Patrick Sweeney - Gun Digest Book of the AR-15, Vol. 2

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2007 Gun Digest Books
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Library of Congress Catalog Number: 2005922945

ISBN-13: 978-0-89689-474-7

ISBN-10: 0-89689-474-6

Designed by Elizabeth Krogwold

Edited by Dan Shideler

Printed in the United States of America

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

As always, I find the firearms community helpful in the extreme. Randy Luth of DPMS practically buried me under gear. I had to stop asking him about how this or that worked, or if shooters liked it, for another box would show up on my doorstep, containing the items Id asked about. Jeff and Kristi Hoffman of Black Hills once again outdid themselves, and my delivery driver risked hurting his back. Steve Johnson at Hornady not only sent me anything I asked for, he was most thorough in answering behind-the-scenes questions about .223/5.56 manufacturing, testing and other such details. Mark LaRue and the staff at Troy, Samson and CAA practically sent my delivery driver to his chiropractor with additional back problems from the amount of gear they sent.

Wolf went far out of their way to send me ammo. In toto, I think theyve sent me something on the order of fifteen thousand rounds of .223/5.56 to shoot, and I had the chance to watch fellow gun writer Dave Fortier bang nearly five thousand through another AR, not entirely in the book.

I want to thank all the manufactures who sent me rifles to inspect, photograph, shoot and in some cases abuse. That manufacturer after manufacturer would ship me a thousand-dollar rifle to shoot, inspect, in some cases disassemble, and then return whenever youre done is amazing. Is this a great country, or what? In due time they all went back but one. I mention this time and again, but the rumors just wont die; gun writers dont get free guns. Oh, Ive heard rumors of this or that one whom the manufacturers have given up on. If they send him something to write about, theyll never see it again. Thats not me. I dont have the room, and I cant shoot more than a few.

As of this writing, I have done eleven books. Over five hundred magazine articles. The grand total of free guns Ive gotten in that time? Three. If you are expecting a career of being a gun writer to be paved with free guns with which to pay your mortgage, think again. I appreciate the trust manufacturers put in me. And I send them back. Oh, I occasionally ask if theres a gun writers price on some, but not many. And usually the price isnt much better than what a distributor would ask. So I dont buy many, either. No, I write books.

Larry Panka of CProducts was most informative on the background of AR magazines, their fabrication and engineering. He sent me magazines, Brownells sent me magazines, Dave Dunlap of PRI sent me magazines, and the end result was that I knew perhaps too much about magazines. I had to take a break from magazines to keep my head from exploding.

The 6.8 and 6.5 are the hot new calibers for the AR, more so than the .308. In that regard it was almost a contest over who could bury me in information; Did Dave Dunlap of PRI send me more info, hook me up with more guns, or keep me more in the loop, or was it Bill Alexander of Alexander Arms? Youll learn more real-world useful information about dealing with the government in five minutes with Dave, or more about mechanical engineering from Bill, than you could get in a semester at a good school. If you talk with either, take a notepad.

Mark Malkowski of Stag Arms was very helpful with more engineering information, and some aspects of how the AR is machined, gauged and assembled were particularly useful. What the makers do in order to make such deceptively simple parts is quite amazing.

I had to resist the temptation to see just how much stuff I could bolt onto an AR, in order to produce an absurdity. In so doing Id be holding up one or another manufacturer in that parody, which is not nice. And unfair. After all, all the gear is useful, in the appropriate time and place. All together, it becomes a bit ugly, too. Suffice it to say, you can make a light, handy, AR-15 carbine into something that feels like an anvil, by bolting things to it. Look at many photos from Iraq, and youll see examples. Take a six-pound M4, bolt a railed forearm to it, optics, M-203, IR targeting laser designator, vertical foregrip with spare batteries, and a spare magazine on the stock, and you can easily turn it into an anvil. Glad Im not packing something like that. I did, however, just out of curiosity, weigh all the gear that could be put onto an AR. You can easily turn an M4 into a twelve-pound anvil. If you start with something like an H-Bar, you can easily go past fifteen pounds. There are light machineguns that weigh that.

Enjoy. I hope youll find useful information that you didnt already know, and if you find errors of fact, let my Editors know. They like the give-and-take of phoning me up with Sweeney, you screwed up again!

I also depended on my crew of test-shooters, who are as always, more than willing to sacrifice in the name of knowledge if you can call shooting loaner rifles with free ammo, and having only to pick up brass and be enthusiastic about the experience, a sacrifice. I have a test crew for several reasons, not the least of which doing all this is work. I know, I know, someone has their hand up Ill be happy to do the work, pick me, pick me! It is work, and some Editors have dropped writers because they slacked off on the work. And it is also fun. Im not above sharing the fun with shooters who make my work easier. You see, I learn things from the test crew. Not all shooters approach guns and shooting the same way. Seeing things from a different perspective is always informative.

I also have to thank Jeff Chudwin and Ned Christiansen, and all the officers who have spent their time in the fire hose of knowledge environment that we put on in the North East Multi Regional Training, Unit #3 classes. Jeff ramrods many of the classes for NEMRT, and Ned and I do our best to keep up with him. At times our students are sitting there with a glazed look on their faces, having been subjected to a Masters degree-level flood of information on firearms, law enforcement and tactics. Simply being in the classes has made me more informed, better-organized, and better able to present it to you, the reader.