Dusty44

This sounds like the rifle mentioned in a little note in "Gun Digest," dated for Jan, 2012. (Do not remember the exact date.) The notation said that the Russians regard all the hype about this "new" rifle as being just hype; everything about this rifle is just putting a new collection of existing tech together. The impression is that the Russian Army wants something really new and much better than the AK design.

There have been a whole bunch of SHTF situations. Russia in the revolution/post-revolution in the WW-1 era and the 1930's. Germany in the "Weimar Republic" era, much of the United States in the 1930's Depression. Much of Europe during and after WW-2. The list is ridiculously long if one wishes to compile even some of it. People mostly behave. People and governments mostly work together to the best of their ability and resources for the common good. Weapons are not needed any more than in any other time. Yes, for those spring-loaded to jump down my throat, criminals are 'about' and some defense is good. That said, Texas is as gun-friendly as there is. Castle Doctrine, Concealed Carry, common sense. Still, use of a gun or other weapon for personal defense requires that the police officers responding and the members of the Jury later on are in no doubt that the person using the weapon was unquestionably in a life-threatening situation with no other recourse. There is very little real difference anywhere in the US. We also know that in nations where guns are forbidden to the general population or have been taken away, the bad guys still have guns and gun violence is worse than in the US, worse than in places where guns are commonly available; it is just not reported in a Media frenzy. In any use or operation of a weapon, the individual rights also come to a sudden stop at the property line. The person discharging a firearm, intentionally or accidentally, is responsible for what ever that bullet may do and especially so once it crosses a property line. Penalties are severe. Individuals with professional or other familiarity and frequent use of weapons are the first and most serious about applying those penalties to misuse of weapons. A personal-defense firearm is pretty much limited to short-range and low-penetration projectiles. It really does not take a lot to deal with most criminal situations. Bad guys do not want to be shot. If the situation requires, a person is a target only about a foot thick. Bird shot from a shotgun of most calibers, rapid-expanding bullets from smaller caliber handguns-- is going to be adequate if the person defending themselves is at all competent in the use of the weapon. If familiarity and competence is lacking for any reason, the only real result will be disaster for all. Most of the 308 AR rifles in this forum are fun&games. Target shooting, hunting, building and working with the machinery. A few are serious because the users are police officers and need these weapons or very similar department-provided weapons for professional reasons. Because of the range and power, use of any rifle other than -maybe- a 22 (there are always specific exceptions and situations for the nitpickers to use in attacking anything said), is not realistic or acceptable in self-defense. Try thinking in terms of what a judge and jury will think, not what you as the person dreaming up a situation or scenario wishes to believe.

Lever guns are really not very accurate, usually. This is often mentioned in magazine articles. My Marlin 1894 in 44 mag makes neat patterns with 300 gr hard cast (Cast Performance, 300 gr WFNGC over a maximum charge of IMR 4227). I have a target on file with 14 neat holes packed into a 3 inch disk at 50 yards. Any other ammo opens up a lot. All factory and my handloaded ammo does fine in my 4 inch 'N' frame Smith out to at least 25 yards.

To fr3db3ar : Glad to know I am not the only one in this 'community' who gets by with minimalist loading equipment. I bought an RCBS 'Universal' priming tool yesterday from MidwayUSA. I have been using the Lee Loader system to prime all cases. I am comfortable with that and can feel the primer slip into place. It is a bit slow and hopefully the new tool will work easier and faster.

