Picked up an Eotech XPS2 to throw on my ‘green machine’ AR. Unlike the one that is sitting on my FN, this one is by itself with no magnifier. Just a simple, unmagnified red dot. To my surprise it shot quite well at 100 yards, keeping three shot groups within a couple inches. Considering this is 1x and there is no magnification, thats not too shabby. I expected good accuracy from the SIG upper, but I didnt expect my eyes to be able to keep a red dot, in bright daylight, on a light background at 100 yards. But..here we are.

Thats a SIG upper on a KE Arms poly lower with their target trigger, 45* safety, and ambi mag release. It’s pretty light for what it is, and as age comes on apace I find that lighter guns have an appeal (says the man who owns a Barret 82A1).

One thing that is wildly pissing me off is that the front rail has no picatinny on it. So, I had to add a segment of pic rail to the front top to accommodate a set of backup sights…but that raise the sight to the point it shoots a bit low, even with the front sight post bottomed out. The solution is going to be to find a thinner pic riser.

I mounted the Eotech on the gun and fired it at 100 yards. Windage was spot on and only elevation needed adjusting. I’m coming around to enjoy the speed and utility of these red dots. Ive learned the hard way that if youre going to need a gun, you need it in a hurry and anything that speeds up getting the bullet into the backstop is a good thing. So, I’ll let my wallet be my endorsement…I liked the first XPS2 I bought so much that I bought another.

While at the range, I also pulled out the SBR’d BRN-180. I recently purchased a Meprolight M21 as an experiment with non-illuminated scopes. The M21 uses just ambient light, like an ACOG, but unlike the ACOG has no other light source (unlike the ACOG’s tritium backup). So…a batteryless optic for the end of the world. Howd I like it. Its…ok. Build quality seems good and I expect it to be brutally rugged. But it suffers the same problem all fiber optic sights have – shooting from light into light, and light into dark is no problem. But, if youre in a darkened area shooting into a lighter area, the reticle may not be bright enough. Meprolight does make a version of this optic that has tritium, which Ill probably try, and another version that uses batteries. Considering this is an Israeil offering, and it tends to be sunny all the time over there, I suppose its not an issue over there. Here, however, its another story. Then again, this stubby little wanna-be-PDW is mostly an indoor/car item, so perhaps its not as much of an issue as I think. And, of course, backup sights which cowitnessed beautifully.

Unfortunately, this little gun is giving me some ejection problems. Every so often a case extracts, but fails to ehect, giving me a stovepipe and double feed. Rather than go overboard screwing with it, I’m just going to swap out the ejector, ejector spring, extractor, and extractor spring for some enhanced one from JP Customs. I really want to like this little gun, and I want to have faith in it’s reliability, so a little work is called for.

Interestingly, in the same size I can get the JAKL pistol/SBR whcih gives me the same size package but has proven itself well so far.

So, overall, a productive day at the range. Beats sitting at home doing weekend laundry duties.

One of the things I like about the current crop of Palmetto JAKL and Brownell BRN-180 guns is that they use a 99% bog-standard AR lower. (The JAKL requires you to swap to a slightly modified bolt release paddle.)

Anyway… since both of these platforms use unmodified AR lowers, it’s convenient to keep an eye open for SBR’d lowers that come up for sale. Then I can just pull the upper off of the ‘pistol’ it sits on and mate it up to the SBR’d lower giving me the ability use a real stock and not have to look over my shoulder at the range.

While I do have a couple SBR’d AR’s, one of the drawbacks to the AR design is the buffer tube that does not lend itself to a folding stock. Do you really need a folding stock? Depends on who you ask. Personally, when I buy a firearm it almost always is with an eye towards how it would be used ‘in a prolonged crisis of some kind’ (cough*EOTWAWKI*cough). If, Crom forbid, I have to throw my gear in the back of the truck and head off to the beta site, space will be at a premium and being able to tuck a .223 carbine in my backpack will have some value.

Lately I’ve been playing with the Gen2 Brownell BRN-180. It’s modernized version of the AR-180 and has all the same benefits and drawbacks of the original AR-180’s from way back when. What the AR-180 brings to the table (and so does the JAKL) is a more ‘hygienic’ operating system. The JAKL and BRN-180 both use designs that keep operating gases out of the action. The JAKL through the use of a long-stroke gas piston, and the BRN-180 with a short-stroke gas piston system. Or, put another way, the AK system and the M1 Carbine system. The direct impingement system of the AR15 is great, and makes for an accurate semi-auto rifle but there is, in my opinion and experience, a bit of a reliability issue in the AR system because of the operating gases being vented into the action and bolt. Some people shoot a thousand rounds from the AR with no cleaning and no issue, some fire 200 rounds and have things get gummy. Your mileage may vary. But with the non-direct impingement guns it isnt even on the map as a potential problem. Sure, keep on top of cleaning, squirt some lube into bolt from time to time, and you can probably go forever without cleaning. But, some day you may not have the time, resources, or ability to clean your rifle after a couple hundred rounds and thats when things like ‘ability to endure neglect’ become important.

