I am in the process of separating from my job and caught a nasty crud to boot. I have something else already aligned and look forward to spending several days of leisure with the missus since I have had a vacation in over a year (And no, recovering from surgery is NOT a vacation dear HR department.)
Keeping with my long-standing policy, I shall not comment about the job I am leaving in specifics, but some general comments will eventually find this page, mostly about behaviors that can be applied to the usual musings of this blog.
I am taking a couple of classes this coming Sunday: USCCA Introduction to Defensive Shooting and USCCA Increasing Practical Marksmanship. I shall issue the appropriate AAR at a later date.
I am also planning on taking a defensive shooting class at a local range. I had one probably 25 years ago and barely touched a shotgun since. It is possibly the weapon I know the least and I intend to remedy that.
My Brother-in-Law has already issue threats about taking me hunting this Fall. Paraphrasing Captain Mal Reynolds, I guess I shall be ready to wait long time for a deer don’t come. Speaking of BiL, I want to gift him with an AR in .458 SOCOM and I am looking for uppers. He is truly a great guy and deserves to have at least one gun in the AR platform. Any input you could offer will be greatly appreciated.
I think it is time to show some love to my faithful WASR 10 and upgrade it with MAGPUL Zhukov furniture and maybe even a new red dot even though the TruGlo installed in it has been flawless.
Another project I am thinking about is a very light AR based 9 mm pistol for the missus since she has been showing interest on longer weapons for home defense. Some interesting conversion kits for normal AR lowers are out there which make this project interesting.
That’s it for now.
Check out Quarter Circle 10. They make excellent pistol caliber ARs. One note- you may have to massage the feed ramp on the barrel to get it to run consistently. A common problem with pistol caliper ARs. Mine is a take down with folding stock SBR. Enjoy your brief vacation, I just had a week off.
Re .458 SOCOM, I don’t run that caliber myself, but one builder’s name I always see come up in a good way when reading discussions about it: Tromix.
Oh nice! https://tromix.com/product/builders-special/
… and I just spent the fun gun budget for September – November yesterday Dang it…!
Re pistol ars. There are two routes, dedicated lower or standard lower with mag adapter. As curby says feed ramp can be an issue, it is either built into the lower or barrel on a dedicated lower or part of the adapter on colt style adapters.
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If i were to do it again id personally go dedicated lower with either glock mags or a curved mag like mp5. Even the best available colt style mags (metalform) do not work well loaded beyond 25 or 26 in my experience. I think the tapered 9mm case does best with a curve or slant in the mag for the taper.
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I also went adapter style, which generally hasn’t been a problem, but isn’t perfect in all cases all the time, another reason I’d go dedicated. And I bought the best possible adapter I could, a Hahn precision dedicated colt style adapter.
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If you go colt style I highly recommend the adco ramped bolt I have and the heavy buffers buffer and spring. I also used and adco barrel which has been marvelous. I do also have a spare 10.5″ 9mm barrel with fixed front sight if interested.
Tromix is the absolute king of the .458 Socom and Rock River Arms makes a great upper as well. Either will be a (big) blast to shoot. Absolute feral hog and bowling pin obliterator. Works a treat on deer once you get the ballistics down.
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Black Rain Ordinance got in the game too at some point and Optics Planet has an upper from them on sale but I have no experience with their stuff except for 5.56 so can’t comment.
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If you’re going the build route I can recommend the Faxon barrel they sell direct or through brownells. Bowers Group makes an awesome can for the .458
That 9mm is gonna be fuuuuun. If you’d like a ready to roll option the Matador Arms upper for standard ar-15 or ar-9 lowers is awesome. You can also get 15% off from them using coupon code WLSISLIFE.
People use them with lowers set up for mp5, colt smg magazines, and I’ve heard CZ mags but never seen one.
I wish you luck with the job switch and look forward to hearing about the training classes!