Now if only we could get this to happen in New York…..
Last week, Governor Peter Shumlin signed H. 5 into law, officially making Vermont the 41st state to legalize the private possession of suppressors. The new law, which will go into effect on July 2nd, was the culmination of months of education and negotiation, and a great deal of hard work on the part of Rep. Patrick Brennan (R-Chittenden), the American Suppressor Association, the Congressional Sportsmen’s Foundation, and many others.
As you might remember from our earlier post, Rep. Brennan successfully lobbied to have suppressor ownership language inserted into an economic development bill, S. 138. When the suppressor ownership provision was later removed from that bill in conference committee, Rep. Brennan went right back to work, reaching across the aisle to work with Sen. John Rogers (D-Essex/Orleans), who inserted the provision into H. 5, a hunting bill, on the Senate floor. Together Rep. Brennan and Sen. Rogers, along with Rep. David Deen (D-Westminster), worked tirelessly to whip votes in favor of the suppressor ownership bill in both the House and Senate. Their efforts paid off, and H.5 passed both the Senate and the House with overwhelming majorities.
As part of the negotiation, the use of suppressors will be restricted to “sport shooting ranges”, which are defined in 10 V.S.A. § 5227(a). Next year, we will be back to remove this restriction, and to legalize their use while hunting.
There are many benefits to using a suppressor, including:
The American Suppressor Association would like to thank all the legislators who worked hard to secure suppressor rights in Vermont, but special gratitude is owed to Rep. Brennan. Rep. Brennan worked vigorously throughout the session for our suppressor rights, not only by drafting the language that would make them legal, but also by making sure the language was attached to no fewer than three bills before finally being approved. The ASA would also like to thank the Congressional Sportsmen’s Foundation and the National Rifle Association for their support on this issue. We would finally like to thank Gov. Shumlin for signing H. 5 into law.
The American Suppressor Association is grateful for the support of our members, and we are very excited about bringing suppressor ownership to Vermont. We will continue to work towards our goal of legalizing suppressor ownership and hunting in all 50 states. Special thanks to Vermont for taking us one step closer!
SOURCE :: American Suppressor Association
You want to be ready to protect yourself, your family or perhaps someone else? How do you go about becoming ready to do this? Do you just take a class? Does it take a lifetime of martial arts or do you simply read the latest gun magazine or buy a DVD? A lot of people want to learn how to protect themselves but don’t know how or where to begin. At MDTS we have a prescription (the MDTS Rx) that prepares you to protect yourself and others:Roblox HackBigo Live Beans HackYUGIOH DUEL LINKS HACKPokemon Duel HackRoblox HackPixel Gun 3d HackGrowtopia HackClash Royale Hackmy cafe recipes stories hackMobile Legends HackMobile Strike Hack
1) Harden Up
Fighting, even under controlled conditions, is not easy. The chances of getting bruised, scraped, cut or worse are extremely high. So, the first step is to harden up and I don’t just mean physically. Are you a good boxer who can’t shoot, a shooter who can’t box or the guy who shoots great but cannot run a mile? The point is to challenge yourself, do something you hate to do and then do it again, do this every day. Do things you aren’t good at before you train or practice the things you are good at. This will test your will power and will power is an underdeveloped mental attribute. Will power often separates those who can and will from those who can’t and won’t.
2) Training
Training is where you learn a set of skills or gain knowledge about a particular subject. There are a number of personal protection training courses available to include firearms, physical defense, edged tools, impact tools, less lethal, awareness, verbal & physical boundary setting, the list goes on. What ‘s important is to realize that we learn a skill, especially physical skills, by doing not just seeing. It is also important to realize that training is not the same as practice. Going to a handgun class one time may mean you have been “trained” however physical skills are extremely perishable. To achieve and maintain proficiency you must practice.
