I am a shooter/firearms enthusiast/gun nut or whatever you wish 🤣 I fully embrace the 2A and I believe that most citizens SHOULD OWN Firearms. Not "can own" but SHOULD OWN and USE. I had my first AR15 in the shop, fully paid for but awaiting parts. It was late 2012, when the Sandy Hook school shooting occurred. I had zero ammo and one magazine that came with the firearm, a standard capacity 30 round mag. My builder called me up and told me I had to come pick it up ASAP because if they instituted a ban, he could not release it. The 4473 forms had not been filed... 😱😱😱
All that aside, I was thrust into the modern firearms owners nightmare immediately. I responded by purchasing as much as I could in as short of a time period as possible. SO, when things loosened up and started returning to normal, I tended to stay on that arc. Ammo, Magazines, etc. I will not reveal all my 'shooting irons' but just some of my favorites. This is Part ONE of a series. I'm thinking pretty much a rifle and a handgun, or what is loosely called a "pistol" in the MSR category. These "pistols" are actually sometimes AR15 based PDW's with shorter barrels than the legal 16" carbine length. The main difference is that they cannot have a rifle butt stock, or it is classified an SBR or short barreled rifle. These are illegal due to the firearms laws from 1936, when gangsters like Al Capone and others were modifying rifles and shotguns in order to conceal them, mainly for robbing banks. Modern technology has rendered most of these gun laws useless or hopelessly outdated, almost without exception. We now have items like the "Echo Trigger" that have increased firing rates to nearly "Full Auto" speeds, but they afford more accuracy and control. Training overcomes most of the rest, Keanu Reaves in his "John Wick" and "The Matrix" franchises does most of his own shooting scenes and practices relentlessly to make it realistic! He is truly a "crack shot"!
OK here's a picture of me with my first AR15, in the second iteration. It's the one I had during Sandy Hook, but I changed the stock and put a nice used scope on the rail. Plus a bipod by UTG that I got from a friend in the great state of Texas! I made him a great deal on a lightly used Glock 20C a while later, but of course I had a replacement for that one. The G20C is a 10mm which will be featured sometime in this series 😎
SMith and Wesson
Note the MagPul PRSS or Precision Rifle Sniper Stock. Waaaay overkill for a carbine, and actually I have traded that "upper" (barrel and upper receiver assembly) for a lightweight Smith and Wesson upper. It was from a first generation S&W M&P15 which did not have the "forward assist" and "dust cover" which are both dedicated military features. The "forward assist" was actually used by me on the range, I had a non-compatible combination that caused the cartridges to not seat fully and resulted in a misfire. Tapping the forward assist seated the brass fully and allowed the weapon to cycle. But the next one was a misfire also. I fixed the mis-matched parts and the weapon was 100% reliable again. It was a Mag Well Grip combined with the MagPul P-Mags and the cartridges were out of place because the magazines could not fully seat in the lower receiver. Military style metals magazines did not interfere, but I modified the MWG so I could use any magazines. Here's a pic of the MWG...
Basically looks COOL and allows one to use the mag well as a forward grip, saving weight and remaining compact in the process...
I promised you a pistol or handgun, let's stay with the AR Platform and show an AR9 Pistol
There is the AR-9 Glock style in the bench vise, as it was being assembled.
Complete, with a 33 round "Happy Stick" magazine inserted. Since it is 9mm the magazines are much skinnier. I have bought mostly "NATO" ammunition for this, and my other 9mm handguns and carbines. Yes, I have a carbine in 9mm, it is a rifle length weapon that fires 9mm handgun bullets. The upside is that they develop much more power and velocity due to "resident time in the barrel". The 16" barrel is about the "PDR" or Point of Diminishing Returns. The 9mm NATO in a carbine is almost as powerful as a 357 Magnum revolver, and the ammo is CHEAP! 😎
Here's the right side, showing a "faux forward assist" but it does have an operable dust cover. That was added to the original M16's for the jungles of Viet Nam. To keep the mud and dirt out!
50 round Glock DRUM inserted, but these are the cheaper Korean Drums and I will have to mod the mag notch of the drums so they will fit the AR-9 mag catch. Not sure if these even fit a Glock pistol, I need to verify that...
Here is the Muzzle Brake and the screw-on "Flash Can" which goes over it. The CAN directs sound forward, and away from the shooter. The Brake helps keep the barrel on target despite multiple shots. It does work together, too.
The finished product:
The "stock" is a pistol brace, 100% legal despite having only a 10.5" barrel. The ATF has waffled between saying it is OK to "shoulder the brace" to saying NO GO to back to "It's OK" again. Me? I'ma not gonna worry about it. Especially with a 9mm, it is easily controlled even without a faux stock or brace against the shoulder. It's a cheek rest so you can use the optics properly.
I think I want to build a 10mm AR platform, but the Kriss-Vector is such a sweet shooter, it is likely worth the extra several hundred bucks. My son (USMC Top Shooter!) has a K/V "pistol" in 10mm and it is so sweeet...
