obsessiveshooter

Oh, I guess I ought to list some of what I got, as a resource for others building an ultra cheap rifle.. BCG for 75, charging handle for 10, from Primary Arms.com From Ebay: low profile steel gas block, $9 shipped mid length stainless gas rod & pin, $13 shipped Magpul pts ctr stock, $25 shipped. I know, it's PTS which means it's for toys, but I highly doubt I will break it. Milspec buffer tube kit with wrench $25 shipped From Aliexpress.com: 15" freefloat quad rail. $38 shipped. (They have 15" keymod rails for 90.) Anderson Arms LPK with stainless trigger, $42 shipped, from Wise Arms From Amazon.com: forward assist kit and 'that door thingy' $19 shipped My stripped upper was $35, parkerized blem, found locally. My lower is an Anderson, $50 shipped from Budsgunshop.com I don't think it is possible to beat any of these prices. Ebay is your friend. Slickguns.com will also keep you abreast of the current best deals online. By buying online I didn't pay sales tax on a single item.

Every part but optics are now ordered and on their way to me. Thanks for the advice everyone!

Thanks Mick. The $100 barrel: it's from Classic Firearms. 223 wylde, 18" stainless, spiral fluted for the whole length. I think it's made by Bear Creek Arsenal and that they recently bought all new tooling and are trying to build their name back up after some initial quality problems. I figured it was worth a try. After I get the rifle built, I'll have to post a review here on it's accuracy. Maybe I'm an early adopter on the hot-new-ticket ?

I'm a USPSA shooter and with the bottom dropping out of the AR market, I'm building my first AR. It's important to me that whatever I end up with will be useful for 3-gun. The biggest thing for me is price. I know, "buy once, cry once". But, with AR's, I'm not sure that applies here as much as does with pistols. For instance, I picked up a stripped mil spec flat top upper for $35. A stripped lower for $50. A stainless spiral fluted 18" mid length barrel for $100. 15" freefloat rail for $40. I know this stuff may not be as accurate or lightweight as the really nice stuff, but I'm willing to start out with this stuff and see what is does. So, with a mid length gas system, how important is to have an adjustable gas block? Will using a compensator muzzle brake be sufficient? Should I get a full auto or regular BCG? Is there a coating I should go for? Will a no-name $30 compensator patterned after the JP/miculek ones perform just fine? Is there any real advantages to buying an expensive charging handle? What is the typical, sufficient optic setup for a cheapo newbie? I know I could find answers for some of these Q's after hours of reading online but my brain already hurts from all the research I've already done, and Benos forum guys are always so helpful...

Here is the one I send people: the Youtube video title is "IPSC", (all caps) and the person who posted it is named "elvisch". Not sure why I can't post a link here. It's an older vid of a really good Open shooter and it's a lot of very short clips of fast paced action. It made me get into uspsa. But I have yet to get another person to try uspsa- what I have been finding is that people think it's off-the-charts cool yet they are super intimidated to try it because they think everyone shoots like the guy in the video.

When you fully load a mag, is it super hard to get that last round in, with no room left? If so, I think that is what might be causing the deformation. If you really have to push hard to get it to click in, like I do with 20 rounds in a mag for my g35, then that same amount of pressure is pushing down into the notch until you start shooting. I've messed up some of my mags in the same way and I'm now going to make ready with 18 or 19 rounds, unless the COF makes 20 rounds really advantageous.

Nice review, especially with the comparisons at the end. I'll eventually be getting one of these for my G35.

He doesn't post a price on his website.

I ended up buying the shurtape 1" roll on amazon. It was $9 but with Prime I got free two day shipping. This is what we use at local matches. Trgt: I do have an Alco in town, I'll have to check there next time I'm near it. Thanks for the tip.

I'm really wanting a roll. I have trouble believing that the rolls of tape we use are made specifically for taping targets. I think it's just box packing tape, and the shooting world probably buys .001% of the product that's made. Wouldn't a big-box office supply store have something like it? I'd rather go there and pay a couple bucks for a roll, than pay through the nose for shipping on an already marked up item.

Thanks for the editing tip Sarge. As far as buying a case of targets, I am legendary in my penny-pinching tightwaddedness. I'll tape up those used targets. Shootersconnection.com looks like a good source for the pasters, though I would be happier with a $5 roll of tape.

oops, *cardboard* tape. Yep, I misspelled a word in the title.

I've brought home a bunch of shot up targets and I'd like to use them for live fire practice. Where do you get the tape that we use in matches? I've looked for it in a few places and haven't seen the Surtape brand or anything that would be the right color. Thanks!

