The two most critical components for accuracy are the barrel and trigger. Most of the cheap base kits have garbage versions of both. The PSA EPT's are great for the price. My go-to cheap trigger has always been ALG QMS, but they're not so cheap anymore. Geissele SSA-E are the gold standard for "duty" builds and can be found for well under $200 on sale many places. For barrels... mid-length pencil profiles from a respected name-brand have always done me right, but AR15 Performance (now Blackstone Arms)... worth every penny. I've had three of their 6.8spc (favorite deer cartridge) and one 5.56... absolute gold.

You don't have to spend $1k's... but for double the price of that kit, you could have something really nice by grabbing a trigger and barrel separately... Aero Precision basic upper/lower and their basic parts kits will finish off a solid budget build.

 

This would not be a greater than 100yd accuracy build. This is a backup "clear the yard of people with torches and pitchforks during extreme civil unrest" build. Not the primary torches and pitchforks gun, or even the secondary. This is a gun to give a neighbor who will have the night watch, if you know what I mean. A neighbor who didn't plan enough to bring his own to the party. It's a step up from handing them a revolver for night watch.

It's also difficult to claim self-defense at greater than 100yds in a subdivision, lol.

 

This doesn’t help Cordycord but…

The S&W M&P Sport III is $699 and currently has a rebate for a free Vortex red dot ($150ish street value??) and as far as I can tell is a heck of a deal. It’s got to be one of the best “easy buttons” for a quality sub-$1000 AR.

I’ve only seen very positive reviews on the Sport III and mine has been awesome so far…

 

It's going to take awhile for the jnsanity of the initial buying splurge following the Form4 streamlining for suppressors for the industry to respond and competition to drive prices down... good thing we've got 4 years of the stage being properly set to make it happen.

But already... a sign of things to come over the next 4 years... absurdly low prices within the firearms industry. This is the cheapest I've ever seen the Geissele SSA. I think they go for like $159 blem when G has their yearly sales. $129 is just nuts for the industry benchmark AR trigger.

https://palmettostatearmory.com/geis...tm_content=593

 

Got home last night after five months away. Over the past thirteen months I have been home for a whopping one and a half months cumulative. Time for some serious decompression.

If anyone has a soft spot in their heart for the Beretta 92, there is a place on Gun Broker advertising BNIB Italian made 92s with three magazines for $550. I've been watching them for the last two months when I first saw the auction, they went from 55 for sale and now down to 32. If nothing else it will help me dress properly as John McClane for Halloween.

 

Picked up a BNIB CZ Bren 2 MS carbine today. Got what I feel was a good deal, the rifle, factory iron sights and four mags. Also got some CZ Scorpion mags and a Radian Raptor AR10 charging handle. I'll see how the latter compares to the Armaspec Victory unit I've been using. The same guy has a lot of Glock aftermarket barrels and some additional Bren 2s (others are all pistol length) if interested.

I have some other priorities to take care of but expect I'll clean and lube the Bren 2 in the next few days, then go to the range to see how it (and I) do,

 

Still haven't made it to the range yet, but I did purchase a Haga Defense metal lower for the Bren 2 (factory is polymer). The HD part is designed to have the controls in the same location as a regular AR15 lower so muscle memory is retained. Only modification I had to do was grind a relief on the top of the Strike Industries ambi magazine release I use as their boss for the bolt catch sticks down a bit. Found out my small parts stash didn't include a bolt catch so have one of those on the way.

 

Finally got my Beretta in my hands today. I was a little worried as it was sent USPS and was supposed to be delivered Saturday. However it went via the Indianapolis USPS hub which has been noted to be a black hole for a while. Thankful that my package didn't fall in.

 

Beretta and Bren cleaned/lubed. Bren BCG is interesting compared to one from an AR.

 

Spent some time at the range the other day sorting ammo for two of the AR's that my daughter and I will be using for run and gun matches. Both rifles did well with AAC 77gr OTM, so I ordered 1k rounds. PSA must have delivered it by pushing it out the side of a helicopter. It was definitely like that before it even left their care and custody, because they had even taped up individual smashed up 20 round boxes inside the carton. At least they all appear to be intact with no smashed up bullet tips or changes in seated depth.

 

Back from the range. Bren shoots nicely, Beretta was good once I figured out the sights were set up with military orientation, and the Scorpion trigger is smooth and nice. Very light pull now with a short reset.

I'm looking forward to seeing reviews of the upcoming Black Talon trigger for the Springfield Hellion. Right now it looks great.

 

I was set on an X95 as my next rifle until I went and held a Hellion. I have read complaints about a long pull length on the Hellion but I have long arms and it was perfect for me! The X95 didn't feel near as nice when I held it back to back with the Hellion. If you end up with that trigger in a Hellion you should give us a post here and let us know how you like it!

 

I bought a thing. The description and pictures on Palmetto State did not mention that it comes with a really strong IR illuminator.

I found a video online where a guy demonstrates very well its capabilities both day and night.


$449 with the extra battery pack that mounts on the picatinny rail.https://palmettostatearmory.com/sigh...tery-pack.html

 

That Wraith is a great value!

I have an AGM Neith digital, and it works reasonably well. For about a year I just used it for critter spotting on our property, but recently mounted it on my .300BLK AR. Did a day zero, still need to verify at night, and zero the LAM. The internal IR illuminator isn't great but the LAM has one that provides plenty of reach.



IMHO, the digital day/night scopes are OK, but really depend on IR illumination unless there's a high level of ambient light. I want to try thermal, but I'd rather spend the $$$$ on goggles than another scope or clip-on.

 

I think the difference in price between thermal scopes/clipons that are worth buying and nvgs that are worth buying are like a factor of 3.

 

Put together the AR upper for my oldest today. Getting the barrel nut tight and everything lined up was more fiddly than the previous ones I've done. Need to get some good weather so I can do the electro-etching of the lower.

 

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First try at electro-etching done today. Went well, stencils were a little off, I was expecting them to have better positioning marks. I used my old battery charger and it worked a treat. I wasn't sure how deep the pattern would be, I thought I saw the mask coming up in a couple of spots and didn't want to have a mess. Once it's all painted up it will be nice and subtle.

 

As it turned out, my attempt at electro-etching was a failure. I had a really nice dark image, but it was just on the surface. When I sprayed the coating on it covered everything up like it was never done. Oh well, will have to experiment before my next try.

 

Finally got my son's gun together shortly before I left for work. It was a bigger pain than any other I have done, had to strip the lower coating off twice in order to get it right. Some other niggling problems too but got through them all. We shot it together (mostly him) my last day home, he's very happy with it. Made me happy.