• 17 Sep 2008 /  Firearms, Things I Like

    A while ago purchased 2 stripped AR lowers from Cavalry Arms. I’ve finally gotten around to putting these together.

    If you’re not familiar with the AR rifle platform, the traditional lower receiver is forged aluminum. The action parts, grip and stock are added to this stripped receiver to form a complete lower receiver.

    Lower Receivers

    Cavarms lowersThe Cavarms lowers differ from the traditional in 2 major ways. Most obviously, they are 1 monolithic piece incorporating the lower receiver, grip and stock. The other way is not so obvious until you pick it up. They are molded from an advance polymer, (ok, plastic). This results in a significant weight savings over the traditional lower, a full pound lighter. Another benefit is the ability to mold them in any color imaginable. They have done the obvious blacks, greens and tans, but also yellow, pink, blue, neon green, and even glow in the dark!

    Even with this radically different construction, the Cavarms lower uses standard AR action parts and assembly is mostly the same. There are a few minor differences, but anyone who has assembled a lower will have no problem with the Cavarms assembly. It took less than 30 minutes to completely finish each one.

    I won’t bore you with the step by step assembly process, but just a couple of pics to illustrate. Here is everything before assembly, lower on the, uh, lower. The parts kit is above:Lower and parts

    The extra parts

    And here we have the parts from the normal lower parts kit that are leftover due to the Cavarms construction. Trigger guard, pistol grip, and some assorted pins, fasteners, detents, and springs.

    And, finally, here’s a shot of the 2 completed rifles. The one on the bottom is my “ultralight” and I know it has no sights, it’s a work in progress. Completed rifles

    Sorry for the less than stellar pics, it’s actually pretty hard to take a decent photo of something that’s all flat black.

    Share/Save/Bookmark

    Tags: ,

  • 20 May 2008 /  Firearms, Things I Like

    This past Sunday, I loaded up and shot my first home reloaded shotshells. Everyone’s aware of the price of gas going through the roof, but the price of ammo is doing the same. A box of shells that cost me $3 early last year is now $6. This, and a reloader that popped up on Craigslist locally for a good price finally pushed me over the edge. Here’s a pic if you have no idea what I’m talking about:

    GrabberTook a little while to get everything working smoothly, but once I had the rhythm worked out, I was cranking out shells pretty quickly. I only dropped shot on the floor twice ;)

    Considering that a weekly trap shoot can burn through 4 boxes of shells, this should pay itself off rather quickly. Reloaded shells are about half the cost of factory loads, and the reloader came with enough components (powder, primer, shot, wads and hulls) to recoup what I paid for it.

    Share/Save/Bookmark

    Tags: ,

  • 06 Jun 2007 /  Things I Like

    it’s a bird…

    it’s a plane…

    it’s a … Civic?

    So apparently Honda is branching out into the aviation industry. They’ve got a pretty neat looking little jet.

    HondaJet
    Finally, something to trade the CR-V in on.

    Check out more at HondaJet.

    Share/Save/Bookmark

    Tags: