Choate Tactical Rifle Stocks - Drop in Review

Seeing as my .308 savage has been delivering some exemplary performance of late, I decided it was time to invest in a bit of a stock upgrade. I don't have the budget to justify something like a mcmillan or AI stock, so my choices fell to Choate or Bell and Carlson and frankly I like the looks and the molded in bedding block of the Choate a lot more than the other option. The wrist and butt of the stock are hollow as well, another important feature I will elaborate on a bit later.

Thus far this rifle has been used almost exclusively for longer range target kinds of things (mostly steel shooting, but also the occasional spray paint can or light bulb) and, continuing in that vein, it was time to add a little heft to the overall package.First step was an overhaul of my shooting peripherals (front rest got a new sand bag with heavy sand, new rear bag also with heavy sand, harris bipod with some goodies, a few handloading gadgets to wring just a little more out of each shot...) which turned out to be very easy and very modestly priced. With the local stock of Benchmark drying up a number of months ago, I also made the big jump to Varget for all my .308 loads; I'm not convinced that this is a good thing,as the groupings for these new loads are sufficient but not particularly remarkable. Time will tell...

At any rate, since this baby is making her living alternately riding the bags or astride a bipod, there would be no harm adding a bit of heft to the back end in order to balance out that heavy contour varmint barrel. Step one, I got ahold of 4lbs of lead weights (medium sized split shot fishing weights this time, since there was a sale at the local wally's) and what I thought to be a sufficient volume of epoxy. This would turn out to be a wildly inaccurate estimate, but would turn out ok in the end.

Step 2, pop the recoil pad and spacers off the back and the cover off the base of the grip (all this is done before installing the barreled action or the magazine, mind you) and pumping a small amount of silicon window sealer into the bottom of the hollow in the wrist of the stock (this is done because there is space for the epoxy to flow into the butt; sealing it alleviates the mess and hassle).

Step 3, mix enough epoxy to halfway fill the inside of the grip and poor it in. Add lead weights up to the level of the epoxy. Continue filling depending on your intended final weight; I filled the whole thing with lead, but if you prefer a bit less weight or a center of gravity a bit further to the rear you can minimize the lead in the grip and fill the empty space with silicon. Replace the grip cover.

Step 4, secure the stock tip down in a padded vise preferably with a good work light overhead or a bright flashlight. Again, mix enough epoxy to fill the butt about half way then add weights. If you are filling it all the way to the tippy top like I did, make sure you have enough epoxy to do the job. I ended up using almost 16 fluid ounces by the time it was all said and done, so plan to buy extra. Even if you arent filling the whole thing with weight, make sure you fill the voids in the stock in one of two ways.

1. You can fill the whole thing with epoxy up to the level of the side sling attachment points (there is a bar running through the middle that will hold the weight/epoxy in place through any recoil).
2. Fill half the butt with epoxy and weight and allow it to cure over night. Fill the rest of the space with silicone or some other filler. the tricky part of doing it this way is that your center of mass is a lot further forward than the first method, though you end up with a much lighter rifle.

Step 5, allow everything to set and cure, then reattach the spacers and recoil pad before installing your barreled action. All said and done, this package floats around the 14lb mark (rifle, glass, mounting hardware and bipod), rides the bags very comfortably and the muzzle disturbance on recoil is much, much more agreeable.


Good stuff: This is a very good budget level stock that can be easily accurized and modified by someone with a knowledge of hand tools and a modicum of common sense. It is not meant to be the end all varmint or tactical stock; it is a mid-level upgrade from an okay-ish factory stock, and in that role it performs beautifully. I won't say it stands up to a Mcmillan or other high grade custom stock since I have no significant experience with those, but it is still comfortable to shoot and the price tag is much less painful for us lower-middle class shooters. The anschutz style rail on the forend is a nice touch, with lots of options for bipods, hand stops and what-have-you.