3) Practice
Now that you have attended training it’s up to you to practice those skills perfectly and frequently in an effort to gain proficiency. Practice is like homework, nobody wants to do homework but its a good idea if you want to pass the class or a test. In terms of personal protection that test may mean your life or someone else’s. Practicing a skill can be as little as five minutes a day of dry fire pistol work or jab-cross combinations. For the highly dedicated it could be several hours a week. Regardless of which practice method fits you practice should become a priority as much as your lifestyle allows.
4) Pressure Test
Once you have learned and practiced a skill to the point where you have developed good safety, mechanics, consistency and aggression its time to pressure test. Pressure testing is performance of a skill or skills under certain training modifiers such as physical stress, cognitive mental stress, time pressure, increased accuracy standards, reduced light etc. How you pressure test depends on the skill being tested. For a physical skill pressure testing may include some type of force-on-force like sparring or working against a padded assailant. For shooting skills it may involve competition using a timer to measure speed and challenging targets to measure accuracy or force-on-force with air soft, UTM’s or simmunitions. Finally, some standards should be adopted as an on demand test of current skill level in that subject matter. Standards provide you with a means to evaluate the skills you spent time learning and practicing in order to maintain proficiency thus freeing up time to work on other necessary personal protection skills.
Considerations
This prescription is a developmental road map for any physical hard skill or mental soft skill. Consider it and consider how you have approached your personal protection development up to this point. Now, consider the current and common criminal problem you may have to face: close quarters, multiple assailants with weapons. Right now, today, are you ready or not?
About the Author
Chris Fry is the owner and director of training and curriculum development for Modern Defensive Training Systems in Utica, NY where he conducts courses in reality driven practical combatives skills, extreme close quarters physical defense, tactical folding knife and edged weapon combatives and combative pistol, carbine and shotgun skills. Chris has been an active instructor with Progressive F.O.R.C.E. Concepts in Nevada since 2003, servicing law enforcement, military and select government agencies. Chris is a certified AR15/M4/M16 and Glock armorer, contributor to various online firearms resource websites and a frequent presenter at national and international personal protection and small arms training conferences for both citizens and law enforcement.
Editor’s Note
Each month, Chris will be providing our great website with one of these editorials, called The MDTS Rx. Keep checking the site for great informative articles by Chris and others! (M. Centola)
Stag Arms is quickly becoming widely known as a great manufacturer of reasonably priced, quality AR-15 rifles. They are also very well known for making left-handed models of their AR-15’s. When I heard they were going to be releasing a Gas Piston rifle, I needed to get my hands on one to review. Well, thanks to Allstar Tactical, one of our site sponsors, I was able to borrow a Model 8 rifle to check out and review.
The direct gas system of a typical AR-15 rifle has worked well for decades, but it has is drawbacks with reliability and cleaning. The gas tube can become clogged from carbon buildup, especially when used with lower quality ammunition. Many manufacturers have answered this call with a gas piston system, which is exactly what it describes; the action moves based on the gas transferring its energy to a piston, which, in turn, moves the bolt rearward.
There are several other manufacturers of Gas Piston AR-15 rifles, but many of them are fairly pricey and extend upwards of $2000. The Stag Arms Model 8, with it’s MSRP of $1145, comes in a great price-point, and definitely competes very well in the market.
The gas-piston system on the Model 8 is actually quite simple. Gas bleeds off through a hole in the barrel, through the regulator, actuating the piston which pushes the bolt carrier back, cycling the action. There is a spring in the forward section of the piston system which keeps the piston in the forward position until the rifle is fired. The regulator also has two positions, ON and OFF. The ON position allows the rifle to function normally, while the OFF position will allow the rifle to fire, but will not cycle the action. This system is considered a short-stroke gas piston system.
Besides the enhancement of the gas-piston system, the Stag Model 8 is everything you would expect in an AR-15 rifle. From standard carbine handguards to a forward assist A3 upper receiver, this rifle is ready to go right out of the box. Another great benefit of this rifle for us NY residents is that it can be ordered right from the factory as a NY-compliant AR-15 rifle. In fact, the one that Allstar Tactical lent us was already NY-compliant. The benefit of this is that there is no extra costs for pinning the stock or the muzzle brake.
