Dusty44

I have Limbsaver pads on all my rifles (except the 10/22; LOL) and only wonder why everybody else does not have them? I am too old and have been through too much in the real world to worry about being called something mean. I paid my dues a dozen times; was the only long-term 'survivor' in jobs with 100%/30-90 day turnover rates because the others would not work that hard or focus enough on doing what the job required. The Limbsaver on my DPMS may not even be necessary; it will stay there. Limbsaver makes 4 standard pads (last time I checked). One of them is a nearly exact match for the A-2 stock on my DPMS. I used a one-inch (as best I can recall) wood bit to shave the top of the plastic backing plate so it would fit over the end of the buffer tube assembly. Then I drilled the (original) screw hole larger in the center of where I had thinned the backplate so the attachment screw with the vent hole would fit. Finally, another hole in the bottom of the pad for the lower attachment screw because the factory hole is very much in the wrong place. I opened up the top screw hole in the rubber pad with a (5/8" ?) Forstner bit, being careful not to scratch the plastic backing plate; and the rubber pad new screw hole at the bottom with a (1/4" ?) Forstner bit without scratching the underlying plastic. Handheld drill motor. End result: NO FELT RECOIL. My only regret is not having a countersink that would reasonably reach into the soft rubber to give a little taper in the backing plate for that top screw to seat into. I lost access to the little storage hole in the end of the stock and added a 1/2 inch to Length Of Pull. The extra length of pull feels very good to me. I suspect that my factory DPMS has a heavy buffer that soaks up a lot of recoil. In any case, the Limbsaver is a lot cheaper than a brake and is legal everywhere and for all purposes of use of the rifle.

Note has been made in this forum about buffer and buffer tube drag if the tube/buffer is dry. I do not know if a dry buffer & buffer tube could create enough resistance to prevent the BCG from full travel, but being sure the buffer assembly is also lubed and sliding easily won't hurt?

The stock market pundits who write the missives I read every day say the biggest cause of unemployment in America, after the loss of housing construction jobs, is robots. Robots are not really R2D2 and 3CPIO. They are the computer-controlled mechanisms that do all that repetitive precision work. We all love the computer designed and made parts for our rifles, but the precision and extreme QC, and low cost on an Upper & Lower receiver comes at the cost of 20 jobs for guys manning lathes and milling machines. Same deal for the engineers who used to do all that drafting by hand. Now a computer does the repetitive work and prints out the result in minutes where six engineer-degree guys used to do one drawing a week. America still produces the very best high-precision machinery, and has the GDP to prove it, but the factories are now full of robots instead of a crowd of semi-skilled and skilled human workers. Our world is changing (again) and maybe we do not know where it is going? All we know is that things will be much different.

A new .22 rifle: If you remember the quintessential Russian sub-machine gun, WW-2 through Korea and some Viet Nam, the PPh41, small sub-machine gun with a perforated pipe over the barrel and a big drum magazine? Used extensively in WW-2 on the Eastern Front by the Red Army and the Wehrmacht, chambered originally in 7.62x25 Tokarev ?? Now you can buy one in 22LR. Mitchell's Mausers is making a copy with 50 round drum magazine or 10 & 30 round clips. List is around $650+ or win the one "Guns" (April 2012 issue) is giving away.

I have read that the triggers on many guns of all kinds are very uneven in design, heat treatments, alloys, hardening. Some are nearly indestructible. Some are made of quite soft metals and are intended to last under 'typical user' conditions that amount to shooting one or two clips or cylinders when the gun is new and maybe the rest of a whole box of ammo in the following hundred years. Some trigger parts will stand up to an almost infinite number of firing cycles but the more durable and better functioning they are, the more steps and care that is needed and the more expensive to manufacture. Most trigger parts are intended to last only as long as will satisfy the majority of gun owners. The majority do not shoot their guns very often nor do they fire very many rounds. Something that surfaces in my mind is of a comment in a forum where the person said that he only used his rifle for hunting and expected a single box of rifle ammo to last ten to fifteen years, or longer. Most sear surfaces are heat treated a little and case hardened some. Some gun maker's products are noted for their durability and others for using almost mild steel with case hardening that is barely a molecule thick and then sketchy. Many of these small parts come from a contractor and are being made to just barely pass whatever acceptance QC tests the gun maker might do, if any. Do not expect much unless there is a lot more information provided or independent third party data is available. My paranoia paints a pathetic picture but that does not mean that reality is any better. Mostly, expect worst case and if what you get is actually better then you will be quite happy!

