Woops...

Wow, I almost forgot about my blog. Ey, it happens I guess. So, I'm now on the other side of the States in Washington. Everyone is good. The animals are settled in, and the wife is working at the local retirement community. And I'm now ashore maintaining the arsenal of democracy. Not too bad...

Speaking of arsenals, the AK47 has left the fold but for a good reason. I hooked my buddy up (Masked Hobo, check out his great blog) with a much better deal than any dealer. (I'll get the mags to you soon buddy.)

And hey, it looks like Hobo and me are going to be back into the gaming swing of things with the soon to be released Red Dead Redemption. A non-linear western with an open free roam multi-player world? I am in. It's GTA in the Wild, Wild West. I need to find my soundtrack to The Good, The Bad, and the Ugly!

AR15 Loadout Update!

Well, it's been a while and the setup has changed a little bit.



I've added a Surefire G2 via a picatinny rail I had left over and a Daniel Defense Offset flashlight mount, put on a simple 2-point sling, placed the Redi-Mag back on, and bolted on a Magpul Battery Assist Device(BAD).

Surefire G2 on DD mount:


Redi-Mag and BAD:



I'm on the fence about keeping the Redi-Mag or not. It is a nice addition to the rifle and makes magazine changes much faster but the weight and and balance of the weapon is thrown off a bit. I think I'll use it if I get into competitive shooting but I think for range use, I'll stick with just using the BAD. I used the rifle with just the BAD, and while it's not a necessary addition to the AR I really like it a lot. I noticed my reloads are slightly smoother and I can get back up on target faster when using it rather than the usual bolt catch/release.

I also changed up my range gear a bit. I'm testing out an idea to use my vest to carry medical and admin gear while using the subload to carry ammunition:



I separated my medical gear based on immediate use and routine use. I will have to post about the kits later as I have used some sandwich bags to help retrieve only the supplies I want for a given situation.

As for what's next: A CMMG Inc. 22LR conversion kit and an EOTech 512 sight. The .22 kit is taking priority. It would be nice to shoot 1000 rounds without breaking the bank!

Long Hiatus...

Sorry about the long hiatus from the blog but I was a little busy:



I was in Yorktown, VA for 10 weeks at Gunner's Mate "A" school. I graduated the 18th of December and then went on leave. My wife and I are now making preparations to go to my next duty station in Port Angeles, WA. I'll be sporadically posting when I can. After February I will post on a more regular basis.

Well, I have a few things to write about tonight; and all on a good note.

First off, I got some more freaking gear. Yep, that's right. Yesterday while shopping for ammo I picked up a new hand guard for the AK. It was the same one that came with the rifle but had a few rails on it. I had to stop by the Cabelas on my way back home to finish off the shopping trip and picked up a pair of Surefire G2 flashlights and spare batteries. I slapped one of the G2s on a flashlight mount I had and placed it on the left rail of the new hand guard:



Bop!

Also while I was down at my ammo source I snagged some knee pads for cheap:



Pretty important for doing tactical rolls!

I forgot to mention a holster I picked up a while back. It's an Uncle Mike's Kydex for Glock 23s. Nothing special but worth the money:


I also added a new touch to my Blow Out Kit:



All in all, not too shabby:



Oh, and for your viewing pleasure I give you a video of today's range events. It's short but entertaining. Enjoy!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sfuh0kBtzI4

Until next time, stay safe and be sure to get some lead down range!

The New Tac-Gear Is Here!

So my new gear was awaiting me in Maine once I got back. I popped open the USPS box and I received my HSGI Subload Single Mag Carrier and Rolly Polly Dump Pouch. The gear is very high quality and a much needed step above the basic gear I had before. The Subload sits nice and high and holds 2 AK/ 3 AR magazines plus up to four pistol magazines if you so desire. I rock with 2 extra mags for the G23. The other two pouches are home to a flashlight and cleaning kit. The Subload also had provisions for me to mount my combat knife behind the rifle mag pouch. Epic Win!

The Rolly Polly dump pouch is very well made. You can give it some abuse and it will be fine. It's big enough for my whole defense load, all rifle and pistol mags fit in the pouch. I should have bought one years ago.

