NMBROU
2A Hickies
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So, you know, now's the time to start fessing up and talking about some of those things to some people. Because maybe it'll save them from having to do the same things I did. So I'm going to title this "Hickeys to a Hickeys." And I was thinking about this because this particular person, I've talked about this before. He's new to my life, meaning that he's kind of a temp, that it works with me at work. And he is getting into the two A, specifically the AR-15 platform. And he's heard all these things online, and he's got some plans, and he keeps buying these, I would say, weird accessories without fully knowing what's going on there, but you only learn by experience. And it doesn't matter, I talked about this last night, it doesn't matter how many times you hear that this is a bad plan. In the two A, you don't believe it until you try it, because we're all kind of stubborn in that way, I guess. So I was going to share some of the Hickeys I know of with the AR-15, some of the ones I've had, some of the Hickeys I've had with magazines. Oh man, I'll get to that in a minute. Some Hickeys I've found with, the AK. You know, my platform of choice from the inception of me becoming a two A guy and getting into black rifles. Some problems I've found with optics, specifically lower priced optics. Cheaper accessories that, you know, look cool in the box, look cool when you put them on the gun, and then when you start using them, you start realizing it's a bad plan. Furniture sets for both types of things, so let's start with the AR. Okay, first off, I highly recommend that you do not, for an AR-15 that is, mess with the gas system or the buffer system if your gun's running okay right now. Okay, you can look it up online and see where the ejection patterns are of the spent brass, and that's going to tell you if the gun's overgassed, undergassed, or whatever. And you working on those buffer systems or gas systems, that's up to you to make your gun time right. And I will tell you this, the reason why I don't mess with these two pieces very much is because you, there's diminishing returns for one. And two, this is one of those things that you can screw up a perfectly good rifle in a hurry in its functionality. Okay, case in point, the adjustable gas block for the AR-15. Unless you are going to suppress the gun. There is absolutely no reason to buy an adjustable gas block for an AR-15 in a 556 caliber. Okay, that gas system is what runs the gun. Overgassed guns are going to recoil a little more, but they're also going to be a little more reliable because they're going to kick out the spent shell a little quicker. But you're going to notice this in the ejection pattern. Okay, and if you're reloading, it's going to be harder on the brass. Okay, so why do I have a problem with adjustable gas systems? Number one, people in the two way usually like to fiddle with the new thing they got. And so they either turn down the gas system, turn up the gas system, and in the process they strip the setting screws that stop it from doing the overgassing or undergassing. Or they bought one of these cheaper adjustable gas systems where it doesn't have the detent so you don't know where the gas is actually going. This is your one rifle that you're betting your farm on, betting your life on. Don't you want it to work all the time? So let me tell you what happens, if you undergassed the gun, i.e. you start shutting the gas off, you're going to get a softer recoil when it pulls. That's a plus. But you're going to mess up the timing of the gun such that it'll sort of short cycle to where it possibly won't cycle completely. If it does, it does so very sluggishly so it barely picks up around. You're affecting the reliability of the gun. Conversely, you overgassed the gun. So you've turned it up and you're putting as much gas in the system as you can. Well now with the AR-15, because the AR-15 is so susceptible to timing and how it's made is designed as perfect as it can be for the timing of the cartridge to go off, vent all of its gas, cycle around, pull around, put another one in and reset the system so that you're ready for the next shot. So you overgassed it. Now you have the same problem again. Only this time the bolt carrier group is moving so fast that it may cycle around, may not, because it's happening so rapidly that the bolt carrier is opening and going back. That it doesn't have enough time to strip off around. Or you could see it double feet. There are a lot of reasons not to mess with the gas system specifically. That piece right there is the number one reason why. Why mess with reliability of a known platform? And if you're really inexperienced, this is probably not what you need to do. Okay. Buffer systems. Okay. Now why do I say buffer systems? Usually I would recommend using certain types of buffers to iron out some of these overgassing issues if you not mess with the gas system. And you want to address some of those cycling issues or collection of where the brass is