10/22

You know... October 22nd.  And a repeat of a photo... cause I can.

Darwin Sighs...

...As another slips past.  Not to hate on stereotypes, but they apparently live in a trailer, so there's bound to be many more chances down the road.

Range Time

The 10/22 has apparently been claimed...

Although she could use a stock with a slightly higher comb than the factory one (any suggestions would be appreciated.  Also a sling-ready one would be nice.)  Fern has a small face and the TechSights are a little tall for her.

On the upside, she says she likes the iron sights better than the red-dot for general plinking.  I like the red-dot for first time shooters, as it's simple, but if they show more interest, then I'd rather they master irons before getting much into optics.  This'll work great with Fern, her archery background has her more interested in bullseye-style target shooting more than tactical stuff, so it suits her fine.

I fully stripped down the little Ruger before the range session as well, and noted the new finish they're using seems a bit thick on the inside of the receiver, and was actually chipping off inside.  I think this may have been part of the reliability issues I've been having with this gun.  I scrapped off as much as I could inside, and am contemplating just polishing out as much as I can in the not so distant future.  Yesterday it only had two failure-to-eject type malfs, much better than past sessions.

Fern also caught her first piece of shrapnel when I had her shoot the SigPro at the steel target... tiny bit of bullet jacket came back and smacked her in the forehead.  Thankfully it only left the tiniest of cuts, and didn't even bleed.  She immediately took her finger off the trigger and kept it pointed in a safe direction, even though the slide was locked open (last round) but decided that was enough 9mm for the day.  Eye pro is important when shooting steel!

Henry Rifles Mare's Leg

Don't know how this one slipped out unoticed, but Henry Repeating Arms is producing Mare's Leg type guns in .45 Colt and .22s/l/lr.

The .45 Colt gun sports a brass frame, and the .22 version is simply a trimmed down H001, however both sport a saddle ring on the left side of the receiver (a feature not normally present on the H001 rifle.)  The .45 version is a bit pricy (msrp $950) and the .22 is listed at $360.

I really do want...

To continue on the wishlist and link to Steve again, the Baikal MP-161K looks freakin' sweat.  I think it would be dead sexy with some decent glass up top and some fancy streamlined bipod of some sort.  I'd probably strongly consider it in .17 HMR just because I already have a goodly amount of .22lr semi's and I do like shooting the .17 HMR (granted I've never had to pay for it...)

Steve doesn't think it can be imported, but I don't see why not really.  I'm not a lawyer by any means, but I thought that simply being a rimfire exempted rimfires from most of the stupid rules, hence the GSG-5 and the like being perfectly fine, despite the "evil" features.  This one doesn't even have any of those problems (no pistol grip, 9 shot mag, no muzzle device...)  I mean if they can import Saiga Sporters I don't see why this one wouldn't be fine.

Huh... that was fast...

The one downside of having an M&P15-22 and a decent amount of mags is that a 333 round box of Winchester .22lr disappears awful fast.  I don't think I was at the range more than 45 minutes before my box was empty.

But, weapons qual coming up for Uncle Sam, so we'll turn around and do it all over again at the next chance. And again... and again...

GSG 1911

Maddened Fowl has a good pic up of a production one from the NRA gathering.  Looks great. (Tons better than the Colt/Umarex... could just be the grips though... still want some wood for my 1911.)  I know what my next .22 is.

Sights work!

On the Anschutz.  Ignore the crap-tastic quality of the cheap cell phone pic, but that's a 1inch dot at 25 yards, with 5 rounds in it (two each in the lower two holes.)  I had an even better group earlier in the day, but I didn't get a pic of it.  Not bad for being seriously rusty with globe and peeps, let alone bullseye shooting, and winds gusting in excess of 30mph.  Just got to figure out what ammo it likes best.

More on .22lr for Training

Say Uncle and Tam both mentioned their newly found appreciation of the concept.  I've mentioned I've been a proponent off and on before as well, and "Smith & Wesson M&P15-22" (or some variation) is the second most common search subject that hits my blog, right behind the Sig E2 series (why that is the most common I'm still not sure...)