Another great feature for the Model 8 is that it comes with a pair of $200 flip-up iron sights from Midwest Industries. Midwest industries is highly regarded for their Back Up Iron Sights (BUIS) and other AR-15 accessories. Including these with the rifle only makes the price-point of the Model 8 that much more attractive!
We tested the rifle with 55gr Armscor 5.56 surplus Ammo, also donated by Allstar Tactical, and found that every round fired flawlessly. No failure-to-feed’s, no failure-to-eject’s, and certainly no jams of any sort. I was also very surprised at the accuracy of the rifle, even when using surplus ammunition. I was able to average 3-4″ groups at 50 yrds using iron sights, and I’m not that great of a shot!
So, great accuracy and ridiculous reliability combined with an MSRP under $1150 produces the Stag Arms Model 8 Gas Piston rifle, an AR-15 for the masses. Manufactured in the USA (Connecticut), the Model 8 also comes in a hard plastic case, and carries Stag Arms’ standard warranty. I would have to say that I definitely recommend this rifle to anyone looking for a gas-piston AR-15 and doesn’t want to break the bank!
Caliber: | 5.56 NATO Chamber |
Upper: | Forged and Mil-Spec |
Sights: | Midwest Industries Front & Rear Flip Up |
Barrel: | 16″ Chrome-Lined, 1:9″ Twist |
Selector: | Standard |
Stock: | 6 Position Collapsible (Pinned for NYS) |
Many people, who ask me about building their own AR-15, always seem unsure about which barrel twist to get for their rifles. Hopefully this mini article will help you guys figure out what is best for your needs.
In general, rifling twist rate determines the optimum weight of the bullet for a given caliber. It also determines the speed of the bullet by preventing any yaw or pitching. Rifling twist is measured in the number of revolutions per inch of barrel. For instance a 1 in 9″ twist means that the bullet made one revolution while traveling 9″ down the barrel.
So, what is the best twist rate? Well the answer nobody wanted is, “It Depends!” 🙂 A good rule of thumb is that the more weight or longer the bullet is, the faster the twist rate has to be in order to stabilize the bullet. Also, in general, lighter/shorter bullets can usually be fired in barrels with faster twist rates, but heavier/longer bullets cannot be fired in barrels where the twist rate will be too slow. Let’s examine this in more deatail as it relates to AR-15’s.
The original M-16 started off with a 1 in 14″ twist rate which is good enough for bullets around 55gr. However, when temperatures dipped below freezing, the density of the air caused the bullets to lose their spin, resulting in much less accuracy. In order to solve this problem, the military adopted a twist rate of 1 in 12″. The SS109/M855, which is 62gr, required a 1 in 10″ rate to stabilize, but the military settled on a 1 in 7″ rate due to the need to fire the heavy and long tracer rounds.
What does this mean for the civilian AR-15 enthusiast? Well, considering most barrel manufacturers produce their barrels in both 1 in 9″ and 1 in 7″, choosing either will not hurt the performance of the rifle for the majority of shooters out there. If you think you will be shooting the heavier grain bullets or tracer rounds, then it is probably safer to pick a 1 in 7″ twist rate barrel.
I hope that this short article on AR-15 barrel twist rates helped clear up some information! Please feel free to leave us some comments or questions if you would like more information!
We have begun our Project AR-15 with the purchase of a stripped lower receiver! This is the first in a series of posts where we will take building an NY compliant AR-15 that is still fun to shoot, looks great, and built well.
To get started, we have purchased a stripped lower receiver. The one we found was a Sun Devil Mfg lower. The unique part about the Sun Devil lower is that it has a tension screw that adjust the tension between the lower receiver and the upper receiver. This definitely looks to be a cool feature and should help, possibly, with the accuracy of the gun.
For this build I think we are going to go with a 20″ style A3 rifle for some longer range shooting. Stay tuned for updates to this project as we piece it together!