The best ideas I have come across are for a collection of weapons in any kind of dicey situation. After the big rifle, a 12 ga pump shotgun with long and short barrels like a Remington 870 or Mossberg 500. Bird shot is good for small game and game birds and for close-range self protection. Bird shot has minimum over-penetration. Buckshot for a longer reach. A 22 rifle is good for small game and can seriously interfere with bad guys. More, shooting skills are the same for all guns and the 22 will help you learn to shoot better cheaply. When you have made a 10/22 reliably shoot 1 inch groups at 50 yards you will have learned a lot. Cost can be as little as a gun + $50, $125 with an excellent scope. A 357 revolver, double-action, for backup. A revolver is safer than an an auto-loader. The 357 shoots 38, 38 Special, 357 mag (has been used, WW-2 combat, to shoot 9 MM Luger). Load your own and have a lot of options. Over-penetration with some HP bullets is not as serious a problem as some other calibers and this cartridge is a solid man-stopper and is good for game up to medium deer. In qualified hands and with suitable ammo/bullets it has been used successfully on most game in North America. (Yes, The qualifications and limits, etc., already fill many books and forums. Sorry, I really don't want to hear it. If you are interested and do not already know, spend some time researching it on the web.) Ammo: If I remember correctly, from those who were in combat in Viet Nam, 200 rounds on your person per gun carried and at least a 1000 rounds readily available per gun. It would be interesting to know what is the common wisdom coming out of Iraq and Afghanistan. Most ranges where I am do not allow FMJ. Buy mostly HP and soft point ammo. Surplus ammo is surplus for a reason. This is covered in recent posts in this forum for individuals having problems. If ignition and accurate fire really matter, good ammo is imperative. I have reloading equipment and supplies to enhance my total ammo available at the least cost. I do not have space for a loading bench. I use a Lee Loader and a Lee Hand Press, Lee beam powder scale, powder trickler, rubber & plastic hammer, caliper. My reloaded ammo is precise, shoots as well as the factory ammo I buy (or better). The cost of equipment is minimal. I push the keyboard out of the way and load on my computer desk. I really think that if TSHTF for real, which I consider almost totally unlikely, it will probably not matter what any of us have done to prepare. The desperate mobs and gangs will ransack and kill for (Ref: "Mother Earth News," Cold War Era, 1960's) two gas tank fulls in all directions from big cities. Where is a livable place more than 800 miles from a major population center in any direction? (Not City Hall: where masses of people are resident 'right now' who are completely dependent on the existing infrastructure and flow of food and other essential supplies? Almost all of us!) How about the folks already resident who will be defending their own? Better than guns is a supply of most-wanted barter goods. Try toilet paper, small candles, matches.

Try checking the dimensions against those for a 6.5-08 Ackerly Improved? The Ackerly is a re-sized 308 Win/7.62 NATO case with a caliber 6.5 MM bullet. The Swede 6.5x55 is too long for our short actions. The Ackerly will fit because it is essentially the same length as the 308 Win. The 260 Rem is a better caliber because it does not burn up barrels. The Ackerly gives higher velocities but is very hard on barrels. Otherwise, the 6.5 MM caliber is popular in Europe. This cartridge is usually made from 308 Win brass because it is either not available in a factory loading or was not until very recently. I was skimming an article somewhere in a Google search tonight and was not really paying attention to the Ackerly. I was interested in the 260 which is another 308 Win derivative.

My solution is probably for a second shorter barreled & lighter rifle with the lower modified to match the lower that is on my 24 inch bull barrel rifle. My own efforts to locate a second upper indicate that for an additional very small cost difference I can have the benefit of all those spare parts that comprise a functional lower. If anything ever breaks or wears excessively, I will be able to use either lower with either upper as needed while parts are on order or repairs are being done.

Laughing at pain or other terrible things is not necessarily because the person laughing sees it as 'funny.' Yes, some persons do. Most of us laugh because it is shocking and the laugh is a form of hysteria. Our deep inner psyche is actually announcing its dismay. Unless we have seen too many of those videos on "World's Funniest. . . ."