Read my thread under "triggers." The RRA trigger I bought is cheap, about $100 (?); first stage pull is a smooth little swing of a measured (about) 1/8 inch; then it stops; pressure increase on the trigger finger and the gun goes 'bang.' Spec says 3.5 pounds. The gunsmith where I bought the trigger noted that because I have a factory rifle, the RRA trigger would not void my warranty like some drop-in triggers would. Not a factor for DIY builds. (The manufacturers say they can detect Varget and maybe other powders and reloads void the warranty anyway. Makes me wonder what is in or not in the bulk powders so this can be done.) Replacing the DPMS factory trigger with the RRA trigger took the gunsmith less than a minute. He did it almost for free in trade for the original DPMS trigger. It would be interesting to know what he wanted to do with that original trigger(?). My bottom line: everything I have ever read about DIY gunsmithing says never never touch the trigger sear surfaces unless you have genuine qualification. Your trigger needs replacement or to be sent out for professional attention.

I would suggest start with a factory rifle with the barrel profile and length you want and with a free-float tube. Then add a trigger to your liking and whatever else. That way you get a working rifle to begin with at least cost and can compare the improvements. Absolute accuracy with these rifles and the manufacturers preferred by almost all of the group is a function of barrel profile. A full bull barrel might easily be able to make a single slightly ragged hole group at 100 yards. A light weight tapered barrel is capable of a loose ragged 1 1/14 inch group. What you get at 300 or 500 or more yards depends entirely on you. The very slight differences between short and long barrels at long distances have been dealt with elsewhere in this forum. FWIW: I love my DPMS factory rifle with its long fluted SS barrel. The mods I did improved it a lot for me at a very modest cost. My belief that it needs an Abrams tank chassis for transport is almost certainly an illusion. It only weighs 12 1/2 pounds dry with scope.

I replaced the grip on my factory DPMS with the CAA. The original grip (is that Mil Spec?) was difficult to hold and uncomfortable. The CAA grip+, with my preferred inserts, fits my hand perfectly. Very inexpensive, easy mod, one of the better things I have done for my AR 308. My 'N' frame Smith came with wood grips, big square butt. My small hands had a two-finger grip. Cannot imagine firing that 44 Mag revolver like that with thumb and pinkie and pretty much half my hand mostly in the way of all that metal under recoil. A Hogue rubber grip wraps around that square-frame structure and gives a round butt that my hand(s!) can wrap around, too. Recoil has not been an issue for me when firing this revolver with the Hogue grip.

Yes, it is. The link from twitter directly did work. "Big Dog" is in another generation and there was a video. To me it looked more like a huge dust mite than a dog. Sorry that the link doesn't work. I copy/paste ed the tweet in its entirety. It was an interesting short video of the machine starting down on the ground, rising and then walking a few steps. If the sound was accurate, it is as noisy as a lawn mower.

I lost all track of what I was actually stuffing in the 10/22. The bricks are mostly Winchester (?) in a whitish box or whatever else I came/come across that appears to be on sale. There are a half-dozen or more brands floating around in my ammo storage in bullet styles of 36 and 40 grains, round nose and HP, many velocity ratings. My best groups, about an inch (or maybe a bit less) at 50 yds, are with "Winchester Super X round nose 1300 FPS." Early-on with the 10/22 I was getting FTF rates of one in ten or 12-14/100. Almost all of these fired the second time around. My best recollection of the last time I took the 10/22 to the range was of one to three FTF's all day. The pistol still has a one in three to one in five FTF rate and there is little gain in running these through a second time. They usually do fire if put into the rifle the second time. If you are experiencing a lot of FTF in 22LR, I can only suggest to use your best judgement and maybe try running them through a second or even third time. Maybe I am just not sufficiently afraid of the little 22's when they misfire? These days I am shooting from a bench and I eject the FTF's onto the bench top. I consider that they are constructed differently from big centerfire primed cartridges and would fire if there was primer compound in the fold of metal. They get a 10-20 second delay and then a second chance to ignite from the shock of bouncing on the wood bench if they are hanging fire, but there has never been a delayed ignition in my shooting of 22LR. I have been cut up and bleeding way too often when working on machinery and the machinery was coated with unhealthy crud and the attitude all around was 'get the work done.' I am wearing safety glasses when shooting and if it ever comes down to that, can pull brass fragments out of my skin and deal with minor burns. I get much more concerned about misfires with centerfire cartridges, but so far have only experienced one of those once or twice and too long ago to really remember. Except-- One Fail to Fire in 308, with a dimple in the primer, turned out that the primer did fire-- there was no powder in the case. A bullet design that I do not use for reloading so it was a factory round. I still do recall giving that one a lot of time and care even when I finally pulled the bullet to see what I could see. I may have some Remington 22LR brick ammo down in and under the ammo supply. Maybe that was what was giving me the most problems. My ammo came mostly from Wal-Mart on sale back when and I am aware that the local Wal-Marts cull merchandise that customers do not like or otherwise experience problems with. So now I still pick up some ammo at Wal-Mart because it usually is cheaper there for the same brands. Wal-Mart has usually been sold out of everything since Mr Obama began his tour. My other sources have been CTD and Cabela's when I had reason to go near where they are in Ft Worth. Now I have both and some more much too close at hand for my wallet to ever feel comfortable.

