Ruger AR556 MPR impressions

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TL;DR: I have a new favorite AR.

Alright, the first thing to address is that the ‘MPR’ is kind of a ‘package’ for Ruger’s AR556 carbine. You can do a little comparison between the AR556 and the MPR by looking at the spec sheets, but, basically, the AR556 are M4-clones whereas the MPR seem to be a bit more refined with slightly longer barrels, freefloat handguards (which some AR556 models have), the very nice 452 Elite trigger, a non-birdcage brake/flash suppressor and Magpul furniture.

I liked the idea of something longer than 16″ but shorter than 20″, wanted the freefloat handguards, no front sight tower, and Magpul furniture. The trigger was icing on the cake and I really, really like it. Not so heavy as to preclude making good shots at distance, but not so light that you’d be unsafe running around Katrinaville.

My impressions from shooting about a hundred rounds downrange is very favorable. I don’t know if its the brake, the rifle-length gas system, or both, but the felt recoil and muzzle rise was the easiest of any AR I’ve ever shot. If you’re into fast followups this seems to be the rifle for you.

Other than that, its an AR. Ergonomics, control layout, etc, are all the same as every other one of the millions of AR’s floating around the planet. The nontypical barrel length, rifle-length gas system, and snazzy trigger are Ruger’s personal touches and they really are what separates this rifle from the others.

I dropped a set of Magpul Pro BUIS on there to keep handy in case the Leupold VX-R Patrol optic (1.25×4 30mm tube) craps out. The cheaper plastic Magpul BUIS would probably have worked just fine but they are a tad bulky and I couldn’t be sure they’d fit under the eyepiece end of the scope. The Magpul Pro, while spendy, fit perfectly with a little room to spare.

Added a sling because. Only other thing to add would be a tactical light and then that’s it. Done. What sorta crap you hang off your AR is your business, but I like to keep it neat and minimal. No VFG, no offset sights, no short range red dot, no monopod, etc.

The Leupold scope was my compromise to avoid spending $1300 on an ACOG. (Although I see nothing wrong with dropping an ACOG on this thing if you have the money.) I’d spent a lot of time fondling the two different Leupold AR scopes, one a 1″ tube and the other a 30mm, and decided to spend the extra money for the illuminated dot and the 30mm tube. Worth it. Dialed down to 1.25x and with the dot lit up this thing makes fast target acquisition possible and for longer shots I can dial it out to 4x. The dot, by the way, shuts itself off after five minutes of inactivity and then turns itself back on when it detects motion. Thats just freakin’ handy.

How does it shoot? Between the rifle-length gas system and the brake/comp on the end, this is the softest shooting AR I’ve ever handled. There’s negligible muzzle rise and barely any recoil. If you see yourself in a world where fast followup shots are called for, this is the gun for you. Ruger’s trigger is really nice and it fits the bill in terms of practicality…not too light, not too heavy. It’s got some take up and then -bang-… like a very very nice two-stage trigger.

Overall, I’m very pleased. The MPR version of the AR556 usually comes in around $150-200 more than the regular version but, in my opinion, it’s worth it. Just the trigger alone would be an upgrade of almost that value.

If you get a chance, go play with one. Especially try the trigger.

MSRP on the MPR is $899, but I’ve seen them on sale in the mid $500’s, and dealer prices usually run in the $650-700 range, which, to me, is a very reasonable price for such a neat gun. Zero recommends.

Just fanning the flames of panic buying

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Its hard to believe that December is actually here. Where the heck did the year go? Probably the most important thing to note is that there is less than a year until the election. Take nothing for granted, mi amigos… sure, the Democrats are scraping the bottom of the barrel but you can’t make your plans on what might happen. You have to be prepared for worst case scenarios. So… hie thee to your favorite internet vendor and load up on mags.

I lost count, but I think that for YTD I’m at something like … uhm…16 guns added to the stable this year. (Including…wait for it…three more P95DC pistols and another PC9 carbine.)

As Beto O’Dork forthrightly said “Hell, yes, we’re going to take your AR-15, your AK-47” and although he appears to have politically shot himself in the foot, he didn’t say anything that the other Democrats weren’t fine n’ dandy with.