Both of them are using a conversion bolt in a standard AR, which is probably the quickest and cheapest route to go.  I haven't had any personal experience with that particular setup, but Tam does bring up one of the various reasons I didn't go that route myself, in that the .22lr's habit of leading up your barrel is a bit of a problem with a barrel with a gas port inside of it.  She does try to use copper washed bullets as much as she can to fight that, which is really the only thing you can do, other than bringing along a bore snake to run through every few mags (something I tend to do with .22lrs anyway.)  This also caused her to buy a box of Remington Gold Bullets, which in my experience, is the least reliable bulk .22lr ever made, and is still dirty as hell, despite the copper washed rounds.

Another option out there is a dedicated .22lr upper, such as the Spikes Tactical units. I was originally going to go that route until I found out about S&W's military discount program.  They do have some sweet rigs available, and you can deck them out with all sorts of goodies.  This month's SWAT magazine has a sweet suppressed SBR one with a 5" or so barrel and a YHM can almost completely covered by the handguard. It is a seriously sweet looking (but quite expensive) gun.  They also generally use Lothar Walther barrels, so even that stubby little one is pretty dang accurate.

But in the end, between the price of the Smith, even without the discount, and the ability to use the bolt release, I'm pretty happy with the little plastic popper.  Still need to get a decent sight setup on it though.

M&P 15-22 for Home Defense

I've noticed this search phrase pop up on the sitetracker a couple times today, so I think I'll be a nice guy and give my thoughts towards the subject.

In short, only if you don't have any other guns.  Or your only other gun is a bolt action .22lr, and even then, you may be better off with that one.

On one hand, .22lr is cheap, and cheaper ammo makes for more range time.  They are also low recoil, so gun-shy people tend to flinch less, and follow up shots can be made much faster.  And the S&W has all sort of rail-estate to throw lights and lasers on, which are good in a midnight home-defense situation, and is endowed with all the ergonomic goodness of the AR platform.

On the other hand... Gun savvy people know that the .22lr is far from a fight stopper.  It can work, and yes, people have been killed by the little 22, but like many other things, why settle for "maybe" when better is available?  The small diameter, 40 grains at most, often just barely super-sonic bullet just doesn't deliver much energy to your target.

More importantly, .22lr is notorious for mediocre quality control.  It's pretty much a given that in any given bulk pack of .22lr, you'll have a handful of rounds with poor primer distribution and fail to go bang.  .22lr semi-autos also tend to be very dirty little guns, leading to more reliability issues, and rimmed cartridges are always an issue with semis.  Every semi-auto 22 I've used has jammed at some point, from the venerable 10/22 to the cheapest Remchester Walmart special.  It's the nature of .22lr semi-autos.  The last thing you want during a home defense scenario you'd want would be any sort off failure.

All that being said, for generally less than the cost of an M&P15-22, you can pick up a decent pump shotgun of some shape or form, load it up with 00 buck, and have a much more reliable fight stopper than you'll find with any .22lr semi.  Just my $.02, and YMMV.  My go to home defense set-up is my Sigpro 2022 with an attached light.  Gives me a hand free to grab my cell phone so they can get there faster and clean things up so I can go back to bed.

More M&P15-22 and Magpul mash-up advice

Another question popped up on ARFCOM in regards to Magpul components on the little .22

The MIAD and MOE series grips are pretty sweet, I like the simplicity and fuller size of the MOE, and since my full size carbine has one, I needed to put one on the Smith.

On the 15-22 the rear take-down retaining pin spring is held in place by the pistol grip since there is no traditional buffer tube or rear plate. No biggy with the standard A2 grip, but the MOE and MIAD grips have some gaps in that area and don't support the spring like the A2 grip. If you're running the MIAD with the large backstrap, all you need to do is get the AR-10 gapper from Magpul, and not only will it fix the retaining spring issue, but it'll fill the gap between the grip and the receiver.

If you're running the MOE, from everything I can find, the gapper isn't compatible. So you need to add a block to the inside of the MOE grip to support the spring. I grabbed some plastic sprue chunks from a Games Workshop kit (hey, it was handy) and glued it in and trimmed it to match up with the top of the grip.



