the companies “1911” clones.  I have never seen anything good from them.  It really is a shame for a once great name.

Black Wolf Knives

 

A few months ago I was sent a couple of hand made custom knives from a Australian  fellow who lives in Japan.  He has been hand  making knives and selling them online.

https://www.blackwolfknives.net/

 

These knives are the nicest I have ever owned.    The maker details the making of these knives on the facebook page that he uses.  Everything about their construction and the process of making them is first class.   Besides the knives, which he is coming up with more and more models, he make the kydex sheathe for it.  The sheathe above was made at my suggestion, I asked  about the removable holder for the fire making tool and the extra 550 wound into the other side.

The edge is something hard to describe if you can’t handle it yourself.  It is so sharp, handing it to me is a guaranteed way for me to cut myself. I never met a knife I couldn’t end up cutting myself with.  I used this knife to skin and clean a half dozen squirrel this season and cutting through the small arm and leg bone joints makes no difference.   Hot knife through butter is the appropriate old chestnut that comes to mind.    Marc does offer the option of you buying these knives with a mirror polish if you like that better.    The handles are shaped  and ground down and contoured and you can not tell where the metal and handles start and end. Even if you use a thumb nail draw across it, it feel like unbroken glass.

Since I haven’t had much chance to use the two knives ( review for bigger knife coming later) for camping or gutting a deer yet, I am going to limit my talking about it too much for now.

He is coming up with new designs every few weeks so if nothing strikes your fancy on the website, go to the FB page. He unveils the new models there all the time.

Oh and the best part is these knives are sold at a price that would make you think  it was your lucky day.

 

 

Extreme disappointment in Leupold.

Update-  Finally heard back from Leupold, they acknowledge this is a mistake and will be correcting it.

I have an old TS-30 A2 Leopold scope.  The model is nothing special, but it rare to find one with the military “TS-30 A2” markings.

I’ve been meaning to post up a review of this scope, but when I received it the illumination was broken.  I thought I’d send it in and have it refurbished before I did a review.

It used a 1/3 N battery, like the old Aimpoints.

So I sent it in to Leupold to have the illumination fixed.  I got it back today.

They overhauled it:

They put in the updated illumination that uses a CR2032 battery, a nice upgrade:

But then they gave me a massive downgrade:

They downgraded me to a Duplex Reticle.  That is a major change from the original mildot reticle.  It pretty much makes the scope useless for me.

 

What The Fuck Leupold?  I never would have sent it in if I knew they were going to do that.

I’ve attempted to contact their customer service department and am waiting to hear back.

Optic of the week: HK Diopter BUIS

Ok, I’m phoning it in this week.  I found these old HK BUIS I thought I sold long ago, and I found that the old article on them has all the images missing.

On the HK416/MR556 and their .308 rifles as well the optics rail is higher than the rail on a standard flat top AR15.  Because of this HK fixed iron sights are lower than standard height AR15 sights so they can not compatible to use together.  Not that you would want too.

Under the 200m aperture of the drum, there will be 1 or 2 dots.  If there is a single dot (like this one) the sight is calibrated for a 10.4 inch barrel.  If there are 2 dots, it is the model for the 14.5 and 16.5 inch barrels.

HK Front sights are not adjustable, all zeroing adjustment is done on the rear sight.

The drum apertures are different sizes and set for 100 to 400 meters.  The 100m opening is much larger than the other ones to make it easier to use for close quarters use.

Windage is adjusted by loosing the screw on the top of the sight, and turning the screw on the right side of the sight.  1 full turn will move your point of impact 6 inches at 100m.  Tighten the top screw to lock the sight back in place.

Inside the drum there are two tabs.  Compressing both tabs inwards allows for the drum to turn adjusting the elevation of the rear sight.  You need to turn the elevation drum in 1/4 turn increments for 1.5 inch adjustment at 100m.  If you don’t have the proper sight adjustment tool, you can make adjustments using a pair of needle nose pliers.

Zeroing these sights can be annoying.

They are nice sights, and if you are more familiar with HK style sights than AR sights, it is nice to have this option.  However you can get good AR sights for cheaper that will have a finer and easier adjustments.