landing. And you want them to be less abusive and generally function the gun or the gun functions better. Okay. Now here's where I go with this. I've had conversations with people where you could take apart a buffer for an AR-15. That's the actual weight. And you can add, subtract, whatever. But putting it back together again is it relatively seems easy, but it's hard. Because if you put it together wrong, the buffer comes apart in the gun and you're causing another issue. What happens is those weights will come out in the gun and stay in the buffer tube and the gun will either short cycle or a quick cycle so that you're starting to have other issues because it's not got the entire weight of the buffer in it. That's example one. Example two. You buy one of these adjustable ones. You add weights. You play with the weights. You don't lock tight it down so that it locks the weight in. And you have the same issue I just talked about. The best choice, in my opinion, is that you buy the right buffer weight for what you're trying to accomplish and do some research here. You know, in H1, H2, H3, there's a reason why these buffer weights exist. Look up what they're for. I'm not going to go through them, but it'll address some of those cycling issues that you're having. And that's one of those hickies that it's really cheap to fix if you do it right. You know, I'm one of those guys that have one of those captured buffer springs and weights all in one. It's an H2. And why do I like that is because I got rid of the little detent that's at the buffer tube of the AR-15. And the reason why is I've had in two different instances, and I guess it's my luck because I've never heard of anyone having the same type of issue before. That little detent is broken off or came out because I assembled the gun wrong or it was assembled wrong at the factory, and it's ended up in the trigger group. And it caused trigger issues. Okay. So when I saw the stoner, you know, what would stoner do builds by N-range TV with Ian McCollum from Forgotten Weapons, I kind of bought into that. I bought a captured buffer for that reason because it gets rid of the spring and the buffer pin itself. So then I don't have to worry about that. Okay. What did I get for that though? You know, first off, it wasn't cheap. It's not like one of these twenty or thirty dollar buffer tube or buffer weights that you could buy that could iron out one of your problem. I got a better cycling rifle. It actually doesn't require that one piece. And it doesn't have the spring sound that has always driven me nuts about the AR-15. This is preference. Understand, I come from the AK world. I'm an AK fan. And having the buffer tube be a thing still pisses me off, but I understand why it's there. And the reason why it pisses me off is I would like folding stocks. And now they make those adapters that you can do that, but it only cycle once, maybe twice unless you buy one of those really expensive bulk carrier groups with the captured springs in it. That make it do other things. That's great. I'm not into the AR-18 style rifles as much as I should be. I got the AR-15 as I said before because my brother at issues with his, and I couldn't understand why until I built one myself and learned the ins and outs of building them. Okay. Let's keep hammering on the AR-15 because this will lead into the AK furniture sets. When you're new to the AK or the AR world, the two A world, you're going to try different types of furniture sets. This is just part of learning what you like, what fills right for you, what fits your body, make the rifle fit you. That's something that Rob's get AKOU says all the time, and I firmly believe that. Plus you kind of kind of feel a little bit of a snob here. You're kind of wanting to look for a certain look and feel in any way with this rifle, right? You just invested some money in this. You want it to look cool. You want it to do stuff, but you want some functionality here too. Well, enter the really, really cheap sets of AR furniture that come with a stock gun. Okay. You know those really cheap deals at PSA or Bushmaster or any of the entry-level guns? You buy them, they have the lowest common denominator of AR-15 furniture sets. There's a reason for that. Okay. They're easily replaced one. They're actually kind of inexpensively replaced, even some of the more expensive like BCM. That's my favorite furniture set nowadays. And I like magpoles still, I like their grips. But at first you're going to get it, you're going to try it, you're going to realize I would like to put a light on my gun. That's the first thing I did. Okay. First realization I realized. And that stock set, the first thing I bought were these cool little rails that you can mount through the holes of the handguard, of the stock handguard. And it allowed me to put one of those cheesy screw-on four grips because I didn't think I ever wanted one of those. In fact, when I played Airsoft for a long time, I took that stuff off because it just added weight. Then I started training more, and I realized I was