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

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.
 

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.
 

Honest, it followed me home on it's own...

Can I keep it? Too late, I already am.

She's a 1941 Kovrov SVT-40. Has the SVT not AVT stock. (No cut out for the full auto flip on the safety switch.) Really in great shape for a 70+ year old gun.

Range report will follow when time allows.

I've heard this gun referred to as the Soviet Garand. I think it has a bit more in common with the US's M14 and would make it a more advanced rifle than the Garand. The notable feature being the detachable magazine. But as both the Garand and the SVT-40 were WW2 and the M14 was a development of a decade later, I can see why the one comparison and not the other.

This rifle was planned to be the replacement for the Mosin Nagant and be the primary MBR of the Soviet military but the timing of the war, vulnerability of the factories making these to the Nazi advance during Operation Barbarosa, and just the flat out critical need for millions of rifles NOW, meant the Mosin Nagant remained the primary rifle of the Soviets during WW2 and relatively few of these being produced in comparison.  And we all know the AK pretty much eclipsed anything else coming before it after the war.

I'm thinking about naming her Ivana Onnatop.

I went to the store for a loaf of bread....

So, I'm running low on gun grease.  Not gun lube, gun grease.  When you have a few older rifles, you run into that.  Anyway, I ran down to the local gun range to get a jar and nearly 530 bucks later I walked out with this little jar.

But it's really high quality, made in Belgium, pre-1939 grease.  I'll post more when I finish researching the grease I got.
 

Range followup.

So, grabbing my meager supply of .30Carbine ammo, I, like the intrepid explorer I am, trudged my way to the range to see if the Rock-ola would shoot and shoot mostly... straightly.

 

Here's the target, at 25 yds.

 

 

The flyer at 3 to 4 O'clock is the first round fired.  I was holding the rifle at arms length away from me. I just wanted to be sure it wasn't gonna blow up in my face.

 

The other two rounds were standing supported, with the rear sight set at 100 and mechanically centered. POA was the center of the target and the rounds were hitting about where they should be for a 100 yd zero.

 

The only problem is it wouldn't reset after firing a round. What was happening was after firing the round releasing the trigger and pulling would produce no second bang.  The trigger is resetting. So, the springs are functioning correctly. The spent round is ejecting and the fresh round is loading correctly and the bolt is going all the way into battery. I'm pretty sure it's the sear. Unfortunately finding a Rock-ola sear is looking to be an issue.  I'll probably just get a generic one for now to get the rifle functioning correctly and take my time searching for a Rock-ola at gun shows.

 

I now have 42 rounds of .30Carbine left.

 

 

 

Finally

It took a while, but I finally got the Rock-ola M1 Carbine all together.

 

All parts are correct Rock-ola, although the serial number puts it as a first production run in '43 and I built it up with later parts.  Type 1 barrel bands are impossible to find or prohibitively expensive.  When I got the receiver it had a Herlo barrel on it, complete with all the markings that pretty much said it was faked and unsafe to shoot.  I located a real Rock-ola barrel and had that put on.  The receiver rear sight dovetails were so badly pinged that I took it to the smith at Jackson Armory and had him build them back up and reblue the entire receiver.  It came out amazing.  Here are a few pics of the rear sight.  You can see that the built up areas didn't take the blue the same as the rest of the receiver but it's only really noticeable close up like this.

 

 

 

 

Now to take it out and see how much I'll have to shave the front sight down to zero it. Which makes me nervous.  I'm not a gun smith and anytime I do something that can't be undid by a professional... well, you get the idea.

 

I'm toying with the idea of getting an example of the M1 Carbine from every maker that wasn't a traditional rifle manufacturer.  So, Rock-ola (juke boxes), Saginaw (auto parts), IBM, National Postal Meter.  How does that sounds as an idea. I really need to focus my collecting to something more specific than "all of them". 

 

There were over 6 million of the M1 Carbines made Which made it the most produced arm of that era.  Seeing service from WW2 thru Vietnam in the US Military and longer with other countries and police departments.

 

 

 

 

Range Report.

It's not a big range report. I only had 40 rounds of M1 Carbine ammo total. But here it is. 5 rounds to make sure it wasn't gonna blow up in my face. 5 rounds at 100 yd setting and 5 rounds at the 300 yd. setting.

 

This is set to the 100 yd. detent on the sight.  This is also at 15 yds. and not 25. So, according to my handy-dandy ballistic calculator, that group is .2" lower than it would be at 25. But with that factored in, she's still shooting a might bit low. But not enough for me to worry or do anything about it.

 

And this is same distance at the 300 yd detent on the sight.

