Ko-Tonics AR-15 6.8spc Range Report!

I finally made it to the range, but then I forgot my camera, d'oh! I've got some pics below of the targets that resulted. Also, unfortunately, since the power was out all over Western Washington, most of the ranges around here were closed, so I had to go to the Kenmore Rifle Range. Now, the Kenmore range is a very nice facility for precision shooting, it's got a 100yd range open to the public with lots of stations, spotting scopes and all that, but they only allow one round in the magazine at a time. Argh! So I wasn't able to test the Ko-Tonics upper for feeding and higher rates of fire. That said, the Ko-Tonics upper was a joy to shoot. I was on paper at 100 yards on the first shot, and the first group was pretty good. I dialed it in, and here's the result


The lower group was shot first with a cold rifle. I dialed it in and hit all in the black but one at the top. The other shots outside the black are my .300 win mag shooting at the orange dots.



The circled shots here are my Savage .300 Win Mag again. Lower left and lower right were shot by my buddies, while my groups are top left. The topmost left group is five shots. Not bad. The rest are the Ko-Tonics AR with about half the shots rested and the other half off-hand. I was using Remington 115gn rounds, as well as hand loaded 115gn Hornady BTHP's over 27gn Hodgdon H322. I loaded up some hotter rounds with 28.2gn H322, which is the max recommended by by Lee. Everything shot very well, chambered and extracted perfectly.

The Ko-Tonics upper functioned flawlessly and I am very pleased. When Tim's 18" uppers become available in the new year, I'm going to be in line.

That's My Girl!

She's a keeper.

Grandma got her the AR (well, actually, that was for Jake the Army, but the girl likes it too). Note the tactical flashlight and stuffed kitty.

6.8 spc Test Tomorrow

I've finally got my ammo together and tomorrow's the day for the range trip. Stay tuned...

What The Hell Is This?

And these people want to be taken seriously?

Ohio Legislature Overrides Governeor Veto!

Congratulations Buckeye's! Now you have uniform firearms laws across the state, like most of the rest of us. State preemption is the only thing that makes sense here. Way to go!

With All Due Respect to Mad Ogre and Kim du Toit

The AR-15 rocks. Kim and Ogre both heart the AK, and it is an effective rifle, but it sure doesn't feel very good to hold or shoulder. The new AR-15 in the non-wuss 6.8spc is a mighty fine rifle. Quite a machine, which I appreciate as a mechanical/aerospace engineer. It's ergonomics are the best I've ever felt. I'll take it to the range next week and we'll see how it shoots.

Speeking of feel, the M1/M14 rifle type feels great too. It's a totally different package, but it feels like a rifle. The AK? There's just something wrong with it, kinda like Glocks. The grip on the AK feels like crap. The receiver is like an old toaster, and not the good kind. The controls are like something someone thought up at the last minute to meet a deadline, back in '47, and then never went back and fixed. And it's butt ugly. Yeah, it goes bang, and it is accurate enough to do the job on the battlefield, sorta, but gimmie an AR any day.

Like I said, maybe I'll change my mind after the range trip, but I doubt it.

Now for something that'll make Kim happy. I got a couple of my lab-mates into shooting. They got hooked and bought a couple new Savage bolt action .22 rifles with accutriggers (they both had a thing for my accutrigger Savage in .300 win mag). Well, one of them just plunked down a wad of sweaty bills on this fine weapon That's a Howa with a heavy barrel and 2.5-10x50 scope in .308. I just want du Toit to know that he is directly and indirectly responsible for all this good gunnyness. I think a happy dance would be in order, and the AK would be just fine!

cARnaby-15 Build Update 4

The Ko-Tonics upper has arrived! Here's some pics. My weaver scope rings are too short to clear the rail on the AR, so it's going to have to be irons. I'll survive, somehow.



This rifle looks very nice! Tough as nails, and very high quality. The upper and lower went together like they were a matched set. Here's some close-ups




Notice that the handguard is one of Tim's custom coated models. The coating is perfect, and seems super durable. Tim Hicks at Ko-Tonics sent the rifle with irons: a flip front sight and a solid rear. Two magazines should do for testing. I've got two boxes of Remington ammo, and my Lee Dies are on the way. I plan to load and shoot about a hundred rounds. Range report will follow before Christmas, so stay tuned.

cARnaby-15 6.8 spc Blogger Review Update

The Ko-Tonics upper should arrive tomorrow. Boo-Urns! Just to jog your memory, here's a pic

And here's where I'm planning on shooting it.

Yep, gonna be a mighty fine time.

