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Competition Footwear: What Works for Me in 2014

Adidas Corner Blitz 1
Adidas Corner Blitz

An often-neglected consideration for practical shooting is the choice of footwear. Two key events have shaped my decisions in this area. First, in my early days of USPSA we had a practice during mud season that involved the need to retreat from one shooting box to another. I was wearing hiking boots that had moderate tread but were somewhat worn. The result was that on planting my pivot foot it went right out from under me. I fell ungraciously, rolled and wound up pointing the gun all over the sky, undoubtedly past the 180 plane. My solution ultimately was to wear football cleats. Continue reading “Competition Footwear: What Works for Me in 2014”

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Mec-Gar 1911 8-Round Magazines: my favorite.

Mec-Gar 1911 8 RD shiny
Mec-Gar 17-7 Stainless 8rd. Magazine MGCG4508SPF

In the spring of 2013 I decided to shoot USPSA Single Stack division for a change. I had two factory Springfield Armory magazines for my TRP but those only held 7 rounds. I also had a bunch of Chip McCormack 10-round magazines that I had used for Limited/10 a few years ago but for Single Stack I needed some 8-round magazines. I looked around at Wilson Combat and CMC, both of which have very good reputations, but I noticed quite a few people were mentioning Mec-Gar as a good alternative to the big-name mags.  Continue reading “Mec-Gar 1911 8-Round Magazines: my favorite.”

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Fenix TK15: Cree LED goodness

CreeLEDI attended a ham radio swap meet several years ago and at one vendor’s display I saw a very strange flashlight. It used a flat, square LED under an adjustable lens that produced a very bright light. This was my first look at the new type of light emitting diode (LED) from Cree, inc. Now, several years later they are taking the lighting industry by storm. The efficiency and durability of this technology is a game-changer. So when it came time to replace my Surefire G2 on my carbine this was the obvious direction for me. Continue reading “Fenix TK15: Cree LED goodness”

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Precision Rifle Part V: Sum of its parts

Precision Rifle 2With the addition of a simple bipod the Precision Rifle was ready for the range. I was very interested to see how this would all come together. This project was a study in focus. My goal was to build a rifle that could put 75gr .223 bullets on target at longer ranges and to do so at a very low cost. That being said it would require some key choices. With everything you see in these photos the total cost of parts was right at $850.00.  Continue reading “Precision Rifle Part V: Sum of its parts”

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Precision Rifle Part IV: Geissele SSA-E Two-Stage Trigger

IMG_4488-SSA-E-TriggerWith the scope mounted the gun was fully assembled and ready to fire. I had purchased the lower parts kit without a trigger because I knew I would be adding a much better unit than the USGI work-alike that would come in the kit. During assembly I used an old stock trigger I had on hand. This trigger has been used to fire well over 10k rounds and had been treated to the “10-minute trigger job”. Even so it when I dry fired it I was not too happy so I decided to wait on live fire until I could get a more appropriate trigger installed. I had heard very good things about Geiselle’s Super Semi-Auto trigger and I figured it would be ideal for this project. Continue reading “Precision Rifle Part IV: Geissele SSA-E Two-Stage Trigger”

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Precision Rifle Part II: RGuns complete upper receiver

RGuns 20" Stainless Upper
RGuns 20″ Stainless Upper

With the new lower completed I was ready to find a new complete upper receiver for my Precision Rifle project. I had been trying to buy a Bushmaster Predator upper for some time. I liked the concept of a longer, heavier barrel, simple aluminum handguard with no rails and a low-profile gas block, all good things for a scope-only rifle. The trouble was they were very difficult to find at a reasonable price right at the time I was building the rifle (August 2012). In fact they were only in stock at a few places selling them for 200-300 more than the normal sources. Continue reading “Precision Rifle Part II: RGuns complete upper receiver”

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Precision Rifle Part I: Palmetto State Armory stripped lower

 

PSA-stripped-lower-2
PSA stripped lower

Eugene Stoner would be amazed at how popular his creation has become over the last 50 years. As “America’s Gun” there are many sources for information and parts. It doesn’t require a lot of tools or even mechanical aptitude so when Brian told me about his plan to build a carbine in early 2012 I figured it was a good time for me to build my first AR-15 as well. I had been thinking about a precision rifle for a while so that would be my project. Continue reading “Precision Rifle Part I: Palmetto State Armory stripped lower”

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Burris Fastfire II: excellent low cost/low profile 1x optic

After finding my red dot had completely lost zero while riding around in my trunk I decided it was time to get my hands on a more appropriate optic for my “truck gun”. What I found was much more than that in the form of the Burris Fastfire II.

I really like my Kel-Tec SU-16c but the challenge has long been to find a good 1x optic for my application. The rifle overall is very small which makes installing a full-sized combat optic very awkward. Sure an Eotech 5.12 will fit on the receiver’s small top rail but it is quite high above the bore allowing no co-witness with the low-profile factory sights. Also it adds a significant amount of weight to the top of the gun. The same goes for the Aimpoint full-sized optics. Visually they look rather silly given their relative bulk compared to the rest of the gun. Continue reading “Burris Fastfire II: excellent low cost/low profile 1x optic”