You can't see it from the outside, so I didn't bother coloring the block. I still have the gap between the receiver and the flared top of the grip, but it's purely a cosmetic problem, so I'm not in a hurry to fill that yet, or put much thought into how I'm going to do it, but someday I'll get to it.

M&P 15-22 and the BAD

I've noticed a few hits on the blog with searches similar to the post title, and I just had a message on ARFCOM about it as well, so I figured I'd go a little more into what I had to do to get it on there. I eluded a little to it with my first range report here, and it works perfectly. So here's a more in depth look.

*Keep in mind, I don't know how S&W would view this in terms of warranty service, and I am not responsible for you buggering up your rifle or slicing off a finger.*

Here's some mediocre photoshop skills at their best. The red area is where there used to be plastic.


As you can see, it's a pretty good chunk. I used a pin vise (tiny hand drill) to roughly plan out where to cut, and to make sure I wasn't cutting too much, and some nice fresh exacto blades. I was going to use a jeweler's saw, but mine is MIA. It would have been faster and probably a little cleaner looking, but what is done is done. The BAD still drags a little on the front of the trigger housing, but it's not enough to hinder operation, and cutting any more out of there would result in a much thinner spot on the mag well than I would be comfortable with. As it is, I did get a little too deep in the top corner, and there is actually a hole there.

If you want to do this to your gun, keep in mind that I have no idea how Smith & Wesson feels about cutting that much out of your lower, and I'd imagine that I've voided the warranty, but I'm comfortable with that. If it breaks because of me doing this, it's my own dumbass fault, not theirs, so I'd fix it or replace it myself.

As it sits now though, it functions just fine as a rifle, and the BAD functions just like the one on the "real" gun, thanks to the functioning bolt catch.

Again though, I don't know how this will effect your warranty. (Just felt like I needed to say it at least three times...)

But here's a less obscured picture of the finished result.

Finally

Will be making the 40+ minute trek to the gun shop to pick up the M&P15-22 after my Glacial Geology class tomorrow. Look for initial thoughts in the evening.

Pros & Cons of .22lr Handgun Training

At pistol-training.com.

My primary shooting buddy and myself have been big advocates of .22lr trainers for a while now. Cheap ammo = more trigger time, and more trigger time is always good.

I definitely agree with mention of not using .22lr handguns for multiple shots on the same target though, I can double-tap with my P22 like a mofo, and that has lead to some frustrating range sessions with the 45.

Another key point in the article is the mention of a new S&W M&P pistol in .22lr. I hope this is true and not a missunderstanding with the rifle. The P22 is fun, but I need something full size with more holster options and not the price of a Sig 226 in .22lr.

(H/T SayUncle)

GSG-5: The continuing saga.

Well, after a few range sessions, turns out the cute little Eotech knock-off (as seen here) has issues with the recoil of the GSG. Mainly in the way the battery terminals are arranged. The recoil actually pushed the batteries back on the springs and breaks contact, causing the sight to turn off. Makes for difficult double taps. Oh well. NStar fake-point inbound.

New GSG-5 fun

I added a fake Eotech to the little carbine the other day, along with a sling made out of parts from http://www.strapworks.com/ for less than $10 after shipping. Turned out pretty good.
Haven't gotten it out to the range with this setup yet, but it looked to sexy not to get some pictures up.

More Hot .22lr Action

Sig's coming out with a .22lr version of their popular 556 rifle and I have to admit, it looks pretty sexy.  It's sporting the European furniture, complete with a folding stock and a micro red dot sight.

I've got a GSG-5, and it sees a lot of range time, but it can be finicky.  It's cool, and everybody who's shot it likes it, but it does still seem more of a novelty, albeit an accurate shooting one.

The Sig's got the advantage of a larger capacity mag right of the bat, 30, compared to the GSG's 22 rounds.(can squeeze 24 in there though)  Plus the mags look to be Stanag sized, so they'd fit in most pouches, assuming they don't have some weird protrusion that sticks out farther than a normal mag.  Not to mention it's priced competitively with the GSG-5 at $515(msrp).

Sig 522 (linky)

Downside, it has the little red dot, but no BUIS rear, although one is available separately, and it looks like any 1913 standard one should work (like Magpul's new one)

I'll be keeping an eye on this one.