I call her "bang bang".

Rifle Specs:

Lower Receiver:
The lower started off as a stripped Rock River Arms piece. It's got a neat double stamping that can be seen here:



I put this together myself using a DPMS lower parts kit. I added a Magpul M93B stock and a Tango Down Battle Grip, both in Coyote Brown. I also added a Magpul enhanced trigger guard.

I really like the stock a lot. It's shorter than a regular collapsible stock when collapsed and longer than one when fully opened. It is also very sturdy and doesn't rattle or move at all. I like the stippling on the Tango Down Battle Grip a lot too. It's very grippy and the shape is more comfortable for me than an A2 grip. As a bonus, it's got room for 2 AA batteries in the storage compartment (I chose lithium AA's for the Eotech's back up power). It even comes with some foam to keep those batteries from rattling around in there. The Magpul enhanced trigger guard just looks cool, but as a bonus is completely void of any sharp edges.



Upper receiver:
The upper receiver is an LMT unit. It is an A4 unit with white T marks on the flat top and a 16 inch chrome lined barrel with a 1 in 7 inch twist, chrome chamber, and an A2 flash suppressor. I got a really good deal on this from arfcom with only 60 rounds through it. There wasn't even any wear on the brass deflecter. I used a CMT bolt, carrier and charging handle. More on the function later in the post.

I added a DPMS rear detachable back up iron sight. This is essentially like a cut down carry handle, but with National Match A2 sights. This turned out to be ok, but I don't like the small apertures (they're really tiny). They are good for precision shooting, but no longer fit my needs now that I have the Eotech (I'm going with a flip up type rear sight.). The DPMS is for sale or for trade, BTW in the optics forum on EE. The front sight is a standard forged front sight base with the bayonet lug and sling swivel. I removed the sling swivel because it rattled like all get out.

The secondary sight is an Eotech 552. This I really like. This is my first "red dot" type optic and it simply ROCKS. (I know I'll never need or use the night vision compatibility on this, but I got it in a trade brand new for a shotgun). More on this in the range report.

The rail is a Samson MRFS CX carbine and free floats the barrel. It surrounds the front sight base, giving you a little more rail to mount your accessories a little more forward if needed. It's fairly light at around 14 ounces (as far as free floats rails go) and has the white T marks. It does what it's supposed to do very well. As a bonus, it's a two piece unit, so you don't have to remove the front sight base, flash suppressor, or barrel. I simply cut of the delta ring with a rotary toll and removed the spring and keeper with the appropriate pliers.

On the rail is a Tango Down Vertical Grip in Coyote Brown. I really like the shape of this, it's very ergonomic. As a bonus, it has a cavernous waterproof storage area large enough to fit a bolt or other similarly sized items. I use it to fit three 3 volt batteries for the light. The only downside is it is not as tight fitting as I thought it should be. It moves around just a little bit. There's also a Pentagon X3HA 9 volt light mounted with a Daniel Defense offset light mount. The light is awesome at 135 lumens for 65 minutes and is recoil isolated designed specifically for firearms. The Daniel Defense offset light mount is sturdy and was painted Coyote Brown by it's former owner (I got it used). The rail covers, I got at the last gunshow. The package said they were Yankee Hill Machine, but I think they are knock offs. They are "Coyote Brown" and do what they are supposed to, which is make the rail more comfortable to handle. I use quotes in the color because they are not exactly the same color of the stock and grips. Close, but not exactly if this matters to you.

Lastly, the sling is an Eagle 3 point in OD green. It's attached to the front sight base with a snap closure. It's a well thought out design with another layer of fabric on back to protect your front sight base's finish. It attaches to the rear in the provided holes in the Magpul. It has HK style metal hooks that attach to the small loops on the front sight base and the rear stock. The hooks have elastic fabric that protect your rifles finish. It also has a quick release buckel that, when flipped, moves the weapon all the way to the offside and out of the way should you need to draw a secondary weapon. The rifle is still attached to you, just out of the way. I'm pretty happy with this sling for $26.

Stay tuned while I type out the range report. More to come very shortly...

Part II, Range Report:

This started out as a completely new rifle (well except for the upper). Everything except for the upper receiver and barrel is brand new.

Todays session took place at the Flintlock Valley Shooting Range in Uwharrie National Forest Park. I'm sure some of you "special" guys have been in these woods before. The temperature was 80 degrees with 53% humidity. There was an ever so slight breeze at a max of around 4 mph at the most, but mostly extremely calm. The altitude is around 520 feet above sea level.

For zeroing the sights and Eotech, I used SS109. This is the 62 grain full metal jacket with a steel core. I can't comment on penetration, but it is pretty accurate as far as mil type ammo goes (more on this later). I shot 5 round groups at 50 meters until I had the irons sighted in. I then removed the rear sight (remember, the apertures are TINY) taking note of it's position so I could put it back in the same place on the receiver. Then, I shot 5 round groups with the Eotech until it was zeroed. It took 4 groups to zero the irons and 3 for the Eotech. These groups at 50 meters were a little more than an inch (probably around an inch and a half), plenty good enough for me. These were shot sitting at the bench resting my rifle on my Camelback Talon pack (I may review this sometime in the near future, but the cliff notes are it's great).

The SS109 came in bandoliers consisting of 150 rounds on stripper clips. With the bandoliers folded up, they are extremely easy to pack and fit nicely in my pack (I took 3 bandoliers, but only shot up two). Like I said before, the accuracy on paper was good. The soda bottles at 100 meters were scared. Round total for the SS109 was 300.

I also had some reloads of unknown weight and power to shoot. They were of the full metal jacket variety. I had gotten these for a song from my local mom and pop gun store a while back. I put 50 rounds of this through the rifle.

I bought a box of 40 rounds of UMC/Remington 55 grain jacketed hollow point from Wal Mart last night for $10, so I shot those up too.

The rifle functioned flawlessly with all these different types of ammunition. There were no malfunctions or failures of any kind in the 390 rounds I fired. The muzzle flash was not bad with any of these. I don't have a chronograph, so I couldn't measure the velocity of any of these rounds. At 100 meters, I shot at 2 liter soda bottles hitting them around 9 times out of ten with the irons and 10 times out of 10 with the Eotech. Did I mention the Eotech ROCKS? It's almost like cheating. All in all, a pleasant day spent shooting with friends, great weather, and an all around fun time.

There is a certain satisfaction you get seeing something you built with your bare hands out of parts perform just as it should. This was my first "build", by the way (even though I didn't assemble the upper). This is also my first review and first range report. How'd I do?

Kewl

AWESOME rifle !

Nice Rifle, Now, what about number Two

Quoted: Nice Rifle, Now, what about number Two

Number two won't be too much longer. You know how it goes.

Is that a white German Shepherd Dog in your avatar? I've got a black one named, creatively enough, Blackie. This is when he was about 8 months old and 75 pounds or so...