So, for me, it makes sense to have a bit of a stockpile built up. I’d recommend you do the same. And if you’re one of those short-sighted simpletons who say “I’ve got ten magazines for my AR-15… thats plenty”, well, you’re an idiot. Stop being an idiot and do some thinking about how ten magazines to last you for the rest of your life is amazingly short-sighted to the point of idiocy.

2020 is going to be an interesting year, if for no other reason than because of that election. In fact, virtually every single thing that happens between January 1 2020 and Election Day, no matter how politically irrelevant, will be looked at through the lens of how it will affect the election. Putin invades Ukraine? How will it affect the election. Polar ice caps melt? How will it affect the election? The animated corpse that is Ruth Ginsburg finally comes to a halt? How will that affect the election? Xenu arrives? How will it….you get the idea. Get used to it, because all of 2020 will be like one year-long Super Bowl pregame show.

Im sitting at a point where, if the axe finally falls, and They reinstate the ’94 Ban I’ll be okay. Of course, the likelihood of them having a grandfathering provision in any new ban is pretty shaky, and having a sunset clause is pretty much fantasy. But, if I woke up tomorrow and whatever I had tomorrow was all I could have for the rest of my life…I’d be okay. But I strive to be more than ‘okay’, and so should you.

Anyway, that’s my ‘the sky is falling’ post on the subject for now. I’m sure I’ll revisit it a time or two before the election…especially if some nutjob shoots up a WalMart somewhere before then.

 

 

Black Friday scene from a gun shop

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True story: Local Cabela’s had a little Black Friday doorbuster sale on some guns and folks started lining u pearly. Doors opened at 5a and the gun counter was, of course, swamped. A few minutes into this excitement, an older gentleman passed out and hit the floor. An ambulance was called and he was taken away. Two hours later, he comes back in, heads to the gun counter, borrows a pair of scissors to cut the hospital bracelet off because his wife “would be pissed if she found out”, and bought the gun he had originally come in for.

Hardcore. (Although not as much so as if he didn’t care what his wife thought)

 

 

Reminder

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If you’re anything like me (and Crom help you if you are), you could probably benefit from a well-intentioned and well-timed reminder:

  • 1) Go run the generator for an hour
  • 2) Go check the batteries in all the devices to make sure they haven’t crapped out and are slowly destroying your device.

It s a cold, clear day with the late fall sun slanting down giving everything that odd look that says “seasons are changing”. It’s the sort of day where you can feel that something approaches. A lizard-brain response to the upcoming winter, I’m guessing. Or maybe a subconscious response to the current zeitgeist. Regardless, whether its simply winter or Civil War 2: Electric Boogaloo, it’s always a good idea to make sure some of the critical gear is ready to go. Standing on your porch, holding a flashlight in your teeth, when its five below zero and you’re sweaty from repeatedly and unsuccessfully whipping that recoil starter cord back and forth is no time to discover that maybe you should have run the generator three weeks ago to make sure it was up to snuff.

The generator, flashlights, radios, GPS, and the like were not cheap. Spend an hour today making sure you didn’t waste money and time.

 

Article – What Not to Do in a Disaster

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Surprisingly, plenty of other people in deadly scenarios don’t act fast enough to save their own lives. From arguing over small change while a ship sinks into stormy water, to standing idly on the beach as a tsunami approaches, psychologists have known for years that people make self-destructive decisions under pressure. Though news reports tend to focus on miraculous survival, if people escape with their lives it’s often despite their actions – not because of them.

An article that says what we’ve known all along – normalcy bias and the ‘this can’t really be happening’ mindset will work against you in a crisis.

Decisiveness, preplanning, equanamity, and a dose of luck make the difference between being embraced and being embalmed. Interesting article and worth a read.

Article – What to Eat After the Apocalypse

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In 1841, an invasive water mold began to infect the world’s potatoes. Starting from Mexico, the infectious agent of blight traveled up through North America, then crossed the Atlantic. Eventually it reached Ireland, where, as the journalist Charles Mann described it, “four out of ten Irish ate no solid food except potatoes, and … the rest were heavily dependent on them.”

The Great Famine, as it came to be known, could have been avoided in any number of ways, not least by ceasing the export of food from Ireland to Britain. But the British government failed to take effective action. The question of avoiding starvation becomes harder still if some apocalyptic event causes the whole world to starve. How might a government prepare for a worst-case scenario?

