Monday Gunday: Technically a firearm

Sorry for the absence. I'm going to blame the weather for my headaches.

Last Thursday, however, I was out because I took a trip to Orlando to pick up the AR lower receiver that I bought from Spike's Tactical for a song ($65.00, including tax). 

Now begins the (potentially) fun part of saving up for, buying, and then installing the various pieces of kit needed to turn this firearm into an actual, usable rifle. Fortunately for me, WizardPC over at Guns, Cars & Tech is going through the same process, so I'm going to pillage his linkdump for useful instructions and shopping lists.

Note 1:  I cannot tell you how disappointed I was that a post titled My Little AR Build had no references to ponies anywhere. 

Note 2: Yes, building an AR is a complicated process full of choices and lots of shopping. As McThag says, "You can't spell Barbie without an AR." Given how the AR platform allows a shooter to swap calibers and accessories with the switch of an upper, there's a lot of truth to this comparison. 

What may amuse some of you non-gunnies out there is that I didn't mis-speak earlier: according to the BATF, this piece is the actual firearm; everything else, including the barrel, is an accessory that doesn't need a background check. Yes, if I took this chunk of powder-coated type III hard coat anodized aluminum and beat someone with it, I could be charged with assault with a deadly weapon.

I shall now pause to allow you to laugh.

Here's a close-up of the Florida design on the receiver. I haven't yet decided upon a name for this one yet -- I imagine that will evolve as I assemble the rifle -- but it should be something which suggests a local flavor.

The dot indicates the location of the manufacturer: Apopka, Florida. 

The only thing I've done to it so far is to remove some the of roughness of the coating. When I first got the receiver, it was a VERY deep black and had a texture that gave me the same shivers as when I hear nails on a chalkboard.* I knew that wouldn't be acceptable for anything I would need to touch regularly, so I took a bronze brush and gave the surfaces a good going-over. This smoothed over a lot of the pores and gave the surface a thin coating of bronze, when I then scrubbed off (mostly) with a stiff nylon brush. What little was left behind gave the piece a slightly weathered look. It's not very visible in the pictures, but the difference is between "everything is exactly the same shade of deep black" and "due to variations in surface topography, some places are lighter than others and now it has a sense of relief and shading."

Also, I can hold it without getting the heebie-jeebies, which is an important feature in a rifle.


*Actually, it felt exactly like uncoated ceramic. Touching that and hearing nails on a chalkboard give me the exact same shivers. 

WNW: Irish Olympic Sailing Commentary

This is for me best mate, Mr. Cumstances McPriv.

(Follow that last link, it's hilarious.)





H/T to whomever first posted this. Not sure who it was, but you're on my blogroll.

I could sure use some help

Caleb over at Gun Nuts Media is looking for a new writer.

Obviously, I think this new writer should be me. After all, I am the Bratty Little Sister of the Gunblog Community. Also, I need money. And think of all the cool stuff I could get to review!

If you would like to see me writing for Gun Nuts, then I encourage all of you to leave comments or emails to that effect, because frankly I'm not above stacking the deck in order to get this job.

Pleeeeeeaaaaase?

Monday Gunday: the Voodoo Tactical Armadillo Bag

Faithful readers will no doubt recall that I have been in search a method to tame the bucking and jumping -- "muzzle whip," I believe it's been called -- of my Mosin-Nagant. (For those of you who are unfamiliar, I have a big nasty Russian rifle that's as tall as I am, and fires a cartridge with enough recoil that it'll put hair on your chest.)

My particular problem with my Mosin isn't its 7.62x54R cartridge and the beefy recoil. In fact, I rather like the attention I get when other people are pop-pop-popping at the range and suddenly there's a tremendous BOOM! from my cannon. No, what bugged me was the way that, after each shot, the muzzle of my rifle would leap about a foot into the air (but was probably only a few inches) and come down in an entirely different place, forcing me to find my target all over again. While this isn't much of a problem at 25 or 50 yards, it's pretty significant at 100.

After doing some research, I was informed that this muzzle whip was probably caused by, or at least exacerbated by, the lightweight ATI stock that I owned. I reasoned, therefore, that if the problem was not enough mass in the stock then I could solve the problem by adding more mass back. The question, therefore, was how?

