Mega Rad Gun Thread

[WhatInTheActualFuck]

Well I managed to get a traditional 20 inch A2 upper.

And I am surprised at how lightweight it was when attaching it to a lower with A2 rifle stock.

Also are there any muzzle brakes out there, that don't require shims or crush washers to be timed?

The original rifles used a pencil profile and were very light as a result. As for the muzzle device, if you don't want to deal with crush washers or shims, a jam nut is a simple option that works with anything.

 

[Club Sandwich]

Also are there any muzzle brakes out there, that don't require shims or crush washers to be timed?

any that aren't orthogonal, the A1 bird cage for example. often the purpose of a crush washer or split ring is to provide tension on a "near enough" bolt (or muzzle device as the case may be) so it does not back off easily and has some "give" during timing. it has the added benefit of being springy enough to protect the bolt and thread a bit as well. it isn't strictly required if you're not going ham and trying to stretch threads.

look at "phantom" style muzzle devices - while they often come with a shim or crush washer or crush ring so they look nice and have some thread protection, they aren't actually required for installation and the timing of the ports on a phantom flash hider isn't terribly important. on most compensators, the "closed" portion of ports is intended to provide some gas pressure to mitigate muzzle rise and reduce dust from the ground when shooting prone.

Spoiler: detail on washers and stuff

actually let me clarify some stuff since i don't think it's a topic often addressed:

the purpose of a washer is to provide an increased bearing surface for tightening a bolt into threaded hole. the inverse, where you have a nut that is tightened onto a threaded rod is slightly different because where threads of a bolt will stretch a little to provide clamping force against the bearing surface of the underside of the nut and the bearing surface it's tightened against, you usually do not want the threads of a threaded rod to stretch much if at all.

because of this and the need to have some kind of tension to help prevent a nut from coming loose various methods are available like thread locking compound, self-tapping bolts (which are usually garbage), lock nuts, wire nuts, and different kinds of washers. a simple washer is just a piece of round stock typically stamped out of sheet metal to an appropriate shape and is usually a softer material than the bearing surfaces so that clamping load can slightly deform the washer when tightened. toothed washers function similarly but are to bite into softer material, deforming it and "locking into" it.

a shim is a very thin washer that you use to time a nut to a specific vector, typically you use multiple shims to achieve this. split rings operate like a spring-loaded washer and push back against the bearing surfaces clamping together. this doesn't actually help prevent a nut backing off very much, but does work like a thick washer at moderate torque levels when the split ring is deformable slightly. peel washers are a stack of gliding metal washers that you heat up and peel apart with pliers to get the correct thickness for timing purposes. crush washers are washers with an inclined edge facing the nut's bearing surface (so on an AR-15 barrel, it's facing the muzzle device) where the inclined edge of the washer is "crushed" and curls inward providing significant tension when tightened. crush washers, like peel washers, should not be reused (the other types can be reused without trouble typically).

for an AR-15, when you "time" a muzzle device, you are trying to align it in a particular direction typically so that a ported device's gas pors will work as designed to reduce muzzle climb, reduce (or increase) blast, et c. this timing is not important if the muzzle device has no such purpose and is merely there to control flash by reducing the amount of gasses that are ignited outside the barrel in a single direction. this is why "tines" (closed or not) work so well vs a bare muzzle - a portion of gasses is allowed to escape in different directions and aren't concentrated in a "ball" all in one spot immediately after the bullet has left the muzzle. so timing such a flash hider is meaningless since the ports are evenly spaced all around the device and have no "timing" to be concerned with unless you just want to make it look nice.

 

[MrB]

My ammo got delivered today and I just realized my dumb fucking ass ordered 450 rounds of remanufactured 9mm instead of new. What are the chances I'm going to be missing a hand if I decide to shoot it? All my reloading equipment is at my parents' place several states away so I can't just pull the bullets and reload them myself.