using that to pull the rifle into my shoulder, not as a gangster grip, but as a reference point. So even on my wick build, the one that I'm very proud of, I have one of those on there, but I have a magpole one that's a fixed one. Or actually it's a BCM one, I think. And it's fixed along with the Picatinny rail that came with it in an M-Lock slot for N. Now why is that important? What I just told you was I bought these little things that had these little screws that went into the hole that had a wide base on them. That when you screw the Picatinny to it, it would set in there and it would give you a piece of Picatinny on it that you can mount these accessories on. What you notice over time, or what I noticed, is that this stuff is not solid, it will flex, it will move. And if you put a laser on something that you're going to use as an aiming device later on, you're going to notice that shift instantly. You're also going to notice weird shadows when you're using flashlights. So buy one's, cry one's. That's what this story really goes to is buy one's, cry one's. You know, save up that extra money. Okay. Where did I go from there? So I started buying these cheaper sets, furniture sets for my AR-15. And what did I notice is that they're a little too wide or they have that seam line in them where they've been made, you know, when they've been poured into their mold. That gets old, it starts wearing in your hand if you're not wearing gloves all the time. And you start realizing how poor quality they are. You know, cheaper is not always better, more expensive isn't always better either. It's how they're made. And Magpul really does make some good stuff for this. Because I actually like their AR-15 grips and I don't mind their AR-15 forends and I don't mind their stocks. However, if you use a QD mount, which is what I do, BCM's the way to go from what I know. Not only do they fit better, they look better, you'll see them on higher end guns. It's because they are better. These are made by people, designed by people that have used these guns in real service. And while those other pieces will get you by and get you into the game, you're inevitably going to open up your wallet, spend more, and buy the right accessory. Now let's go to the AK. Anyone, anyone who says that the AK furniture is 100%, match and swap is a liar. What do I mean by that? If you bought an AK and you think you're just going to buy an accessory and just put it on whatever AKM pattern you have, AK74, what AKS, any of the receiver patterns you bought. And you think you're just going to put it on there without sending it, without filing it? They're wrong. Okay? I have UGO pattern AKS. I have American pattern, Palmetto state, or armory, which is Polish pattern. I have Yugoslavia, or not Yugoslavia, Romanian, so I have Waser. I have Arsenal, which is Bulgarian. I have Vepur, which is Russian. And what have I always found? Any accessory. First thing that I am always one of those guys, if I get rid of the grip, I don't like the little tiny AK grip. Being a Western shooter, it's something that you get used to, that you want something a little more substantial on your hand. And it's cool if you want the factory look of my Bulgarian AK that I made, AK74, that I built from a flat. It has stock furniture, except for one thing, that's the next thing I'm going to tell you. There is something to be said about the AK's length of pull. From its inception, it's made for smaller framed, smaller, statured people. And they have something called Comblock, or Eastern-sized stocks. Now, for a Western shooter, that's going to be about an inch and a half too short in the butt stock itself. Okay? All of mine, every one of mine that I have, my AK's that I have, have Western or NATO length of pull stocks on them. Because I don't like having the dust cover hit my nose when I'm shooting the gun. It's just unnerving, I'm big enough, fluffy enough that that actually happens. So I have to have a little bit more distance there. Enter the M4 stock adapters. Okay. Now, you can buy a real cheap one, and it will work for a while. What you're going to notice, and you're going to have to, it doesn't matter who makes it, because you can get some of the best ever made, and have the same problem. You're going to have to mill it. You're going to have to file it. You're going to have to sand it. You're going to have to get it to fit on your right. AK is not a prom queen. It is not like that. She's a biker bitch that just gets the job done. And you're going to have to do some work to make it do the same things that an AR will do naturally. Okay. If you're getting into the AK world, and you don't expect to get a scratch on your gun, and it's going to look like a pristine example. Number one, slip into your PJs, because that's not a real thing. Number two, that's not going to happen for very long if you use the rifle with any type of training or with any type of breath of putting rounds down range other than mag numping. You're going to have to live with scratches. Okay. So, I have had one of those