First of all, here's the Linkies to the items I'll speak about here:
Mako GLR16 Stock and 6 Position Buffer Tube, Buffer, and Spring (Black)
BSA Tactical Weapon 4 x 20mm Rifle Scope with 30/30 Duplex Reticle and AR Handle Style Mount
Okay, that's it for the linkies. Now lets talk about the ARevolution that's happening to my Franken-AR.
It began as a used gun store pick up. The price was right, even throwing in the possibility of it having a shot out barrel. It came to me as (mostly) a Colt post ban heavy barrel upper, and an early DPMS lower, all in an A2 configuration. A few hours scrubbing found that 'shot out barrel' was really nothing more than a heavily fouled barrel.
Once those swirly groovy things were rediscovered in the barrel, a range trip found the rifle to be a good shooter. It did have one disconcerting habit... sometimes when cycling the bolt by hand and easing it forward, it stopped half way before going into battery. This was investigated, and found to be a worn bolt carrier.
One 'Bravo Company' bolt carrier later, and the Franken-AR was up and running reliably. Not willing to leave well enough alone, a Magpul Grip and a Magpul hand guard set were installed... simply because I like them, and it's MY rifle.
Fast forward, and it happens that I did something really, really dumb... and damaged the muzzle. Hey.... stupid happens, and I am their King.
At that point, Brian Parramore of Parramore Machine Works in Orlando came to my rescue, and did some astonishingly good magic with my barrel. He's a wizard with a lathe, and returned my abused barrel to me in excellent (and shorter) condition, now with a perfect target crown as I requested.
With the barrel reinstalled, the rifle was even more accurate than before, and The Fat Man very much digs the rifles much improved ergonomics.
As long as some inches were lost at the muzzle, I concluded a few from the buttstock would not be missed either.... and thus the Mako GL16 collapsible AR stock was ordered. It came with a new Carbine style buffer tube, buffer, and spring. The lock ring and end plate were ordered separately for few more dollars.
Once all those pieces were here at the same time, it took roughly twenty minutes to pull off the A2 stock and tube, and install the Mako unit. The only tool needed was an AR armorers combination tool, purchased on Amazon.com for a pittance.
Friends.... Carteach is LIKING this stock. It's solid, works smoothly, and feels good to shoot with. The buttplate is a very grippy rubber, and Mako has given it a tread pattern that would make a decent snow tire jealous. Best of all.... it's utterly quiet. I mean no rattle. None. The stock slides when you want it to, and then it just stays right where you put it without rattling around and moving. I LIKE that.
Shooting on the range, the Mako stock feels solid, and shoulders easily. The buttplate has been given an angle that makes bringing it to firing position quite natural. Shortening up the stock, the rifle hangs in ready position on a sling freely, while still being quick to bring into play accurately.
One cute feature, a strong tug on the buttplate causes it to swivel down, revealing a compartment especially made to store a few spare batteries for an Eotech sight, or some such toy.
The old A2 stock has been saved, and will become part of a match rifle build.... as soon as Rock River Arms finishes building me a National Match upper unit.
Now, on to part two of this Twofer review: The BSA tactical 4x20 scope.
My idea was to have a simple scope that would attach to the carry handle, allowing better sighting for load development. An AR handle mount donated by a generous reader was tried, but just wouldn't settle down on my rifle. I suspect Colt was a might... overeager... in machining the groove in my carry handle, leaving it a bit wide.
The scope mounts up well enough. That said, there's nothing else really good I can say about it. Yes, Carteach now has a set of crosshairs he can put on the rifle, making sighting during load development much easier. More than that..... I got nothing.
The scope is supposed to have a 'Bullet Drop Compensator turret' tuned to the
5.56mm cartridge. Out of the box, it appears the turret was assembled incorrectly. It had a detent that doesn't quite 'detent', but does manage to stop the turret rotating right in the middle of the range index. Well.... I 'guess' it's right in the middle, as BSA didn't bother to place an index mark on the scope body.Now that we mention it.... BSA also didn't bother to mark the adjustments for Up/Down nor did they mention how much moving the non-indexed sighting adjustment would move POI. In point of fact, the adjustments are not detented, and I have no faith they won't move in time. The instructions utterly fail to help, seeming to have been written in a far off land by someone with a withering grasp of English and not one shred of understanding towards how firearms work.
I'd send it back for repair under warrantee, but for a problem. BSA warrantee instructions tell me to send it back on my own dime, and include a check for $10 in return postage if I ever want to see the scope again. By my sad math skills, I make that down about $20 to get a warrantee repair on a $45 scope that was delivered incorrectly built.
Sum it up... Mako stock: GOOD.
BSA Tactical 4x20 AR scope: BAD.
Finally, an opportunity presented itself where I could take my 1911 9mm RIA Tactical to the range! The weather was favorable, with only a light breeze and temperatures in the mid 70s, so I took about a couple hours out of the day and went shooting.
shooting centerfire handgun I have ever fired. Softer than heavy 38 special revolvers shooting mild target loads, softer than the lightest 45 acp ammo that will cycle my 16 lb recoil springs, and softer than any all steel or polymer gun I have ever actually fired. This ease of control, coupled with what I consider to be the very comfortable ergonomic design of the 1911, combine to make a very enjoyable shooting experience.
I was able to pull one 9 out of 9 magazine on the steel at 25 yards, but most of the mags had between 6 and 7 hits on target, with the rest dancing around it (generally a touch low). For me, this is better than average shooting- especially for a new gun I have never fired. At 25 yards, I'll often start out with a great group that looks like I might finally break into the 3 or 4 inch group territory, but I generally then have at least one mulligan that opens me up to 5 or 6 inches overall.
With a rimfire handgun I can generally do a touch better- but realistically I'm a pretty average shooter. What I really enjoyed about the RIA was that I could shoot at least as well as I could with my other 1911s (if not a little better) and I could do so quickly. I was having so much fun I am sure I firing at a noticeably quicker cadence than the 1 round per second rule that most clubs by me have in place.
Finally, the MSH is plastic. A lot of big manufacturers are switching to plastic MSHs (cough* Colt cough), but many people are not fans of this trend. I will say I do prefer this plastic MSH though to my springfield armory MSH which came with an ILS (integrated locking system). As for the good of this firearm- well the grip safety was easy to engage, the sights are usable, the thumb safety was positive in its engagement but managable in the force required to manipulate it, I noticed no irregularities in the spent casings of any kind, and despite firing 180 rounds (at least 100 of which being dirty tula and my reloads, which are also dirty as all heck) the gun never slowed up a bit cycling smoothly and without hesitation.
Overall, I'm more than pleased with this gun. For $450 OTD it is an absolute bargain, and I would say it is a buy without hesitation all the way to 500 bucks. Much beyond that and you might want to consider buying the GI model and cutting it for new sights- but the tactical really is awesome. I am going to hold off on cleaning this gun and am going to try to run another few hundred rounds through it (and more JHP if I can afford it) to see how it holds up to shooting once it really starts getting dirty. I'd like to get up to 500 rounds without cleaning, but realistically it will probably go 350 or so before I break down and give it a scrub.
5.1 grains of unique, as per my reloading manuals. The load was super light- and would not reliably function in my RIA tactical 9mm 1911- but it did reliably cycle my 9mm AR (50 rounds fired).
Some people might like that feeling though, and it did make swinging from target-to-target quick and easy. It also puts my thumb in a good position to reach over the top and activate a weapon light (which pride prevented me from leaving on for these photos. I refuse to shoot a weapon during daylight that has a flashlight on it).