Been reading gun magazines again lately. What comes up in my mind is an article by one of those gun mag guys about using surplus & cheap ammo. What he said was that mil surplus & cheap ammo is sold to get it out of the supply system because it is: old- primers are not up to standard any more and do not generate enough fire or do not work at all; powder/cartridges have experienced poor storage conditions and powder burns at unreliable rates or maybe not at all; Marginal quality- ammo that may be more current production but the lots failed QC tests as: pressures high, pressures low, other problems including use of bullet designs that do not do well in semi-autos/full-autos. This poor quality thing was aimed mostly at ammo made outside the US. The solution offered was new US made brand name ammo with bullet weights close to the US/NATO 147 gr standard (for the 308 Win/7.62 NATO). Beyond that, many of us have needed to feed one round at a time for a few dozen to a few hundred rounds to teach the rifle what it was supposed to do? Run your rifle wet. I think it was in "Guns" magazine for Jan 2012, waiting in the line of cars for my grandkids to get out of school today, my favorite gun oil, Mobil One 10W-30 Full Synthetic, was touted. Harbor Freight sells a little oil can that works well with this oil. I add 20% to 35% Kroil to the mix (standard highly sophisticated measurement: dump some in and "Yeah! That looks like enough!"). Shake the bottle of Mobil One to mix the stuff inside before pouring into the little oil can or before pouring it over the gun parts; shake the little oil can to mix both the motor oils and the Kroil together. A rifle coated with this oil will always be vastly easier to clean. The lube qualities of the synthetic motor oils will help all the parts in the AR to work more smoothly. This synthetic motor oil can be dried with paper towel. The actual synthetic lube oil will be in the pores of the metal and will still do its thing. Anyway, the item in the magazine today affirmed the need for these AR's to have lots of lube. My own AR is a DPMS factory rifle. It had the usual teething problems of not feeding well and I was putting one round at a time into the port and releasing the bolt to chamber the cartridge. After a couple of dozen shots, maybe 50 or 60, I tried some new ammo by loading the (DPMS 19 round steel factory) magazine and watching to see what it did. 10 rounds, 4 times, (and everything since) a variety of ammo including Russian steel cased, handloads, top-priced branded factory, bullet weights from 140 to 180. No hiccups. Expended cases all land a couple of feet to my right. Note: casings used for reloads that were fired in my Rem 700 bolt do not fit the chamber of the AR or my Savage 111 well. Casings fired in the AR or the Savage do fine in all three rifles. I only resize necks, minimal reload tools include only a Lee Loader and a Lee Hand Press (looks like a big nutcracker). I am trying to say that casings on reloaded ammo from your own previous use or any source at all might not do well in the new AR even though they meet nominal dimensional specs. This can be another of the problems of foreign or cheap ammo. Is that stuff really 308 Win or is it really 7.62 NATO or maybe somewhere in between or something 'not quite' that will work fine once the rifle is running smoothly? Include excellent high-dollar ammo that works great in bolt guns but the bullets do not feed for beans in an auto-loader. Hang in, keep shooting. Your new AR will do fine.

To support my spotting scope or other optics I have a Bog-Pod which is primarily a shooting stick but which can be rigged to support a spotting scope or camera. I think the Bog-Pod was bought On-Line from CheaperThanDirt. No promises. I also have a Quantaray QSX 6601 TM camera tripod with variable capabilities. This thing was bought for my SLR but can be used for other optics and devices. I bought it at a Wolf Camera, locally, several years back. This tripod is much larger and heavier than the Bog-Pod. My third option is the mounting clamp from Trophy Tools. It is not very big or heavy. It is a spring clamp with a camera/optics mount bolted to it. It is intended for clamping to anything solid from shooting range structure to car parts or trees.

The Tinnitus is bad enough. Then the frequencies that are blank for me. My hearing protection has infinite battery life. I put reusable plugs in my ears. These can supposedly be left in and conversation can be heard but the high intensity pulse of gunfire will be blocked. My ears respond some to all this, but I still need to pull the plugs out to hear anything serious. I put the plugs into my ears before I even get out of the car when I arrive at the outdoor range. Entry to the range is through the store. Before I go out to the shooting bench area I put a headset/earmuff protector on in addition. I have seen people using only those little throwaway foam earplugs wince to the point of a visible jolt when a big caliber rifle (what are those guys shooting that rocks the whole firing line?) goes off or when something like a full-house 44 mag fires. I do too with only my little plugs. The headset over top helps a lot. I have the range officers mostly trained to tap me on the shoulder when the range is going green. With the double hearing protectors and my bad ears, I am usually just lost in trying to create only one hole in that sheet of paper out there. High tech is great, but I think I am happier with just the older ear plugs and foam lined covers. Also, as mentioned, I have not had battery or circuit board failure with these.

This is an update to my original post. The bank robber has been apprehended. He was apparently using his own car in the bank job that caused the flurry around me and cameras caught his license plates. The mask he was using has a name, "Handsome Man," and that is the nickname given this bandit. His car was seen on I-10 in Mississippi and police there apprehended him.