 

 

Again, according to my magic slide rule.... no, not that one. The one for ballistic calculations, that's about right.

 

So overall, both settings grouped nicely on the target, the rifle functioned flawlessly and I have 25 rounds left.  On a side note, when I printed these out the bottom dashed line came out to 3.5" long.  I think it's supposed to be 4" OAL. But I don't have the original TM to make sure. 

 

Yes, I see the one flyer on each. Shuddup.... Shaddup shudding up.

 

 

 

New Acquisition

So, thinking I would be out bid on an auction, I bid on a rifle at 5 bucks over the opening price. And No One Else Bid On It for the entire 14 days it was up.... :-/

 

Go. Team. Me... I guess.

 

Meet my newest. Everything I checked on it says it's all correct Saginaw parts except the Winchester slide and an unmarked bolt.

 

It's the correct early 2 rivet wood, but there's no proof marks or manufacturers marks on it. So, that's a guess too.

 

Serial number puts it in the early production contract, but it has a type II rear sight, although correct for Saginaw. The barrel, recoil pad and receiver are all Saginaw and appear to be original.

 

It's a bit of a conundrum.

 

No pitting anywhere that I can see it. And the no rust either. All in all, I think I scored a very good carbine at a nice price.

 

Anyway pic:

 

 

Gun store find of the month.

Okay. I seem to have the best luck finding the odd and rare firearm at the mom and pop gun stores in the little mom and pop towns.  That's my dirty little secret.  Evidenced by this little rough gem.

This is a Colt Police Positive Special in .32-20WCF.  Serial number of 113XX, which puts her in the first year of production, 1907-08. She has some patina and a few scratches here and there.  The bore and cylinder looked clean and straight. She still locks up tight too. There a gouge missing on one of the grips, but they're original.  I think I got a helluva price on it.

You see, there's this western wear store in the town "local" to where I'm currently working.  From the outside you wouldn't even know there's a gun counter inside.  But in there, they have a good selection of ammo, handguns, rifles etc.  With this find tucked into the display counter.  There's also a Chinese SKS in there that I might go back for. A Vietnam bring back by a local vet. That gun would be worth it just for the story there.

In related news, I'm seriously curtailing my firearms purchasing for a few months.  There are other big toys that I'm saving up for.  More on that later.

More gratuitous gun pr0n

Just a follow up to the post before last.  I finally got the rail adapter for the bipod.  As mentioned previously, it's a Harris bipod.  The adapter I finally decided on was the Rota-pod quick detach adapter.  So, now the bipod can both tilt and, when unlocked, swivel about 30 degrees left and right. The quick detach is nice. The thing is heavy enough. If need be, I can quickly take the bipod off and stow it.

And finally, for now, I'm thinking of taking the A2 flash hider off and putting some sort of compensator on it.  But I don't know what's out there for compensators much less what are the best for the buck.

(click to embiggenate, of course)

 

In regards to the previous post.(aka gratuitous gun pr0n)

If you embigginate the pic and look below the brass deflector and the back edge of the ejection port cover you can see the ambi side of the bolt release.  With this, a Norgon ambi-mag release and the ambi safety selector, it's about as ambidextrous as you can get an AR platform. All I've done so far is set the butt stock for comfortable fit and good eye relief on the scope.  The snow today is sort of slowing down any range trips.  I've also rough zeroed the scope and set the ballistics calculator for the flavor of .223 that I have the most of and plan to zero with.  Still haven't mounted the bipod yet. But that's coming.  Like I said, a very fast build for me, only a couple of weeks.

On a semi related note, Scribbler, a friend also in the DFW metroplex, had this to say about the weather.

The Sun is Shining

I can see Grass through the Snow

Classes are Cancelled

Which is an apt and completely unintentional haiku. He has titled it, "LOLTexas"

New collection addition....

I actually bought this like a couple of months ago, but one thing and another and work and I'm just getting it home today.  They guy I bought it from swore up and down it was chambered in .30-06, and then said it was made in 1903.  Which didn't add up to me.

The serial number checks for a 1903 birthday, so.... confusion.  So, when I was able to pick it up from my FFL, I took one look at it and took it to my gunsmith to have a chamber cast made to find out what caliber it actually was.

Yes, I checked the barrel. It's marked .30US.  Yeah, see, back then they were in the midst of changing nomenclature on how they denoted ammo. So, while we all know and love the .30-30 and .30-06 and .30-40Krag, back then they were called things like .30WCF and .30Army and .30Gov't and .30US.

Oh and just to throw a little more confusion in the mix, in 1903 there was the precursor to the .30-06 called the .30-03 of all things.  The .30-06 was basically a cut down case length on the .30-03.