From Twitter: LiveScience LiveScience Robo-Mule Hauls Military Gear & Follows Like a Dog bit.ly/xfBKUN Needs a lot more work, but it has a lot of promise. Carry one or two in the bed of the pickup for hunting, small one to transport gear, big one to ride like a horse? No feed bill or stable fees when it is not in use? Is it the first stage towards some of the war machines in "Star Wars" ??

Added tactical22.net to my reading list. Ammo feed thread for the 22LR: My 10/22 had a lot of feed problems until I washed/seasoned the whole thing with Mobil One Full Synthetic & Kroil oil. No problems since with any ammo. And fewer misfires. If anyone reading this knows of, or ever hears of, an aftermarket bolt for the 10/22 that has (a) double impact firing pin(s), please post an advisory. All 22LR misfires work the second time when rotated any at all in this rifle. (I just toss them back into the magazine and run all the misfires again together at the end of the shooting session; it has worked fine.) For comparison, my overage Hi-Standard Model HB would fire most rounds of most brands of 22 LR when I first acquired it; now I get a high percentage of misfires and many of those can stand being tried several times so there are as many as a half-dozen dents around the rims of some FTF cartridges. This little pistol has had a minor rebuild by a good gunsmith. I would think that the spec springs are not up to contemporary ammo. I keep it for sentiment: it is the first gun I ever owned (bought very used).

This is not 'in the mail' . . . but is as close as I usually get . . . . I stopped in at Cabela's, Allen, TX a couple of weeks back and among the things I bought was a new dial caliper with the Cabela's name on it. I used it for the first time the last two days. It is a little stronger and heavier than the Frankford Arsenal electronic caliper I have been using and whose battery has needed replacement for a long time. The dial caliper of course does not need a battery, one less thing to worry about. Also, the dial caliper locked into position did very well as a go-no-go for OAL on ammo constructed deliberately at max OAL. I was never comfortable using the electronic caliper that way.

Most of my internet time everyday is devoted to stock market pundits. I have culled most of the really useless ones. Along the way I have found some that are good and some whose missives help with my style of investing (Understand that I have very little actual money and am trying to not throw it away). Also, in the sense of "Follow the Money," much of what is said, or the links provided, help me keep track of what is really going on in the world. Specifically: "The Reformed Broker;" "Maple Leaf Memo" and some other daily missives from the company who publishes that; Agora Financial's "The 5" & "Daily Reckoning" (which require a subscription to one or more of the many newsletters, but a cheap newsletter is a small price to pay and offers extras of its own); "Seeking Alpha" is a massive forum: I concentrate on dividend investing and income investing articles and the comments following them and a daily "Must Read News" that might be called "Morning Briefing" within SA. Every day I get 50 to 80 Emails that I subscribe to because of the above. When I have time I scroll down through Twitter and scan for new or interesting items with links. I follow several hundred people & organizations who appear to be in the middle of big media and big stock market. With very rare exception, I do not 'Tweet.' The Saving Grace with all this is that much of it can be deleted almost instantly or ignored. Please pardon my noise: 'You' did ask?

