Tactics and gear for the DMR
I guess I’m an old man if I can remember a time before gun forums, but now that Twitter and Blogging has seemed to surpass the usefulness of those discussion forums, modern technology and accessories are sometimes hard to figure out until they’ve actually been fielded for some time. I’m just starting to realize the importance of having some of the handguards, rifle stocks, and optics that I presently have on some of my AR15 rifles because now that I’m getting more time on the range, I realize that what I am using is really the best configuration for close up fighting.
I remember all of the squabbling I got on a firearm forum for wanting to put a rifle scope on a DSA FAL rifle. Many use to think that putting “glass” on a battle rifle was a bad idea. Now that the M14 has been resurrected as the DMR rifle, putting glass on a battle rifle seems like the best purpose. Trijicon ACOGs have shown up on many of the former scopeless battle rifles and that 2 MOA rifle can be very effective out to 800 meters if the shooter is up to it. I have found that for most purposes, I really don’t need more than 3x magnification, but for longer ranges, the M14 or FAL is capable and worthy of more magnification.
Adding the extra security may mean that your scope won’t come loose after a few thousand rounds. I’ve seen guys with battle rifles with $1000 optics on them and after a few thousand rounds, the mounts came loose. None of these individuals were using loctite. Over torquing screws is something to be concerned about because screwing a mount in as tight as you possible can does not mean more security, it actually means more stress. Loctite doesn’t add stress to your gun mount it just helps keep the grip on your screws so they don’t rotate after long firing periods.