The gloves and the holster were extras. I picked up the leather holster at Cabelas. I desperately needed a good IWB holster and so far so good. The G23 sits tight and the thin holster gives off minimal print.

The gloves are just something I picked up at Dick's Sporting Goods. I needed a pair dedicated to tactical use.

More pics to come. No range report yet but I'm sure there is going to be one soon. ;)

Canoe Trip

The wife and I rented a canoe for a couple of hours last time I was home a few weeks ago. We were at the Scarborough Marsh along US Route One in Scarborough, ME. It was a lot of fun and we both had a good time. May be once we are settled into a place, we can get ourselves a good deal on one. We'll see.

Check out a video:



There is another video but will have to wait till I get back home.

New Range Gear Incoming

Incoming new gear that is! I ordered up some new gear for the range bag. Over at SKD Tactical they have some nice, high quality gear for a decent price. They also offer LEO/MIL only products if you require that sort of product.

I ordered up a couple items I had been looking at for a while. The first is a brand new subload. I had one from UTG that I bought earlier in the year to research the idea of a thigh magazine pouch. I liked the concept and decided to upgrade to a better piece of equipment. I ordered up the HSGI Drop Leg Magazine Carrier, Single. Next I needed a new dump pouch so I added a RollyPolly Dump Pouch by Maxpedition to my cart.

The gear should be at my doorstep by the time I get back home to ME and I'll be sure to post a review of the pieces. It's primarily going to be range/competition/training gear. Couple it with the Chest rig I run and I'm sure the results will be interesting. Again, a full review will be in the works after I put the gear through some tests.

My Ultimate AR15 Setup

Just for fun, I'm going to dedicate this post to what I see as my Ultimate AR15 build up. So let's start with the "parent" rifle:

First, we start with CMMGs 10.3" M2 build up:



So here we go:

A. Remove the Carry Handle, replace with MagPul BUIS that holds a rear tritium aperture.

B. Put EOTech on with the correct mount for total cowitness.

C. Replace front sight with tritium post on a MagPul BUIS front sight.

D. Replace A2 flash hider with a Vortex Striker

E. Add Redi-Mag

F. Replace handguards with a decent four rail system

G. Add a short VFG, Vltor Off Set Flashlight mount, Surefire tactical light

H. LET HER ROCK!!!

I'm sure more additions will come to this dream gun but that's what I have so far. I think I'm going to need a few promotions! :P

Gear, Gear, Gear!

Got a few new photos of some tactical setups that I have revamped. The first is the AK setup I wrote about previously. I added a pistol pouch. I'm working on getting all the secondary weapon gear for it up and running. I have some more trial and error to get through but the AK kit is comming along very well:



Next is the AR setup. I still rock the Immeadiate Action setup as my primary "Go To" rifle setup but with the additional rifle magazine pouch I had leftover from the AK rig, I decided to start working on the AR15 kit. It needs some equipment upgrades like a new belt and holster for the sidearm but the concept works very well and I am pleased with the results from dry fire testing:



Still have some more gear I need to aquire but so far so good. Sidearm holsters are needed as is a new rigger belt for the AR rig. It's always a constant give and take but the fun is getting to a near perfect loadout!

New Chest Rig!

So last Thursday I took a trip down to my local gun shop to chat with the owner and shop for some tannerite and .223 ammo to get ready for a range trip on the following Monday. No luck on the Tannerite but I scored 100 rounds of .223 for the AR to munch on. I noticed the owner had a bit more tactical gear than normal. Some guys were unloading their equipment to pursue other intrests.

I'v been shopping for some new gear for a few months now but I was hesitant to pay the $110 to $250 dollars the custom rigs I wanted commanded. In the surplus of items at the shop was a simple chest rig with a pair of mag pouches made to hold six AR or AK magazines each. I figured the rig would run about $100 - $150 at least.

What a shock when the owner said "$40.00 my man." It was a done deal. I got a Spectre MOLLE chest rig and x2 Blackhawk 6 rifle magazine pouches for $40.00 USD!

So I took it home, did some customization and got this:


To the right side of the rig I placed my MOLLE Trauma Kit, center is the Blackhawk 6 magazine pouch, and the left side of the rig holds a dump pouch.

