New Build Complete

Just got the hand guard in today. Many thanks to DiamondHead USA for exchanging the low hand guard for their new high hand guard with no problems or hassle.

.308 built up on an AR platform using AeroPrecision's M-5 Lower and upper, heavy profile barrel, Magpul MOE buttstock, MIAD grip with spare battery insert, Diamondhead USA VRS hand guard and matching T-Brake Muzzle Compensator. I went with my go to KNS trigger pin set and Geissele SSA-E trigger. I just like them. I pulled the Burris scope off of my AR Varmitter. It was too much scope for that caliber anyway. I'm gonna put a bipod on it tomorrow when the adapter for the key-mod comes in.

Gun Pron and Range Report

So a couple of weeks ago I threw a throw away bid on a Glock 36 on Gunbroker. The bid was really low and there was a week to go on the auction so I didn't even remember it after a couple of days.  But to my surprise I won it. Warning, pic heavy, for me anyway.

This:

to be precise.

Picked it up today and went to the range to test it out.  It is a seriously different trigger from the 1911's I'm used to.

I started with the lower left target and proceeded to curse the inventor of the striker fire trigger. But 50 rounds and 5 targets later I got that group on the upper right target.

The next 50 rounds I shot just to make sure I understood the difference in the feel and break of a striker fire trigger. Really, it's just so mushy from what I'm used to in a trigger.  Even compared to some of my revolvers.

And I swear it broke in a different place almost every time. I'm still anticipating the recoil as little as it is. But I'm pretty out of practice with handguns of late. I've been concentrating a bit too much on rifles over the summer.

And this:

will drive as many people as possible crazy.  I know you're cringing right now, Curtis, Daniel, Fudd, FarmDad, well the list goes on and on. :D

That's curious

You know, of all the rifle builds I've done. I still haven't done a free float handguard.

Idle bets and range reports

So, when you're sitting around, as you do, and you make the comment that you bet you could build an entire AR just from the spare parts in your boxes...

Don't.

Because when you do, you'll end up with this:

Except you'll realize that you don't have, of all things, trigger guards and a good Magpul pistol grip.  I mean seriously.  How did I not have any trigger guards. I swear I have pulled a bazillion of those things off of builds I've done and where are they? Pistol grips I have. I have more than a dozen stock GI grips, but I really hate those things.

And this is what the zeroing looks like.

 

 

The far right is the first shot I took, from the hip by the way, because if it was going to blow up, I'd rather keep my nose.  Aimed shot number one was far lower left. Shot two was upper left. I miscounted and had a bit of trouble feeling the clicks on the EOTech. That little group at the 5 o'clock inside the "10" ring holds shot number 3 and then the other 3 holes in the ten ring were to confirm the zero.

So, the lesson for today is maybe have a better idea of what you've got in your parts bins.

Also, I got another 200 rounds through the AK today while I was there. Had a failure to feed on round three of magazine #2 today. It just didn't strip the round off the top of the mag. Cycled the charging handle and continued to bang away.  That makes 2 malfunction in 1200 rounds, the FTF today and the weird double feed I had in the first 300 rounds.  Not bad for something that I haven't cleaned, only lightly LIGHTLY oiled it after I picked it up from the smiff, and been running el cheapo wolf lacquer coated steel cased milsurp ammo through it.

I stopped there, because it was literally too hot to handle the rifle or mags.

It was a good day.
 

15 hours and counting.

Do you realize how incredible this is? And this isn't even the fastest man made object we've sent out.

http://pluto.jhuapl.edu/

AK Range report.

Okay. So, I'm now about 500 rounds into the test run.  Another 500-1000 to go depending on how well I can survive the heat.  I got it rough sighted in last week and put a couple of hundred rounds through it. Today I finished tweaking the sights so they were as spot on as my tired ol' eyes can get it. Then finished the first box of 500 I had with me.

I actually got a FTF today I had about 100-120 rounds left out of the box and on the second round of a topped off 30 round magazine I had the round hang up and hold the bolt back about half way.

Yes, I know. AK's never jam.  Whatever.  This was bad enough I had to drop the mag and pop the dust cover off to get the round out from behind the bolt.

So, 500 rounds through, not been cleaned or oiled since I put a light, LIGHT coat of hopes on it after I first got it and 1 malf so far.  I've had AR's perform better.  Just saying.

I do have to say that Randy Kline, the gun smith at Jacksonville, TX who put it together, did an excellent job and the trigger is one of the smoothest I've ever had on a military rifle.  I highly recommend him for AK and FAL work.

I'll try to get the next 500 rounds put through it over the weekend if possible.  But it's slow going.  That rifle heats up enough that I can't hold onto the front grips without asbestos gloves after barely 100 rounds.  I had the thing literally smoking today, even with long breaks between magazines to let it cool down.
 