 

[Club Sandwich]

What are the chances I'm going to be missing a hand if I decide to shoot it?

depends who re-manufactured it. generally speaking, the danger is extremely low. re-manufacturing typically involves used brass cases, trimmed and reformed, with new primer, powder, and bullet, with new packaging by a licensed ammunition manufacturer on a commercial scale. someone selling hand-loads or re-loads at a table at a local show it isn't.

if you're paranoid about it, sell it to someone else or wait until you can pull and re-load them yourself.

 

[MrB]

depends who re-manufactured it. generally speaking, the danger is extremely low. re-manufacturing typically involves used brass cases, trimmed and reformed, with new primer, powder, and bullet, with new packaging by a licensed ammunition manufacturer on a commercial scale. someone selling hand-loads or re-loads at a table at a local show it isn't.

if you're paranoid about it, sell it to someone else or wait until you can pull and re-load them yourself.

Freedom Munitions. I know their reputation was way worse in the past before they went bankrupt and got bought out and I know they still have a sketchy reputation now but they had a good price for PMC .223 so I decided to get some of their new 9mm for range ammo while I was at it and accidentally bought remans. I guess I'll just keep my fingers crossed and shoot through all of it.

 

[Club Sandwich]

Freedom Munitions

there's a lot going on there that's very boring and lengthy to talk about. however, i've used FM pretty much since they started as a distributor and at-scale manufacturer as a division of Howell Munitions back in 2010 both new and re-loaded as plinking, target, and test ammunition, probably an order of magnitude more than the typical person, and while consistency with re-loads wasn't fantastic, there weren't any malfunctions or dangerous situations i've encountered with either 9mm, .45 ACP, or .223 Rem.

Spoiler: boring details for probably why things got sour for a while

after the 2nd management change and partnership with West Coast Bullets, and the reorganization under Zion First National completely destroyed their QC due to the restructuring officer firing or selling off people and equipment to recoup bank losses without any regard for the company itself and basically running it into the ground and taking FM's "average" reputation into the toilet. Howell got control back around 2018 (?) and it's been back to normal as far as i know.

 

[WhoBusTank69]

Freedom Munitions

Friend said failures to eject aplenty with 9x19.

 

[Club Sandwich]

Friend said failures to eject aplenty with 9x19.

yeah, i've had issues when using 115gr reloads in MP5's consistently, but then again, you're supposed to use 124gr anyway. FM's .357 and .44 have been okay, and they had quite a bit of success with their cowboy lines in .45 LC.

 

[White Devil]

How does the Magpul polymer compare to the PRO sights?

I am debating to go with either the polymer rear, or the PRO rear with the elevation wheel for a 20 inch AR.

IMO the Magpul PRO sights are the absolute best product they make, next to their slings. They're the only sights that my friends agency could NOT break during tests when they tried to break anything and everything. They're accurate, low profile, and flip ups are nice if you're into that.

 

[Falcos_Commisar]

Well I managed to get a traditional 20 inch A2 upper.

And I am surprised at how lightweight it was when attaching it to a lower with A2 rifle stock.

Also are there any muzzle brakes out there, that don't require shims or crush washers to be timed?

Mine came in today too..... Missing it's carry handle/sight.

Hopefully they'll do a partial refund and I'll just get a PSA one.

Edit a PSA carry handle/sight, as the upper is a nice Aero 20 inch upper.

 

[Marvin]

Freedom Munitions. I know their reputation was way worse in the past before they went bankrupt and got bought out and I know they still have a sketchy reputation now but they had a good price for PMC .223 so I decided to get some of their new 9mm for range ammo while I was at it and accidentally bought remans. I guess I'll just keep my fingers crossed and shoot through all of it.

Lol I read that name and I was sure I had a box of 9mm from them, and lo and behold, I do have a 50 count box I got in June of 2020.

I shot like half of it. It was fine. My hands are intact.

It might not've been a wise move though. Now I'm wondering if I should shoot the rest of it.

 

[wopirish]

Lol I read that name and I was sure I had a box of 9mm from them, and lo and behold, I do have a 50 count box I got in June of 2020.

