Archive for November 17th, 2010

Your AR15 is probable not the AR15 your father had

It’s funny making a statement like that because I still feel like the AR15 is a new gun, but the reality is that it is now something that many of us had in the 1980s and 1990’s and now we have kids that are shooting them.    The AR15 is now probable the most popular firearm being sold in the Country, not only can you use it for close quarters combat and house to house clearing, there are varmint versions that are extremely accurate.   The whole durability and design of the rifle has improved dramitically, even though the M16A2 has been in service for about 25yrs and is a considerable leap in reliability over the A1, other changes have been made.

Chrome barrels use to be the thing that helped keep the direct impingement guns in a better functionality, but gun magazine improvements have reduced the number of malfunctions I see by atleast 95%.   I don’t see the failures to feed or the double feeding that I use to and it’s primarily due to the Magpul P-mags.   These magazines feed better than most and you can drive a car over them and still have them work.  Swapping out the upper receivers on an AR15 involves pushing 2 pins out, and there are many configurations from CMMG, LWRCI, DPMS that will improve the durability over lower grade guns.  If you want a combat reliable AR15, you will probable have to do a few things to an AR15 that costs under $800 to get it up to par, but overall I am very impressed with the improvements I see across the board  in the AR15 community.

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Protruding magazines, snags and sights

As someone in the tactical gear and accessory business, I am a little overwhelmed by the number of holsters that are available and how they are being used.   I get questions about how to assemble and modify various things and often it takes a little research to find how to answer a customers questions.  Something that I am finding more and more about is that customers are ordering holsters for firearms knowing the gun should fit the holster, but the sights that they put on the gun are now causing the gun to snag when being drawn.

The best way to know that you have tactical gear that works is to test it out,  even if you have done research into matching up the correct gear, practice with it before you actually train with it or god forbid have to use your gear and training in a real situation.   Pocket gun holsters and clip on holsters tend to have high rates of failures in Defensive training classes.   The real reason is that many of these students are practicing with higher levels of stress and doing things that they didn’t think they would be doing and causing guns to spin in their hands when the front sight snags in the  holster.

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