Cosmoline
Member
Thanks to all who weighed in on this thread: http://www.thehighroad.org/showthread.php?t=595827, I recently picked up this fine rifle:
It's a Colt AR-15A2 "Government Carbine" model which I believe was made for law enforcement during the bad old days of the ban, but which is now being surplussed out to non-leo's. It's very lightweight.
Apart from SKS's and AK semi clones, I'm not terribly familiar with modern military firerarms. In the past decade I'd say 90% of my rifle shooting has been with bolt action surplus rifles, leverguns and flintlocks. I'd heard a lot about AR's and was familiar with them in general but had never shot one.
I've now done a teardown of the beast and taken it for a 200 round sighting in and testing spin and for what it's worth I have a few observations.
--The myth of the AR being a very sophisticated space-age machine far too complex for the average user has been completely busted as far as I'm concerned. It's as easy to tear down to the basic cleaning level as an AK-47, and easier than an SKS. It's very intuitive.
--The second level of tearing down is slightly more complicated. This basically includes everything starting with the gas tube removal. But if you follow the easily-obtained manuals it works well. If you try to jam things in there or rip them out you'll be in trouble. But even so I would class it as less complex at this level than, for example, a Winchester 94.
--One issue I have is the somewhat anachronistic rear sight elevator which is calibrated to start at 300 meters. Seriously? They stopped doing that with much more potent war rifles in WW2, so it's odd to see such a distant zero on this much more modern rifle. But as with everything else about the AR-15, there was an easily found fix. I followed the instructions for the Lt. Col. Chuck Santose and presto with some turns of an allen wrench I had it set up for a 200 meter zero with a crossover at 50 yards.
--After that sighting in was a breeze. I've sighted in a lot of very cranky military rifles but this one offered nary a protest. I selected a heavier weight bullet to favor the twist and fired groups of 3 at 25 yards to get windage set up. Then per the Santose method I moved out to 50 yards to finish adjusting the front sight. Adjustment was a little tricky without the tool, but it was intuitive. The "up" arrow threw me until I realized that they were describing bullet point of impact.
--Ammo weight is nothing short of astonishing. I go to the range by bicycle so I have to hump every round I want to shoot 15 miles down there. With a Mosin a few hours of shooting means a serious chunk of weight. But with the wee tiny 5.56 rounds, I found I had enough for hours of shooting with room left over in the backpack.
--Why didn't anyone ever point out that every AR-15 is a breakdown model? That's a major selling point on expensive hunting rifles but here with the simple pushing of two flintlock-style pins you have two halves that can easily be stowed. I found the upper on this with the 16" barrel fits perfectly in the Alaska Sportsman carbine scabbard and the lower fits in the main day pack easily. I honestly had no idea breakdown was so simple. It carries like it isn't even there, esp. compared with a big bolt action warhorse.
--Shooting is easy, of course. The flaws I could see from the first session are a pretty poor trigger, a lot of rattling in recoil and difficulty in steadying it given the very light barrel. I know the trigger is a very easy one to upgrade. To steady it in the stances I'm looking for a good hasty sling. I've got a single point sling but that appears to be useless as a shooting aid. The rattling around is another matter. That's a function of the light weight I think. I feel almost no recoil, but the thing bounces around a lot. Maybe that's what those forward handles are for?
--Accessorizing seems to be a major industry. The guy who sold it to me tried to get me to buy an ACOG that cost nearly as much as the rifle. But it doesn't appear much of it is really necessary. I'm mainly looking for a shooting sling and some more magazines for training.
--The direct gas impingement system is actually a brilliant idea. There's no moving parts to fiddle with. I can see how it would be trouble if the thin steel straw got full of crud, but you also won't have a bent op rod on this thing.
--Cleanup is a breeze. The bore was back to fresh after a few sweeps.
--The biggest limiting factor of this rifle is the cartridge. As noted it is a breeze to carry, but it is wee tiny. The ballistic performance is meager and the bullets are too small. Of course there are a growing number of upgrades you can easily swap over to. The 6.5 Grendel and 6.8 SPC are very interesting and have had impressive results hunting hogs from what I've heard. I expect to do some exploring in this area, but the low cost of 5.56 and light weight make it excellent for training.
