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There's a lot of bullshit out there when it comes to AR pistols. They aren't accurate, .223 becomes .22 WMR out of a short barrel, they're just a range toy, etc.

I picked one up the other day and finally got a chance to shoot it this afternoon. It worked about like I thought it would. It's a bit louder than my carbine, it occasionally makes a big fireball, but other than it shoots and functions just like any other AR.

Chrono Data

Gun Specs:
Rock River LAR-15
7.5" barrel
5.56 chamber

I usually throw these in Excel and calculate the avg and what not, but I'm lazy today and I don't really care that much.

Monarch Brass 55gr FMJ
2457
2438
2460
2414
2452
2432
Lots of fireballs observed, but the most consistent load by far. Good accuracy.

Fiocchi 40 gr V-MAX
2213
2169
2108
Disappointed with this load. I was hoping to see the highest velocity with this lighter bullet, but it appears to be the weakest load of all of them.

Remington UMC 55gr FMG
2397
2354
2395

XM193
2220
2174
2140

My "Zombie Load" 25.3gr Ramshot TAC under Hornady 75gr BTHP
2220
2174
2140

Herter's 55gr FMJ (steel case)
2300
2340
2297

I'd like to know where you can get .22 mag with those specs because I would buy a truckload of it.

Only two loads were actual 5.56 loads, so there's definitely more potential power.

The Tradeoffs

Obviously velocity does take a hit due to the short barrel, but there's tradeoff calculus here. Velocity goes down, but maneuverability in tight spaces goes up, and weight goes down. With the the right bullet, we can negate some of the effect of low velocity as we aren't limited to FMJ.

Summary

I would have no qualms about using this pistol for home defense, and it may just become my home defense gun after some more use.

I am working on a new self defense load for SBR AR-15 and AR-15 pistols, in that process I found that Ramshot is now including data for 5.56 chambers. (When I originally worked up the "Zombie Load" only .223 data was available.)

I'm happy to report that as it turns out my load of 25.3 grains of TAC under a 75 gr Hornady BTHP is not an over max load after all.

Here is the data for 5.56 (do not try this in a .223 chamber)

TAC 75 HDY HPBT  23.2 2,738 25.8 2,994 62,145 2.260

Turns out I'm a half grain under max.

My new SBR load will be using a 50 grain Barns TSX and probably TAC since I have some left.

Not looking for anything spectacular. I want a load that will perform well within 50 yards or less, while minimizing muzzle flash and noise. Anything shot longer than that is probably unlikely for a home defense gun, and while I doubt there is much I can do to reduce the extreme "bang" from a short barrel, there's no point in making it any worse.

Here is the given load data for TAC:

TAC 50 BAR TSX-FB 23.1 3,030 25.7 3,311 54,750 2.184

This is a .223 load, but assuming I can get 2500 fps out of a short barrel, I won't try to get 5.56 performance with it.

I'm still alive.

Wow, I can't believe it's been 6 months since I blogged last. Long story short, I had a the worst 6 months of my life, but things are going better now, and I'm getting back into shooting again.

Really had no plans or agenda for the match. I have done absolutely no practice since taking my CHL test in August. So, I just took it slow, and tried to get good hits.

I ended up right in the middle of my division, and got a "C" on the classifier. I'm really happy about that, but also a little saddened when I think that with that as my "base" that with some practice I could be doing a lot better.

The tease is over. My new gun showed up yesterday and I got a chance to shoot it this morning.

I've been wanting a woods/mountain pistol for a while. I don't spend a lot of time out in the wilderness where things have the potential to attack humans, but I do from time to time. In the past I have used what pistols I have and tried to find the best loadings I could for them. We are headed out to Colorado in a few weeks to camp with some ex-freighbors and I figured it was high time to fill this hole in my arsenal.

I wanted to keep things as close to my carry/competition setup as possible which means semi-automatic pistol, carried inside the waistband (IWB). Granted, a BFRevolver is able to deliver more powerful rounds, but I rarely shoot revolvers and I couldn't carry the way I am used to. The most powerful round that would fit in a gun that met the criteria is the 10mm Auto. (I did consider the .460 Rowland and a conversion to one of my 1911's for a while, but the gigantic compensator would seem to rule out carrying IWB.)

So, what gun to deliver the 10mm?

If Smith & Wesson made an M&P in that caliber, I would have been all over it. That's my carry and competition platform and I feel very comfortable with them. But they don't ...

Bren Ten? Just kidding.