Picked up on the Ruger Forum because of a Twitter post. Just lurk. It is a 'fan' site with little real information. I do own several Ruger guns. Would not want my comments there 'Tweeted' to the world. Accidentally or on purpose. On Twitter, I follow a dozen gun manufacturers and interest groups. The Tweets (and links) are not that frequent and get lost in the stock market/world news Tweets and Tweeted links that are my primary interest. Real Guns, not the premium section. Not real often. When I do go there I am prepared to spend a lot of time reading. Read through a lot of gun forums looking for reloading recipes and information. Mostly it is just frustrating. Wonder why most of those threads are dated two to ten years ago? Most of the gun magazines, and NRA, have websites with republished articles from their rags. I have a lot of them on my Favorites list for when I am in the mood. I read (mostly gun) magazines while waiting in line for school to end when collecting my grandchildren. Over several years I have done many trial subscriptions. The magazines are just like the girls when I was/we were young (?), so many, so little time.

How much does a set of AR tools add? My purchase of a DPMS factory rifle was not on purpose, but the cost trade-off was very much to my benefit. With a nominal $300 MidwayUSA scope (Mine is a Nikon, but there are many others and I have a different brand scope on each of my rifles, all from MidwayUSA on sale) and a handful of cheap & easy small parts, the whole thing is still well under $2000. There is a picture somewhere in this forum and many posts describing my mods to the rifle. At the time of this writing, a $300 scope is an excellent scope. Most will have 'Lifetime' warranties and are very close to as good as anything else on the market at any price. A scope costing $1000+ will have an edge but that edge is very very marginal. (This statement about scope performance/quality is taken from a comment in a major gun magazine article. The person talking was well placed within the gun optics industry.) I shoot with the forearm/free-float tube resting on sandbags and the rest resting on me. I get groups at 100 yards easily within an inch. I know that if I got serious and learned more about proper shooting technique, the groups might easily make one ragged hole. It would be interesting to see what the rifle could do if it were in a high quality mechanical rest, but I have no intention of spending the money to find out.

The first thing I did was put a Limbsaver butt pad on my DPMS factory rifle. The pad needed a few mods, but that was easy. Limbsaver has 4 standard shapes; one of them is within a milimeter or two around the sides and 2 - 3 MM long at one end. Almost a perfect fit. No felt recoil at all. Wearing a T-shirt.

I have a factory DPMS with 24" SS fluted barrel; also a Remington 700 and Savage 111; all in 308 Win. If there is a difference, the DPMS may shoot tighter groups; or maybe it is just easier to hold for shooting good groups. All of them can shoot better than I can, even from the bench. All three have scopes in low ring mounts. The DPMS mounts are quick-detach. Or whatever that is properly called? I like that the A-2 stock fits my cheek just right for sighting. I have taken some flack for the low-mounted scope. I added a Limbsaver butt pad just on general principals; the pad needed a few minor mods (other posts) and adds a half-inch to length of pull which feels real good to me. CAA grip (Brownells) is good, too. last, a rifle chambered for 308 Win can always shoot 7.62 NATO. A rifle chambered for 7.62 NATO can easily get dicey with the 308's. Check rules where you intend to shoot. Many ranges forbid FMJ.

The best training I gave my trigger finger started with playing with a water pistol, dry. A small cheap water pistol, holds just like the real thing, single or double handed. Pull that long plunger trigger slow and properly and watch that the pistol does not move around. At all. Pointed into the shaving mirror it can be watched from both sides. A dime balanced on the little plastic pistol would be interesting, too. I will try that. This exercise improved my groups a lot. Pistol and rifle.