I specificaly set the rig up for use with my AK but it can easily be converted for use with the AR15 as well; just swap out the magazines and your Good-to-Go.

Rig and Rifle:

Dry Fire Practice

Here's a neat little secret I've been with-holding from the blog:

http://www.rangemaster.com/rm_dry_fire.html

This link is great for dry fire practice. The web page says it is meant for handguns but I use it for rifle training most of the time. All it really does is flash a target on your screen every few seconds. As always, make sure your firearm is unloaded and there is NO live ammunition around you. The results will be disastrous so take the proper precautions.

Think safety and use this little tool to enhance your dry fire drills.

As promised...

I got a quick video up. It's on a site called Weapon Flix which is pretty much a YouTube for gun guys. It is really just a recap of the last blog post but in video form!

http://www.weaponflix.com/video/131/Immeadiate-Action-AR15-Setup

YouTube Videos Soon... Hopefully

I'm trying to get some tacti-cool YouTube videos up and running. I'll try start filming tomarrow. I'm not sure on what subject matter I want to cover yet so I'm open to suggestions.

Immeadiate Action AR15 Setup

About a month ago, the wife and I picked up a pair of BushMaster AR15s at Cabelas. She liked the AR I had a year ago (that I sold :/) and wanted one of her own. Of coarse I wanted another one too so we got matching ARs. She uses hers for plinking and home defense and keeps hers plain jane.

I on the other hand, well I'm decking my loadout out. I'v got mine setup for Immeadiate Action use; ie. Why use a pistol when a rifle is a better force multi-plier?

Part of the loadout is a basic belt and magazine pouch seen here:


The pouch has enough room for two magazines. In addition to the pouch, I keep a Trauma Kit aft that is not in the picture.

Next is the actual rifle.



Mine is plain jane with one exception; a Redi-Mag.



The Redi-Mag is an intersting device that allows for very fast, efficient speed reloads. The down side is that it does add some wieght to the system but the added benfit of more efficient reloads and ammunition managment offset the weight issue.



As you can see I use a two point sling system. The sling used isn't tacti-cool or that latest wizz bang sling but the sling off of my SKS. I'll get a replacement SKS sling for the SKS but for now it rides on the AR15 becasue it is simple and very durable.

The magazines pictured are the MSAR composite magazines. I'm testing them for a local gun shop right now. They are OK but I'm not going to trust them to defense use just yet. For that I have two BushMaster 30 rounders and one C-Products Steel 30 rounder. In the defense mags I keep Hornady TAP FPD 55 grain loads. It wasn't cheap but it was worth every penny. I sighted in using the Hornady 55 grain FMJ loads that are loaded to a similar specification as the FPD but wasn't as hard on my wallet. Now that the rifle is sighted in for the defense ammo, I'll shoot whatever is cheap (brass cased ammo prefered) for range/ plinking/ drills.

I may get some optics next year after the tax return and pick up an EOTech. I'v tried the AimPoint before on an AR and I wasn't too keen on it but the EOTechs I'v tried were pretty nice. Either way, I'm going iron sights until then. May be even pick up some Tritium sights and call it good. We'll see.

Piccahs

A few pics of the latest and greatest additions to the collection:

Back Again!

Been a long time since I'v had time to post anything here. Well for starters I'm in the US Coast Guard now. Gradutated boot camp on 28DEC07 and I am currently serving on WLM-554; USCGC Marcus Hanna. We're a Bouy Tender in South Portland, ME. Pretty good gig going on. Get to go home on a regular basis still and get some time with the family and pull some triggers in the ol' makeshift range I got.

I'v just gotten engaged to my HS sweetheart, Sophie on March 22nd and we are in the proccess of planning the next steps within the year. I'm applying for Gunner's Mate A school the end of the year.

I'v been crusing around in my new 07 Jeep Libery. I'll post pics ASAP.

