While I have a bit of a reputation as a Mall Ninja on some forums, this is my first real black gun. It is true that I bought an AR lower years ago when the Liberals threatened to ban semi-autos (on my birthday no less!) but I never got the upper to complete that gun. So far I have been shooting tactical shotguns and handguns
I thought it would be fun to document the journey of a newbie as it might help others considering getting into AR15s as well.
The journey began at Bulls Eye London, which I visited as part of my gun store tour (posted on my blog and some other forums). I was blown away by their selection but in the end I knew was a serious gap of black guns in my collection so I narrowed down my choices to two, the Tavor and HK MR223
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HK MR223
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Diopter rear sight
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In the end I chose the HK…but I am still committed to getting the Tavor (as well as the Mark 23 SOCOM and maybe even that crazy 460VX revolver with 14” barrel!)
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I started buying accessories in anticipation of picking up my gun. First, a Trijicon MRO. I initially planned to get an Aimpoint but after doing lots of research (e.g. youtube videos), I decided on the MRO. I like the ease of adjusting and the larger objective
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I also like Trijicon as a company and love the fact that they put bible verses on their sights!
PSA 18:28
You, Lord, keep my lamp burning;
my God turns my darkness into light.
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Next BCM foregrip…again, seeing Larry Vickers use one of these in his vids made it a good choice for a mall ninja…I opted for the shorty with storage
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My sling (although this did not arrive till after my first range session)..Blue Force Gear Vickers sling, padded with Cobra buckles and RED rapid release (mounted to a Magpul RSA QD rail mount)
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More goodies…Caldwell AR Dead Shot rests designed specifically for ARs
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Laser boresighter
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And various types of ammo
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The paperwork went through pretty quickly but I could not get down to Bulls Eye for another month or so.
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Yes, I suppose it could have been shipped to me but I wanted to pick it up in person and shoot it at EESA…which is about 30 min from Bulls Eye
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I set up my target at 50 yards. I can say right off the bat that the fancy laser boresighter that I got was useless…totally invisible in daylight (which made me rethink my plan of trying to get a DBAL or something similar).
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As usual, I started off shooting left…the Trijicon MRO is very easy to adjust but I was wearing dark sunglasses and started turning the adjustment screw the wrong way, making my shots go even further left
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I made some adjustments and started tightening my groups
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I pretty much stopped there as it was so hot (31 degrees)
The gun functioned flawlessly and wow does it kick out those empties…I would hate to be in the stall next to me lol. I used Hornady TAP ammo and the supplied HK mag. I did also try the Press Check Venture beowolf mag..while it fed ok, it did not eject very freely…certainly it would not be good for fast reloads without some modification.
Some gun pics
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A week later I decided to continue the sighting in process, this time indoors so I headed out to Urban Tactical for a quick session.
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Ok I guess..the gun clearly shoots better than I do
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I am still used to standing with my right leg back and am trying to stand more square..i shortened the LOP to encourage me to do so
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My groups did get tighter
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Once again, I did not like the Press Check Venture plastic mags…they are easy to load with ammo and feed ok but they just don’t eject easily and as such I wont be using them any more…the steel one is ok.
Aside from that, once again the gun ran flawlessly and stays clean. I will try to get out to the range more regularly.
In the meantime, do you think I should bling it out a bit? I love Steel Flame jewelry and I picked up one of their AR takedown pins.
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It looks like this mounted (not my gun)
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What say ye?
….ok forget what I said earlier about rethinking a DBAL lol…a friend of mine had one for sale and these are pretty hard to come by in Canada so I jumped on it! And a pre-Steiner one at that!
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After posting some pics, I got feedback that I should move my Trijicon further forward to make two eye shooting easier and in case I want to mount a magnifier …and that requires another range trip to site it in again….so off to the Hamilton Angler and Hunting Association. Wow, I cant believe it has been 10 years since the last time I was at HAHA! Ridiculous how time goes by
My original mount
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The new position
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Sighting out to 50 yards
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Well I guess it didn’t need any adjustment after all..the first 5 shots lol
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However, this made the DBAL take up even more of the MRO so I moved it to the side..didnt have as much luck with that one in terms of sighting it in..i will have to come back for that
Ok, time to switch to other guns.