Again, your milage may vary…I’m only speaking about my experiences.

Since I was wanting a carbine that could be made into the smallest footprint possible without compromising too much performance, I needed something that didnt require the buffer tube. Thats pretty much every non-AR out there – JAKL, AK, AR-180, HK93, Mini14, etc. So, I ordered up an 11″ BRN-180 upper , picked up a stripped Poverty Pony lower that had been SBR’d by the folks at Iron Mountain, slapped a CMMG parts kit in it, added a Midwest Industries folder, put on some Magpul BUIS and a sling, and got this:

Pretty fetching, dontcha think?

Took it out to the range and it ran just fine. Threaded a Gemtech Abyss onto the end and it shot well enough but I had a few failures. Didnt realize that I had forgotten to change the setting on the gas block to ‘S’ (suppressed) from ‘U’ (unsuppressed). That cleared it up. With the can on the end the thing is just at the same OAL as a unsuppressed AR carbine. I also have a 16″ BRN-180 as well with a Leupold 1-4x Patrol scope on it and it’s a light, handy gun.

Theres the saying that when all you have is a hammer, every problem looks like a nail. Is a compact folding-folding-stock SBR my first choice for running out the door? Not if I can get away with a 16″ barrel AR, AK, or similar arm. But for the circumstance where high portability and compactness matter? This might not be a terrible choice.

I mentioned a few posts back that I had put together an entirely ODG (olive drab green) AR. I like the color, it goes well with everything, and, honestly, black rifles get a little boring. On the other hand, finding accessories in basic black is a piece of cake. Finding accessories in ODG, however…that takes some work. Well, thats not really true…what it takes is money. But, Zero wanted an all-green gun and, dangit, thats what Zero got.
Sling – MagPul M4 Sling
VFG – Magpul VFG
Rails – Timber Creek aluminum rail segments in ODG
Sights – Magpul BUIS in ODG

I’m a bit disappointed that the QD socket attachments were only available in black, but you can’t have everything. I’ll be swapping out the muzzle device for some sort of QD-supressor-compatible device as soon as I figure out whats available. And, the glaringly obvious glaring barrel might just be left as is..or it might get the rattle can treatment…we shall see.
And since TPIWWP:

Well, quieter, anyway.

You guys remember last month when I missed out on an auction for a fixed-sight, full underlug, 4″ GP-100? Yeah, that was a bit of a heartbreaker. But, I’m soothing my feelings with this:

It’s from 1995 but is in very nice condition. For those who aren’t familiar with this piece, some background may be in order. Fixed sight variants of the GP-100 are a bit hard to find. Most of them were made for police/security contracts, including a .38 Spl DAO version for the NYPD. They were available in a couple variations – stainless or blued, full or half underlug. Ruger catalogs a 3″ variant these days in stainless, but the 4″ don’t show up much. Century Arms re-imported some stainless half-lug DAO versions a while back and they turn up on GunBroker, but I’d prefer to have the option of single action as well as double action.

Anyway, this gun is gonna get some cleaning and then its time to head to the range and see how it shoots.

A while back, one of my vendors was closing out KE Arms complete polymer AR lowers. These things are the successor to the old(er) Cavalry Arms poly lowers that were available years back. I wound up going pretty deep on these things and have about 20 of them sitting here. If you shop carefully, you can wind up putting together a deliciously light carbine. My vendor was selling two different flavors – the basic black with mil-spec parts, and a OD green model with razoo trigger, ambi mag release, and a couple other nice features. I picked up two or three of those. Here’s the problem – I hate mismatched colors on guns. I fully understand that two-tone guns can look quite striking and cool…but when it comes to AR’s (or carbines in general) I really would prefer them to be one color or pattern. A green upper receiver on a black lower just seems so….kitchen-table-assembly ghetto. Yeah, its a snob thing. Sure, I could have just pulled an AR off the rack and had it sent to the guys at Blue Line with instructions to green it up, but I figured if I waited long enough I might find one.

