All posts tagged LWRC International

Ok, So LWRCI has something less expensive

I think the best bang for the buck is buying a 5.45×39 upper for your AR15, but you will have to do some research on using the magazines and possible changing a few things in your AR15  like a new buffer or a hammer spring.   The main reason I didn’t start shooting one of these was because I didn’t have a spare lower to try out.   Last year I did some shopping, but I’m not really a fan of swapping parts in and out of uppers and lowers just to do caliber changes.   I think its a better idea to pick a caliber and keep a lower for the gun.

The 5.45×39 ammunition is dirt cheap and the Smith &  Wesson seems to have been king of the realm for awhile, but direct impingement and 5.45×39 don’t mix very well.   LWRC uppers have been increasingly expensive and yes, you can buy a whole new Colt AR15 for the price of an LWRC upper, but recently we were informed that the LWRC M6SL which is the lightweight stretch upper costs just about $1000.   I got my LWRC M6A2 for more than than about 4yrs ago.   Even though we’re selling them we want to hear from people on how they are holding up.

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The Beauty of owning an AR15 Carbine

There was a time when I bashed the AR15 time every time I heard somebody rave about them, but that part of my outlook on the design has ended.    The differences between AR15 rifles as varying as the differences between cars.  You can get a compact car, pickup truck, van or monster truck and they all basically work the same on the outside, they roll, drive and turn, but internally they can be different and they all have different operating purposes.   The AR15 upper receivers you see now can be direct impingement, piston driven, 22 caliber converted, 6.8 SPC, 50 Beowulf, and on and on.  I can’t back it up, but I’ve read there are up to 40 different calibers you can get them in.   I really only could ever seen the need for 3 or 4 of them, but the design is so well received, that there is still plenty of new things to come for the design.

I have always been a fan of piston guns and not direct impingement.  Modern technology has made firearms more reliable even if they are still DI guns and arguments about gun reliability really only get blamed on the operator and not the designs.  If you want to compare an M16A1 to a piston driven gun it’ll be a slaughter over reliability, but AR15 really give you what you pay for them.   I am an LWRCI upper receivers fan.   If you still have an old Bushmaster DI gun laying around and wants something really different, you gotta spend the dough, but it’s fun with less cleaning time.  If I think of the last 20 times I went shooting, and did no more than 10 minutes of cleaning each time, I’ve saved hours of slopping gun cleaner around.  Gun cleaning supplies don’t cost much, but if you shoot often and clean your guns,  you will save time and money on just those things as well as bolt carrier life ect by switching to a n LWRCI upper receiver.

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Range time and bullet selections

AR 15 UppersI had the opportunity to get out to the range again this week.   I tend to bring the same bullet weights with me to firing ranges whenever I’m shooting my ARs because there can be really big differences in bullet trajectory when shooting out to 600yds.   There is also a very big difference between bullet drift with just a few extra grains of weight.    I’ve pulled the trigger on 150gr FMJ bullets out to 500yds that missed targets just depending on whether or not I fired during a wind gust or not.   It’s really a  lot of fun to shoot distances because you find out that it’s not all about how well you hold a gun down and how well you pull the trigger.   Timing is something that really plays a factor when shooting into the wind.   I use to shoot at a range that had a wind that blew from right from 100-300yds and when you got out to the 400-600yds, the wind blew from the left.

Today I was testing out how well an M4 could shoot 75gr bullets and tested the difference between a 1-7 twist and the 1-9.   I normally shoot a lot of the M855 ammo for target shooting, just because it’s so darn accurate, but IMHO it is not the type of round that any civillian should consider using for self defense.   The round penetrates entirely too much for urban environments and out of an M4 does  not perform as well as 55gr ball ammo.   I have noticed considereable accuracy differnces in my 1-7 twist rifle vs the 1-9 and I am a firm believer in that the 75gr HPBT is a better round for th M4 rifles even if you are using a 1-9 twist.   I have tried swapping out some of my AR 15 Uppers to different bullet twists and I still think the shorter the rifle, the faster the twist and weights should be.

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Complete your CQB Skills with an M4 Upper

AR15 UppersI was never the one that was into the tactical doodad thing when I got into shooting AR15 rifles.   My idea of a rifle is a 30/30 or a M1 or FAL rifle.   I understood the ballistics of the .223 round and knew what is was good for and always thought that I should stick with the 20 inch heavy barrel for the best terminal ballistics.   Well, then I actually started learning about close combat and understood that toting the longest barrel gun and the heaviest barrel is going to mean slower speed and too much weight.

The M4 is hands down the best close quarters combat Carbine.   I have trouble referring to the M4 as a rifle, but I think that it really isn’t.   The beauty of the AR15 family or rifles is the easy swap in swap out changes you can do with an AR15 Upper.   AR15 Uppers are made by dozens and dozens of manufacturers and the quality and design differences are very diverse.   LWRC is making what I believe is the best M4 style carbine for US Citizens, but CMMG, Bushmaster, DPMS are making less expensive yet combat worthy AR15 Uppers.   Understand what the M4 is designed for and using the proper ammunition will put you in a much better position that using a handgun for those environments.

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Is a rifle an overkill for home defense?

AR15 UpperIf you are new to learning about defending yourself with a firearm, let me answer that question and save you from having to do any research.   The answer that you will come to if you choose not to read further and decide to research on your own is NO!   Using something as lethal as an Ar15 inside your home makes more sense than using any caliber handgun.

Sometimes when people think about defending themselves inside their home, the first thing that pops into their head is a revolver or some sort of handgun.   I still don’t understand that microscopic attitude towards defending oneself, but it is very common.    The real value of using a small M4 type firearm inside your home as the ability to weild it more effectively.  Give the least trained gun owner you know and give them an M4 and tell them to take out a target at 9 ft vs giving them a Glock.  If you’ve got a target model AR15, try swapping the AR15 Upper for an A2 style variant.

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