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Scoby
“Laws that forbid the carrying of arms disarm only those who are neither inclined nor determined to commit crimes. Such laws make things worse for the assaulted and better for the assailants; they serve rather to encourage than prevent homicides, for an unarmed man may be attacked with greater confidence than an armed man.” –Thomas Jefferson, quoting 18th century criminologist Cesare Beccaria in “On Crimes and Punishment”, 1764
Last edited by Scoby; 04-25-12 at 12:04.
Scoby
“Laws that forbid the carrying of arms disarm only those who are neither inclined nor determined to commit crimes. Such laws make things worse for the assaulted and better for the assailants; they serve rather to encourage than prevent homicides, for an unarmed man may be attacked with greater confidence than an armed man.” –Thomas Jefferson, quoting 18th century criminologist Cesare Beccaria in “On Crimes and Punishment”, 1764
I am not in the gamer arena for the most part. I do have my AR set up with a brake and FF JP handguard, which is often seen in competition rigs, but that's about the extent of it.
In addressing someone who would be asking this question, I would assume they don't have the experience you do Rob.
I would start with a quality relatively milspec rifle, with quality components. Something like a BCM/Daniel Defense Mid-length 16" rifle, fixed front tower, standard or MOE handguard.
Add a good brake like a Battle Comp or Surefire MB556k and shoot some matches. The handguards are long enough to get your arm out, and the brake coupled with the gas system should make a pretty soft shooting rifle.
From there, once you are out shooting the rifle, start building up, like FF handguard, Geiselle trigger, new grip/stock sights, etc.
For you Rob, I have no clue, like I said, I am not a gamer, reliability, weight, relative speed, accuracy. Those are my concerns, 3-Gun shooters have to hold their rifles for a couple minutes in a stage, and when carrying between stages. Weight is not much of an issue. However, when I carry my rifle out hunting, covering a BG home invader waiting for police to respond to my rural area, I want it lighter.
2 worlds. They, can mix in between, but the poles are not compatible.
Cole
Basically everything used has a trade off:
Brakes make the rifle recoil less and have less muzzle rise, trade off is is loud as shit, they suck when shooting near the ground, if shooting toward the rising sun in the morning the additional smoke will limit your vision.
Heavy barrels make for a more stable rifle for shooting long range and the additional weight help with recoil (simple physics). But that same heavy weight is going to be harder to swing fast between close range multiple targets.
Light carriers run very well for the most part without adjustable gas blocks. It's really slowing them down is where the unreliablity starts. This is why I don't use an adjustable gas block on my 3gun and I shoot full power .223 pressure factory ammo with a light JP carrier. My rifle weighs nearly 11lbs.
With my current 3gun rifle ive gotten .11 sec to .125 sec splits hitting the A-zone on a Warren Tactical target at 15yds with full power .223 75gr Hornady Steel Match ammo with my 3gun rifle using a S&B Short dot at 1.1x I might be able to go faster with an EOTech or Aimpoint but probably not by much.
In the end it's still the level of the shooter, I've gotten my ass spanked by a very skilled much younger shooter shooting a EOTech 552 on a 16" otherwise stock M4, he was just a better shooter and physically faster. At 100-200yds ours times were similar, 5-100yds is were he kicked ass. To his credit he's a full time SWAT officer in MD who probably shoot 3 times as many rifle rounds per year than I do.
There is an old saying ""Old age and treachery beats youth and skill every time." It should read "the majority of the time"....
Chief Armorer for Elite Shooting Sports in Manassas VA
Chief Armorer for Corp Arms (FFL 07-08/SOT 02)
I'm interested in how we draw the distinctions. Is it "tactical" simply because we put "battle" in front of the name thereby making it acceptable for everyone that always wanted one but was afraid it wouldn't be seen as tactical by their friends?
And the 14.5" mid that you reference seems to be all the rage and hotly defended by those that would not consider themselves "gamers" and will go out of their way to argue that they are anything but. So how do we arrive at that configuration being acceptable for serious use guns but the 18" rifle being too unreliable?
Is anyone saying that? I don't think the 14.5" or the 18" are inherently unreliable. My 18" with A-5 RE is soft shooting and reliable. Same for my 14.5" with "H" buffer and pinned BC 1.5. I don't think you see as many 18's on the "tactical" side because of maneuverability, not any inherent unreliability.
I don't know if anyone's saying it or not. Truthfully, I'm having a hard time figuring out how we make these distinctions. I know that if I show up to a training class with one of the guns in my safe I'll be thought of as a "gamer", despite the fact that many of the parts are the same as many here attribute to their "tactical" guns. There are other guns I could take to a match and be called "tactical" despite the fact that many of the shooters there will have nearly identical guns save for one or two parts.
Somewhat amusingly, when I go to IDPA I get called a "gamer" and when I go to USPSA I get called "tactical guy". Is there hardware for the AR that determines one from the other? Is there some other reason besides the 3.5" of extra maneuverability and weight that we would choose a 14.5" midlength over an 18" rifle-length? and if reliability, or durability, are criteria how does the 14.5" solution measure up to the 18" solution?
Additionally, would this setup, that I proposed earlier, have any neagatives that might make it considered not to be tactically sufficient? Any place where I can further push the envelope but still meet the tactical criteria?
Noveske N4 14.5" midl-length N4. Heavier weight than a "pencil barrel" to keep the muzzle down, 14.5" mid-length is widely reported to have the least amount of pressure.
Battlecomp 1.5. Battlecomp is clearly the new hotness in muzzle devices, and many here will attest to it's ability to reduce muzzle climb.
Vltor A5 stock system. Another part that, if you read through the threads, is reported to reduce muzzle climb, or at least felt recoil.
Geiselle SD 3G trigger. Appears to be pretty widely regarded as a "fast" trigger, and IIRC it was designed to be such.
Eotech XPS. The Eotech fans all seem to use "I'm faster with it" as one reason they like it.
12.0 (at least) Brazillian handguard. Brand immaterial, but one of the reasons we hear for longer tubes is "driving the gun", so while not a speed issue on an individual target, should come into play on multiples.
Noveske FFL lower. The flared magwell seems to get billed as an aid in speed reloads.
Magpul BAD lever. While having largely fallen out of favor, at one time at least it was billed as being faster on emergency reloads.
I'd also like to know what might be considered the "slow" alternatives, and if I would gain anything else, like reliability and durability, by going with them. Would the below be considered to be slow enough? Should the barrel maybe go to a 11.5" and the handguard to an M4 or MOE with stock FSB? Basically, a stock Colt 6933 with ACOG? Ideally I think the goal here would be to avoid NFA items though.
Colt 16" A1-profile barrel with carbine-length gas.
A2 Flash hider.
M4 stock system.
GI trigger.
Trijicon TA33 ACOG.
7.0 or 9.0 DD M4 handguard.
Stock Colt lower.
Your 1st example would be good tactically with the exception of the BAD lever. Replace that with a BAD 45 degree ambi selector and you'd have a pretty decent rig out to 300. With a magnified optic it would take you as long as you needed to go. It would all work for games as well.
Your second option would be a good tactical rig, but some might prefer a RDS to the ACOG. It would not be a good game gun. Passable, but not good.
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