My new pretty.

Well, not pretty in the least. It's a Polish under folder kit (less the parts needed to make it 922r compliant), a NoDak receiver, and the smiffy magic of Randy in Jacksonville, TX. The kit is a numbers matching kit from a demilled Polish AK, with all the wear you'd expect from an ex-military rifle.







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Yes, I'm doing a gun review. The DP-12 by Std. Mfg. LLC of New Britain, CT.

Today we're going to look at the DP-12 by Standard Mfg. of New Britain, Connecticut. 

Std Mfg DP-12

It's the new large capacity bullpup shotgun on the market. Set to go up against the UTAS UTS-15 and Kel-Tec's KSG, it's approaching the idea from a new direction. Rather than two tubes feeding a single chamber, they basically took two shotguns and melded them together. It's chambered to 3" so any 12 gauge ammo you can find will fire from it, but I'd test any short shells before using them.

Initial impressions were that this is a well constructed, robust shotgun. The balance when unloaded is biased to the aft. I don't know if this was intentional or not, but when loaded it has a nice center of gravity. There's plenty of rail on top for mounting optics, lasers, etc.  I just put a cheap red dot for range testing today and it worked fairly well.  The controls are logical and follow the basic AR setup. They're also ambidextrous. The slide lock is on front of the trigger guard and easily reachable and usable by the trigger finger. The front pistol grip comes standard on the shotgun and is solid to the slide. Something that's looking to be a problem with the Kel-Tec and a couple of incidents of self inflicted wounds when the front pistol grip has come off when racking.  The loading/ejection port is open and easy to inspect.

Loading is straight forward and easy. Racking the slide back allows you to load the barrels and sliding it forward closes the ramps and loading the magazine tubes is easy. Also, these tubes truly hold 7 3" rounds each. Unlike the KSG or the UTS which kinda/sorta holds 7 rounds of 2 3/4" shells if you really cram them in.

Firing is easy and the follow on shot is quick.  Recoil is very manageable. Loads from 2 3/4" bird shot up through a couple of 3" turkey loads really had very little difference. Part of this maybe the weight, it's basically two pump shotguns you're carrying. But the recoil was still fairly straight back with very little muzzle climb.

Racking is easy and forgiving. One doesn't need to slam it back and forth to get it to work unlike the UTS. It will take a little training to get used to the Bang-Bang-Chunk action since the slide won't unlock till both barrels are fired.

As mentioned above, the follow on shot is quick due to the double barrel configuration, and the slide throw is not too long.

All in all it's a nice shotgun to shoot.  Now keep in mind this is not your grandfather's turkey gun or the next big thing in skeet/trap shooting.  This is a compact maneuverable shotgun that holds enough rounds to keep your worst nightmares at bay. In other words, this is a great home defense shot gun. It's short enough that you can swing it around in hallways or doorways with out any difficulty while still carrying enough rounds to deal with the threat.

There are some things that I'm not too fond of.  First off, the weight. Like I said it's basically two pump shotguns in one frame and while I can't say that it's double the weight of the UTS or KSG, it is definitely heavier by a few pounds loaded or unloaded.

The safety is familiar but lacks that positive lock in position that I'd like to feel when moving it.  Currently it just rotates to the stop without locking into position once it's there. The other big issue I have with the safety is that it wont move to safe if only one chamber has been fired and the other one is still "hot". Which means you'll have to fire twice no matter what or manually release the slide and eject one live round with one spent to get the safety into the safe position.

The shotgun has no way of knowing if the chamber is loaded or empty.  Say you load 6 rounds in one tube and only 4 in the other.  You'll end up at some point with one chamber empty and depending on which one it is you'll get a click-bang or bang-click before the slide will unlock and you can rack the next round(s).

There is no "field stripping" this shotgun. You need a couple of allen wrenches to disassemble it. I'm a big believer that you should be able to do basic cleaning of any gun without having to resort to a gunsmith's bench to do it.

And finally, the price. Currently they're only available from CheaperThanDirt.com and they're retailing at $1395.00 each. Hopefully they will come down as they get more of them out there, but CTD bought the first 30,000 units so, don't expect other vendors or a price change anytime soon.

I hope that Std. Mfg. addresses the safety issue. You should be able to put the shotgun on safe even if you don't fire both barrels.  As for the safety feel and the one empty chamber issues, while they would be nice to solve, I won't lose any sleep over them.

So, I give this shotgun a thumbs up. It's got a good beat and you can dance to it.
 

I need to organize

Today I found out my rifles are chambered in this:


I didn't realize it was that many. But in my defense the first five were developed over 120 years ago.