Colt Commando AR-15

[txgunner00]

Carbine (3oz) in mine but I have the gas ports in the 3 position block sized so that it's not over gassed.

[BjornF16]

what block do you have?

[txgunner00]

Paladin machine.

http://secure.adpay.com/clicknbuy.aspx?i...=2079&st=1

[BjornF16]

Essentially same concept as Noveske Switchblock...but Noveske "tunes" theirs for barrel length (so I understand). You said you had to open your gas port some?

[fkleinbu]

You caught me, and I have to expose a lack of experience with the AR platform.. I am hoping you can keep this a secret.. You may remember I did say in one of my original posts to the group, I have only recently began shooting AR's because I never did like the spring noise in the stock (and I still don't <grin>)..

I do realise the buffer is important and is part of tuning an AR, however when I bought my lower I didn't know that, and didn't think anything about it.. Back then "the leading brands were all the same".. I didn't know I had to choose Jiff <grin>..

Anyway, I pulled out the digital scale and mine (at 79 3/4 grams) is about 4 grams lighter than the stock buffer (at 83 3/4 grams) from an OA 9mm Carbine I have.. I know I don't sound very smart right now, but sometimes that is better than double speak.. By the way, that is the weight of the entire buffer not just the internal weight..

And since now I have bared my soul, can someone point me to a good book which deals with the buffer and why the little weight inside is loose?? Thanks in advance..

flk k

[BjornF16]

80 grams is 2.8 oz...looks like you have a standard carbine buffer.

It's like the timing on an engine...improper buffer weight can result in too early or too late timing for the bolt unlock/opening and bcg cycling.

Here is a good description of what is occurring in AR15s: http://ar15barrels.com/prod/operation.shtml

AR15 Buffer Weights

Standard Rifle - 5.2oz

Standard Carbine - 2.9 - 3.0oz (different sources)

H - 3.8oz

H2 - 4.6oz

H3 - 5.4oz

Colt 9mm - 5.5oz

RRA 9mm - 5.6oz (seen elsewhere as 5.4oz)

Enidine Carbine - 4.25 ounces plus three pounds of hydraulic force

Spike's Tactical T2 - 4.3oz

MGI Carbine- 7.1oz

[BjornF16]

Variable,

What 5.56 ammo do y'all use in your 10.5/11.5" SBRs?

I have plenty of M855 for my 14.5"...wondering what would be best for inside the house.

[fkleinbu]

Variable,

[snipage]...wondering what would be best for inside the house.

<LOL> if you can't evade and escape, I would expect 12 gauge loaded with 7 1/2 or 8 in first two or three rounds that go into the chamber followed by as many 00 buck can fit.. <LOL>..

That is hard to beat especially in an inside situation where there are/might be someone in an adjoining room.. This of course is purely a civilians opinion..

Flk

P.S. thanks for the buffer references.. flk k

[txgunner00]

Essentially same concept as Noveske Switchblock...but Noveske "tunes" theirs for barrel length (so I understand). You said you had to open your gas port some?

I opened the port in the barrel to improve function shooting cheap Russian 55 grain unsuppressed. The block's 3 positions are open, restricted and off. Open is for unsuppressed shooting of plinking loads, restricted is for hotter loads & suppressed & off is for subsonic. This guy will make them to your specs- not sure if Noveske will. Plus they cost much less.

[txgunner00]

Variable,

What 5.56 ammo do y'all use in your 10.5/11.5" SBRs?

I have plenty of M855 for my 14.5"...wondering what would be best for inside the house.

M855 will zip through a lot of stuff. Better to find a good varmint load that will function 100% reliable in your rifle IMO.

[LRRPF52]

Everyone I've seen shot with M855 at close range had massive tissue destruction, with all the energy spent in the person. M855 has a thin jacket, so it comes apart as long as it's going 2600fps. That said, I would still be concerned about the steel penetrator that is loctaed in the projectile of M855.

Using a varmint bullet with a polymer tip will provide reliable feeding, and catastrophic tissue damage at close range. That is sound advice in my opinion. After what I've seen 12ga do to dry wall, cars, etc., I don't even keep one in the hosue anymore. I use to, but I'm not willing to be liable for every one of those pellets. I worry enough about single projectiles and what they could do to my neighbors, since even pistol will cut through most construction fascia like it's not there.

[Variable]

Variable,

What 5.56 ammo do y'all use in your 10.5/11.5" SBRs?

I have plenty of M855 for my 14.5"...wondering what would be best for inside the house.

I shoot mostly M855 at work, and that plus M193 at home. We're supposed to use a 62gr. Federal bonded as a duty load, but if the mags get mixed up then "oh well" I guess. We use M855 for practice ammo. The Federal may even be better for some things, but I don't know much about it. The last duty load we had really sucked in my opinion. It was moly coated (think skidded groups from non moly fouled bores), and the accuracy sucked. At least I know what M855 is... No surprises there.

In a shorty 5.56 at home? I guess that depends. Inside a house--- M193 should still frag. I have some stuff Hirtenberger made for indoor use in sensitive areas, but I don't think it's available anymore. If it was, I'd buy a bunch just for simplicities sake if I lived in an apartment or townhouse.