Bad Stuff: If you're going to do the lead and epoxy trick, remember to plug the gap between the grip and the butt. I forgot the first time out and made a royal fucking mess of my work bench. The molding is a bit of a pain if the manufacturer didn't happen to be doing a good job of checking quality control that day; the stock I received had the bedding block molded into it alright, by which I mean the fucking thing was covered in molded plastic that I had to carefully remove with a razor to achieve a tight fit with the receiver. Also, note that the forend is much much wider than your average sporter; even compared to the factory varmint stock I had been using, this thing is freaking huge (to the point it dictated placing an order for a new sand-bag for ye olde front mech rest).

Overall: Good mid grade stock. Nothing that's going to win championships, but for the odd day at the range or a friendly local distance shoot it is perfectly at home. Won't break the bank, and it hasn't hurt the accuracy I had before the upgrade, plus the added weight and significant change in center-of-mass makes it much easier to handle at the range. At 14.5lbs I sure as hell wouldn't take it hunting with me, but for a day of plastering the 500m+ steels, it will do just fine.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Ultimate Cool or Ultimate Tacticalulz?

Reference: http://www.arsenalfirearms.com/products/af-2011-a1-double-barrel-pistol
Not sure how to call this one. Definitely cooler than the double defense from Stoeger (gag).

I'm going to go with cool (tentatively) until I can find out what the list price is. If its something manageable, it's cool; if it's something only a millionaire or a complete moron would pay, then its the tacticalulz of the year.

300 Blackout - At long last, a review!

I specifically waited a while to see how this cartridge would take in the current market, but it is finally time to take it out for a spin. Having been a long time sucker for the venerable .30-caliber variety of projectiles, this was right up my alley, but the final clincher was being able to form the brass from .223 or 5.56 brass (something I have absolutely no shortage of). I therefore set about rounding up reloading supplies and upper receiver parts.

First Impressions: When I first started reading about this round, I was immediately skeptical of its published ballistics, particularly the effective range and the velocity. How the hell could this little case hold enough powder to drive a 110 to 135 grain projectile beyond 2,000fps? I get that most of the loading data uses pistol powder to make up for this reduced capacity, but with such fast burning powder it raises the risk (and the severity of the consequences of) loading mistakes, while also reducing the safety threshold for OAL. Don't get me wrong, I know that so long as you stay within the safe range of the published data, you should be just fine; the simple fact is that the safe range for this particular cartridge is less than one grain when loading with H110.

Loading Bench: I have to say, this is one of the most fun cartridges that I have ever reloaded. Initially, trimming the .223 cases down to length was a royal pain in the ass, but eventually i got smart (or lazy, depending on your perspective) and snapped up a harbor freight benchtop 2" chop saw. First I removed the cheap-o vise that came with it and replace it with a home made jig to chop every case to the same size (in this case, I was chopping them just below the neck, to about 1.40" to allow room for error). To make things easier on my sizing die, I did a quick deburr on all the cases before grabbing the sizing wax and sizing the whole lot. Now it was time for a quick spin on the case trimmer, a date with the chamfering and deburring tools and finally a good cleaning in walnut media.

One issue I did note was that the partitions in the .223 ammo boxes I was using to store the cases are actually higher than the sized 300 BLK cases, making it difficult to remove any single case. Anyway, loading was a breeze. I've never used H110 before, but it meters very well in my powder dispenser.

The Rifle: I wasn't about to plunk down the money for a commercial upper or a full up rifle, so I ended up building my own. This being a relatively light recoiling round, I ended up going the direction of an ultra-lite AR upper to slip onto the lower from another of my rifles. I manage to get my hands on an AR-Stoner lite contour barrel, a DPMS slick side upper (my personal preference, for simplicities sake and because it fits very tightly to a rock river lower) Yankee Hill Gas system parts and a Midwest Industries rail system.

At the Range: I started out testing a series of 110gr Vmax loads along with a number of 135gr SMK loads. I was initially expecting the SMKs to be the real tack drivers (based on previous experience with .308s and .223s) but was surprised that a few of the little red tips printed very respectable sub-moa groups (best group was .85"!), while the match kings hovered around the 1"-1.25" area. Not bad at all out of a little 16" carbine!