I shot like half of it. It was fine. My hands are intact.

It might not've been a wise move though. Now I'm wondering if I should shoot the rest of it.

If you really want to roll the dice on having hands (or face). You could always shoot Turkish surplus 8MM out of a g43.

Bubba's bathtub handloads might actually be safer in that regards lol.

Back to A2's you'd think that old fixed carry handle uppers wouldn't be that hard to come by.

 

[WhoBusTank69]

Back to A2's you'd think that old fixed carry handle uppers wouldn't be that hard to come by.

Carry handle uppers are from the time of expensive ARs, the boom and price drop came with the standardization of a simplified design. An unfortunate trade-off.

 

[Falcos_Commisar]

Carry handle uppers are from the time of expensive ARs, the boom and price drop came with the standardization of a simplified design. An unfortunate trade-off.

Now a few companies are making A1 repros with the slab sides and fixed handles. They aren't cheap though.

H&R just got resurrected by PSA to do just that, run by the former Nodak Spud guys. Itll have the original H&R markings and text too and the grey anodization

 

[White Devil]

Now a few companies are making A1 repros with the slab sides and fixed handles. They aren't cheap though.

H&R just got resurrected by PSA to do just that, run by the former Nodak Spud guys. Itll have the original H&R markings and text too and the grey anodization

Yeah I have to see that shit first to believe PSA didn't ruin them.

 

[Falcos_Commisar]

Yeah I have to see that shit first to believe PSA didn't ruin them.

They have started shipping lowers and uppers out less than a month ago.

Also, everyone, if you ever see Prairiefire come.to your local range, RUN AWAY. They give you a bit of free ammo and let you shoot from Staccato 2011s...... Then you want to drop $2000 on a double stack 9mm 1911

 

[troon patrol]

Jokes on them, I built a .40/10mm doublestack 2011 from scratch, already.

 

[bigasscigar]

IDK why people don't just go real HK with the SP5 or go with a nice 9mm AR platform, CMMG makes a realy nice delayed blowback 9mm AR upper imho, I love mine.

I absolutely love my SP5, but I would have just as much fun with a different clone for a grand less than what I paid for it. So there's that.

On a different note, I'm tired of waiting for Dead Air to manufacture more Wolverines. I want a suppressor to run primarily on my ZPAP, so the Wolverine seemed like the obvious choice but it's been continuously on backorder with no estimates for restocks.

 

[MrJokerRager]

I thought these videos were interesting.

any that aren't orthogonal, the A1 bird cage for example. often the purpose of a crush washer or split ring is to provide tension on a "near enough" bolt (or muzzle device as the case may be) so it does not back off easily and has some "give" during timing. it has the added benefit of being springy enough to protect the bolt and thread a bit as well. it isn't strictly required if you're not going ham and trying to stretch threads.

look at "phantom" style muzzle devices - while they often come with a shim or crush washer or crush ring so they look nice and have some thread protection, they aren't actually required for installation and the timing of the ports on a phantom flash hider isn't terribly important. on most compensators, the "closed" portion of ports is intended to provide some gas pressure to mitigate muzzle rise and reduce dust from the ground when shooting prone.

Spoiler: detail on washers and stuff

actually let me clarify some stuff since i don't think it's a topic often addressed:

the purpose of a washer is to provide an increased bearing surface for tightening a bolt into threaded hole. the inverse, where you have a nut that is tightened onto a threaded rod is slightly different because where threads of a bolt will stretch a little to provide clamping force against the bearing surface of the underside of the nut and the bearing surface it's tightened against, you usually do not want the threads of a threaded rod to stretch much if at all.

because of this and the need to have some kind of tension to help prevent a nut from coming loose various methods are available like thread locking compound, self-tapping bolts (which are usually garbage), lock nuts, wire nuts, and different kinds of washers. a simple washer is just a piece of round stock typically stamped out of sheet metal to an appropriate shape and is usually a softer material than the bearing surfaces so that clamping load can slightly deform the washer when tightened. toothed washers function similarly but are to bite into softer material, deforming it and "locking into" it.