56-second Movie Review: The Da Vinci Code

Hubby and I watched The Da Vinci Code last night. It is a well-crafted movie, but the ideas are très stupide. The facts are just horribly, laughably wrong, plus the story wants to have its cake and eat it, too. If Jesus was just a great man and not divine, as the movie would have us believe, then who gives a flying farg who his descendants are? We're supposed to be blown away by the fact that [SPOILER WARNING!] Sophie is the great-great-great-. . . -great-granddaughter of Jesus and Mary Magdalene (which 99% of the audience has figured out long before it's actually revealed), and I know that she's important because the super-secret society has to suppress her identity yadda, yadda, but actually the movie wants us to be awed by her "royal" bloodline. I was completely distracted by this for most of the movie. There are plenty of descendants of mortal kings -- does anyone care who they are? If we do, it's only because they are tabloid fodder ("Descendant of Jesus Caught in Paris Sex Romp with Harvard Professor!"). My last quibble, and it's a trivial one, regards the albino monk. Why is it that movies like to associate albinism (+ height) with murderous religious fanaticism (cf. Contact)? What is it about the lack of pigmentation that is supposed to drive men to extremes? Why couldn't the monk have been short, swarthy, and dumpy? Doesn't have the same impact, I suppose.

[P.S. At least I have figured out the gimmick for this Da Vinci Code diet book: have the police chase you for hours and hours on end and don't stop to eat anything.]

Who Was That Masked Man?

A couple months ago I posted that I didn't care for the draft. Someone who actually reads this blog commented that I rubbed him the wrong way and wouldn't be back. Then Kim du Toit posted at his sight that he thought the draft was proper and neccessary in the right circumstances. I was surprised at how many agreed in comments.

I wonder who the person was who objected to my stand on the draft in comments on this sight. My mind is open to the topic, especially since I learned that the constitution does seem to provide for it (ignorance was bliss). Then Stickwick jumped the gun and told said reader to "not let the door hit him on the way out."

Whoever you are, I hope you come back.

List o' Toit

Kim at The Other Side of Kim has a list up of many things he has and has not done. Some are surprising, most are not. I'm not sure why, but this one surprised me the most

77. Made cookies from scratch - nope

I figured everyone has done that. I was surprised at a couple others he's not done that I have. If you like Du Toit, read the list, I've wasted five minutes in worse ways.

Group AR-15 in 6.8spc Blog Review!

Here it is, the announcement you've all been waiting for. Or not. But nevertheless, here it is. I've tentatively talked Benjamin at Reasonablenut, and Uncle at SayUncle into a group blog build of AR-15's in 6.8spc. As you can see, I've got my lower together already, it just worked out that way.

The original idea was to build our AR's in the early new year, say February/March 2007, probably using simple kits from model1sales. Instead, I've got my lower parts in nice packages from RB-precision (DPMS, I think), and I've decided to go with Ko-Tonics for my upper. Tim at Ko-Tonics makes some nice looking uppers, and he also does lowers and custom colored coatings. Nice! Here's one of his uppers

The uppers have mid-length gas systems to slow down the action cycling, M4 feed ramp cuts, and lots of other choice features.

Tim is going to be getting in some 18" barrels for a new batch of uppers. He currently only has 16" barreled uppers, but they look mighty fine. And here's the Clincher: I've organized a group blog review of one of Tim's Ko-Tonics uppers! He's sending it out to me first, then it goes on to Kevin, at The Smallest Minority, then on to Benjamin at Reasonablenut, and lastly, on to SayUncle who will share it with Tam. If all goes well, I'll be buying one of these uppers from Tim.

Keep your eyes open for updates!

cARnaby-15 Build Update 2

Got some pics, here it is, just to show I'm on the up and up :P

Next, a closeup of my handywork.

And, since it's Christmas time, here's something tactically appropiate for the season!


I've got a cool blog review coming up that I'll post about later, involving bloggers and guns. Should be pretty cool.

The Answer is "NO"

There's a story over at The High Road which is irking us justice seeking types. The long and short of the story is that in my own Washington State, a guy was helping his grandmother move, discovers his grand pappy's old shotgun in the garage, and so puts it in the house where he can lock it up for safety's sake. You know, to be responsible. Officer so-and-so shows up looking for a suspect in some crime or other, and asks if he can look in the house, just in case. The grandson gives the OK, and our fine officer sees the shotgun, which turns out to have a 13.5 inch barrel. The guy goes to the slammer, gun-nut outrage ensues, and everything sucks.



