RFB .308 with YHM suppressor
KSG 12ga
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Bullpups at the range
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The nicest wood I’ve ever seen on an RPK derivative
One of the rifles I tried out last weekend at WPA in Knoxville. Ten-shot .308 with mild recoil. Optics or Picatinny rails mount on a left-side rail with return to zero.
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Vepr Hunter .308
This rifle is positioned to compete with rifles like Remington 750 Woodmaster. The price, the weight and the other features are fairly similar. Vepr seems like a more robust design overall.
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Hanging out with the good people of Keltec this week
Most video and photos will be up upon my return, but here’s a little sample of today’s range time. Glassing the target:
The purpose of the 24″ barrel is reduced muzzle blast and about 200fps of added velocity over the 18″ model and nearly 300fps over 16″ rifles. Overall length is half an inch shorter than an AR10 with only a 16″ barrel.
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Fun foto for FAL fans
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Teenage girls and their loud toys
An eclectic outfit
Compact 308 rifle
The rifle is a 16″ Vepr in .308, set up with 20rd magazines, 1-5x scope and Magpul MOE stock on ITT hydraulic recoil buffer. Felt recoil is below that of .223, which makes it an excellent plaything for a teenage girl.
Reduced recoil is welcome for all shooters, not just for girls. This young lady’s eclectic outfit happens to include eight full 20rd magazines for the .308 and a Makarov — quite a load besides the rifle. She showed no sign of even noticing the weight. Not bad for 15.
If anybody recognizes the scope, I’d like to know the brand. The only markings on it were “Made in Japan”.
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With muscles like that, the rifle is a secondary weapon.
Keltec RFB with Nightforce 1-4×24 scope, YHM backup sights and AAC 762SD-N6 suppressor.
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RFB in mid-cycle
No muzzle rise even while the bolt is still moving forward to chamber the next round.
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First focal plane option
For people who like FFP scopes for the ability to use a rangefinding reticle at any magnification, Primary Arms makes an inexpensive 4-14x. I took a photo of this one during the NRA show but I’ve actually used one for a while on my Anderson Mfg .223 rifle.
It has side parallax adjustment.
All that for $230.
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Luxury vs. sufficiency
Most full size and compact modern firearms are sufficient for self-defense. I’ve carried a wide variety and, while I have my favorites, wouldn’t feel too poorly armed even with my least favorite weapon. However, the line is much closer when it comes to subcompact guns. Some of them are too painful to fire, others aren’t accurate, others yet simply don’t have enough punch to stop probable threats quickly enough. On the other end of the spectrum are the fancier, more expensive models with higher performance than the budget alternatives. Boberg XR9S and XR9L are, in my opinion, such pistols. They have longer barrels than other autoloaders of similar length, they kick less (mainly thanks to rotary lockup) and show substantially better accuracy than most. They even hold an extra round compared to all other models with the same grip size. You can even get them with magazine floorplates color-matched to your outfit 
In a way, it reminds me of the debate on what’s important in girlfriends. If you can find a woman who is more competent than others, fits you better and isn’t too high maintenance — that’s the choice obviously superior to the others. Having to make some accommodations — such as getting used to a slightly unorthodox manual of arms with the XR9 or having to be equally competent and impressive to win the girl over seems like a small price to pay.
When I look out there, I see a small number of people clearly superior to others in intelligence, personality and ethics — and would consider the effort to stay socially engaged with them worth making. The same is true of the higher end weapons — if you can afford the time and the resources for something superior, enjoy that luxury. Having a high-end gun only bears superior results if the user is up to par, and the same is true of relationships. That’s why it’s so funny to watch people envy other people’s mates when those mates are clearly out of their league in intelligence, personality and other good qualities. And this is why all societies experience constant stratification — smart people tend to date and marry other smart people, with each next generation usually having the benefit of both better genes and superior upbringing.
Going back to pistols: I wouldn’t pay extra for engraving or gold-plating because that just increases the maintenance requirements. Cyrano de Bergerac was right, true elegance is within. I would pay more and learn more esoteric manual of arms to go from a film camera to a digital one, from a perfectly adequate conventional subcompact 9mm to a Boberg, or to being very picky when it comes to dates. As with weapons, the cost of picking a mate badly can be too high.
My own choice in people mirrors my pick in pistols: a lot of capability in a short frame
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An actual girly rifle
My friend Kyle is holding a girly bolt action rifle. I think it’s in .280Rem (could be 308Win, I can’t recall).
The point is, this rifle belongs to a girl. No pink furniture or Hello Kitty accents. So sorry to disappoint the traditionalists. At least Kyle is wearing the traditional boyish blue…except when trying to blend into the background.
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Grace (noun)
For this little girl, Grace is both the name and the descriptive adjective. At 13, she evidences adult social graces and capabilities. Her parents can be quite proud of her.
And the results:
Toys: GSG 1911-22 with AAC Pilot suppressor, Savage MKII-SR with Primary Arms 4-16x scope and Gemtech Alpine sound suppressor. Hydraulically dampened Vepr .308 with Aimpoint and X5L light/laser.
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H&K kind of girl
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Tomboy by day, girly girl by night
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Force multiplier
A 52 year old woman, no matter now well trained, would be hard pressed to keep up with young men who make up the majority of violent criminals. Add a Glock to her hip and a .308 rifle to her hands, and the balance shifts in favor of the well trained — in this instance, the lady in the photo. Gun is Civilization.
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Thanks, Will!
While still sorting the many good photos that came out of the photo shoot at Will M-Four studio, I’d like to post a shout-out for Will and his site.
Will’s kind invitation provided me with highly productive work day, new connections with awesome people and a very enjoyable experience. Looks like some of the other participants also had a good time.
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Springfield M1A
My friend Red likes rifles.
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People in difficult situations
Waiting for the zombies
Ambushed by the cat of darkness
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The crowd-sourced FAL.
Various parts of this rifle came from Coonan, DSA, Magpul and Galt’s Guns (who also did the awesome camo job). It runs great. The camo is very effective to the eye because our vision doesn’t have the selective focus of a fast tele lens.
It’s good to have friends.
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M1A’s little sister
We test-fired the Mini-14 and a 20″ Colt HBAR earlier. With 55gr ball, the AR15 mounting a 1-4x Trijicon Accupoint yielded 3″ groups at 100. Mini-14 shot 2″ groups with 2.5x Leupold scout scope, shown above on the M1A. So much for the inaccurate Mini! To be fair, the little carbine’s trigger isn’t conducive to accuracy under time pressure. This is a more recent Mini, and we saw no stringing after 20 rounds over two minutes.
The HBAR acquitted itself with 69gr match ammo, shooting 2/3″ groups. Seems that ammunition matters a lot in calibers with widely varying twist rates.
- Aimpoint H1 micro
- Leupold 2.5x scout scope
- Ultimak mounts for both
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