The Threadless Nut

Some really interesting training ammunition here from Ultimate Training Munitions. Initially, I didn’t understand the purpose of the “Silent Blank Round” since it generates no noise and no projectile, but, as Bob states, it’s perfect for dry-fire drills because it cycles the action for you. To dry-fire most guns, you must manually cycle the action after every pull of the trigger, which can create a training scar.

Wonder if any of these will be available to us civilians?

Cool Training Tech from UTM – Bob’s Gun Counter.

My buddy and trainer Chris Fry from MDTS recently authored a couple of excellent documents about AR platform malfunctions. He does a great job describing the malfunctions, how to clear them, and how to create them so you can practice. Until I took an MDTS carbine course, I had never even been exposed to one of the complex malfunctions he covers. Any AR15 operator would be well served by studying these documents:

• Part 1, simple malfunctions
• Part 2, complex malfuntions

One would also be well served signing up for any of Chris’ training. He does a great job providing excellent training at an affordable price.

Yesterday Ruger announced a new .22 rifle, the SR-22.

Nevermind that it looks like it’s just the Nordic Components kit around a 10/22 receiver, I’m actually OK with that (as long as Ruger properly licensed it). However, I don’t see the niche for this rifle. It sorta looks like an AR-15, but the safety, mag release, and charging handle are all different. This severely limits it’s usefulness as a low cost AR training platform.

Ok, so that’s not where it fits, maybe it’s just a cool looking plinker for folks who want something “tacticool” but don’t really care about AR training. Fine, but the MSRP of $625 puts it way higher than it should be for that. You could buy a standard 10/22 and  number of accessories to acheive the same affect for quite a bit less. The S&W M&P 15-22 is only $499 MSRP and is actually an AR pattern rifle.

In fact, the only advantage I can see of this rifle is that it can take 10/22 mags if you already have a bunch of those. Since a modified 10/22 will do that too for less money, I just don’t see where this rifle fits.

Regardless, I’m glad to see Ruger coming out with so many new products and responding to the market. I sincerly hope I’m wrong about this rifle and that they sell piles of them.

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.

The 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:

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.

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