#Ar-15

With all the recent press on retro-styled AR rifle offerings by Colt, Troy and others, I thought it would be fitting to highlight one of the original (and most technically accurate) manufacturers of “clone” receivers and parts. Beginning in 2005, NoDak Spud, a small firearms manufacturing company based in Edina, Minnesota, introduced high quality AK receivers for parts-kit builders like myself.

Let’s start with some Mythology: The 12th-century King Eric IX saw a golden cross in the blue sky as he landed in Finland during the First Swedish Crusade in 1157. Seeing this as a sign from God he adopted the golden cross against a blue background as his banner. The golden cross was later changed to a yellow one, probably slightly more practical (and cheaper). A great story, except no one really knows if there ever was a crusade at that time or not. But Blue and Yellow have been used as Swedish colors at least since King Magnus III’s Royal coat of arms of 1275.

Tyrant Designs, a small company that is putting form and function together in some novel ways, has entered the modular grip game with their MOD AR-15 grip. The grip is lightweight at 4 ounces assembled, which is about an ounce less than the popular Magpul MOE grip that typifies a large swath of rifles.

The Department of the Army has recently released a gold mine including the updated Rifle & Carbine Training Circular Training Circular. This manual was last updated was 8 years ago in 2008.

Two days ago I published a blog post with diagrams of the REVOLUTIONARY Taiwanese T86 rifle. This AR-15-style rifle featured not only a self-contained piston gas system back in 1998, long before the piston-AR craze in the USA, but it also featured the first drop-in trigger for an AR-15. Sadly this rifle was as unknown in the West as it was innovative. 

Sometimes you see a Cerakote finish so impressive or flat-out awesome you simply cannot pass up the opportunity to share it. Such was the case at this year’s NRA Annual Meeting, which was held in Louisville, Kentucky (next year it’s slotted to take place in Atlanta, Georgia). The guns in question were on display at the VFOB – Veteran’s Family of Brands – group of booths, an organization spearheaded by Axelson Tactical and Snake River Shooting Products.

At the 2016 SHOT Show, Troy introduced their first retro AR-15 replica, the Air Force’s GAU-5A/A Colt carbine as used by the Sơn Tây raiders in Operation Ivory Coast. Now, at the 2016 NRA Annual Meeting, Troy has introduced its US Army counterpart: The XM177E2 model, with a forward assist.

This subject has come up in my comments recently, and I thought I would explore it in a post proper. To adopt the 6.5 Grendel (or, as we’ll see, something like it), the US Army would need to develop and procure new complete upper receivers, magazines, buffers, and possibly other small components, as well as the ammunition itself. How much would that cost? It’s impossible to say for sure unless it happens, but with a little napkin-math, we should be able to get some idea:

Freedom Munitions announced that the company is now selling an exclusive Seekins Precision rifle: the G.I. AR-15.

There are numerous situations where firearms are required to be visibly marked as “clear” with the use of a chamber flag. Whether you’re at the range, taking your firearm in for repairs, or flying guns with you during a trip, you’re going to need one of those flags at some point. Some people even use them at home so guns are easily identified as clear. In those cases where you want to mark a gun as clear but would also like the option of loading a round quickly, you used to be out of luck. Using a chamber safety flag meant removing the flag prior to chambering a round, and sometimes those flags are awkward to remove. Now there’s the Hornady Rapid Rack.

One important piece of gear for any rifle is a good sling and there’s a ton of good ones out there on the market. A few popular slings out there are the Vicker’s Sling made by Blue Force Gear that retails for $64 and Magpul’s MS slings like the MS1. Those retail for a more reasonable $34.95. Just like I mentioned in my GlockStore’s $40 Kydex Holster post just the other day shooting is an expensive hobby and sometimes you want to save a few bucks without sacrificing quality.

I am posting the press release for the Sabre Defence equipment auction without comment, simply because I think it is of interest to our industry readers (this is not an advertisement).

ARs are not just popular, they’ve become the basis for an entire culture within the firearms world. Because of that there are also quite a few aftermarket products available which makes it possible for gun owners to customize their basic black rifles to impressive levels. When it comes to a certain type of aftermarket product, Hogue is a definite leader and now they’re expanding their AR rail covers.

Palmetto State Armory just released their new KS-47 rifle it’s their take on a AR-15 pattern rifle that uses AK magazines and fires the 7.62×39 round. They already have an AR-15 that shoots the 7.62×39 round called the AR-47 available but it requires special modified AR magazines just for the AR-47 and similar rifles. Ain’t nobody got time for that, if you’re going to use 7.62×39 rounds why not use the already cheap and very plentiful AK mags? That’s where the KS-47 rifle comes in, it uses the popular modular configuration of the AR-15 but it can accept AK mags. Doesn’t this already sound familiar? It should, CMMG did it a few years ago with their MK. 47 Mutant rifle which we got to review. Check out our review of the Mutant here.

The Vortex Strike Eagle was designed primarily for 3-gun competition use. However, this scope can be effective in any application where speed to target is more important than long range tack-driving precision, including hunting and self-defense. It features a 1-6x zoom range, making it extremely easy to use from close range all the way out to 600 yards.