Took it back to the range yesterday and took some pictures, too. Had a couple more stove pipe jams. A couple of magazines (not the same ones I'd used Wednesday started falling out of the mag well after the 2nd/3rd. shot. They just would not completely lock in. I'll have to dig into my PMags or a box of the new D&H magazines and see how they lock in.
When I got home with it to clean it I also took the top half of the "free float tube" off as well as the flash suppressor and the tube end cap. You could see where the end cap had worn the finish of the barrel, so it wasn't really "free floated". A dremel and some sanding drums opened up that hole enough to insure no contact. That tube/handguard/rail set up is a pain to get back together. Each hole has to be pretty perfectly aligned to get a screw to go in straight and start threading in. I also had to remove the scope/scope mount to get the top half of the rail off.
I had been thinking about buying two of these, one for me, one as a gift for my youngest son. RIght now I think I'll stick with just one, till I get it right, or decide to park it in the back of the gun safe.
Anyway, here are some pictures.
AR buttstock and buffer tube with AR pistol grip and AR flash suppressor. The trigger and hammer look similar (I said similar) to AR15 pieces but appear to half extra metal missing from them.
FAL type cocking handle. And safety placed similarly to AR15
The rifle is heavy. Little to no recoil compared to the AR15. The barrel is supposed to be free floated but it was rubbing the inside of the end cap on the tube. I took it off last night and you could see the wear spot on the barrel when it had been rubbing from 12 o'clock to about 3 o'clock. A dremel and some sanding drums fixed that little problem. No we'll go back to range to see if the groups are better.
With the stock folded over.
I've had no issues yet with screws coming loose.
What I like -
it's just oily inside the receiver and on the bolt carrier (and most of the bolt) when I disassemble it for cleaning after a range trip. Very quick/easy clean up and re-lube vs. the AR15's.
The trigger is good enough I don't feel the urge to buy a $150 plus replacement to get a nice trigger. I'm not sure any of my ARs or AR builds had that nice of a trigger when stock.
I like being able to use some AR15 spares/extras for it.
What I don't like -
poor accuracy, so far. Every AR15 I've bought or built shoots better groups
difficulty of lining up all the holes/threads to get the screws back in the hand guard halves, rail section and tube end cap. Even leaving them loose till their all started good was not enough. Lots of squeezing/pushing/false starts and even some screw switching (you know, this screw doesn't want to thread into that hole, may it'll thread into the hole on the other end/side of the rail) to get it back together yesterday evening.
I'm not sure I'm going to complain about the weight. I knew it was heavy before buying it. If I can get good groups from it I'll put a bipod on it and be happy.
The stove pipe jams. I've only had one AR that issues when knew and that was a loose gas key. Once the key was tightened up and the screws staked it was perfect. This rifle has 70 or 80 rounds through it and it's still stove piping every now and then.