Turns out that when it comes to getting a factory-produced OD upper made by a major manufacturer…its a stretch. Do a hunt for a colored AR AR of color and you’ll see that most outfits just color the furniture. Want a green AR? No sweat…everyone sells an AR with some OD Magpul furniture….stock, handguards, pistol grip…..but the actual lower and upper are still black. Not what Zero wants. Before you start commenting about how so-and-so runs off lowers in various colors, please not that Im not saying they arent out there. Im simply saying its not an easy thing to come across assembled uppers in ODG. (Aero, for example, puts out colored uppers but there are not assembled.)

However, patience pays off sometimes. I found a ‘take off’ complete OD upper made by SIG on GunBroker. I put a bid in on it and won. So…time to ‘assemble’ another AR.

I had mentioned, a few posts back, that I impulse picked up a Poverty Pony lower that had been registered as an SBR by the Iron Mountain guys out in Potomac. Since I had a ‘wrist braced’ JAKL ‘pistol’, and the the JAKL uses a 95% (have to use a slightly modified bolt release paddle) standard AR lower, this seemed like a good opportunity to turn the wrist-braced-pistol into what nature and man intended it to be – a stubby carbine with a real stock. And thus, this happened:

Pretty cunning, innit?

The JAKL (and the AR-180) [and by extension the Sig MCX] are interesting guns from a survivalists perspective because the have almost all of the AR’s ergonomic benefits and modularity, while removing one of the AR’s (questionable) liabilities – the buffer tube making folding stocks impractical.*

Unless youre driving around in a GMC van with three of your war buddies, dodging the military police for a crime you didnt commit, the utility of being able to fire your carbine with the stock folded is something that doesn’t seem like a frequent need. Not saying it won’t happen…hallways and stairwells exist, but as a general sort of thing…not a frequent need. However, being able to reduce your carbine to a compact, easily storable, portable package…well thats a different story. This particular package will just barely fit, assembled and ready to shoot, in my Bag O’ Tricks ™ (admittedly not leaving me room for much else).

I'[ve become rather fond of SBR/SBS’s in the last year or two. Their compactness and handling of a short barrel, combined with the steadiness and rigidity of a ‘real’ stock (as opposed to wrist brace), just feels quite good in the hands. Obviously there’s a tradeoff with a shorter barrel, but for the distances at which such an arm could reasonably be expected to be employed the differences in exterior and terminal ballistics will be niggling.

First choice for running out the door when Der Tag kicks off? Nope. But when that time does come its a nice choice for keeping in the truck when quick handling goes from ‘nice to have’ to ‘best practices’.

And, as you can see form the picture, I’m starting to drop red dots on pretty much everything, although iron sights for backup are a non-negotiable.

*= Keywords here: impractical and practical.

I was thiiiiiiiiiis close. And someone snaked it out from under me about a half hour before I called the gun shop to say “Hey, do you still have this?”. What was it? Why, a 4″ Ruger GP-100 .357.

What is so special about that, you might ask? After all, aren’t there scads of 4″ GP-100s out there? Well, yes but…

I have long thought that an ideal ‘combat’ revolver, if a revolver can be said to be ideal for the rough and tumble of irregular warfare, would be a sturdy fixed-sight, full-underlug, stainless .357 Magnum. It would have no adjustable sights to get damaged, have a full lug to protect the ejector rod and give some weight at the front, be in everything-resistant stainless steel, be built on a large enough frame to handle a steady diet of .357 but not too heavy to inhibit fast handling,  be in the powerful and versatile .357 and still have the option to be fed with .38’s if thats all that was available. The only major manufacturer who made something like that was Smith and Wesson with their 681 series of revolvers built on their L-frame*. An excellent gun it has been out of manufacturer since the 90’s. Ruger, though, once in a while, drops a fixed-sight variant of their GP-100 and thats what your buddy Zero is looking for. The 3″ variants are easy enough to find, and there are some 4″ DAO re-imports that century brought in a while back, but the full-lug versions are scarce.

One of my ‘Grail guns’. Still looking.

I came across an auction last week for a half-lug version and I’d take that over nothing. But…I missed the auction deadline and the store that had it for auction sold it shortly before I called. Dang it.

I would much rather run through the apocalypse with a Glock or HiPower, but if I were to carry a revolver, and I were expecting trouble from things that had language skills, this guy would be a top contender.

*= Yes, Smith ran of some oddball, very-limited-run .357’s with fixed sights on their N frame. (Most notably, the 520.) But the numbers are small enough that they may as well be non-existent. Also, the 520 was blued. There was, I think, a fixed sight variant of the 627 out there but N-frame is bigger than the handier L-frame and I don’t believe it had the full underlug.