As a survivalist, I’m all about caring where my next meal is coming from. I am less about caring where the rest of the worlds next meal is coming from.

Assuming some sort of “The Road”-esque disaster that reduces the global supply of food, I would imagine that the global supply of people will also suffer in very short order. Or, put another way, when the freeze dried porkchops and barrels of rice are exhausted in a year or so there are going to be a lot less people out there needing food.

Honestly, the notion of some sort of global famine ranks pretty low down there on  my probability list. Localized famine, maybe. But it’s interesting to see that there are people thinking about the subject.

Interestingly, the article seems to take itself seriously about ‘feeding the world’ after some sort of global disaster but even now, in a time of relative calm, we still can’t feed the entire world. Additionally, I’m not sure we have an obligation to do so but thats another argument.

Article – Nuclear missile bunker: yours for less than $400k

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One local newspaper described the sales listing, with calculated understatement, as a “mid-century fixer-upper”: an underground bunker built to withstand a nuclear attack, and to house the fire power to retaliate.

The decommissioned nuclear silo in southern Arizona was once home to the Titan II, the largest intercontinental ballistic missile deployed by the US Air Force.

Yawn..another article about a flooded missile base being up for sale, right? True enough. But the 3D virtual tour is utterly fascinating. Highly recommend. It’s like a video game.

I’m still rather partial to the old decommissioned long-line microwave relay stations that dot the US. I looked at one in Whitehall years ago and it was a nice, unassuming little bunker with some serious muscle to it. Ah well…a man’s reach should exceed his grasp, else whats a heaven for?

Gaming the system

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There’s a Cabela’s down the road from me. They are grossly overpriced on most things but once in a while something gets in there that catches my eye. On a whim, I picked up their Cabela’s credit card. It returns 2% of the purchase price of anything you buy there as ‘points’ that can be redeemed on future purchases. In other words, buy $100 worth of gear and you get $2 in points. On your next trip you use that $2 against the price of whatever your next purchase is. Follow?

Here’s where it gets… interesting.

Cabelas is having a ‘Cabelas Club’ event this Sunday. That means that theres a few things on sale but, more importantly, people who have the Cabelas card get some bonuses: a 10% off coupon for their purchase, and ‘triple points’..meaning that if you normally got 2% back in points you will get that 2% and another 6%, meaning you really get 8%. Annnnd…Cabela’s gift cards are 10% off this weekend.

And thats when my brain kicked in.

For the sake of argument let’s say a gun is $1000. You’re going to buy that gun using your 10% discount coupon. That means you need to fork over $900, right? (Because $1000 x .10 = $100 and $1000-$100=$900) Okay, so the gun will now cost you $900. BUT…gift cards are 10% off, right? So you go to the customer service counter and buy a $900 gift card. With a 10% discount on the gift card, that card will cost you $810. So far so good. You’re buying a $1000 rifle for $810. But wait, there’s more! You use your Cabela’s card to pay for the gift card. So you get 8% in points….and $810 x 8% = $64.80.

So you head to the checkout with your $1000 rifle. The gal says “$1000 please”. You hand her the coupon for 10% off. She says “Ok, that’ll be $900 please”. You give her the $900 gift card that you paid $810 for. Then you say “Id like to use my Cabelas points” and hand her your Cabelas card. She discounts you another $64.80 for the points you earned paying for the card.

Your final cost on that rifle is $1000 (orignal cost) – $100 (10% coupon) – $90 (10% for gift card) – $64.80 (points you earned paying for gift card) = $745.20, and you’ll still have some money left on the gift card. Or put another way, you’re looking at a 25% discount.

It’s also worth pointing out that Cabela’s price matches on non-internet competitors. So if your local gun shop has a gun in stock and at a cheaper price that Cabela’s can verify, they’ll match it. So..match the price first, and then hit ’em with the discounts. I did this a couple weeks back when Sportsmans Warehouse had Ruger 10/22 rifles in the $180~ range.

Gonna try this over the weekend since they have a rifle I’m kinda desirous of. (Although its not a $1000 rifle, but the math should still stand up.)