The answer is this: the Voodoo Tactical Armadillo Bag. ($60.95 + S&H)

This is basically an oversized purse fitted with MOLLE straps and an extra-wide carry strap. But what makes this handy are those two protrusions up top. The Armadillo is meant to serve as a shooting bag as well, and it works by supporting the rifle when you place the fore-end of the rifle between those two cushions. This is supposed to give a stable shooting surface, like a bipod, and also prevent side-to-side rocking.

If you're wondering, "Erin, I don't see how this solves your problem," you're well ahead of the curve. The fact is, it doesn't solve my problem -- or at least, it doesn't solve it in its stock formation. Time to modify!

A bag, inside a bag, inside a bag. I think I'll call this "Inception."

I said I needed mass, right? I want you guys to know that this bag is just the right size and shape to hold a 20-pound sandbag. It even has a lovely drawstring hood to help keep any errant bits of sand from leaking out. (Although, Protip: Place the sandbag in a heavy-duty plastic trash bag for extra insurance.)

All right, there's the mass, but how did I anchor it to the rifle?

Like this.

Through a cunning series of straps that I improvised. It's hard to tell, but trust me when I tell you that those straps aren't supposed to be there. The buckles on the left are supposed to help anchor the lid to the body of the bag, in case, I dunno, the zipper isn't strong enough or something. But let me tell you, sweetheart, that I didn't have any trouble keeping the lid closed, and I had a freaking sandbag in it when I toted it to the range.

This is the finished configuration, with the rifle securely lashed to 20 pounds of dead weight. I can tell you with absolute certainty that, affixed to this, my rifle doesn't buck any more. It just pushes straight back, like proper recoil. (And if it starts to move, I can always increase the weight. This bag easily holds 1,000 rounds of 9mm plus some .22LR.)

No doubt some of you are wondering why I have a bipod on the rifle if it's strapped to the bag. That's a very good question! The answer is that I couldn't get the sandbag to make a completely even top surface, what with the tie-down and the plastic bag and the drawstring, so the bipod is there to make sure my rifle is level. It's a bit belt-and-suspenders, I grant you, but the only thing I wanted that bag for was as a MOLLE-encrusted anchor, and believe me it delivers in that regard.

So, yes. The Voodoo Tactical Armadillo Bag. I can't rate it for what it's supposed to be, because I'm not using it like that, but it works very, very well in its new role. Voodoo Tactical makes their bags tough enough to survive the horrible things I do to them.

Doctor Frankenstein says:  A+




FTC Notice: I bought this product with my own money, so neener.

Freedom Munitions Update #1

I promised y'all a review of Freedom Munitions once I'd shot some, so just for fun, I loaded up 2 extended magazines and took them to the range this afternoon. One  had 30 rounds of store-bought 9mm Blazer, the other had 30 round of 9mm Blaster from Freedom Munitions. Both were 115 grain FMJ. 

I did not detect any difference in performance or operation between the store-bought ammo and the commercially reloaded ammo. It was indistinguishable to me. 

If anything, it was the magazines which gave me trouble with several Failures To Feed. Ironically, the mag with the store-bought stuff had more FTFs (3) than the one with the reloaded ammo (1), so I'm chalking that up to "Extended magazines sometimes do that" instead of blaming it on the ammo. 

For my next test, I'm going to shoot 100 rounds (or more) of the reloaded Blaster and see if there are any malfunctions that I can attribute to the cartridges themselves. I don't think I'll find any, but 10% of my volume should be a statistically significant sample. 

Picture Perfect Pony

Not enough ponies around here lately. (Still working on Failure is Awesome, I promise.)

This is just too awesome not to share. A brony has made a 3-minute music video with original animation, original voice acting, and original music. 

Words cannot express how impressed I am. The first time I saw it I was going "Wait, I've seen the episode with Photo Finish in it, I don't remember any of this," and then it proceeded to annihilate all my expectations. 

It looks like it came out of the MLP studios, it's that well made. 

Enjoy!

WNW: Spoon!

I'm not sure if I ever posted this or not. I suspect I have, but cursory search of my blog doesn't turn it up.

Oh well. If I did, it was years ago, and worth seeing again.