Larry has a good video up about the new release in the Colt Retro Rifle line.
AR15
“Absolute disaster shooting my new 9 mm upper “
B-ARFCOM user Johhnyrotten had a really bad day with his budget upper bought from Midway.
| Midway recently had an exceptionally good price on an AR Stoner 9 mmm upper that I bought. I went the range today to shoot it for the first time. I put it on my PSA 9 mmm billet lower that has functioned perfectly for thousands of rounds The initial shots proved it to be single shot. It would pick up a new round from the magazine but it would not reset the trigger. I figured it just needed to be broken in so I shot 20 rounds that were individually in the magazine. I then tried a mag with 2 rounds to see if functionality had improved. There was a small explosion. The gun had doubled and there had been an out of battery detonation. There was intense pain my forearm. I looked and the cartridge had penetrated my skin and punctured a vein with what appears to be the case head. Blood was pouring out like water out of a faucet. Having a medical background, I new to apply direct pressure. While I was sitting down applying pressure I noticed a steady stream of blood accumulating in my lap. The other had cut my chin. So had to apply pressure with both hands |
Ouchie.
Read the thread below.
https://www.ar15.com/forums/General/Absolute-disaster-shooting-my-new-9-mm-upper/5-2352705/#top
The Sierra 53 gr. Flat Base Match King In 5.56MM NATO AR15 Barrels
I’m pretty sure I have talked about this in the past. The Seirra flat base 53 gr. Hollow point MatchKing is an often over looked bullet for use in the AR15. especially rifles with 5.56MM NATO chambers. It used to be well known all around that the bullet when used in the AR was often times hard to beat out to 300 yards.
Back in the 90s, it was used as the 300 yard/meter bullet for loads used in service rifle. Barrett Martin and Derrick Tillman wrote about it quite a bit in the pages of Precision Shooting and mention in their excellent book https://www.amazon.com/Complete-Guide-AR-15-Accuracy/dp/0967094852.
The flat base , shorter bullet does well in the semi auto with the military chamber. It is not as easily disturbed as some of the longer match bullets. I will save excatly how and why it works so well in a mil-spec chamber in a few days. I want to go into greater detail for this and I want some illustrations to help explain why it is. Now that isn’t to say the longer match bullets don’t shoot well in a NATO chamber, because they do. But if you want some real precision at 300 and in, the 53gr FBHP will almost always deliver in your gun as long as its decent quality.
I loaded up the last 30 I had and shot a couple of ten rounds groups at 100 yards off the bench with a Colt 20 inch A2 to demonstrate today. And I suffered mightily in the heat for this. Believe me.
I shot the right hand group first. and then the left was second. You can see the heat and it’s affect on me in the group. 98 degrees with what felt like 200 percent humdity. I admit I was glad that I ran out of hand loads. Notice I was going to shoot three groups but nuts to that. I’m ugly and stupid and no one likes me, but I’m not insane.
That was from a rack grade A2 upper. I did use the lower off my MK 12 with the SSA Match Trigger and a Leupold 10X on a Leupold carry handle mount that I removed and put up before I remembered I forgot to take pictures of it. For load development on fixed carry handles I use an optic. You just can’t get the kind of groups with iron sights you need to really wring out all the accuracy a load may have.
Above is the page for the 53 and 52 grain bullets in a Sierra loading manual. I am not going to tell you my personal load because some oaf wil blow a gun up and blame me sure as day follows night if I do.
Yes I could have used the match barrel on the MK 12 A 6940 M4, Colt Accuracized Rifle or a vamint Model 70 to show this load. The point is to show you what kind of performance you can get out of a non-free floated rack grade milspec NATO 556 chambered barrel with the 53gr flat base. If you hand load and didn’t know about this bullet give it a try.
Range Report mounting the M203
Decided to throw the LMT M203 on the AR as it was intended. The M203 slides over the barrel and index on the barrel nut. It then clamps to the barrel. The KAC QD M203 mount has an insert that allows you to adjust the length of mounting area. Depending on wear and tolerance stacking you use this insert to make sure that there is no forward/backwards play in the launcher.
