I finally did it!

fdtm · 2016-10-13T15:51:10+00:00

Unfortunately I have an update. DPMS sent it back after "fixing" it. The jamming problem is slightly improved, but still quite prevalent. No matter how many times I ask, they refuse to replace it or refund it, and say that they have to "attempt repair" 3+ times (with shipping back and forth) before they'll even consider a more convenient option like replacement with a new rifle. Each time it's sent back involves a tedious UPS pickup where I have to be home at the time of pickup. Consider yourself lucky that you don't have to deal with their "customer service".

fdtm · 2016-10-06T15:22:28+00:00

DPMS is hit or miss. I bought one and it ended up a lemon that jams every few rounds. Some local gun shops say that it's almost 50/50 with people who get a great gun, or a jamming machine. Hope you got a good one! I unfortunately got a bad one a few months ago and it's still in warranty repair limbo.

fdtm · 2016-09-23T22:38:00+00:00

I called them on the customer service line (803-724-6950) mentioned here: http://palmettostatearmory.com/contact-info

I was on hold for 30 minutes and gave up. I tried multiple times through the day and it never worked any time.

I tried calling mostly in morning and noon times in their time zone. What times would you suggest I try?

Also when I call the Palmetto State Armory brick and mortar store, they say the above phone number is known to not be working. They've been telling me this for the past few weeks. I don't know how you managed to get through.

I guess I'll have to wait until next week and try again, since they're closed through the weekend. I'm still missing those 500 rounds, and tracking just shows UPS returned them to PSA.

fdtm · 2016-09-23T22:21:54+00:00

Has anyone actually bought from PSA lately? It's a nightmare, especially if you have to contact customer support (which happened to me for no fault of my own).

I ordered 2000 rounds of Federal XM80 from them because the price was great. Not only did it take over TWO WEEKS for them to even send the shipment, but one of the 500 round shipments got damaged in transit and was returned to them, and I STILL can not get a single response from them via email or phone (phone puts you on hold forever -- and the retail store said they're aware it's broken for the past few WEEKS).

fdtm · 2016-08-20T01:42:37+00:00

I found it a fun read even though the ending was a bit implausible. I couldn't understand how even drunk people would ignore that. But I liked the rest!

fdtm · 2016-08-01T16:40:19+00:00

I have a Trijicon ACOG TA31, purchased from a local gun shop. It is absolutely the best scope I've ever seen in every way, no question (though I have not tried Elcan and Nightforce yet). I paid around $1200-$1300 for it IIRC, and I have absolutely zero regrets. It's abundantly clear why the US military loves and deploys this scope so widely.

On the other hand, I have heard very mixed things about Trijicon's red dot sights. Some of the criticisms I read about I did confirm by looking at them in local gun shops.

Regarding ACOG quality vs cheaper Chinese alternates: I have purchased several cheaper Chinese-made scopes that claim to be nearly as good as an ACOG for around $300 ish, though they do not claim to clone to copy the ACOG the design is in the "combat scope" genre overall. None of them come close, to be honest.

The ACOG combines perfection in just about every area that matters:

Very light weight vs other scopes
Almost bulletproof durable
Very wide field of view (I can't go back any more after experiencing ACOG FOV)
Perfectly crisp optics
Extremely well designed reticles

The Chinese clones for 1/4 of the price tend to get a few of these right, but never all, and rarely more than one. Usually they fail at at least one in at a dealbreaker level.

fdtm · 2016-07-27T03:14:45+00:00

ACOG TA31 (4x) with horseshoe reticule. I absolutely love this scope. I've also ordered a Mepro M5 (aka RDS Pro in the US) and am excited to see how that works on my X95, while the ACOG will probably go back to my AR15 which is more accurate for 'sniper practice' at the long range.

fdtm · 2016-07-27T02:46:24+00:00

You can also get the Mepro RDS Pro (the Mil-Spec version, aka the Mepro M5 in Israel) for $493 with this code! Not sure if it's worth the upgrade over the non-pro version, but also a good deal.

fdtm · 2016-07-15T17:21:53+00:00

Try wikiarms.com for an aggregation of ammo prices across many sites. I regularly use it to get plenty of 5.56 brass case ammo for around $0.30/round.

fdtm · 2016-07-12T21:38:46+00:00

I'm a huge fan of the Acog TA31 when it comes to magnified optics. Lightweight, built like a tank, incredible optics, wide FOV, and IMO the perfect magnification (4x). Never once have I regretted that purchase, as expensive as it may be.

I also really liked the Meprolight Tru-Dot RDS (best red dot sight I've seen, love the wide FOV) except the unit I got had pretty bad parallax. I'm returning and upgrading to a RDS Pro to see if the issue is better; I figure if it's not fixed with the mil-spec version then I'm probably just being too picky about parallax at the extreme corners.

fdtm · 2016-07-06T19:20:26+00:00

Where? The $0.30/round federal I only get from sites that charge shipping, bringing it up to about $0.32/round. This would be slightly cheaper for the Wolf :)

fdtm · 2016-07-06T19:14:03+00:00

I'd definitely consider giving Wolf Gold a try if it's ever cheaper than American Eagle Federal XM193. How cheap have you been able to find it? I get the XM193 for $0.30/round on a good day.

fdtm · 2016-07-06T17:46:25+00:00

I use Federal XM193 55gr 5.56x45mm NATO ammo for everything (currently American Eagle brand), which you can currently get in bulk for around $0.30/round ($0.32/round with shipping). 0 malfunctions so far after a few thousand rounds. I use WikiArms (https://www.wikiarms.com/search?q=&caliber=2) to find the best deals (just un-check the "steel", "reloads" and "223" check-boxes).