I just bought an SR22 for my boys to shoot. They are 8 and 9. The grip is perfect for their little hands and the whole pistol is a lot like a very-scaled-down walther. The 3dot sights are easy to see and the only thing I wish was different is that the frame safety moves down into the safe position instead of up. I can't imagine letting my boys do anything competitive with pistols unless I were able to be right there with them standing over them, and even still not until they are a few years older. But still, I feel the SR22 was the pefect choice to get them familiar with what a "real" pistol is like and how to get a good sight picture. BTW, the sr22 is a replacement for my first great idea, a heritage rough rider with a 6.5" barrel. It was a beautiful, fun little plinker that was so awful for the boys that they didn't want to shoot it.

I realize this thread is dead, but I wanted to say I'm glad I just read this and this may explain why I have been having trouble locking my new mag in while reloading in a match. When I load my glock .40 mags to 20 rounds, there is almost zero room for the top round to compress down. It takes a heavy blow to get it to lock in place, and the pressure has been deforming the plastic notches in the magazines, causing plastic to stick out which then makes them less willing to drop free. I may still start a COF with 1 in the chamber and 20 in the mag, but from now on it will only be if absolutely necessary. I almost never need 20 in my second mag, so I'm going to start keeping the mags on my belt with 19 rounds in them. Learn something new every day!

Second that. I bought two and went ahead and bought two Wolff +10% springs. The base pads seem to be very well machined and finished. They are a snug fit on my DP Ice magwell, but I don't see it being a problem. I don't clean my mags like I ought to, but when it comes to disassembly I prefer the ingenious way my Arredondo's come off. If the Arredondos were $19 as well, I would stick with them.

I tried the search first, and I'm not sure why I can't find an answer to this simple question. I realize I need an adapter to run a steel GR, but if I bought an extended GR, it would still work with the adapter in my Gen4 G35, right? Thanks!

Still a draught but I am seeing pistol powder periodically in places that haven't had it in ages. There is reason to hope!

Thanks for posting! I might have to grab a pair. Wolff sells the +10% power mag springs, 1 for $8, 3 for $18. I think these are the springs that ship with the arredondo pads I have. Even after you add springs these pads are super cheap, which is the reason I went with Glock in the first place. My magwell is DP Ice. Anyone know if I should I have any concern with the fit on mine?

Again, I only mentioned the polymer pistols as examples of reliability. I don't want a glock with a 1911 trigger, because I'd still be adding weight everywhere I could. So, maybe 1911's aren't as inherently unreliable as I thought. But the question remains, isn't a straight-back trigger a big reason why people are so accurate with a 1911? If that is the case, why aren't we seeing more of that design?

2morechains- I think you do know where that "preoccupation with defining what's best" comes from. It the same reason you and I and everyone else on this forum spends to much time customizing our pistols. We figure what we think would be best and try to bring our gear closer to it. motosapiens- I haven't shot one, but the TS and the Tanfo Limited are on the top of my list. It also helps that they are two of the best looking pistols ever made. I've been shooting a G35 in Limited for purely economic reasons. Eventually I will sell and get the TS or Tanfo. I think there are is one collecting dust in the safe of a local Open shooter that I might be able to make a deal for..

I brought up the xd, mp and glock to highlight reliability of feeding that comes with newer designs. It seems like you could have a straight back trigger(vs hinged) that could perform the duties of a DA/SA , if some engineers applied themselves to it. Maybe Safe Action too. But the point would be to have a pistol with modern design and a tunable straight-back trigger. But please correct my assumptions if they are wrong: I'm assuming that there is a consensus that in semi-autos, the XX11 trigger is the best design for competition shooting. I'm also assuming a XX11 trigger is best because your finger isn't following a radius and comes straight back. And tunability too, but mainly the former.

The whole point here was to try and start a discussion about why, in a world where every manufacturer is ripping off everyone else's designs, no one is incorporating a 1911/2011 style trigger into their modern, reliable pistol designs.

My suspicion is that I'm not the first person to think of this... so there must be a good reason why this hasn't happened. So the question stands, "Why Not?'

What you guys are describing is exactly what I think is unacceptable. Several trips to the gunsmith? That just doesn't happen with your typical XD, M&P or Glock. My understanding is that the Edge is THE gun in Limited because of the trigger and the weight of the frame. My main contention is that it is crazy that every new gun that comes out has a hinged trigger when it seems to be universal knowledge that the straight-back pull of the 1911 is the best system. If a gun manufacturer like CZ would just engineer a 1911 type trigger into one of their all-steel designs, they have a contender for Limited Division at 1/4 the cost of the nearest competition.