When I bought my spotting scope at the DSC convention, Lon Kreiger had a lot to say about a straight eyepiece and an angled eyepiece. Mostly it seems to depend on what works for the user. Sometimes on a shooting range it is easier to use the angled eyepiece because the scope is aimed and locked in position and the user can look down into the optics easily. In the field a straight eyepiece is usually better because it is more "natural" to aim and find things that way. For me, the angled eyepiece is about the same. It is a lot like aiming a video camera lens from a remote? I find reference things in the image and go from there. A few days ago, finding a helicopter in flight with binoculars was not any easier or harder for me than pointing the spotting scope. Still had to find references and go from there. When shooting, I need to find the target number out there below the backing boards in the rifle scope and then go up to the proper target on the backing board (usually 2 targets at 50 yards and 4 targets at 100 yards). The Vortex spotting scope I bought is available with an angled or with a straight eyepiece. Lon had me try finding a thing high on a distant wall with both options and for me it was about the same either way except for me it was easier with the angled eyepiece because I did not need to hold the scope nearly as high up. If at all possible it is almost certainly best to try both options and go with what works best for 'you.'

Look at the responses for WashGuy: "Help with spotting scopes," Sept 03, 2011. My Vortex is very nice. Trophy Tools is listed to have a booth at the Dallas Safari Club Convention in Dallas again this year, Jan 5 - 8. I bought the Vortex spotting scope at the convention but had one shipped to me after the fuss was over. Vortex Nomad 20-60x60 angled, item# SPT-VT-NMD-60-A. I found the packing slip dated 1/12/2010 with a staple where the sales receipt got torn off and lost. The packing slip does not list a price. I would suggest that the mounting clamp made by Trophy Tools, strongest version currently available, is worthwhile. I have used the clamp with my SLR, too. Next time I need a scope I intend to try a Vortex scope. Prices are manageable and I have seen the Vortex name dropped as the scope in use on African safari (in the Club magazine). I think if it is good enough for a guy to pack one to Africa for that ungodly expensive hunt and has the blessings of the PH group, I should try one.

One of the stock market analysts has a missive titled: "Buy a gun." The title is mostly for shock and to draw readers. The article does suggest that our society could possibly break down, at least some. And it does actually say that buying and owning a gun and some ammo might be desirable. December 31, 2011, middle of the day. First the police car that took up station at the end of my street. Then I needed to go out and there were 20 more police cars around the corner, just out of sight from my middle-class quiet suburban neighborhood front door. Then three more police cars appeared, parked across the street from my house, just sitting there. While I was watching and wondering, six cops appeared from between the houses over there, went to the cars and put away their M-16's, bulletproof vests, ammo belts. I was wondering if I could really manage to dig myself a foxhole through the tile and concrete slab of my entry-hall floor in a couple of milliseconds like in the cartoons, but the SWAT team and their cars vanished. Next there was the police helicopter orbiting. I found that when I steadied myself out there in the back yard I could find the chopper in my binoculars but never could quite read the markings. When all else fails, a grandfather always has a secret weapon. I got my 13-year-old computer geek grandson to help me and he used his computer and Apple iPhone to discover that the cops were looking for a bank robber who had hit the little bank a few hundred yards away out there across a few streets of houses beyond my back door. The robber has a known history of 6 prior 'bank jobs.' He fired at someone during this event. His escape route apparently took him almost past my house. The SWAT team was doing house-to-house search in the next several streets beyond my street. Nevermind the collection of guns at my disposal (Carefully locked in those safes). The array of firepower in the hands of the police and in the hands of the bad guy just makes me feel like. . . . Can I really dig through the tile and concrete in a millisecond or two? Bare hands? It was a thrilling way to end the year, but the kind of thrill that I would much rather have done without, thank you! Happy and Wonderful New Year to all!!!!!!!!!! P.S.: To the best of my current knowledge, the Bad Guy escaped-- again.