EAA Witness/Tangfolio? I have to be honest, I have always wanted one of these, but no, too different, too exotic for a woods gun, IMO.

Smith & Wesson 1006/1076? It was high on the list, but it's too different from the carry/comp rigs. The guns have a faithful following though.

The Glock 20? Close, but just too fat in the grip for me, and I don't have small hands.

The Glock 20SF? Yes.

I finally found a Glock I can shoot!

I wouldn't say the 20SF feels great in the hands like the M&P does, but it's not bad. It rubs my thumb and middle finger of my shooting hand a little bit, the grip texture sucks, but whatever. It's not the kind of gun you are going to shoot all day. Somehow it doesn't feel like it has that extra tilt forward that Glocks have, which I am thankful for. Also, the sights are lame, meh.

The trigger kicks ass though. I know, I can't believe *I* just said that. Mr. 1911 trigger snob, likes the trigger on this gun. I haven't done any of that 25 cent trigger job stuff or anything like that on it either.Right out of the box it has almost no over travel, and unlike my last Glock (g17) the sites don't go all wobbly off to the left when the trigger breaks. The take up is a little springy, but once you get to the resistance it's just a linear increase in pressure until it breaks, and as I said there is very little over travel to disturb things after it breaks. Well done. Why wasn't my g17 this good?

I shot two kinds of ammo in it, and it ran perfectly as expected.

The first ammo I put through it was Federal XM10 180 gr FMJ. It felt a little weaker than most of the factory 180 grain 40S&W loads I have shot. Ok for practice, seemed to group ok.

After about 50 rounds of that I put 10 rounds of Winchester Silvertips through it. These are a 175 grain JHP @ 1290 fps, according to the box. Oh yeah, these babies have some kick. Nothing terrible, but a big difference compared to the XM10. From what I have read these Silvertips are one of the few factory loadings that use the full potential of the 10mm. Not sure how much this bullet likes to expand, but if it's not a big expander it would probably work for a woods load.

The brass I recovered is all bulged at the base both the XM10 and the Silvertips. Come on Glock, you still can't fix this? I guess a Lonewolf barrel is in my future.

I haven't carried it yet, but it sure is a thick bastard. I don't think I'll be changing my daily carry anytime soon, but the G20SF should be fairly OK in a good holster.

The pics

I ordered a new gun yesterday. It is on a 3-4 week back order, so I have nothing to show for my purchase yet.

So what is it? I'm not telling, but here's a hint: Jeff Cooper would approve.

PS. Sorry for the lack of activity on this blog lately, but my time is not my own anymore it seems.

It was a short day for me. I had to leave after my third stage to go to a birthday party.

I felt like I shot pretty well. I had one miss from utter confusion on a stage, and one miss from not using my front sight, but other than that I did ok. Oh, and I also hit some square tubing that was part of a barricade that got in my way. It was kind of funny, bang GONG bang. I didn't shuffle over enough to get an unobstructed view of the target.

I recall seeing the front sight more than I have at some previous matches anyway.

I really wanted to put my new draw into practice on this match, but as fate would have it two of the stages I shot were barrel starts, and the other was a draw into portal so I didn't get a chance to use it.

No glaring issues today, I'm happy. Not fast at all, but I was just there for the trigger time more than anything.

This is not an AAR because, firstly there was no action and in my opinion the term is misused when discussing a civilian firearms class, and secondly I am way too lazy to write one. You can read one here if you want to.

Todd is a great instructor. Knowledgeable, funny, and seriously dedicated to his craft. Apparently he's going to be coming twice a year to that particular facility, and I would definitely take the class again, or any other class he offers for that matter.

I did not learn a whole lot of new things. That's not surprising, I have a stack of certificates from classes offered by KR Training and Rangemaster and there's a lot in common between the three instructors.

What I did learn was a better way to do my press out.

What I originally learned was to bring the gun up to a ready position pointed at the target and roughly over your heart. Then you push the gun forward, pick up the front sight, apply pressure to the trigger, and if all goes right the shot breaks at full extension with the front sight on what you are trying to hit. I'm not going to lie, that was always a bitch for me. It literally took years for me to be able to pick up the front sight on every press out, especially under stress. I did finally get the hang of it though and haven't really thought about it in a while.

Todd's way is to bring the gun to a ready position where your eye, the front sight, and the target are all in line. The gun is angled up, but your finger is not on the trigger. As you press out, you rotate the gun so your rear sight is now lined up with the front sight and you can place your finger on the trigger. From there, it's the same. You continue adding pressure to the trigger so that the shot breaks at full extension with the sights on the target.