a shim is a very thin washer that you use to time a nut to a specific vector, typically you use multiple shims to achieve this. split rings operate like a spring-loaded washer and push back against the bearing surfaces clamping together. this doesn't actually help prevent a nut backing off very much, but does work like a thick washer at moderate torque levels when the split ring is deformable slightly. peel washers are a stack of gliding metal washers that you heat up and peel apart with pliers to get the correct thickness for timing purposes. crush washers are washers with an inclined edge facing the nut's bearing surface (so on an AR-15 barrel, it's facing the muzzle device) where the inclined edge of the washer is "crushed" and curls inward providing significant tension when tightened. crush washers, like peel washers, should not be reused (the other types can be reused without trouble typically).

for an AR-15, when you "time" a muzzle device, you are trying to align it in a particular direction typically so that a ported device's gas pors will work as designed to reduce muzzle climb, reduce (or increase) blast, et c. this timing is not important if the muzzle device has no such purpose and is merely there to control flash by reducing the amount of gasses that are ignited outside the barrel in a single direction. this is why "tines" (closed or not) work so well vs a bare muzzle - a portion of gasses is allowed to escape in different directions and aren't concentrated in a "ball" all in one spot immediately after the bullet has left the muzzle. so timing such a flash hider is meaningless since the ports are evenly spaced all around the device and have no "timing" to be concerned with unless you just want to make it look nice.

Thoughts on the KVP Linear Comps not needing washers as I guess the force of the bullet pushes the comp back into the barrel?

They have started shipping lowers and uppers out less than a month ago.

Also, everyone, if you ever see Prairiefire come.to your local range, RUN AWAY. They give you a bit of free ammo and let you shoot from Staccato 2011s...... Then you want to drop $2000 on a double stack 9mm 1911

Are you talking about that new pistol that Springfield came out with?

IMO the Magpul PRO sights are the absolute best product they make, next to their slings. They're the only sights that my friends agency could NOT break during tests when they tried to break anything and everything. They're accurate, low profile, and flip ups are nice if you're into that.

I decided to go with full PRO sights for an irons only setup.

the SIG Tango MSR is pretty good for the money, the Strike Eagle 1-8 is okay too although on above average recoil it might not be the best option. Bushnell has a 1-8 "AR Optic" that is very good for the money asked but has some obvious cost reductions (that make sense) to reach a good price point. some of the Athlon Optics that were circulating the usually suspects are "okay" for a varminting or knock around deer rifle but i'm not sure i would trust one to take a tumble on a rocky slope intact. i usually go with USO/S&B/Trijicon but depending on what you want out of it, they can be very far "too much optic for too much budget".

Eotech Vudu is excellent but very expensive, the Swampfox Arrowhead is a rebrand and is okay - has bad edge distortion at high magnification like the Athlon, Leupold has the CQBSS which falls between the Trijicon and Eotech - excellent quality, expensive, and for the Mk 8 specifically is kind of old tech.

you might want to really outline your requirements and see if the thermal optic you want to use has a specific height over bore or mount or something to help narrow things down as well as the environment you're shooting in, the ammo you are using and if you need specific features like low light lens coatings, 1/2 or 1/4 turret adjustments, a particular reticle or eye relief for the ocular lens, options for a specific mount, et c. there's a lot of things out there.

if in doubt and you're an "average shooter" then it's hard to go wrong with the Strike Eagle or Primary Arms or SIG MSR.

SIG had to make two budget red dots that are very similar to each other, that its hard to decide.

There is the Romeo 5 MSR, that usually gets pair with Juliet magnifier, and there is the Romeo 5.

 

[Darkholme's Dungeon]

Does anyone here have experience reloading steel case? I figured I could try and blow my face off since I had a stack of steel case that I went through and 7.62x54 is kinda hard to find sometimes.