Now for the bad bits: My biggest issue was a huge number of double feeds and failure to extracts with the SMKs. At first I thought it was something wrong with the gas system (not quite lined up perfectly?) but after stripping it down and re-aligning it, the problem persisted. After some trouble shooting, the culprit revealed itself: The hydraulic buffer system I had installed was slowing the bolt carrier enough that it was not cycling fully. The first symptom was that the bolt didn't lock back on an empty magazine, with double feeds being the eventual result of my not correcting the problem. While this never occurred with the Vmaxs, I believe it is because there was a larger charge of powder behind the little hornady bastards that gave them just a little more gas pressure to cycle fully.

Another thing I noticed is that chopping and resizing the thicker lake city 5.56 brass was a bit more dicey than the bulk box federal I ended up using exclusively. The 5.56 brass that I did end up with was very tight in the chamber, making extraction very difficult; likely will not be resizing surplus brass too 300 BLK again.

Overall: Love it. This little bastard is a great addition to the gun safe, especially for someone who reloads. Being able to chop and resize shot out .223 brass makes makes it a very good value to anyone who handloads, while the standardized caliber (.308) makes it easy to find bullet options. The AR platform compatibility is perhaps its best feature overall, and makes the 300BLK a very sturdy chamberings that is likely to outlast many of the other fad cartridges that have come on out in recent years.

Gerber Silver Trident Knife - Hands on Review

I've had my eye on one of these for a very long time. The only thing standing in my way was the insane price they used to command, but at long last I was able to pick one up on clearance for a little over a hundred bucks. Normally, they run about $200 online (after shipping charges).

Good stuff: The grip is perfect. The texture is exactly what I was hoping it would be, and the girth of the grip itself lends itself to those of us with larger hands (something I constantly wish my benchmade knives had as well). The blade is well constructed and the serrations are sharp as hell. The balance is about as close to perfect as it gets for this kind of knife.

Bad stuff: I really don't have any big negatives here. The plastic tab on the sheath that hooks over the cross bar is a bit tight, but I imagine it will loosen up some with use.

Overall: Love it. Dunno if it's worth the MSRP, but if you can get it on sale under $150 its a VERY nice knife for that price.

X-treme Grip Firearm Grip system - Hands on Review

I won't go too in depth on this one because, well, there's really not a lot to it.

Good Stuff: Maintains grip very well. I bought the "Sand" textured version, and though I'm sure some shooters would disagree with me, I found it to be very comfortable (i attribute this to my M&P grips fitting my hand very well, with very little wiggle room to cause irritation from rubbing against the "sand"). The whole package has enough laser cut outs to cover pretty much the entire grip frame. I opted to just cover the areas shown in the picture because that's what i have found works best for me in the past, but you're more than welcome to go wild.

Not great stuff: A bit of a mess to install. Instructions recommend using a heat gun and applique roller for best results, and I wish I had done that. I applied it by hand, and while 85% of the grip is perfect, there are a few small spots that tend to pop up a little while in the safe. Not the end of the world, but again 20/20 hindsight.

Overall: Very nice product. Provides a very solid grip.

Storm Lake Threaded M&P Barrel and Carver Custom Compensator - A Hands on Double Whammy

I pride myself on doing the research and shopping around so I get the best bang for my buck. Firearms products are no exception, so when I started thinking about compensating my Smith and Wesson M&P9 the first thing I did was hit the internet.

This particular combination stood out to me for a number of reasons. First, its milled to compliment the natural lines of the M&P; obviously form should always follow function when it comes to firearms, but I just can't bring myself to mount a Dawson Precision lego block on the front of my otherwise attractive firearm.  Nothing against Dawson, I know they make great Glock toys, but I just can't do it.

Anyhoo, once the barrel was clean and the loctite was cured, it was time to hit the range for a real test. The results actually amazed me (not an easy thing to do these days). I tried a variety of factory and handloaded ammo, and surprisingly the one that gave me the best groups and greatest reduction in muzzle climb was <gasp> Winchester fucking Whitebox. None of my initial handloads where really geared to a compensator, so I see some serious load development happening in the very near future.

This is the video from the 20 yard line on a head-size steel plate. Given that I'm not Jerry Miculek, this was the fastest I've done this particular drill with a full caliber handgun, and in fact this time rivals some of my .22lr runs. With some load work and a little practice, I hope to cut a few more seconds off.