I have a DPMS LR-308 with 24 inch fluted barrel, factory. Scattered elsewhere in this forum is a complete description and a photo. I had some jam problems early-on. It was not a serious problem for me because I was mostly firing single-shot by tossing one round at a time into the open port- on top of the magazine- and releasing the BCG to load. After the first time at the range I washed all metal parts in powder solvent first and then in my own "gun oil." I mix 25% to 35% Kroil into Mobil One 10W-30 Full Synthetic. (Harbor Freight has a nice little 4 oz oil can.) This provides relatively permanent lubrication and moisture proofing: the Kroil is a cleaner. I pour/inject this oil into all openings, crevices, crannies and let it sit as long as possible. I fill the bore and then drain the fluid back into the oil can. Then I spend some time drying with paper towel. After that initial treatment, just wipe lightly with paper towel barely damp with the oil. (At the range, run a dry patch or maybe two through the bore first thing, then shoot 2 to 5 throw-away rounds. During a range session I use powder solvent to clean the bore. My own oil is used later for long-term protection and when the Kroil has time to do what it does.) After a few dozen rounds of various kinds of ammo, factory and handloads, several trips to the range, the rifle seems to run properly. Ejection is relatively light and consistent. My 'range box' is a cheap Stanley toolbox from Wal-Mart that measures 9x9x18 inches. I take the tray out and leave the lid open with the box close alongside my rifle on the shooting bench and it easily catches all fired brass. The lightest bullets I shoot are 140 grain Russian ammo. I discard those lacquered steel casings. The others run from 150 to 190 grain with most in the 160+ to 180 grain range. I reload my fired factory brass- as many times as I feel comfortable with any given cartridge case. If I do not catch the fired cases, they all land within a couple of feet alongside. From reading within this forum, maybe my factory rifle has a relatively heavy BCG? Perhaps your BCG is light and replacing parts necessary to make it heavier would help? I/we need other comments about BCG weight. Maybe all you need is a stronger buffer spring behind your BCG? My own experience working on machinery says to find the easiest and least expensive fix. From your posts, it sounds like a new factory rifle. DPMS might fix everything for you with no fuss or muss? That would seem to be the first thing to try?

This is written on Christmas Morning. Maybe it is a little gift to everyone. One of the last Christmases that my wife was still able to do things, she made cookies for me to take to work and hand out. The recipe is on the back of the Nestle semi-sweet chocolate chips bag & on-line. My sweet bride used double amounts of chocolate chips and double amounts of nuts. The rest of the recipe is as published. She made a double recipe for this handout and I was concerned that I might not find enough takers so when I arrived at the workplace I began giving cookies to whoever would take one or maybe two. Of course there were a lot of "No's" and a mostly a reluctant "just one." At my work station I managed to hand out the rest before regular starting time. All that day and for more than a week after, there was a slow trickle of people wandering by, hopeful that there were more cookies. It made my reputation- and hers- for as long after as I worked at that facility.

A CAA grip (Brownell's) is one of the nicer things I did for my DPMS factory rifle. The grip is relatively inexpensive; has three inserts for the front edge and three inserts for the back edge to give you the best feel and hold. A couple of minutes work to sort out and assemble to your rifle. Fit it to the rifle alone: that second spring (trying to escape from the bottom of the receiver) will cause some noises not fit fer wimmen ner chilldrun to hear. 'Course, CAA might have put a seat into the grip by now for that second spring. But that would make it too easy.

I have read that the 338 Lapua is a necked-down 416 Rigby with some modifications to the cartridge case to make it stronger and a lot of very careful quality control at the factory; thus the high price for this ammo. Why not a case essentially identical to the Rigby/Lapua with maybe a slightly different shape to the shoulder so that it would not work in a rifle chambered for the 416 Rigby but would work fine in a new AR-pattern rifle capable of handling the long 416 "New" Rigby? It is alleged that the 416, 400 or higher grain bullet, is more ballistically efficient than most of the other 'African Game' cartridges and actually as effective or more effective. One PH even says the 416 Rigby is a great varmint cartridge because it has great long-range ballistics and (based on using it to obtain safari camp meat, shooting dik-diks and other tiny antelope that are the size of cats and terriers except for the long legs), the bullet makes a neat hole in small critters and that is all. The critter is well aware of the big hole that suddenly appears, meat is otherwise undamaged; the bullet never knew there was anything in its way because it takes more than a foot of elephant or Cape Buffalo to make the 'soft' 416's start to expand. So what we need is an AR scaled up the way the AR-10 is scaled up from the M-15/16 that will handle a long cartridge like the 416 Rigby? And- - - affordable ammo?

Just for your reference, my factory DPMS with 24 inch fluted SS barrel and Nikon scope, dry (no magazine, no ammo) weighs 12 lbs 6 oz.