It's a Colt AR-15A2 "Government Carbine" model which I believe was made for law enforcement during the bad old days of the ban, but which is now being surplussed out to non-leo's. It's very lightweight.
Apart from SKS's and AK semi clones, I'm not terribly familiar with modern military firerarms. In the past decade I'd say 90% of my rifle shooting has been with bolt action surplus rifles, leverguns and flintlocks. I'd heard a lot about AR's and was familiar with them in general but had never shot one.
I've now done a teardown of the beast and taken it for a 200 round sighting in and testing spin and for what it's worth I have a few observations.
--The myth of the AR being a very sophisticated space-age machine far too complex for the average user has been completely busted as far as I'm concerned. It's as easy to tear down to the basic cleaning level as an AK-47, and easier than an SKS. It's very intuitive.
--The second level of tearing down is slightly more complicated. This basically includes everything starting with the gas tube removal. But if you follow the easily-obtained manuals it works well. If you try to jam things in there or rip them out you'll be in trouble. But even so I would class it as less complex at this level than, for example, a Winchester 94.
--One issue I have is the somewhat anachronistic rear sight elevator which is calibrated to start at 300 meters. Seriously? They stopped doing that with much more potent war rifles in WW2, so it's odd to see such a distant zero on this much more modern rifle. But as with everything else about the AR-15, there was an easily found fix. I followed the instructions for the Lt. Col. Chuck Santose and presto with some turns of an allen wrench I had it set up for a 200 meter zero with a crossover at 50 yards.
--After that sighting in was a breeze. I've sighted in a lot of very cranky military rifles but this one offered nary a protest. I selected a heavier weight bullet to favor the twist and fired groups of 3 at 25 yards to get windage set up. Then per the Santose method I moved out to 50 yards to finish adjusting the front sight. Adjustment was a little tricky without the tool, but it was intuitive. The "up" arrow threw me until I realized that they were describing bullet point of impact.
--Ammo weight is nothing short of astonishing. I go to the range by bicycle so I have to hump every round I want to shoot 15 miles down there. With a Mosin a few hours of shooting means a serious chunk of weight. But with the wee tiny 5.56 rounds, I found I had enough for hours of shooting with room left over in the backpack.
--Why didn't anyone ever point out that every AR-15 is a breakdown model? That's a major selling point on expensive hunting rifles but here with the simple pushing of two flintlock-style pins you have two halves that can easily be stowed. I found the upper on this with the 16" barrel fits perfectly in the Alaska Sportsman carbine scabbard and the lower fits in the main day pack easily. I honestly had no idea breakdown was so simple. It carries like it isn't even there, esp. compared with a big bolt action warhorse.
--Shooting is easy, of course. The flaws I could see from the first session are a pretty poor trigger, a lot of rattling in recoil and difficulty in steadying it given the very light barrel. I know the trigger is a very easy one to upgrade. To steady it in the stances I'm looking for a good hasty sling. I've got a single point sling but that appears to be useless as a shooting aid. The rattling around is another matter. That's a function of the light weight I think. I feel almost no recoil, but the thing bounces around a lot. Maybe that's what those forward handles are for?
--Accessorizing seems to be a major industry. The guy who sold it to me tried to get me to buy an ACOG that cost nearly as much as the rifle. But it doesn't appear much of it is really necessary. I'm mainly looking for a shooting sling and some more magazines for training.
--The direct gas impingement system is actually a brilliant idea. There's no moving parts to fiddle with. I can see how it would be trouble if the thin steel straw got full of crud, but you also won't have a bent op rod on this thing.
--Cleanup is a breeze. The bore was back to fresh after a few sweeps.
--The biggest limiting factor of this rifle is the cartridge. As noted it is a breeze to carry, but it is wee tiny. The ballistic performance is meager and the bullets are too small. Of course there are a growing number of upgrades you can easily swap over to. The 6.5 Grendel and 6.8 SPC are very interesting and have had impressive results hunting hogs from what I've heard. I expect to do some exploring in this area, but the low cost of 5.56 and light weight make it excellent for training.
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