FYI This is kinda long winded since I am reviewing 4 pieces of equipment I recently purchased. I am not a professed writer or speller for that matter, so the grammar police may show up and for that I make apologies now.
On to the review
Finally got out to Canadian Valley "Banner Road" this morning to sight in the new optics I mounted on my RRA Ar15. I thought I would do a little review on what I purchased and my impression on them. New BUIS which will be reviewed and I also got a chance to really test out my CMMG .22lr conversion too, so I will review it in the same thread.
First impressions of the optics
Primary Arms M3 red dot clone
[Broken External Image]
Positives:
The Glass is clear
The red dot is crisp and gets noticeable brighter through the 7 settings.
It seems to be well made and durable
Negatives:
may just be me, but the adjustment dials seemed to work in reverse from there labeling. Again may be me
Wish it was a AA battery like the M4 clone
Mount
It is mounted on the rifle with the high cant mount and secured by 8 screws. Also a very solid piece. Easy to mount to the rifle and hold securely.
Primary Arms Magnifier
Prositives:
Very clear
Nice bit of adjustment for clarity at different distances
Also appears to be well made
Negatives:
very short eye relief. It was fine with a cheek weld with about nose distance from the CH. But for fast acquisition it could use more
Mount
This is mounted on a Flip to side mount held by 6 screws. This was a piece I had read reviews about that didn't sound to promising. Most said that the mount had play in it when locked in both positions. this was not the case with this mount.(I assume they have fixed that problem). It was very solid in both positions. Locked up tight with no play and plenty of tension. Seems very well made and a great product for only $10 more added to the price of the magnifier.
The whole setup ran me $197.41 shipped(would have been less if I had gotten in on that group buy) and I am very impressed with how quick it was shipped. Ordered it late on Thursday night and had a tracking # the next morning. Arrived Tuesday the following week.
I had an Eotech mount on my rifle that had to be removed to allow clearance for the magnifier which left me having to buy a flip up BUIS for the rear. No problem there.
Once it was all mounted all I could say was "This looks BAD A$$!!" Loved how it made the rifle look and how much more functional it would now be for my use. All in all I was very pleased with what I had purchased.
Took it out today to sight it in and had made the mistake of messing with the setting after mounting it before shooting it. Therefore it was way off.
So I removed the upper and bore sighted it to get it back closer at 50 yards. From there I made minor tweaks and got it setup. It may need so more minor tweaks due to the fact that I was using cheap .223 ammo and really need to get some premium ammo to really dial it in. But it was shooting within the 9 ring at 50 and 100 yards, just not tight groups. (All shots where taken from bench with the handgaurd resting on a sweatshirt.) It held zero for the remainder of my shots which was about 20 and had no problems with anything breaking loose or coming out of adjustment. Very impressed with this setup and loved having the magnifier on the flip to side to use as a spotting scope for my 50 yard shots. Very handy.
A.R.M.S. #40L-SP
This is the flip up BUIS I decided to go with for my setup. I like the idea of the SP(same plane) peep holes for easy of use. I also like the small notch at the top of the rear sight that can be used for longer range as opposed to hold over/under for longer shots(unable to test this). It doesn't have an elevation adjustment, but was dead nuts with my front sight lollipoping the target. I wish it locked in the up position, but this is not a deal break. The spring if very strong and hold the sight well with no movement under fire. It could use some type of tab on the bar that hold it in the closed position for faster deployment if the optic failed or ran out of juice. For my needs this is not a deal breaker either. I am no operator and if ever in a situation where this rifle would be employed I will either have the time to flip it up or just spray a barrage of bullets with my eyes closed....j/k
All In all I like this setup and am very pleased with the BUIS.
CMMG .22lr conversion kit
[Broken External Image]
I had shot this once after purchasing it and was pleased with what shooting I did. I was using old ammo and knew I wouldn't get very good results given what I was using.
Today I was able to really test it out. I cleaned it after shooting it the first time and have come to the conclusion that I cleaned it to much. I had nothing but failure after failure starting out. I was running Remington Golden bullet bulk ammo, CCI Mini Mag, and Winchester SuperX and it failed every single round for the first 40 rounds (20 rem., 20 CCI) and then every 2-3 rounds after that(20 Win.) I was really unhappy with these results. It was a FTE everytime. This was strange since I had shot it prior to this it would only FTE every 15 or so rounds with ammo I expected to have problems with. I new the mags functioned properly and that the extractor was grabbing the rounds. At first I thought it was the ammo, the Remington stuff seemed very poor quality with loose bullets in the casings like I had read from other post about this ammo, but it went bang. Thought that maybe it was a powder issue or possible a spring issue, but non the less I continued to shoot it.
Well, as I shot more rounds it got better!!
mag 4, maybe 1 failure, mag 5 no failures, mag 6 no failures, mag 7 maybe one failure, and so on. By the time I was around 200 rounds down range it was functioning flawlessly!!
I continued putting another 200+ rounds down range and she didn't even blink on me once. Worked with all 3 ammo types I was shooting and did great. Turned what I thought would be a bad day at the range into a great day at the range.
All in all the conversion is great, but appears you can over clean it?!?!
It was fun to shoot and made quite a few holes in the paper in no time.
I think I finally have my rifle the way I want it and will have tons of fun shooting paper, pigs, and any other small game that I can find needing holes put in them.