I don't want to start a war or anything between the two schools of thought here. I can see how the original ready position has some benefits. It's better at retention, and you can shoot from that position if you need to. I didn't really like the idea of a ready position that has the gun pointed up at first as up is not always a safe direction, and likely frowned upon at some ranges, but it's not really any different than doing a reload, so I guess I was able to rationalize my cognitive dissonance away. Todd's way really makes my wrists hurt after a while too which he says is because I don't crouch enough. (Then I crouch more and my back hurts. Sucks getting old.)

So long story short, I have to put some reps in on my press out.

About the FAST drill. I have shot it once before with Hsoi. I don't really do drills. I don't know why, I just don't get a big kick out of them and if there's other people there it makes it a big hassle to do them. Anyway, I don't remember my times from that range trip, but I don't think I ever shot it either fast or clean, and we weren't even doing it from concealment.

I was able to get 8.00 seconds on my final FAST drill @ AFHF. No penalties. I literally jumped for joy. It's not really a great score, to be honest, but I earned it. Messing with my draw was really giving me fits all weekend, and I was putting huge amounts of stress on myself to get a good score. Had we just showed up and shot the FAST drill 300 times that weekend I'm sure I could knock enough off to get an advanced score, but I wouldn't have learned anything. To learn a new technique and use it to get a personal best is a pretty big deal in my book.

I am the quintessential crammer. In college I would never go to class, never do homework, occasionally show up for labs, and then teach myself everything that would be on the test a couple nights (often only one) before taking it. My grades sucked, but I graduated. (Of course I will tell my kids a different story, but I digress.)

When it comes to work I only cram in certain contexts if I can do anything about it. As a rule, you can't produce stuff that sucks if you want to stay in business, employed, etc.

However, I still cram. I always set all these goals about how much practice I am going to do before the next match, or training class, but I never achieve them.

Realizing that practicing every weekend just isn't an achievable goal right now, I have endeavored to practice in smaller chunks.

Dry fire is a big part of that. I'm doing little 10 minute sessions whenever I have time or need a break from work.

Another thing I'm doing is getting my eyes used to darting around and changing focus. It sounds weird, but it helps with eye stress from staring at a monitor all day and has some practical application to shooting.

And finally, a big "cram" practice session at the range the evening before the match or whatever.

I'm taking a class in two weeks for the first time ever from someplace other than KR Training, so I will be testing this method of practice. I know it's not ideal, but it's what I have time for and is hopefully better than nothing.

Let me preface this by saying I'm not a prepper, at least not compared to the folks on TV.

I think we could go 2-3 weeks if something did happen, and that should be long enough for us to either figure out a plan or for whatever it was to blow over. There are a lot of unlikely things that could happen that I am not prepared for, but so be it.

Ok, that out of the way ...

Our fridge died last week, and our new fridge wasn't delivered until yesterday. We had to throw all our perishables into ice chests, and to make matters worse the wife had just gone to the store.

Anyway, it occurred to me that if I was a prepper, it might not be a bad idea to get another freezer and just keep it full of ice. With the right ice chest, and enough ice to dump in it, you might be able to get 4-5 days before it reached an unsafe temperature. Plus, if the world is ending, it would be nice to have a few ice cold beers just before it happens.

So the first trip with our new pop up camper/trailer is over.

Fun was had.

It tows really well with my wife's pickup. You would hardly know it was back there, until it was time to stop. With the tow-haul mode engaged on the transmission it does some pretty aggressive downshifts when braking.

Trailer brakes will be added next time. Legally I don't need them for this size trailer in my state (Texas), but more safety is a good thing. I have all the parts, just need the time now.

I discovered the water tank fill line is broken and there is no storage tank for grey water. Also, the outside grill is missing the parts to mount it to the camper, but I think I am just going to chunk it.

The furnace works well though. It got fairly cold one night and we appreciated it. I wasn't sure we really needed it as I have camped many times in the Texas "cold" with just a sleeping bag, and not your super duper arctic expedition bag either. I have to admit coming into a warm camper after shivering around my pitiful excuse for a camp fire was nice.

The beds were surprisingly comfortable. They don't look that comfortable, but I laid down and went to right to sleep both nights.

It's nice to be able stand up inside. Unless it's a big 8 man tent, I am always hunching over inside a tent and that get's old.

Set up was pretty easy. Luckily I didn't have to do anything to level it side-to-side, so it wasn't anymore involved the pitching a tent (heh).

Next time I would like to tow it with my Jeep someplace more off the beaten path.