Good things: Very effective at reducing muzzle climb. I love the aesthetics.

Not so great things: Kinda wish there was a better way to secure the comp than with threadlocker (set screw, cotter pin, i dunno) because cleaning the thing without taking the barrel out of the slide is a royal pain in the ass. Had lots of carbon buildup in the ports as well, but I also screwed up by not oiling the comp before shooting (stupid me, I know. 20/20 hindsight...). Fortunately, i discovered a few drops of bore gel and a few q-tips (plus bunches of patience) do a good job of cleaning up the mess.

Overall: Like it. With a performance boost like this, I can live with a little headache at the cleaning table. Worse things have happened.

Pelican Rifle/Gear Cases - Hands on Review

I've been using Pelican cases for my duty weapons and gear for a number of years now, but finally broke down and got one to fit a couple of my own personal weapons. They survive deployments and training TDYs without a hitch, and if you can afford them its 100% worth the money.

Good Stuff: One of the toughest products I have ever had the pleasure of using. I can honestly that I have never seen one of these cases fail, despite deployment and training stresses and general heavy military use. It is a touch heavier than some other cases, but considering the much better durability (and the fact that it has wheels for the weak-armed individuals out there) its a non-issue. My personal case came with the solid foam, which I custom cut to hold a couple of rifles (which saved me a few bucks) but you can also get custom made foam inserts from the manufacturer.

Bad Stuff: It would be irresponsible of me not to mention the price here. This level of protection doesn't come cheap, so your looking at a couple hundred dollar investment.

Overall: Probably don't need a Pelican case for the occasional trip to the range or once a year trip to deer camp. However, if you have some serious travel (airline or otherwise) in your future or will be seeing some tough conditions, then Pelican is definitely worth it. A couple hundred dollar investment will protect your couple thousand dollar rifles, and you will be happy. The end.

Caldwell Rock Jr Rifle Rest -Hands on Review

This will be a short one. Its a rifle rest. It does what its supposed to do.

It's cheaper than a lot of the competition and does just as good a job as 80% of the other rests out there. It doesnt have a lot of extras on it and its not going to be the end-all answer to your target shooting/ varminting/ benchrest need, but its solid, its simple, and its easy to adjust (three things that rate good marks in my book). It does what it was designed to do at a price even I can afford. Although probably not what you would be using if you where planning on going toe-to-toe with some of the best shooters in the country, this will more than suffice for day-to-day zeroing of rifle, whiping out your average prairie dog town, and friendly to moderate target shooting and competition.

Savage Model 12 FVSS Varmint Rifle - Hands on Review

So the long story short, I have been in the market for a long, heavy barrel 308 winchester rifle for longer range work for the better part of two years now and nothing really caught my fancy (at least, not that fit into my income bracket). I finally decided to settle on the Savage 12 FVSS, and I am sure glad I did. I have always prided myself on researching my purchases very carefully in advance, and it paid of in spades this time around.

Good stuff: Throw a good scope on this sucker and you are good to go. I chose to go with a Bushnell Elite 3200 3-9x40 with their DOA reticle because it was the best in my price range, but I can see where better glass would make this an even better shooter. As with any other heavy contour varminter, its very front heavy and most at home riding a rest or bipod. If you buy this rifle thinking you will carry it across mountain tops, then maybe you should re-think your options, as this model definitely has some heft to it.

As accuracy goes, I havent had a chance to work up any handloads just yet, but the Black Hills and Hornady Match ammo I ran through it chalked up several VERY impressive groups (best was ~.5MOA at 100 yds, and actually appeared to tighten up at longer ranges; I managed to Clang the head of a 500yd sillhouette target that is no more than about 5 inches wide, so its more than adequate for what I want to do).

