All posts tagged M4 Carbines

Long range shooting with an AR platform rifle

I don’t know all of the facts and figures, but given just what I see every day on the New York and Ohio firing ranges around here, I would say that the AR15 is the most popular rifle in America.   Now that caliber changes are as easy as swapping out your AR15 upper receiver and possible only a minor change in your lower receiver like a hammer spring, you can go from a .223 varmint rifle to a 6.8 SPC rifle, or down to a CQB rifle at almost the pop of two pins.   I was never a big fan of upping the caliber on a AR15 rifle, but I am a big fan of the 75gr HPBT for close up fighting.   The 75gr bullet seems to yaw better and slower velocities and give more thump just from my experiences.

When it comes to taking your AR15 rifle to a longer range, there are records being broken every week with the AR15 platform.  People use to laugh when they would hear of some one shooting an AR15 at 1000yds,  but it is done and can give a .308 a run for it’s money.   The real thing to consider when it comes to caliber changes on AR15 upper receivers  is how powerful is the round vs just accuracy competitions.   I have a friend that came back from service over in the Middle East and he gave first hand accounts of how bad 9mm ammo was in combat and that at least 3rds of M855 was necessary to take down a threat with an M4.   Consider the ammunition you are using and not just how far out you can shoot, you may want to trade accuracy for energy.

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Under cover work with a Carbine

I as getting a little board with doing concealed carry method testing with holsters and various types of tactical pants this week and since it’s been so fricking cold out, I decided to do something new.   I have a few friends that do under cover work and I have sold them some of the Eotac Style 101 vests.   I originally thought that both of these guys were nuts because these vests are the most tactical looking vests out there.   The 4 AR15 magazine pockets are a dead giveaway if someone didn’t already figure out you were’t fly fishing.   I was amazed at what these guys actually did with the vests.

There are several tactical vests out there that are all out assault vests.  You can basically attach a couple hand grenades to them and your good to go.  These vests usually have a handgun holster on them and to me that pretty much makes it an outwear vest.   The Style 101 s from Eotac are not really heavy unless you really put heavy items in them.   Even though these are tactical vests, you can easily wear them under your heavy winter clothing and it will not really add much weight or keep in body heat anymore than what you are already wearing.   You can wear this under a regual winter jacket and I have even seen small M4 Carbines along with these vests doing under cover work inside your average winter coat.

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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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