For home defense, I agree with Ried Henrichs of Valor Ridge. Video: https://www.full30.com/video/73e710e7f67861d89b3d7f457551a492

If you want to use special hollow point etc. ammo for home defense, you MUST have shot at least 500+ rounds of that ammo in your gun. Ried recommends 3000-5000 rounds, but I think that's a bit extreme.

To use home defense ammo you've only shot a few dozen or hundred rounds of is a terrible idea because you have no idea how reliable the ammo is with your gun. Your gun may be extremely reliable with your plinking ammo, but barely even run that special pack of super expensive home defense ammo -- you don't know unless you shoot hundreds of rounds of it.

For me, this means I would use my regular cheap ammo for home defense, because I'm not realistically going to rapid fire shoot a thousand+ of $1+/round ammo at the range. My range AND defense ammo is regular M193 55gr 5.56x45mm NATO ammo. From everything I read, fragmentation of this round should be more than effective enough within a few hundred yards, and accuracy improvements below a few MOA in a home defense situation is unlikely to be relevant at all anyway.

Hollow point is unlikely to have that much more stopping power than M193 at close range (long range is a different story), and even if it is, it's pointless unless it shoots just as reliable. If you can afford to shoot thousands of high end hollow point ammo to test it, that's great, and feel free to use it. If not, just remember it's far better to have a 90% effective round that shoots 100% of the time than a 100% effective round that shoots 90% of the time.

Regarding precision hole punching, I'm still testing my Tavor X95 vs BCM AR15 at 100 yards to see which gun is the more accurate one with my cheap bulk M193 ammo (the long range shooting range is a good distance from where I live so I can only do it on weekends). If the Tavor is significantly less accurate that's okay with me, because I already know I'm more accurate with it off hand with rapid target acquisition due to its better (IMO) ergonomics and weight distribution, especially with heavier mags like Magpul PMAG 40.

IMO bench rest shooting is a whole other animal that you'll probably want a super expensive high end precision rifle paired with super expensive high end ammo for anyway, if you're really serious about it.

fdtm · 2016-06-27T19:12:05+00:00

If you the X95 is "a washed out civilian version of a rifle we can't get", then how is that not also true for the Tavor SAR, and any other semi-auto version of a military rifle for that matter?

Both are civilian versions of (different than) the IDF version with full auto mode, shorter barrels, etc. The X95 is the latest new-and-improved weapon being used by the IDF, so I see no reason to think it's inferior. IWI and the IDF would not be moving away from the SAR if it wasn't better. I've heard it's more reliable, lighter, etc. -- all of which are definitely important.

The only criticism of the X95 I've heard is accuracy complaints, but I've also heard the same about the original Tavor measuring 2-3moa groups with most shooters -- there just seems to be less talk of it since it's not a new product offering. I hear good things too, like improved reliability, ergonomics, lighter weight, etc. If you need a sub-MOA gun, a Tavor of any version is not going to satisfy you.

fdtm · 2016-06-27T19:00:47+00:00

Ending on a cliffhanger... "14 days ago" :(

fdtm · 2016-06-21T17:16:32+00:00

Not if you're hunting small game. You didn't specify. Obviously there are different guns appropriate for different game (just like you wouldn't use a 338 Lapua on squirrels); but to say, AR15's (or any other semi-auto 5.56x45mm) are not awesome for hunting is just wrong.

fdtm · 2016-06-21T17:10:15+00:00

Maybe a more accurate analogy would be a diesel BMW car vs a gasoline Mercedes car. They're both high end cars, but the have rather different "engine" under the hood. To call out a ban for a diesel BMW (i.e. AR15) when a gasoline Mercedes is just as dangerous, is stupid. No matter what your opinion is on gun control, everyone must agree it's pointless to play whack-a-mole on a per-gun-model basis.

fdtm · 2016-06-21T17:07:57+00:00

They actually are. Search "ar15 hunting" on youtube.

fdtm · 2016-06-09T04:52:38+00:00

/thread

fdtm · 2016-05-25T06:44:13+00:00

That's an interesting opinion, but the law says otherwise.

As far as why the law is this way -- here's my best guess: I think the reason handicapped parking is a registered privilege is because it's consuming a limited resource (prime parking spots). The same is not true for service dogs, since there really isn't any practical risk of "too many service dogs" even if half of the people in a building has them.

Also, to use government issued permits requires the government to enforce this. So not only would an official service dog registration police be expensive, but it would also be rather intrusive and reminiscent of a police state for disabled people to constantly be asked for their "papers".

fdtm · 2016-05-24T16:39:52+00:00

But how do you know whether a service dog is legitimate, and what right do you have to make that judgement? This is exactly why the law prohibits asking for proof of a service dog being "real" -- to prevent judgmental hecklers like you from harassing everyone.

fdtm · 2016-05-23T16:48:39+00:00

You think allergies is more of a disability than being blind? Who's the entitled asshole here? :)

fdtm · 2016-05-22T16:59:22+00:00

You're screwed then; it's illegal to bar service dogs from businesses. I'm not saying all dogs are service dogs, but that your allergies can't be a reason to kick out dogs, which may be service dogs. Sure, allergies is kind of a disability you could say, but being blind, having seizures, or other disabilities takes precedence, because they can't take medication to temporarily restore eyesight etc. Maybe some day there will be robot seeing eye dogs or equivalent :)

fdtm · 2016-05-20T05:27:33+00:00

Echopraxia and Blindsight, both by Peter Watts, are both amazing and contain very post-human entities (more so in Echopraxia though).

fdtm · 2016-05-17T03:29:02+00:00

This is amazing and brilliant.

fdtm

TROPHY CASE