Ultimac gas tube picketini rails for a red dot. You know, I thought this would be a good setup. It is, if you pay for a good red dot, which will handle heat. Because remember where the gas comes out on the AK is right on that gas tube, right on those four vent holes, four or six vent holes, right at the very front of the tube, that gas tube, that heats up that gas tube. And by extension, heats up, heats up any of that picketini rail on that gas tube. That heat translates to that optic. And I don't care what anybody said, I've killed cheap optics by putting them on there. I've killed some expensive ones on there, too. Now that set, is it a good option? Well, yeah, you get a lower third co-witness, so it kind of does what the AR does. I've explained last night why I'm not a big fan of red dots in general. It's because I have a stigmatism. This was early in my career of trying to make a serviceable gun. So this was on a waster tint. That's one. Two. The other thing is that those Ultimax, no matter what they say, are going to have to be trimmed one way or another to get it to fit in your AK. And what I mean by that, they're going to be filed on to get it to work right, to where it'll sit there. And maintaining it zero, it actually does. It's just going to be a very prone to heat place. So let's go on with the AK. Those Texas systems, those Texas dog leg systems. Now, I have one, and I still have it on my viper, and it does maintain zero. Is it one of those things that's going to maintain zero all the time? No. Because you're going to have to fit it. There are little tabs on it that you're going to have to squeeze down to make it sit, rock solid on that receiver. And you're going to have to keep doing that if you're going to maintain it zero. Okay. They look great. Great idea. The Russians use them all the time with that knowledge. Okay. Understand that there is no free lunch in this stuff. Just because it looks cool. By the way, as much as I love the AK, I'm going to tell you, if you're going to get lights, lasers on it, changes furniture, and mount optics on it, it's going to weigh more than an AR-15, period. There's no way around that. The gun is already edging towards that already. When you add all those metal accessories or those heavier plastic accessories, those polymer accessories, the gun's going to add weight, and it's going to be heavier. I've bought cheaper stock sets. Well, it'll work. It looks the same, right? And then you mount it up and then it looks stupid. Or it doesn't last as long. Okay. This goes back to buy once, cry once. So there's a lot of people that will say, "Hey, you know, that sliding mount for the AK." You can buy one of these NC Star mounts and it'll work for a little while. I've done that. Or you can buy a Midwest Industries, or one from AKOU, and buy it once, set it, forget it, take it off multiple times, and it will always mount up if you do it, right? And maintain zero. But if you buy one of those cheaper ones off of Wish or Amazon or whatever, it'll work for a while. Then it starts to slowly lose tension and then you see your zero shift and eventually it becomes useless. The same thing goes with AK tools, front sight tools. If you didn't know, the AK is only adjustable for windage and elevation from the front sight, okay? If you want to adjust it to go up, you screw the sight in. If you want it to go down, you want to unscrew the sight up so that the sight post goes up. The same principle goes with the AR. That's a hickey and a lot of wasted ammo to figure that out. Thus, I bought my first AKOU book from Robski. He explains very clearly how to zero the AK, and for a Western shooter for a long time, I didn't really have it as zeroed as I needed to. Now I do. On all my AKs, I have six of them. All zeroed right now. All zeroed for the caliber. All battle zeroed. All of them have optics in one type of or another on them. Let's get to optics. Here's where my shame is the most. I have looked at variable optics and couldn't afford the stuff I like. Like vortex, like primary arms. I'm a huge primary arm snob, I like them a lot. I've settled for those chinesium optics. What are you going to get when you buy one of these cheap optics that looks the part? Let me tell you what you're going to get. You're going to get cloudy glass. Glass that you're not going to be able to... At first, it's going to look great until you get to the range and you're looking at targets at 100 yards or beyond, and then you're going to start noticing the cloud there in the outer periphery of the optic. Or you're going to notice that the reticle, if it's supposed to be an extra crystal glass, that there's blur where they painted it on and they took the stencil off. Or you're going to notice what I noticed a couple different times I've done this. That one, those bullet drop compensations are off by a major factor. No matter what ammunition you use, the standard weights that it tells you in the article or the little documentation it has, it's going to tell you, "Hey, this isn't going to work." Or you're going to find