Last time I needed pipe cleaners I ended at Wal-Mart. Art supplies; pipe cleaners 3 feet long. I use (short pieces of) them for the 'touch hole' of my Hawken. I asked at my gun shop about how to clean the gas port and the inside of the tube on my DPMS LR-308; they just laughed and said to not worry about it. I drive a conservative 4-door boring (starts every time, almost never breaks) Toyota Camry. My 2000 did break last July (170K miles); cost too much to fix (timing belt group, other laundry list of small items V.S. book value) and ended with 2011 Camry SE, 4-cyl. Scares me. Only car I ever owned that could/does peel rubber. Without trying. Sometimes when trying to not.

One of the things I do is to clean/wash my rifles, handguns, black powder, whatever, with Mobil One full synthetic -- mixed with 25% - 30% Kroil. The actual synthetic oil sinks into the metal pores and otherwise semi-permanently creates a protective film on the metal. In a car engine, wear effectively stops when this kind of oil is introduced. (Do not put synthetic oils into an old engine. But that is beyond the scope of this forum.) I do not expect to ever shoot enough rounds to wear out any trigger but it would be interesting to find out if the automotive full synthetic oil would keep a thinly case hardened (is that the problem?) trigger from wearing down excessively. Having said all this, I expect to be lectured about oil on triggers and oil collecting dirt. In my experience, the oils I use do not affect the trigger pull, at least do not make the trigger unsafe. Maybe the trigger contacting surfaces move against each other more like the engineers intended? As for collecting dirt: my guns clean up much more easily than they did before I started using this synthetic/Kroil mix (or before there were such oils). The surfaces seem dry, repel water/moisture, clean up easily after shooting, collect no more dirt or dust than they ever did before using these oils and I am no longer paranoid about taking a long-unused gun out of the back of a closet (the closet was another era. My guns and ammo stay in gun safes and California-qualified cabinets) and finding rust all over it. Anyway, I continue to be delighted with the RRA trigger on my DPMS Panther.

This rifle has been discussed in the forum. I was not really in the market to buy but could not walk away from the price or a hard to find rifle (at the time) right there on the rack. It has acquired a CA grip, Limbsaver recoil pad, Nikon scope in tip-off mounts, fold-down front sight. The iron rear sight is kept separate for obvious reasons. 24 inch barrel.

You need to get one of those mailboxes where the address is like "Box XXX, Washington DC" and they forward the mail to your real address. Then put the info here so we can all send a check or money order to you. Maybe the supplier will even package and mail the caps and/or T-shirts?

My DPMS LR308 likes heavier bullets. Mostly it gets 168 - 175 grain or something close, soft or hollow point, bases mostly boat tail but some square base. Factory or my handloads do about the same except factory prints an inch or inch & a half higher at 100 yards. I bought some Russian soft point (the range forbids FMJ) 140 grain in steel cases that spatters a four inch circle, high and to the left. (Interestingly, to me at least, the Russian 140 gr SP ammo does reasonably well in my bolt guns.) My DPMS is a 24-inch stainless fluted barrel factory issue rifle, except: CA grip (Brownell's), modified Limbsaver butt pad (bought at Academy, I did my own fitting and mods), RRA trigger (see other post under 'Triggers'), Nikon 6-18 x 40MM scope (MidwayUSA) on tip-off ring mounts that give about an eighth inch clearance at the rail above the charging handle. I have taken flak about the low scope mount on an AR style rifle. It works fine for me. On a good day the holes in the target will all be at least inside a two-inch disk using a sandbag rest on the bench for the rifle forearm tube or sometimes with my arm on the sandbags and the rifle supported on my hands. I always shoot with the rifle butt against my shoulder, try to keep the rifle aligned vertically, try to breathe properly, try to use good trigger finger discipline. Be aware that 308 Winchester is dimensionally different from 7.62x51 NATO. There are many articles on the Internet and discussion within this forum. For precision shooting the ammunition should match the chamber. I think that my DPMS does not like the 140 grain ammo described above because the bullet/cartridge OAL is short and the bullet jump causes problems with the bullet alignment in the bore and related bullet rotation in external ballistics. Use of standard NATO cartridges in a 308 Win chamber, or the reverse, will have other characteristic problems which can be researched in reloading forums and articles. These problems relate to almost all calibers and cartridges in terms of case shapes and variations caused by shooting or differences in manufacturing tolerances, etc.