Bad Stuff: As with all savage actions, I wouldn't want to use this for anything requiring rapid follow up shots. Because it re-cocks on opening, it makes unlocking the bolt hard tough enough to unseat the rifle on the rest when you finally qrench it open. Hopefully this will smooth out a bit with use. Its not the end of the world since this will be mainly a target rifle, but its still a bit of a pain. My only other complaint is really not related to the rifle, but to my own retarded slip up; I didnt think to measure my cleaning rods before I bought this rifle, and managed to overlook the fact that none of them would reach down its 26" barrel, much less the additional 11" of boreguide. So mark that one up to me failing to pay attention to details, and let it be a reminder to anyone else who is in the market for this rifle.

Overall, a very good rifle for under $800. Can't wait to see what it can do with some good handloads; I have a selection of Matchkings and Nosler Custom Competition BTHPs ready on the loading bench, and a pound of Benchmark, so we'll see how far that gets me. Definately recommend this rifle it to anyone considering it.

Larue Tactical Stealth Upper Reciever Assembly - Hands on Review

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It took me a while to fine tune my hand loads with this setup, but it paid of in the end. I have the 18" model with one of Larues modified Harris Bipods and topped with a 3.5x ACOG. It's all fitted to a standard lower reciever assembly with a two stage trigger and some other goodies that aren't really relevant to this post. The barrel is a very fast 1 in 7 twist, so heavy bullets (75 grains and higher) are highly recommended.

Good stuff: The fit is awesome in all respects. I use a accu-wedge with other kids of upper receivers, but the stealth upper fits so tight to my Rock River lower that it isn't necessary. The full length rail handguard is a bit heavy, but this is not a product intended for room clearing or fast-paced competition shooting. At its core, it is a precision marksman rifle so its right at home shooting off bags or a bipod, making the weight much less of an issue.

It took me a good amount of experimentation, but once I got my handloads dialed in I was punching .30 to .35 moa groups at 100yds and beyond (Turns out it likes 77gr Sierra Matchkings and Benchmark powder. Dunno what everyone else is using, but this particular load seems to do the trick for me). My local range maxes out at 550 yds, and I can confirm that it will hit a man-sized target center mass at that distance with relative ease.

Bad stuff: A little tough to get dialed in if you don't handload. Utilizing this set up to its full potential requires some  real customization in regards to ammunition, and the only way to do it economically is to roll your own. Other than that, I really can't say anything bad about it. It's heavy for an AR but as stated above, its meant to be a precision marksman rifle,

Overall: If you are the type who hoses down 25yd targets with a hundred rounds of bulk pack Wolf ammo, this upper is probably not for you. On the other hand, if you want to blast a prairie dog between the eyes at 250yds with the first shot this is about as good as it gets. AR handloaders everywhere rejoice!

Howard Leight Electronic Ear Protection - Hands on Review

I've had a a pair of these on my wish list for a while now, and finally got ahold of them at a good sale price ($50 beats $60 any day of the week). Honestly, I wish I had just bit my lip and paid retail price a year ago. These things are awesome.

Good stuff: They fit under standard issue military helmets very comfortably, so its a much more affordable option than a pricey set of Peltors. When I turn the volume up, I can actually hear a bit better than normal, which will make hunting season that much easier. Another benefit is the inclusion of a standard headphone jack, enabling you to hook up your Ipod or whatever else. This is great, because now they can double as noise canceling headphones (I used mine while mowing the lawn, and can see where they would be a godsend on a airline, in the back of a C17 or near a high-activity airfield).

Bad Stuff: The battery cover is a bit too flimsy for my taste. Mine hasn't been knocked loose yet, but I'm still going try to avoid that with a bit of preventative black duct tape. The headband length adjustment is also a bit loose. Using the very same roll of duct tape, I adjusted the size until I liked it and then taped it in place.

Overall, a great little piece of equipment. I know its designed for the shooting range, but I can see myself using it in a wide variety of applications as well. Definitely worth the money, and a better value (in my opinion) than the more expensive peltor models.

Surefire 60rd & 100rd AR-15 Magazines

Ok, so first off, these don't hit markets until March/April time frame. That being said, its still a pretty sweet idea. I watched some of the videos online and if these things are really as reliable as they appear to demonstrate, it may be well worth the painful price tag ($130 for the 60rd and $180 for the 100rd, although I imagine that will go down if the initial release is successful).