The Deal

Three things which lead to “The Deal”

A. I have this EOTech Holosight sitting around doing nothing. I used to have it on one of my shotguns, but I’ve outgrown that phase.

B. Another phase I’ve somewhat outgrown is the use of a 12ga for “inside the home” defense purposes. It is still a reliable platform with genuine uses, such as “inside the home” defense, but I’ve been looking for something else.

C. As the “gun guy” at my place of employ, one of my co-workers asked me about AR-10s.

And now for the long story:

I told my co-worker that my lack of excitement over the Stoner design before I answered him. When I did answer, I told him about the superiority of the 7.62×51 over the 5.56×45. However, I also relayed the history of Armalite’s “Hear No Malfs/See No Malfs” attitude. Even though it seems to have waned, I will never own an Armalite product for this reason (It is also the same reason I will never own a Kimber product). I also told him that some of the parts may be hard to get and that if he could find them, they may be prohibitively expensive and that the gun switched to Jammamatic Mode he may be SOL

I suggested he slip into a 6.8mm gun instead.

He spoke of wanting to shoot out past 600yds. I advised him to give up on the Stoner platform and buy either an HK 91 clone, an FAL or an M1A. He stated, much to my dismay that he liked the look of the Stoner rifles, that his currently serving Marine brother offered to teach him how to maintain it, and again, that he really liked the looks of the gun itself.

Now, I’m always up for scaring the Feinstein’s and Schumer’s of the world with the looks of my firearms, but I’ve never been so set on a gun because of the way it looks (except for maybe the Hi Power, but only after I’d collected numerous other semi-auto pistols).

I asked about his want to shoot past 600yds, and talked about the dedication it takes to be able to do so accurately. Seeing as how this would be his first center fire rifle, I stated about how wanting to do so is a very worthy goal, but that he might want to think about starting out with a $800 bolt action platform to get the basics down before dumping $1500 on a semi-auto that was likely to disappoint him.

He said he’d think about it, and a couple days went by.

He came back to talk some more and said he’d shortened up on the “past 600yds goal” and was thinking that 300yds sounded fine for the time being. He wanted to know more about the 6.8mm round. I asked what had changed his mind and he said that he had spoken with a guy at a gun shop who had said the exact same thing I did about starting out with a boltie platform to get the basics down and that if the guy would turn down a $1500 rifle sale for one totaling around $900 for rifle and scope, that maybe I had a good point.

Unfortunately, he was still stuck on the Stoner rifle “looks” and was not interested in buying “a hunting rifle” to practice with.

I had to admit to him that I didn’t know a lot about the 6.8mm. I told him about the history of the 5.56 and the need for something with more stopping power to better kill humans that wanted to kill US soldiers. I made mention of the other approximately 6.8mm diameter cartridges and about how they were used very well for medium game hunting and that out to 300yds, the 6.8 was probably a rather good cartridge.

I also mentioned that ammo prices were more than I like to pay per round, but that didn’t phase him.

He said he’d think about it and a weekend went by.

In an odd bit of coincidence, a Bushmaster catalog appeared in my mailbox that Saturday, which I passed onto him the following Monday. He took it home for a week or so and is currently weighing his options.

One of the other drivers came into the office moments after the first guy returned the catalog and saw it sitting on my desk. He asked if he could take it with him and I of course let him (something interesting to read while waiting in line at the transfer station is like gold around my workplace. My old Shotgun News‘ have the same effect).

It ends up that the catalog made it’s way around the drivers and come the following Monday, I had two Teamsters demanding to know more about why Bushmaster sold stripped lower receivers, built receivers, built uppers, etc. instead of just whole firearms.

Despite the fact that these guys follow their union directives and vote Democrat more than half the time, they weren’t asking these questions for the same reasons a Bradyite would.

I explained that the AR platform was rather modular and that as long as we’re not talking original Colt or pistol uppers, the vast majority of stuff was interchangeable. About how they could have one lower and a dozen uppers or vice versa and that with the pushing of two pins, you could slap any of the two together.

Their eyes lit up at this, they kept the catalog again, and the next day I had four Teamsters in my office.

And this is where the deal begins. Sorry for the long story, but I felt that it was necessary to explain how I now have over a half-dozen guys at my place of employ wanting to know about building AR’s.

In the early years of RNS, I built an AR for the hell of it. That post is so far in the archives that I can’t even find it. I sold the gun less than a year later for two reasons:

A. I wanted to build a “Practical/Tactical” semi-auto shotgun and needed the money, and

B. I hate shooting AR’s

My whole beef with the Stoner design is that, right under my head is this buffer & spring set up that goes “ZZIINNGG!!-THWACK” every time I pull the trigger. I started disliking this as a teenager and stuck with Garands and M1A’s for DCM matches. My first shot with an AR platform gun is right where I want it, but every followup shot is disappointing and I attribute it to the annoying “ZZIINNGG!!-THWACK”.

I know that there have been no documented cases of the crap in the recoil tube leaving it’s aluminum housing and impaling the shooter through the cranium, but it still annoys me to the point where the AR is one gun I don’t enjoy shooting.

I spent many summers during my early teenage years building AR’s for cash. For those that don’t know, I am the son of a former gun store owner. During the early and mid 1980’s, we’d buy 30 rifles worth of parts from the local Schutzen Gun Works (known today as Olympic Arms) and my dad would spend the next couple of weeks putting them together. He would gas, barrel and headspace uppers and I’d put the rest together. When it is 1985 and you’re 13 years old, getting $20 per completed gun is a lot of money.

Lest you think it a mistake to have a 13 year old putting semi-auto versions of assault rifles together, I know of at least two-dozen of those rifles still working flawlessly for a local PD.

But back to 2007.

The guys at work were looking at the MSRP of the new guns in the Bushmaster catalog, and one of them comes into my office on a Monday and mentions his weekend trip to the local firearms retailers where he saw prices close enough to the MSRP to be discouraging. He asks if I have ever put on together.

I admitted I had.

He asks me to put one together for him.

I told him that I’d do him one better: If he’d buy a stripped lower and the guts, so would I, and that I’d come over to his place with my tools and help him put his lower together.

And that is the deal I currently have with five of my coworkers (and possibly three more).

Now you may be asking yourself: What does a guy who hates the AR platform need with five to eight AR lowers?

I don’t rightly know, except that I want at least two of these (A3 Flattops, of course)

For “inside the home w/frangibles” defense purposes. The rest I may just use as trading stock, I haven’t decided.

The shorter “ZZIINNGG!!-THWACK” of a CAR is less than that of the full sized rifle. Likewise, because of the collapsible stock, doesn’t come all the way to under my head. I’m sure I’ll still be able to hear it, but it shouldn’t bother me as much. Also, I may just spend the cash on the Hydraulic Buffer set up and see how that works.

And now to you all: If you are local to me, I am making the same offer.

If you have always wanted to put together an AR based rifle but never had the cojones to try and do it yourself, let me know and we’ll see what we can work out.

There is one stipulation: I have to spend a fair amount of my income during this month saving for Boomershoot and will not be able to begin this project with “the guys” until after I return.

My EOTech sight will soon have a home, I will be able to carry the shortest, non-NFA, AR in my home, and I’ll be helping at least five new semi-auto version of an assault rifle owners with their first semi-auto version of an assault rifle.

My curiosity at work is piqued now too, as I wondering if this Deal will piss off my gun-bigot manager more than taking his Personal Assistants to the range used to.

The only real downside is that I’ll have to start buying 5.56 ammo again as I currently own none.

But I’m sure the new semi-auto version of an assault rifle owners would be willing to go in on a large quantity buy, so that won‘t bother me much.