This spacer solution that KAC came out with is rather nifity. In their QD mount this insert is X shaped with 4 U notches in it. Each notch is cut to a different depth, allowing you to pick between 5 different thickness to take up any potential slack in the mounting.
Yes 5 options. The 4 notches are each different thicknesses, and if they are not enough, you can flip this spacer around, to use the backside, for a 5th option.
I should have taken a picture of it for this description.
Anyways, the rambling was to explain that the M203 launcher puts the barrel in tension, applying forward pressure on bottom of that M203 step cut into the barrel.
On this gun, that pressure moved the point of impact about 5 MOA up. I adjusted the zeros on the iron sights and the ACOG. I started at 25m, then adjusted the ACOG zero again at 100 yards.
Since the M203 was moved to this gun, I put on a leaf sight for it on the top rail. Fortunately it was right on, and no adjustment was needed. (Well, it impacted about 8 inches high at 100 yards. 1 elevation increment on the leaf sight would move the impact about 5 meters, so I choose to call that close enough)
Best part for me is that my stand alone mount has its’ own sights. I’ll be able to just pull the M203 right off this upper and slap it on the stand alone mount when I want to run it by it self, and I can throw it on this upper when I want to run it on an AR. I’ll just have to remember the 5 MOA point of impact shift should I take the launcher off this rifle.
I recall back when I was in the Corps, some of the M203 gunners liked having the M203 on their rifle during rifle qualification as the extra 3 pounds helped keep the rifle steady and made for less movement during firing. Personally, unless I knew I was going to be lobbing a bunch of 40mm, I’d rather have it off my gun. But here I am throwing it on a gun anyways.
Army Fields New Squad Designated Marksman Rifle
The SDMR includes offset backup sights, a Geissele mount, OSS suppressor, Harris bipod, and Sig Sauer’s 1-6x24mm Tango6 optic. (Photo: U.S. Army)
“This weapon is an upgrade to the whole squad layout, and you can even work it in to combined arms warfare,” said Sgt. Patrick Nissen, a 3ID. “I shoot long-range, both in the Army and recreationally, and I really like getting down behind this weapon, it is very comfortable, it is a great rifle, and I really do enjoy it”
Now that is a perfect example of toeing the party line. Or the Sgt. really wants one of those sweet retirement jobs at HK like the Generals get. Way to hard sell that rifle Sarge.
“The whole intent for this is new equipment training,” said David Parris, a former infantry Soldier, and one of the civilian experts from the Army’s Tank-automotive and Armaments Command, which helped field the guns. “We have given them a rifle that is precise and capable of closing the capability gap of 300-600 meters, which means it fills the maximum firing distance gap between the standard-issue rifle and the sniper rifle.”
The rest of this HK advert, Army talking point and buzz words that are essentially meaningless.
Raider Soldiers once again led the way in modernization when they fielded the U.S. Army’s new Squad Designated Marksman Rifle, SDMR, last week on Fort Stewart, Ga. The fielding process ended with a familiarization firing at the base’s sniper range on June 5th, 2020.
The team that conducted the live fire consisted of noncommissioned officers from all over the 1st Armored Brigade Combat Team, 3rd Infantry Division. They were the first in the Army to field the SDMR, named the M110A1. They started their training earlier in the week with initial familiarization in a classroom setting. This enabled the Soldiers to become educated with the new weapon system before conducting live fires.
After the initial training, where they learned about the assembly and disassembly, functionality, operation, etc, the Soldiers took to the sniper range for zeroing and confirming with a civilian team from the Tank-automotive and Armament Command out of Detroit.
“The whole intent for this is new equipment training,” said David Parris, a former infantry Soldier, and one of the civilian experts from TACOM. “We have given them a rifle that is precise and capable of closing the capability gap of 300-600 meters, which means it fills the maximum firing distance gap between the standard issue rifle and the sniper rifle.”
The SDMR fires a 7.62x51mm NATO round and comes equipped with a variable zoom scope. The manufacturer also added a bi-pod, adjustable butt stock, and an upgraded trigger to enhance the weapon system’s precision fire capabilities.
Once the fielding process is complete, these NCOs will be able to take what they have learned and share it with the Soldiers of their respective units. This will be another way the Soldiers of Raider Brigade build and maintain lethality.