Optical Delusions

Someone asked to hear my thoughts (thots, lol)on the evolution of the many optics that my 16" SR-15 has worn. Shortly prior to getting my SR-15 I had been competing a lot in 2-gun matches and had just completed a close combat carbine class with Independence Training and I was torn between lightweight builds and functional reticals. I had run an Aimpoint for the class on a lightweight Aero build that worked very well, but the usefulness of the EOTEC design fascinated me, so I picked one up as soon as I could.

It did not even spend enough time on the SR-15 to get a picture, so there it is on the LWRCA5 (The EOTEC is gone now, and the Ldub has a Halosun circledot reticle that has been flawless, amazing thing for a $200 dot) I found the EOTECH reticle way to distracting, not the design, but the graininess or fuzziness was really distracting for my astigmatism.  And I did not like the fact that it would shut off after 4 hours or its (relative to the Aimpoint) abysmal battery life.   

So, the Aimpoint came off the Aero build and went on the SR-15...

The problem with the Aimpoint, while lightweight and always on, was that my astigmatism made it really difficult for me to squeeze the inherent accuracy out of this carbine that I knew was there. 

So, I experimented a bit with a cheap PA mil dot scope to see if it would be worthwhile in pursuing the route of higher power optics... 

I found this to be pretty slow on this gun, again, this was my go too blaster at the time, and I needed something that I could use in multiple roles...  In comes the ELCAN...

I had had the ELCAN SPECTER DR on a lot of different guns, and it had impressed me with glass quality, but not weight or usefulness of the reticle.  But it was better than the other options I had at the time as it could be flipped to 1X and used effectively as a red dot, and not suffer from my astigmatimatic (did I make up a word?) eyes, or flipped to 4X and get some decent at least better than minute of bad guy type accuracy.  The BDC reticle on these is configured for 62grn M855 "Green Tip" firing out of a 14.5" barrel, so not ideal, but one could adjust to it...  The thing that was killing me most though, was the weight.  After running a lot of matches with a light-weigh build, the ELCAN seemed to add a ton of weigh to the rifle for very little benefit in the way of magnification....  So the hunt for a suitable replacement was underway, and I found the NX8 to be the best compact, lightweight, LPVO I could find, giving a more usable reticle than the ELCAN, twice the magnification, and a featherweigth coming in at 17 oz compared to the ELCANS 23oz (adding the Scalarworks mount it comes to 22oz, but ces't la vie) I saved an ounce and gained double the magnification range, And Nightfoce has a generous discount for vets, so I call that a win.

  

Shortly after that configuration, I started following Ash Hess.  If you don't know who that is, look him up.  Pretty cool guy who put a lot of effort into re-vamping the Army's marksmanship program, currently working in military sales for Knight's Armament, and running a side hustle called "Quantified Performance" that you can find on patreon here:https://www.patreon.com/QuantifiedPerformanceLLC

Well, Ash talks about something called the "Driveway Special."  A light weight compact, go to war gun that will last you throughout a war, zombie apocalypse,  alien invasion, global economic collapse, or what ever doom awaits us, or that you could hand down to your progeny. you can find details about the build here : What the hell is a driveway special but anyway I knew I had to have one, and that the NX8 was the right optic for the job...

 But then what goes on the 16"?

In comes another Nightforce...  So the Nigthforce discount goes a long way in making quality glass available to veterans, and following Ash Hess, I knew a 16" rifle could go out a lot farther then what I was getting out of it at the 2gun matches so I went big...  

Probably a little too big for this rifle, but I don't regret it because I got to learn the excellent Tremor3 and it is fantastic.   That glass made smacking a steel plate at 660 yards almost boringly easy.  But I feel like in order to stretch the legs of that glass, it needs something with a little more reach...  Unfortunately due to the gunpocolypse I'm not able to find exactly what I want right now, so that waits, but what did pop up as available after a long time of being unobtanium was the latest offering from Vortex, the Gen III Razor 1-10 MRAD   As of this post, I have it mounted, I'll be getting it out to the range tomorrow, and a range report will most likely be 140 characters or less, so my twitter feed @slowzen for that..  Until then, May you be well and happy~

From zen to guns 2020 March 09

I have not written anything in years. That is king of a good thing as most of my writing was a kind of catharsis trying to get over survivors guilt and damage inflicted from a life of abuse both self-inflicted and otherwise. Also I just felt like I had something to share in my journey of sitting with my legs twisted up into a pretzel. Nowadays I still sit, but it is more like brushing my teeth than anything special. What is “special” to me now is the AR-15 and AR-15 accessories. Which is kind of funny because when I was on active duty I was not particularly fond of the m-4 Carbine or the M-16A2 I learned on. The were mostly just extra weight I had to carry along on hikes until War kicked off. And when it did I realized how poorly trained with the thing I was despite being an “Expert Rifleman.” That badge don’t mean shit. After I retired, it felt weird for a while, not having to go to the armory once month to do preventive maintenance on my rifle. I wonder how many other vets get that? But I rectified the situation as soon as I could, about a year after I retired. I ended up taking out a loan to get what my research at the time told me was the best evolution of the AR-15 platform of the time. The DDM4V11. I still have it. I’m kicking myself over the purchase to this day. As they come, the DDM4V11 is a pretty rifle. I got mine in their Milspec+ color because they did not have them in FDE… I live in the desert so FDE makes sense here. If I were in Washington or Oregon, my rifles would be green. Why I fell out of love with the DDM4V11: 1. The hand guard, while more ergonomic than my old quad railed military M-4, is still not very comfortable. 2. The trigger. On a rifle that has an MSRP of $1,729.00 I would expect to see it come with a better trigger from the factory. That was the first thing I replaced. 3. Oversized gas port. In order to make their rifles more reliable when running out of spec ammunition (read: tula) the geniuses at DD were oversizing their gas ports. This ended up bringing the barrel on my rifle to what I can only call a premature death. I have had an extreme shift of POI to the point where my rear sight is now nearly flush with the right side of the housing. It cannot be adjusted any further to the right so it is time for a new barrel. Would I buy it again? In hindsight, no. But all things considered I could have done a lot worse as there are a lot of trash rifle manufacturers out there. However, a Sionics Patrol rifle or even a Colt 6940, or FN 15 would more than likely still be running at this time, while my DD is kind of out to pasture until I replace the upper.