Category Archives: Firearms

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AR 15 Build Field Report

by Woodsbum

Similar to last week’s report, I wanted to follow up and tell you about how my newest AR 15 build faired while out in the field. Again, I don’t really have much in the way of pictures to show you. When I go shooting I do not go to a range. I take off to the hills and shoot clay pidgins, potatoes, or tannerite. Couple that with the fact that only I am out there and you have a very difficult time shooting while taking “selfies” of your firearms in action.

When I break in a new AR, I tend to use steel cased Wolf ammo to wear in the chambers a bit and make other rounds cycle easier. On this outing I blew off the last 90 rounds of steel case I had and then started on factory and reloads. Other than my brother’s reloads which usually have feeding issues, I had no other failures at all. Overall I put about 400 rounds through it.

The Vortex Strikefire 2 optics are just awesome, like always. One of the many things I love about them, aside from how easy it is to get on target and the fact that they just work flawlessly, is how easy it is to sight in with this optic.

Here is a “redneck” guide to sighting in an optic without using paper targets: I usually pick a very soft dirt pile and pop off a couple rounds to see where it is hitting. Then I adjust until I get to where I am on target at 25 yards. I then move it out to 50 and repeat the process. Finally I move to 100 yards and do it one last time with full sized clay pidgins. If I am using only a red/green dot optic I stop here. If I am sighting in a scope I have more to do. To fine tune a scope I move from full sized clays to the broken pieces and repeat the process while slowly moving down target size. This will usually get me down to about a 1″-2″ group at 100 yards.

A couple of the things I really loved about my new build are the weight and the handguard. By installing one of the keymod rails, I actually opened up the entire barrel length to allow for better heat dissipation. Although the barrel did get hot while rapid firing (as expected), it cooled off within just a couple minutes rather than having to wait several minutes like any other configuration I have used. It really was nice to have that full handguard covering almost the entire barrel as well. I did not have to worry about melting things into the barrel after shooting or burning myself by being stupid. It truly is a great configuration. And in regard to the weight, it was an absolute pleasure to shoot such a light rifle. I don’t consider the .223/5.56 to have any real recoil, so that was never a consideration with regard to weight. It was just so nice and easy to carry. I truly love this new build.

For those of you who have been skeptical about ordering from Daytona Tactical, I will give you a few tidbits. Their order processing is VERY slow. From the time that I ordered until my parts were delivered was almost 3 weeks. They also ship via USPS, so that does suck a bit. You can’t track your packages like you can with FedEx or UPS. The product is quite good, however. I have absolutely NO complaints about the items I received and the pricing was absolutely amazing. If you are after a quick build that you just want to be able to shoot, then I REALLY and HIGHLY suggest you make an order through Daytona Tactical. You will be happy with the results.

Beretta 92a1 Field Review

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by Woodsbum

I went out and tested out the work done to my Beretta just to see how it would shoot. Unfortunately for you, the reader, I have no pictures due to several reasons:

I am TERRIBLE at taking pictures when out shooting.
When I shoot, I do not shoot targets. I normally shoot clay pigeons, potatoes, or tannerite.
Going out and cooking off some rounds is very therapeutic for me, so I don’t pay much attention until after I have started putting things away.

Here is what I can tell you about how well it shoots after all the upgrades and modifications I made to it.

The trigger pull is very smooth with much less effort needed in both single and double action.
The cases are no longer being flung 10 yards away when ejected. They travel about 10-15 feet and land all in about the same area.
The pistol now comes right back to target after each round is expended. It is now a very easy and gentle jump of the barrel. Double tapping or swapping targets while coming right back to a nice sight picture is so easy.
The clunk felt when the slide hit the stop was very obvious and deliberate. The recoil buffer I put in really made that less of an impact.
This part is hard to put numbers to, but it actually felt like it was quicker to cycle rounds.

All said and done, I am VERY happy and impressed with the final product. Anyone that has been thinking about doing some work to their Beretta 92 should look at all the modifications I made. It will raise your pistol to an entirely different level.

Low Cost AR 15 Build

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by Woodsbum

A couple of weeks ago I ran across some $50 stripped AR 15 lower receivers. Since I already had one that was set up similar to an SPR, I thought it would be nice to do a low cost AR 15 build with this one. The lower is from Anderson Rifles and I went shopping online for some good parts deals to complete my build.

As a disclaimer, I did have a few parts already. This meant that I did not have to buy a buffer tube, buffer, spring or stock. I also had an old milspec trigger group and handle. Total this saved me about $60-$70, so keep that in mind as I go through this build.

First thing I went looking for was a lower parts kit. This landed me on Red Barn Armory’s website. What I liked about their site was that I had the option to build the parts kit and upgrade or leave out parts as needed. Because of the parts I already had, I got the rest of the lower kit and even upgraded my pins as well as added a Magpul sling attachment point for $27. Total price to complete my lower was $135 with shipping.