Yes, I'm incredibly oversimplifying it.  You want to learn, go read a book people!

So, chamber mold seemed to be the smart thing to do.

Anyway.  I'm pretty sure the guy didn't know what he had.  Considering the three holes on the side of the receiver aren't just cut willy nilly like he thought.  They were the saddle ring hole and two holes tapped for a Lyman sight system.  Score!

So, here she is. A Winchester 1895 born in 1903, chambered in .30-40Krag

The ad for Colt is just there because I was so excited to finally be taking pics, I forgot to move it.

I almost walked out with 2 instead of 1.

This is my new addition.  While I was at the FFL, I noticed an M1 Carbine up on the wall, Inland receiver and barrel, mix master for the other parts, type 3 barrel band and flat bolt, serial number puts it solidly in the '44-'45 time frame.  They had a price that was a touch too high, I countered and I'm just waiting to here if they'll bite. So there may be new pics soon.  Anyway, this is my new (to me)SMLE No. 4 Mk 1. Born  in '44.  Dragon shaped slippers for scale.

 



 

Just a note...

I HAVE AMMO FOR THEM ALL!!!! Not zombie apocalypse amounts for all of them, but enough to go to the range and shoot a couple of rounds.  Wanna take a stab at what calibers these are?

I'll just leave this here.

Tyranny Alert

Via Tam:

http://booksbikesboomsticks.blogspot.ca/2013/07/cradle-and-grave-of-liberty-part-deux.html

This is what a police states looks like folks.  On the day when we in this country are supposed to be celebrating our freedom FROM tyranny we have those who would subjugate us doing their best to do just that. 

We need to mobilize the gun owning public and make this go viral.  We may be beyond the point where shining the light of day upon this kind of action will kill it, but we are never beyond the point of fighting against this.

Piston AR Build Update.

Just some minor things to finally finish up the AR I previously posted about.

I added an ambidextrous safety to it. Just a no name brand.  But it fits well and operates like it should.

I installed the aluminum striker plate for the UBR stock, making that much heavier.  Like it wasn't already.  And why the striker plate.  Why not.  Again, this build was about "because I can" not for any real reasons.

I also finally got the front sling mount.. mounted.  And with the MS3 sling. I finally have a reliable way to go from single point sling to two point.

A few notes on its performance so far.  I've put a couple of thousand rounds through it, mostly brass but some lacquer coated steel stuff.  Haven't cleaned it yet. It's still functioning flawlessly.  The Trijicon ACOG has held its zero from the day I zeroed it in.  All in all, I'm really impressed with this rifle.  I think I'll keep it.

Blogorado, The Epic Trek Out

Okay, it's after 10 pm, Blogoradoville time, and I'm checked into a new hotel.  Well, new for me anyway. I am posting this from the hotel that is a registered historic landmark for the state of BlogoradovilleState.  I like it.   There's a picture of the Duke on my wall. 

Today started early.  I met NFO at his hotel in Tulsa and we loaded all the rifles and other assorted implements of shootiness and hit the road with some vague plans to do some stuff and maybe some other stuff too.  If we get time. And aside from the usual construction suspects getting across the state was easy.  Except for listening to the great anointed one do a multi-hour news conference were he managed to be condescending, berating, belittling, and more general fear mongering.  My blood pressure....

We ended up calling Lawdog, Phlemmy, Expert Witness, The Great Tam herself, and Ambulance Driver and coordinated a meeting in Amadillorillo for a late lunch with plans to caravan the rest of the way to Blogoradoville.

Two words, Cat Herding.

We eventually lallygagged our way to Blogoradoville where Mr and Mrs Sci-Fi and Christina_LMT were already there.  Having successfully managed to avoid any lallygagging, ambling, loping, or other forms of non-urgent perambulations coming from the other direction.

I ate too much. 

Somehow, FarmMom has gotten better at making fried chicken.  Yes, I know. It's shocking.  I still find it hard to believe myself. But the oily proof was all over my hands and face by the time I raised the white flag.

Tomorrow, we finish the set up on the range, scope out a direction that will give us 6 miles of clearway for long range shooting, rezero for the altitude, and probably eat too much again.

Tomorrow, Tractortracks and her squeezetoy, Salamander and his family, Evyl Robot of the quality holsters with his sexay holster model, InJennifersHead and their offspring, plus a couple of others will arrive.  It looks to be a good group.

Honestly, I plan to blog something and maybe have pictures too, maybe, everyday.  But, as the saying goes, a plan is just a list of things that won't happen.  So, we'll see how I do with that.