Our civilization depends on communication. Communication is the exchange of ideas and then in other contexts, trade and travel. The gun gave individuals the power to force ever freer communications. Initially it was those primitive hand cannon and carved messages that could be printed on paper. Gun technology and printing improved and the parameters of Western Civilization began an exponential rise. Recently, communications in the form of electronics and aircraft has reached asymptotic levels. It is too much for the elite power class to cope with. Control and suppression of the lesser classes is threatened by communication. Communication is supported, ultimately, by the gun. It is necessary, therefore, for the gun to be eliminated from the hands of common people. Then communication of ideas can be shut down and after that whatever suppression, control, oppression may seem desirable to the power holders can be accomplished. "Rule Of Law" seems to be a British Empire idea. Guns are being taken away from the nations who were a part of that Empire or who owe their origins to the British Empire. Note the levels of corruption extant in nations who were under the control or who owe their origins to the other Colonial Powers. Guns and good communications have never been allowed to ordinary persons in those nations. America is now the Keystone of Western Democracy/Culture. A major effort/war is being conducted by the power/money elite (Warren Buffet said it in so many words) to re-establish total control. Guns must be suppressed, eliminated, or controled to the point where they are useless. Then all other "rights" can be disregarded or eliminated. All wealth and power will be back in the hands of the very few. Survival of the "Second Amendment" is about survival of individual freedom and standard of life everywhere. Without the freedom to have guns and open communications, the entire planet will quickly revert to the conditions of the Dark Ages, albeit probably with a lot of contemporary technology, but still with no real ability of the ordinary person to know or have anything beyond his own physical reach. Read, in order: "A World Lit Only By Fire;" "Empire Of The Summer Moon;" "Last Stand." Think not only about the historical events and the 'Cowboys & Indians' but about the changes in civilizations/cultures and the flow of power among classes as communications improved/changed and how that related to the guns available to individuals. ". . . Summer Moon" and "Last Stand" also describe the basic functioning and collective will of mankind, but should be read so there is context and continuity with "A World Lit Only By Fire."

Thanks for the definitive technicals, hobbesgunner. My thought was to use something cheap and expendable before risking the high-dollar hardware. Heli-coil may not be, is probably not, available for the precision threads.

I bought a factory DPMS rifle in Spring, 2010. It cost me vastly less than the parts to create one. That does not even touch the cost of the special tools that MUST be bought, also, to assemble one of these. At the time I was investigating the cost and advisability of building one from scratch. My favorite gunshop had one on the rack; too easy; less than the cost of a bare upper&lower at the time. A factory rifle is complete, cheaper than parts, instant satisfaction, can be modified later. Look up CheaperThanDirt (Catalogue store On-Line; slightly different ownership for the brick&mortar stores in Ft Worth & McKinney, Texas, but pick your poison!!). Extreme collection of Black Rifles in almost any configuration. Just arrange to ship to your local FFL dealer if he cannot get you the one you want. Disclaimer: No connection to these vendors. Just trying to provide a start for info.

Before something inadvisable is done to the expensive metal, maybe pick up a nut and bolt from a hardware store threaded for 5/8"x24; try these to see how that thread fits. Then try chasing the threads on the nut and bolt as may seem desirable and use what you learn to chase or re-work the high-dollar metal? Worst case, don't forget there is a system to redo the threads with a stainless steel heli-coil. My memory says not cheap, but a kit can be purchased to cut the metal and install a coil that will be a new thread and will sustain pressure and last essentially forever. In the years I repaired industrial machinery I think I did it once and saw it done perhaps one or two other times. It does a great job when all else has failed. Don't have a link: my parts all came from the supply room. Heli-coil is a standard industrial repair item, however. And, I probably did not spell it correctly.

I inspected the bolt on my factory DPMS LR308. This rifle only has a few hundred rounds through it, less rather than more. The blue is worn around the edges on the front and rear faces of the lugs. Some lugs on the face are worn more than others. The top of the extractor face is the most worn. Wear on the rear faces seems mostly uniform. Bare metal is all on edges and corners of the lugs. I was not concerned. Tight fitting metal rubbing and working while under pressure, even with oil on the surfaces, seems/seemed reasonable to me that metal would wear to match facing surfaces? There is about four times as much energy in the firing of a .308/7.62 caliber at typical loadings than in a .223/5.56. Would that not result in a lot more stress on the bolt/BCG/chamber locking & support surfaces metal than the smaller caliber rifle?

Or try my private 'last ditch cure.' Soak the metal mags with Mobil One 10W-30 Full Synthetic. Dry them after a bit with paper towel. Internal parts of the mag may be hanging up a little. This will fix that. Seemed to help my DPMS factory steel mags. All those other mags cost too much for me. I don't shoot that much. Worst case, I will and do single load and the inserted mag is just a floor in the loading port. Mobil One fixed all the mags for my M1911's. The factory mags, the new after-market mags, the SS used mags from the gun shop (cheap- did not work well and would not eject properly or smoothly; oiled them and they are great!!). Mobil One Full Synthetic also stops and prevents all rusting and corrosion for me. Best stuff I have found so far (since 1963). I like to add some Kroil as a cleaning agent. And the oiled guns and gun parts are not greasy or wet with oil, they just have a nice sheen. Keep this stuff off wood and anything electrical or electronic and not even close to scopes or optical lenses.