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As luck would have it, a fellow forumite brought a Desert Tech SRS-A1…and a left handed one too! As you may know, it has interchangeable barrels / calibers and today it was in .338 Lapua..
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I thought it would be fun to document the journey of a newbie as it might help others considering getting into AR15s as well.
The journey began at Bulls Eye London, which I visited as part of my gun store tour (posted on my blog and some other forums). I was blown away by their selection but in the end I knew was a serious gap of black guns in my collection so I narrowed down my choices to two, the Tavor and HK MR223
HK MR223
Diopter rear sight
In the end I chose the HK…but I am still committed to getting the Tavor (as well as the Mark 23 SOCOM and maybe even that crazy 460VX revolver with 14” barrel!)
I started buying accessories in anticipation of picking up my gun. First, a Trijicon MRO. I initially planned to get an Aimpoint but after doing lots of research (e.g. youtube videos), I decided on the MRO. I like the ease of adjusting and the larger objective
I also like Trijicon as a company and love the fact that they put bible verses on their sights!
PSA 18:28
You, Lord, keep my lamp burning;
my God turns my darkness into light.
Next BCM foregrip…again, seeing Larry Vickers use one of these in his vids made it a good choice for a mall ninja…I opted for the shorty with storage
My sling (although this did not arrive till after my first range session)..Blue Force Gear Vickers sling, padded with Cobra buckles and RED rapid release (mounted to a Magpul RSA QD rail mount)
More goodies…Caldwell AR Dead Shot rests designed specifically for ARs
Laser boresighter
And various types of ammo
The paperwork went through pretty quickly but I could not get down to Bulls Eye for another month or so.
Yes, I suppose it could have been shipped to me but I wanted to pick it up in person and shoot it at EESA…which is about 30 min from Bulls Eye
I set up my target at 50 yards. I can say right off the bat that the fancy laser boresighter that I got was useless…totally invisible in daylight (which made me rethink my plan of trying to get a DBAL or something similar).
As usual, I started off shooting left…the Trijicon MRO is very easy to adjust but I was wearing dark sunglasses and started turning the adjustment screw the wrong way, making my shots go even further left
I made some adjustments and started tightening my groups
I pretty much stopped there as it was so hot (31 degrees)
The gun functioned flawlessly and wow does it kick out those empties…I would hate to be in the stall next to me lol. I used Hornady TAP ammo and the supplied HK mag. I did also try the Press Check Venture beowolf mag..while it fed ok, it did not eject very freely…certainly it would not be good for fast reloads without some modification.
Some gun pics
A week later I decided to continue the sighting in process, this time indoors so I headed out to Urban Tactical for a quick session.
Ok I guess..the gun clearly shoots better than I do
I am still used to standing with my right leg back and am trying to stand more square..i shortened the LOP to encourage me to do so
My groups did get tighter
Once again, I did not like the Press Check Venture plastic mags…they are easy to load with ammo and feed ok but they just don’t eject easily and as such I wont be using them any more…the steel one is ok.
Aside from that, once again the gun ran flawlessly and stays clean. I will try to get out to the range more regularly.
In the meantime, do you think I should bling it out a bit? I love Steel Flame jewelry and I picked up one of their AR takedown pins.
It looks like this mounted (not my gun)
What say ye?
….ok forget what I said earlier about rethinking a DBAL lol…a friend of mine had one for sale and these are pretty hard to come by in Canada so I jumped on it! And a pre-Steiner one at that!
After posting some pics, I got feedback that I should move my Trijicon further forward to make two eye shooting easier and in case I want to mount a magnifier …and that requires another range trip to site it in again….so off to the Hamilton Angler and Hunting Association. Wow, I cant believe it has been 10 years since the last time I was at HAHA! Ridiculous how time goes by
My original mount
The new position
Sighting out to 50 yards
Well I guess it didn’t need any adjustment after all..the first 5 shots lol
However, this made the DBAL take up even more of the MRO so I moved it to the side..didnt have as much luck with that one in terms of sighting it in..i will have to come back for that
Ok, time to switch to other guns.
As luck would have it, a fellow forumite brought a Desert Tech SRS-A1…and a left handed one too! As you may know, it has interchangeable barrels / calibers and today it was in .338 Lapua..