I then went looking for some upper parts. Since I was more interested in cost than I was anything else, I investigated some complete upper builds. The best deals I found were on the Daytona Tactical site. I found a complete upper (no BCG or charging handle) deal for $235. With shipping it was around $255. This was an important upgrade for me so that I had a free floating handguard build to increase accuracy. The full length of the handguard also left the rifle with a great look that reminds me of the Star Wars T-21 rifle.

For those keeping track, I have now acquired all the parts needed for an AR 15 except a BCG, charging handle, and some sights. This brought me to Amazon for some good deals. The BCG I got was $100 and seems to be of decent quality and seems to function properly. I did splurge a bit on the charging handle. I got a BCM Gunfighter charging handle. The cost of both of these items was about $145.

Last thing I got was a Vortex Strikefire 2 red/green dot optic. Because I get special pricing through several of my group affiliations I only paid $140 for mine. If you get this one through Amazon, it will cost you right at $179 if you have Prime.

The top rifle is the finished build. The bottom one is my wife’s with all sorts of addons and goodies.

New build on top

To summarize my total cost of build – $670:

Total lower costs: $135
Upper costs for free floating handguard/barrel no BCG or charging handle: $250
BCG and charging handle: $145
Optic: $140

For anyone building this from scratch it would be an additional $100 for this optic and the other lower receiver parts that I had.

Now as a point that must be addressed, I did find complete lowers for $199 at a local gun shop. This would mean that you could actually get a complete rifle done for $500 to not include your optic. This is how this works:

Complete Lower: $199
Complete Upper (MOE Handguard): $300

The costs of this build is actually cheaper than you can get an M&P Sport AR rifle. The Sport doesn’t have a forward assist and has an A2 front sight post. It does come with a flip up rear sight, but the MSRP is $739.00. Again, building the AR like I propose is much less costly and already gives you several upgrades from the onset.

Good luck if you decide to do your own build. It is quite fun and fulfilling to know that you literally built your own rifle from parts!

Charging Handle Latch

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by Woodsbum

One of the first problems I ran into with my AR was the lack of room available for operating the charging handle if a scope was mounted. To fix this issues, I ordered a couple of these Ambidextrous Extended Levers for my charging handle.

Extended Lever

They are actually quite easy to install and do work remarkably well for the inexpensive price. I paid less than $10 per lever to include shipping.

All you do is drive the pin out of the charging handle latch and then swap out the lever. It takes only a couple of minutes and looks like this after installation.

Extended Lever Installed

When you do install it, be careful because the actual charging handle itself is made of a soft aluminum. This leaves it quite susceptible to marks and scuffs. Since this is going into my “truck AR” i was not as careful as I should have been. The next one will be done much more professionally.

Oops

For a quick and easy fix, this charging handle latch actually is quite nice. Not only that, but they are much cheaper than the $60 charged for a Gunfighter or some of the other higher quality ones.

I do recommend these charging handle latches for if you need a little extra room due to optics or bear paws for hands.

D Version Hammer Spring

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by Woodsbum

The last real upgrade I had pending on my 92 Beretta was upgrading the hammer spring. I grabbed a factory Beretta D version hammer spring from Brownells for less than $10.

Originally, I was told that this was the primary upgrade needed to drop both the DA and SA trigger weight from 12 lbs for DA and 6.5 for SA to a reasonable level. I do not have any of those spiffy trigger weight things, but I can tell you that the stock trigger pull of the 92 I have was a bit on the ridiculous side. This upgrade was quite welcome.

The process is actually pretty easy. All you have to do is remove the pin near the lanyard loop to drop the plug and spring out of the handle. Just make sure you are careful during the process so you don’t end up shooting the lanyard loop plug across the room. If you use a 5/16 punch to do this, just keep the punch in and the pin still set in the frame on the opposite side. After you swap out the spring you can easily hit the roll pin while compressing the spring to get the plug set back into place. The longest part of the whole process was taking off the grips, so it is really quite easy.

Here is a picture to show the difference between the longer, stock spring and the shorter, D version.

D Version and Stock Hammer Springs

It really isn’t that much shorter, but it definitely does cut a couple coils off from stock size.

After I installed the spring and did a few test pulls on the trigger it is really easy to see how nice this upgrade is. Of course this raised a question as to why the stiffer springs were even installed to begin with. When asking Gunguy, I found out something quite interesting about this. I guess this spring is needed if you are shooting NATO 9 mm rounds due to the hotter round and tougher primer. The fact that I use factory US or hand loaded rounds would negate the need for this heavier hammer spring and thus make it much more pleasant an experience in firing with the lighter hammer spring. This does make sense, especially since Beretta is from Europe and sells a lot of pistols to military and LEO.

Now that I have completed all my upgrades to my 92a1, I will start on modifying and upgrade a different firearm. The next project will probably be ripping apart my 1911 and polishing up all the trigger parts to lighten and smooth out the pull.

This is how my Beretta looks in it’s final stage of upgrades and modifications. I will be doing a range report after I take it out next weekend.

Final Configuration