I will post pictures of my setup later. Need to get some better photos of it now that it is all together.
On to the review
Finally got out to Canadian Valley "Banner Road" this morning to sight in the new optics I mounted on my RRA Ar15. I thought I would do a little review on what I purchased and my impression on them. New BUIS which will be reviewed and I also got a chance to really test out my CMMG .22lr conversion too, so I will review it in the same thread.
First impressions of the optics
Primary Arms M3 red dot clone
[Broken External Image]
Positives:
The Glass is clear
The red dot is crisp and gets noticeable brighter through the 7 settings.
It seems to be well made and durable
Negatives:
may just be me, but the adjustment dials seemed to work in reverse from there labeling. Again may be me
Wish it was a AA battery like the M4 clone
Mount
It is mounted on the rifle with the high cant mount and secured by 8 screws. Also a very solid piece. Easy to mount to the rifle and hold securely.
Primary Arms Magnifier
Prositives:
Very clear
Nice bit of adjustment for clarity at different distances
Also appears to be well made
Negatives:
very short eye relief. It was fine with a cheek weld with about nose distance from the CH. But for fast acquisition it could use more
Mount
This is mounted on a Flip to side mount held by 6 screws. This was a piece I had read reviews about that didn't sound to promising. Most said that the mount had play in it when locked in both positions. this was not the case with this mount.(I assume they have fixed that problem). It was very solid in both positions. Locked up tight with no play and plenty of tension. Seems very well made and a great product for only $10 more added to the price of the magnifier.
The whole setup ran me $197.41 shipped(would have been less if I had gotten in on that group buy) and I am very impressed with how quick it was shipped. Ordered it late on Thursday night and had a tracking # the next morning. Arrived Tuesday the following week.
I had an Eotech mount on my rifle that had to be removed to allow clearance for the magnifier which left me having to buy a flip up BUIS for the rear. No problem there.
Once it was all mounted all I could say was "This looks BAD A$$!!" Loved how it made the rifle look and how much more functional it would now be for my use. All in all I was very pleased with what I had purchased.
Took it out today to sight it in and had made the mistake of messing with the setting after mounting it before shooting it. Therefore it was way off.
So I removed the upper and bore sighted it to get it back closer at 50 yards. From there I made minor tweaks and got it setup. It may need so more minor tweaks due to the fact that I was using cheap .223 ammo and really need to get some premium ammo to really dial it in. But it was shooting within the 9 ring at 50 and 100 yards, just not tight groups. (All shots where taken from bench with the handgaurd resting on a sweatshirt.) It held zero for the remainder of my shots which was about 20 and had no problems with anything breaking loose or coming out of adjustment. Very impressed with this setup and loved having the magnifier on the flip to side to use as a spotting scope for my 50 yard shots. Very handy.
A.R.M.S. #40L-SP
This is the flip up BUIS I decided to go with for my setup. I like the idea of the SP(same plane) peep holes for easy of use. I also like the small notch at the top of the rear sight that can be used for longer range as opposed to hold over/under for longer shots(unable to test this). It doesn't have an elevation adjustment, but was dead nuts with my front sight lollipoping the target. I wish it locked in the up position, but this is not a deal break. The spring if very strong and hold the sight well with no movement under fire. It could use some type of tab on the bar that hold it in the closed position for faster deployment if the optic failed or ran out of juice. For my needs this is not a deal breaker either. I am no operator and if ever in a situation where this rifle would be employed I will either have the time to flip it up or just spray a barrage of bullets with my eyes closed....j/k
All In all I like this setup and am very pleased with the BUIS.
CMMG .22lr conversion kit
[Broken External Image]
I had shot this once after purchasing it and was pleased with what shooting I did. I was using old ammo and knew I wouldn't get very good results given what I was using.
Today I was able to really test it out. I cleaned it after shooting it the first time and have come to the conclusion that I cleaned it to much. I had nothing but failure after failure starting out. I was running Remington Golden bullet bulk ammo, CCI Mini Mag, and Winchester SuperX and it failed every single round for the first 40 rounds (20 rem., 20 CCI) and then every 2-3 rounds after that(20 Win.) I was really unhappy with these results. It was a FTE everytime. This was strange since I had shot it prior to this it would only FTE every 15 or so rounds with ammo I expected to have problems with. I new the mags functioned properly and that the extractor was grabbing the rounds. At first I thought it was the ammo, the Remington stuff seemed very poor quality with loose bullets in the casings like I had read from other post about this ammo, but it went bang. Thought that maybe it was a powder issue or possible a spring issue, but non the less I continued to shoot it.
Well, as I shot more rounds it got better!!
mag 4, maybe 1 failure, mag 5 no failures, mag 6 no failures, mag 7 maybe one failure, and so on. By the time I was around 200 rounds down range it was functioning flawlessly!! I continued putting another 200+ rounds down range and she didn't even blink on me once. Worked with all 3 ammo types I was shooting and did great. Turned what I thought would be a bad day at the range into a great day at the range.
All in all the conversion is great, but appears you can over clean it?!?!
It was fun to shoot and made quite a few holes in the paper in no time.
I think I finally have my rifle the way I want it and will have tons of fun shooting paper, pigs, and any other small game that I can find needing holes put in them.
I will post pictures of my setup later. Need to get some better photos of it now that it is all together.