If I were to go out and buy a load just for inside my house (with overpenetration as a concern), I'd probably opt for whatever zippy varmint bullet ran well in my upper. I'm too cheap for that (think free ammo at work), and I'm in a pretty rural area, so the lion's share of my mags stay stuffed with M855. Our contract ammo at work is Winchester instead of Lake City, but I haven't noticed much (if any) difference. As for M193 ammo: I did note that Q3131A (Israeli made Winchester) was pretty darn zippy in the lots that I stocked up on.

For outdoor use I have a small stash of Mk 262 mod 1 ammo that I procured, but I've never had enough of it to really test much. I'm still thunking on that one. Most of the deer I've shot at work were with Federal 69gr. gold medal match ammo (very accurate in 6721s!). It performed great for me on broadside shots, but people don't recommend it for hunting. We don't have any available any more, but we keep trying to talk them into buying it for practice use. It's great for longer range hits on ground hogs.

ETA: did some digging around the net, and supposedly the round we get issued at work is actually supposed to be pretty darn good. I'll have to go back and do my homework. They have given us some turds in the past, so I never payed much attention this time. I knew M855 kills plenty of folks dead, so I just accepted that as is. Not that you'd want a bonded bullet for indoor use (if overpenetration was a concern), but I've learned that I'm apparently quite far behind the times ammo-wise if the internet is to be believed. Maybe I ought to refrain from recommending anything at all.LOL

[txgunner00]

Everyone I've seen shot with M855 at close range had massive tissue destruction, with all the energy spent in the person. M855 has a thin jacket, so it comes apart as long as it's going 2600fps. That said, I would still be concerned about the steel penetrator that is loctaed in the projectile of M855.

Using a varmint bullet with a polymer tip will provide reliable feeding, and catastrophic tissue damage at close range. That is sound advice in my opinion. After what I've seen 12ga do to dry wall, cars, etc., I don't even keep one in the hosue anymore. I use to, but I'm not willing to be liable for every one of those pellets. I worry enough about single projectiles and what they could do to my neighbors, since even pistol will cut through most construction fascia like it's not there.

In many cases pistol rounds will penetrate more walls in a residence than a rifle will. There is a lot of good info to be found here.

http://www.theboxotruth.com/docs/theboxotruth.htm

Not "official" testing of any kind but a good look for comparison. One thing I have not found on his site is if he has tested any polymer tipped .223 on drywall. I would be very interested in seeing it.

[LRRPF52]

In many cases pistol rounds will penetrate more walls in a residence than a rifle will. There is a lot of good info to be found here.

http://www.theboxotruth.com/docs/theboxotruth.htm

Not "official" testing of any kind but a good look for comparison. One thing I have not found on his site is if he has tested any polymer tipped .223 on drywall. I would be very interested in seeing it.

Roger that. Heavy pistol projectiles going 1/2-1/3 the speed of light rifle projectiles retain a lot of energy. This is one of the main reasons Tier 1 units stopped using MP5's in the house, and started using R0723's, 727's, and M4A1's as the go-to CQB blasters, plus you can engage targets out to 450m once you get out of the house.

[BjornF16]

Scored a Colt Commander upper on GunBroker (not $1400;-)...NIB. Hopefully have it next week.

I'm loading 110 gr Hornady VMax for my 300 BLK 10"...maybe 53 gr Hornady VMax Superperformance? (3400 fps from 24" barrel; guessing 2700 fps from 11.5"?)

Ran across this ar15.com page with some nice pics of Black Hills 50 gr TSX from 8" barrel...pretty impressive http://ammo.ar15.com/project/Self_Defens...Rounds.htm

[txgunner00]

The Barnes is a great bullet and designed for high weight retention, but that's a negative characteristic in a home defense scenario. The VMax or similar would be the way to go IMO.

[BjornF16]

@Variable, what buffer are you running in your 6933?

[Variable]

I'll have to check in the morning, but I believe it came with an "H" buffer.

I'd also vote the Vmax choice for indoors.

A correction for my above post as well: I thought we were using the 62 grain bonded... Turns out my unit isn't (they didn't wanna pay for the bondeds--think $$$$$). We are actually back to using the 60 grain partition from Winchester that replaced the moly crap we dumped before... I thought they gave us new stuff. My bad. Here is a pic of the partitions we had at the range today:


Obviously skip these if looking to avoid overpenetration indoors.LOL

[BjornF16]

Doh!...didn't do my homework. All my lowers are RRA or AA; I was reminded today that the Colt upper has the "large" diameter hole for their front pivot. Someone suggested some bushings...anyone using bushings on Colt upper/mil spec lower?

[Variable]

Doh!...didn't do my homework. All my lowers are RRA or AA; I was reminded today that the Colt upper has the "large" diameter hole for their front pivot. Someone suggested some bushings...anyone using bushings on Colt upper/mil spec lower?

Negative, no problem. A Colt 6933 upper has mil-spec take down pin dimensions. The large hole stuff is only an issue with early commercial stuff. Newer Colt uppers and lowers are standard dimension, and the newest Colt lowers even went back to standard size hammer and trigger pins. The only thing left in their new receivers is the web they leave unmilled to preclude the use of a drop in auto sear.

ETA some pics:

Mine....


Colt "H" buffer....


Standard sized takedown pins....