Wednesday, August 27, 2014

New addition to the family: Colt LE6920

Just a few years ago, Colt's M4 Carbine, and this particular model, the LE6920 was selling for about $2,500 in Canada.  I remember thinking there was no way I was spending $2,500 for a restricted rifle that I can only use at the range.  Well, in recent years, folks north of the border have been watching what was happening in the States, seeing the price of ARs fluctuate from extremely inflated prices (during Obama's gun scare) to firesale prices like in the US Walmarts.  Then came along a little outfit known as irunguns.com  who started bringing in US-made ARs for US prices plus an importation fee of about $200 or so.  That was amazing because even with the exchange rate, importation fee, and shipping to Canada, it still worked out less  than what retailers were asking for up here.

Then in recent months, IRG elimiated the imporation fee altogether for firearms already in their inventory and on their website.  A Colt AR with Magpul furniture could be had for Walmart USA prices plus any shipping fees and Canadian taxes.  It's an amazing time for firearms enthusiasts right now, and it truly is a buyer's market right now.  Some Canadian retailers have followed suit and started dropping their prices on AR rifles, so now, a Daniel Defence can be had for about the $1k mark (unheard of a few years ago), a DPMS AR can be had for about $500-700, cheaper than a made-in-China Norinco CQA. 

Anyway, I picked this up, threw a 10.5in upper on it for the photo shoot and I couldn't be happier than a pig in $hit.  It's just too bad this will always be a range queen unless Canada's gun laws loosen up a bit. 








I threw on a fake can made of PVC on it just for $hits and giggles.  It looks good, but totally useless.  My hearing would thank me if sound suppressors were permitted in Canada.  We have to put mufflers on automobiles, motorcycles and lawnmowers, it only makes sense to put a muffler on a firearm.  Oh well, another can of worms for another day.








This is pretty much the only major modification I've done to my new LE6920, other than that, it's pretty much stock.


I used to have an intense love for all things railed, and wanted to add rails to every firearm I owned, but I was told I'd grow out of that phase, and though I still appreciate having rails on some of my toys, I can understand that simplicty can be heaven and the simple ergonomics of the Magpul handguard is bliss.  It's light, it feels comfortable, and it's not an eyesore.  The design was perfectly thought out and executed.  The fit and finish is flawless, and this is one AR that probably won't see too many rails, excluding the flat top upper.  I'm even considering just leaving the carrying handle on it and shooting this one with iron sights.



Here are a couple of more shots of my newest toy with my C8 wannabe. 



Savage Mark II TRR SR gets some rattle can action

I got bored one day and decided to do something stupid.  The day before me and my pals were supposed to head out to Squamish to do a little shooting, I decide to throw some Krylon onto my brand new Savage Mark II TRR SR.  I haven't even shot it yet, and I was planning to the next day, but stupidity overcame me and I got the paint out.  Then I read the instructions, dry to the touch in 15 minutes, but takes 7 days to cure and harden.  The instructions were correct, it was dry, but slightly tacky and I wasn't able to take it out to shoot.  A week later, it felt totally dry as if it came from the factory like that.


It turned out pretty nice actually, and almost like a factory job, so much so, that I put the Savage sticker back on the stock for this photo shoot, haha!










New addition is the Tactical Solutions compensator.  It really doesn't make a huge difference with a .22lr rifle, especially one with a 22 inch barrel






I forgot to post the specs on this rifle, might be handy to anyone who's thinking about getting into one:

Series: Mark II

AccuStock: No
Stock Material: Laminate wood
Stock Finish: Matte
Stock Color: Black
Sights: Drilled and tapped for scope mounts
Features: Threaded barrel ½-28
AccuTrigger: Yes
Magazine: Detachable box
Barrel Material: Carbon steel
Barrel finish: Matte
Barrel color: Black
Sku: 25752
Calibre: .22lr
Handed: Right
Rate of Twist: 16
Overall length: 40”
Barrel length: 22’
Ammo capacity: 5
MSRP $627

Sunday, August 17, 2014

DIY C8




Colt Canada/Diemaco has recently released the C7 (SA20) and C7 (SA15.7) for sale to the general public (minus the fun switch and green furniture).  Anyway, the marketing team stated that their intent was to answer to the requests of LE/MIL types request to get civvie versions of their work rifles for practice on their own time.  When they finally released them a few weeks ago, my wallet ran away and started to cry when the MSRPs were posted: $2,099 for the SA20 and $2,299 for the SA15.7

Anyway, not in the right tax bracket to buy a range toy for that sort of money.  If it was non-restricted, I may consider it, but it probably won't happen in my lifetime that the AR will get de-restricted.  I heard a little rumor that the distributors or the manufacture (Colt Canada/Diemaco) is working on some sort of discount for LE/MIL, sort of like the Individual Officer Program (IOP) that Glock had going.   I may jump on that when it happens, but until then, I'm guessing that most LE/MIL probably will opt for other manufacturers such as Colt (USA), Daniel Defence, or some other brand for half the price, while the first batch of Colt Canada ARs go to military collectors with deeper pockets than me.


Anyway, I dug through my spare parts box and found a spare lower I had laying around so I decided why the heck not, had some engravings thrown on it and it turned out surprisingly close to the real deal minus the Diemaco company logo.    




*Serial number has been Photo-shopped out.



I never expected to make an exact replica, but I wanted as close as possible.  I think I botched the C8A2 bit, but it's close enough.  Here's the real deal:




And some more pictures of mine:







Basicallt the same set up with ladder rail covers insdead of the Magpul ones.


 




Shooting in the fog


Went out to Squamish to do a little shooting, and as per tradition, we started out by zeroing our rifles.  Surprisingly, we managed to get everyone zeroed in less than 1 hour (haha, usually, it takes us about 2-3 hours).  But we had a late start to the day and the clouds rolled in rapidly and we were losing daylight.










By the time we found a spot and settled down to a decent location, the fog started to roll in and we could barely see our targets.


This is zoomed in from 250m and 275m top target with a 25x zoom on the camera I took the picture with.



















Not quite a daisho, but pretty close.

 Not quite a daisho, but close at a quick glance.  A lot of times, daisho didn't have perfectly matched koshirae, or even blades from th...