As far as my usual gun blogging goes I'v converted my Armalite/Bushmaster M4gery to a Gas Piston using the ARES DEFENSE conversion kit. I love the M4gery now. It's much eassier to maintain and just as fun to shoot as ever. In addition, my SKS got a Tapco T-6 stock now, keeping the fixed magazine to comply with CT laws. It's a lot of fun; the fiance' keeps calling it her rifle... :)

Fine by me, I got my AR15 to hold me over! I'm looking at doing some projects in a while. I'm considering getting a Weaver scout mount for the Mosin-Nagant M44 and actually putting an EOTech Holosight on it. Why? Because I can. It's a very different concept but I think it would make for a neat 300 yard powerhouse of a rifle. May even be a sweet little deer rig. I'v also purchased a Lee Enfield No.4 MK. 1 and a Pardner Protector 12 gauge shotgun since my last post.

In the gaming department there are a few zombie games in developement such as Left 4 Dead, Dead Frontier, and Z-Day Online. The group I am in, the Zulu Aid Station Security Team stems from the Zulu Aid Station Network I made for a game earlier. It was a group dedicated to helping fellow players by establishing M*A*S*H* style units within the game. We may bring it back for Z-Day and may be Dead Frontier. I also finally bought Pirates of the Burning Sea; a game I'v been waiting for over 5 years now. Now I get to get underway right from the comfort of my own home (well, barracks when I'm in South Portland...).

All in all I should be posting much more often, keep an eye here for updates!!

Take care all...

Still Blogging... Just Bussy

As the title states, I am still blogging, I'v just been bussy. School is entering it's final steps and has sucked up most of my free time. Once I graduate I should be able to post a little more. On one note; I am currently contemplating some new SKS projects. There have been some new rules put out by the BATFE regarding 9.22(r) regulations that show that you only need to replace four parts on a Chinese SKS to make it compliant. Tapco is also developing a US made bolt with a spring loaded firing pin. I have a few projects in mind:

Project A:
Paractical-Tactical Paratrooper;
Take my SKS Paratrooper and put on the following:
- Tapco Gas Piston
- Tapco T6 stock
- Tapco SKS Bolt
This would allow me to use the stock SKS 10 round magazine which is a fixed box magazine. It is not a detachable magazine. This would allow me to use the Tapco T6 stock, which features a pistol grip and a collapsable stock, while being complaint with the Connecticut assualt weapons ban!

Project B:
Modern Rifleman's SKS:
Take a full size Chinese SKS;
- Remove the bayonet, put on:
- Tapco Gas Port
- Tapco SKS Bolt
- Tapco 20 Round Detachable
Again this would comply with 9.22(r) and the Connecticut assualt weapons ban.

These are just a few of the ideas I have. I won't have the time or money to do them all in one shot but rather over the next few years. Heck, some may always only be an idea but it shows the neat moddability of the SKS rifle; just be sure to follow the laws and be safe! The one I AM going to do, pending info I can gather from the state about doing the T6 stock legally, is the Practical-Tactical Paratrooper. In addition to the stock I would like to mount my Tasco Red Dot. Then buy some ammo so my neighbor and I can enjoy our SKS rifles!

Till next time; Keep your powder dry and try a little love and luck (and you'll get by!).

Eagle Scout

I completed my Eagle Board of Review December 8th, 2006. So far it's been my greatest accomplishment yet. But I always tell myself that this is only the beggining. My service has only started. Sure there's a lot of personal gain that has come/ will come out of it but the most valuable thing to learn from becoming an Eagle is the skills you aquire throughout your scouting "career". Plus you really do help your community out. Later on, I'll post pictures of my project. If anyone reading this is looking for advice for any of the steps for the Trail to Eagle send me an email at screaming_eagles_101@hotmail.com and I'll be more than happy to help you along. Moms/ Dads, encourage your sons/ daughters to join scouting. They'll thank you for it later!

Yours in Scouting,
- Thomas G.

Coasties

Well last week was a major step for getting going in life. Last Wendsday I took a trip to the Hartford recruiting office for the United States Coast Guard. After talking to the recruiter there I am scheduled for May 9th to fill out an application for MEPS. After that it's up to the scheduling of graduation that will determine when I go to MEPS. From what I hear, I may have to wait till October till I head to Basic. Sounds like a good time to get a summer job setup and get some new toys!

The Other Half

No minuteman is complete without his Other Half. Mine is a special girl who has been my freind for quite a while know. Only recently did we decide to take the closer relationship plunge. It's been a rewarding expirience for me; and I hope for her.





"The true strength of a soldier, is the girl that is back home waiting for him."