Gun Digest Book of the AR-15, Vol. 2

275 Pages·2007·13.12 MB·English

by  Patrick Sweeney

The Gun Digest®
Book of
THEAR-15
Volume 2
PATRICK SWEENEY
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Library of Congress Catalog Number: 2005922945
ISBN-13: 978-0-89689-474-7
ISBN-10: 0-89689-474-6
Designed by Elizabeth Krogwold
Edited by Dan Shideler
Printed in the United States of America
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
As always, I find the firearms community helpful in the extreme. Randy Luth
of DPMS practically buried me under gear. I had to stop asking him about how
this or that worked, or if shooters liked it, for another box would show up on my
doorstep, containing the items I’d asked about. Jeff and Kristi Hoffman of Black
Hills once again outdid themselves, and my delivery driver risked hurting his
back. Steve Johnson at Hornady not only sent me anything I asked for, he was
most thorough in answering behind-the-scenes questions about .223/5.56
manufacturing, testing and other such details. Mark LaRue and the staff at Troy,
Samson and CAA practically sent my delivery driver to his chiropractor with
additional back problems from the amount of gear they sent.
Wolf went far out of their way to send me ammo. In toto, I think they’ve sent
me something on the order of fifteen thousand rounds of .223/5.56 to shoot, and
I had the chance to watch fellow gun writer Dave Fortier bang nearly five
thousand through another AR, not entirely in the book.
I want to thank all the manufactures who sent me rifles to inspect, photograph,
shoot and in some cases abuse. That manufacturer after manufacturer would ship
me a thousand-dollar rifle to shoot, inspect, in some cases disassemble, and then
return “whenever you’re done” is amazing. Is this a great country, or what? In
due time they all went back but one. I mention this time and again, but the
rumors just won’t die; gun writers don’t get free guns. Oh, I’ve heard rumors of
this or that one whom the manufacturers have given up on. If they send him
something to write about, they’ll never see it again. That’s not me. I don’t have
the room, and I can’t shoot more than a few.
As of this writing, I have done eleven books. Over five hundred magazine
articles. The grand total of free guns I’ve gotten in that time? Three. If you are
expecting a career of being a gun writer to be paved with free guns with which to
pay your mortgage, think again. I appreciate the trust manufacturers put in me.
And I send them back. Oh, I occasionally ask if there’s a “gun writers price” on
some, but not many. And usually the price isn’t much better than what a
distributor would ask. So I don’t buy many, either. No, I write books.
Larry Panka of CProducts was most informative on the background of AR
magazines, their fabrication and engineering. He sent me magazines, Brownells
sent me magazines, Dave Dunlap of PRI sent me magazines, and the end result
was that I knew perhaps too much about magazines. I had to take a break from
magazines to keep my head from exploding.
The 6.8 and 6.5 are the hot new calibers for the AR, more so than the .308. In
that regard it was almost a contest over who could bury me in information; Did
Dave Dunlap of PRI send me more info, hook me up with more guns, or keep
me more in the loop, or was it Bill Alexander of Alexander Arms? You’ll learn
more real-world useful information about dealing with the government in five
minutes with Dave, or more about mechanical engineering from Bill, than you
could get in a semester at a good school. If you talk with either, take a notepad.
Mark Malkowski of Stag Arms was very helpful with more engineering
information, and some aspects of how the AR is machined, gauged and
assembled were particularly useful. What the makers do in order to make such
deceptively simple parts is quite amazing.
I had to resist the temptation to see just how much stuff I could bolt onto an
AR, in order to produce an absurdity. In so doing I’d be holding up one or
another manufacturer in that parody, which is not nice. And unfair. After all, all
the gear is useful, in the appropriate time and place. All together, it becomes a
bit ugly, too. Suffice it to say, you can make a light, handy, AR-15 carbine into
something that feels like an anvil, by bolting things to it. Look at many photos
from Iraq, and you’ll see examples. Take a six-pound M4, bolt a railed forearm
to it, optics, M-203, IR targeting laser designator, vertical foregrip with spare
batteries, and a spare magazine on the stock, and you can easily turn it into an
anvil. Glad I’m not packing something like that. I did, however, just out of
curiosity, weigh all the gear that could be put onto an AR. You can easily turn an
M4 into a twelve-pound anvil. If you start with something like an H-Bar, you
can easily go past fifteen pounds. There are light machineguns that weigh that.
Enjoy. I hope you’ll find useful information that you didn’t already know, and
if you find errors of fact, let my Editors know. They like the give-and-take of
phoning me up with “Sweeney, you screwed up again!”
I also depended on my crew of test-shooters, who are as always, more than
willing to sacrifice in the name of knowledge – if you can call shooting loaner
rifles with free ammo, and having only to pick up brass and be enthusiastic about
the experience, a “sacrifice.” I have a test crew for several reasons, not the least
of which doing all this is work. I know, I know, someone has their hand up “I’ll
be happy to do the work, pick me, pick me!” It is work, and some Editors have
dropped writers because they slacked off on the work. And it is also fun. I’m not
above sharing the fun with shooters who make my work easier. You see, I learn
things from the test crew. Not all shooters approach guns and shooting the same
way. Seeing things from a different perspective is always informative.
I also have to thank Jeff Chudwin and Ned Christiansen, and all the officers
who have spent their time in the “fire hose of knowledge” environment that we
put on in the North East Multi Regional Training, Unit #3 classes. Jeff ramrods
many of the classes for NEMRT, and Ned and I do our best to keep up with him.
At times our students are sitting there with a glazed look on their faces, having
been subjected to a Masters degree-level flood of information on firearms, law
enforcement and tactics. Simply being in the classes has made me more
informed, better-organized, and better able to present it to you, the reader.
I sure hope you like this, for it is too much fun to stop.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
Title Page
Special Offers
DEDICATION
INTRODUCTION
CHAPTER 1: Once & Future King
CHAPTER 2: Ammunition
CHAPTER 3: Magazines