out it's not going to work because you're going to listen to it, you're going to adjust it. When you go out and shoot, then you confirm it at a longer distance and you're going to realize the bullet drop compensations way off. The same optic, the adjustments were backwards. Left was right, right was left, up was down, down was up. Remember, you bought this cheaply thinking it was going to do the job, and you're going to find out very rapidly it's not. So buy once, cry once when it comes to optics. Now, let's talk about a cheap optic that actually I've had a great time with, and it seems to do the job and it seems to hold up. And I'm still, you know, my son has it on his gun and we're close to 5,000 rounds on his, and I'm still seeing that it works, at least with 55 grain, 556 rounds. And that's the NSTI Star 3 by 9. Okay, so far it's BDC is held up. It's mildot has held up. It's not the greatest clarity, but it's not that bad. You know, it has a lifetime warranty, you know. That's worth looking at. So you can buy cheaper options, but understand that you're paying for something and getting something different when you buy something more expensive. Primary Arms is a great example. Some of it's Chineseium, some of it's Japaneseium, but the optics themselves, when you start buying the middle of the road, if not the higher end, start getting really, really clear and really, really worth their weight and gold, especially their BDCs. Vortex is all American. I have no qualms with saying that Vortex is amazing. Okay, I myself like the BDC that comes with primary arms. Okay, now let's talk about those weird lasers. So I bought a laser, a couple of different ones. And what I learned was that you get what you pay for. If it's a $100 laser and you're expecting $2,000 worth of performance like the D-Ball, you're not going to get it. You're not even going to get close. It's not going to hold zero. You're also going to have a reduced battery life. It's going to look cool. But that's about all you're going to get out of it. Same thing with flashlights. You know, if you buy those really cheap plastic-bodied flashlights and somehow mount it to your gun, think about the recoil, think about the heat, think about the cold, think about what's happening to that electronics inside that flashlight. Is it going to hold up when you need it? Okay. There's a reason why weapons lights and optics are more expensive. Let's talk mags. Oh, let me talk to my shame here. I'm one of those guys that have bought those cheap mags. And I'm going to tell you, they suck. They become great training aids to show you how the gun's going to malfunction when you take it to the range. They are nowhere near practical for any purpose. And if you have an AR-15, buy magpo mags and quit. Don't even buy those cheap mags. They're not worth messing around with. You'll spend $10 or $11 a mag. That's a hell of a lot better knowing that the gun's going to work all the time. Kalashnikov mags. This is where you pay for what you get. Absolutely. There's a reason why AK mags have still lips and they absolutely should. It's because that's the engagement surface for the magazine. If you drop one of those magazines with a plastic lip on the ground and it hits a rock or on the pavement, what happens? That lip splits and the ammunition source loses its integrity and goes everywhere. So I'm telling you, my hickies, so that you don't have to take... Learn from my experience. Use my knowledge. I beg of you. Magpo mags for the AK are great. They're great range mags unless you buy the metal liped ones for daily use. I have never had a good experience with any one except for Glock branded Glock mags in Glocks. Never had a good experience with them. I've heard a lot of good experiences with people, from other people, that is, about the magpo mags for Glocks, but I personally have not done that. Here's why. Every time I've tried one of those off-branded Glock mags, it has caused a problem with a gun that never has an issue. Therefore, it is not something I want to do. If you buy those cheap mags and you skimp on out on it, you're going to pay for it eventually. These are my hickies. These are the ones I think the issues you're going to run into if you're new to the two-way world. You can email me at atin082 if you have any questions or any suggestions for content. I'm sharing this because this experience with this temp, he's a great guy. I enjoy talking to him, especially about guns, but if he just listened a little bit from someone that knows something a little bit from experience, he may have gotten a better experience with what he bought. Maybe he could have used that money for something else. Maybe some more ammunition to train with, maybe a better accessory, something else on his list that he wants to make his gun do certain things. That's what I'm trying to get you to, is I've spent a lot of money in a lot of time, wasted a lot of money in a lot of time on these cheap accessories just to find out that it's probably not that great. Like, share, subscribe, most importantly, be great.