Then Cropcirclewalker posts this in response:

------------------------------------------------------------------

We got this big ice/snow storm last night. I was looking out the window thinking about this guy that allowed the search only to get arrested for his trouble and how it would be awfully hard to make a deputy stand outside in the snow while talking to him about whatever it was that he wanted.

I would like to help LEOs as much as possible in the swift completion of their appointed rounds so I thunk up something which I like to call

THE
DELTA MALLOQUE 4TH AMENDMENT
WARRANTLESS SEARCH PERMISSION WAIVER

And it goes something like this.

I, ____________ (Insert name, rank, badge no. here) being a Law Enforcement Officer (Herinafter referred to as LEO) employed in the jurisdiction of ___________________ in which the property and premises owned by Mr. Walker, Cropcernicus, C. is a part, and having presented authentic LEO identification along with 2 other forms of private photo identification,

and, being in pursuit of a suspect, namely_______________(insert suspect name, if known here) described as ____________(insert Height, weight, age, sex, race, clothing description here), wanted on suspicion of committing ______(insert crime, title, description here),

and, being in possession and control of the precept known as "officer's descretion", do hereby promise to use aforementioned discretion in granting a waiver of any and all "plain sight" curiosities of anything other than the actual pursuit of suspect as named above.

I further grant, limited immunity to Mr. Walker for any crimes, the suspicion of the commission of which I may accidentally discover in my search.

I promise to NOT look in any cupboard, drawer, refigerator, freezer, toilet bowl or tank or any other container which is obviously too small to contain the suspect and I promise not to wonder what any curious powders such as salt, sugar, baking powder, talc, rat poisen or whatever and I further promise that the person whom I seek is not contained in any computer file, document, book, or photo of naked infant grandchildren.

Finally, I affirm that I am not interested in checking barrel lengths, serial numbers or proof of ownership of any and all firearms which I may encounter in my search and I promise not to confiscate any weapon not carried by the suspect regardless of the state of natural disasters as may occur.

In exchange for the valuable consideration which I promise to provide above, Mr, Walker will grant permission for me and any other LEO that signs a document identical to this one permission to search these premises for above named or described suspect without a lawful warrant.

SECONDARY AGREEMENT / PROMISSARY NOTE

I, the above named LEO do recognize and admit that I, as a LEO, am permitted by law to lie to a suspect to achieve information, compliance or other stuff. I do hereby declare that Mr. Walker is NOT A SUSPECT, which voids that permission.

In recognition of the above statement, and if as a result of this search, and because of his assistance provided, any charges of any kind are brought against Mr. Walker, I will personally reimburse him One Hundred Thousand Dollars ($100,000.00) to be paid at the rate of 2 percent per month plus 9% APR.

I further agree to reimburse him for any legal and collection fees which he may incur in collecting above debt.

To Mr. Walker I, the undersigned, acting as a LEO AND a private citizen, do pledge my life, my fortune and my sacred honor.

(signed)________________________________ date__________

Witnessed by Cropcernicus C. Walker

(signed)________________________________________

End of document.

Whattaya think? Mr. Tejon?

------------------------------------------------------------------

I think it's pretty good :)

cARnaby-15 Build Part Duex

I got the AR lower together last night while watching, ahem, Grey's Anatomy and ER with my wife. Went together pretty well. I'm definitely impressed with the RB Precision first time builder's AR lower parts kit. They stick all the springs on the trigger and hammer assemblies, so you can see how it's done, and they bag all the sub assemblies separately in little ziplock bags, that is SUPER helpful.

A couple notes though that would have helped ahead of time. The spring/plunger bit for the bolt release mechanism... DO NOT put it in its little hole and push down all the way. The stupid thing gets stuck. Fortunately, I put the spring on first and did not test it without the spring. Searching the web shows that this is not that uncommon, and if you at least leave the spring in, you can have the plunger out in five minutes by heating the upper in the oven at 200 deg F, until you hear the thing pop out onto the cookie sheet. See, the upper is aluminum, and the plunger is steel, so they have different coefficients of thermal expansion (fortunately, Aluminum expands more than Steel).

Secondly, the holes in my Mega lower for the trigger and hammer pins were undersized. After twiddling with it for a while, and re-reading the directions on arfcom, it was clear that they had to be opened up a bit. I've got some good drill bits, and the back end of the 5/32 drill had a perfect slide fit through the trigger set, just like the trigger pin, so I ran that, by hand (well, with a pair of pliers) through the holes in the lower. Perfecto!

I'll post a pic of the lower all saddled up this evening, cuz, you know, nobody here knows what an AR lower looks like. Or is it that no matter how many you've seen, you always like to see more?