The Gun Counter

Holy crap!

Note to self: start reading my OWN posts.

Good and bad; the LaRue BuildAR for the quarter was more discounted gift cards (33% off) which puts me over the mark to buy a 7.62 AR kit (Ultimate Upper assembled kit and a lower); their complete rifles (which are different models) run $2700-3400 which is well over what the gift cards add up to. I was ready to order. Lead time is weeks for the upper, potentially months for the lower. The availability of 'already spent' money (on the gift cards) made the choice between AR and M14 for me...

Then the Aurora shooting happened so now the crooks running springfield and governor toilet boy are going to fast track some pretty draconian bans... with pretty much supermajority support in both houses. I doubt the order could make it in in time. Back on hold; not going to risk it until we see what happens. Hopefully we'll be out of ill annoy before the cards expire (starting in 2021) or I'll use them to buy awesome scope mounts and parts.

And in the 'well of course that would happen' department, the forged receiver M14s that have been OOS for almost 2 months came back in stock Friday.

I ended up risking the order and LaRue delivered much faster than expected. I now have a LaRue 7.62x51, 18" midweight barrel AR-10-alike. It shoots really well (one outing so far); the Australian ammo I've been sitting on for 20+ years is quite accurate; the south African stuff is ok but definitely not as accurate. Saving the British and Austrian for another outing. The Australian brass is beautiful; kills me that its Berdan and so I'm very unlikely to ever try reloading it. OTOH since I have no reloadable 7.62/308 brass I don't need to buy another die set either...

I'll need to buy a few boxes of match ammo to test.

It kicks harder than an M1-A but not as hard as the 1903 Springfield. Isn't as pretty as either but it works well and really it isn't that hard on recoil.

I used a red-dot and backup sights for its one outing. I need to pick a scope for it; my one really nice scope is currently on the .224 Valkyrie and I want to keep it there, and the others are BDC marked for 5.56. So a new scope may be needed (a good thing to spend Cabelas club points, the old 20% off Cabelas gift cards you can't get any more, and 10% back from Active Junky).

My pile of acquired 7.62x51 ammo now has a reason for being here beyond holding down the floor.

good stuff. Glad it shoots well. Probably going to end up with a semi in that caliber someday(shtf material), but I just like the newer calibers better. Yup 6.5 CM is good stuff.

Ordered most of the stuff for mine over the weekend.

I did a shopping trip at Cabelas yesterday; 10% off for club members, 12% Activejunky rebate, and the club Cabela's bucks saved on the card. After playing with half a dozen scopes and my budget I settled on a Nikon Black FX1000, 6-24x50 for this rifle. MRAD reticle so its the same experience as the Vortex Viper PST G2 on the Valkyrie.

Also ordered dies and the Lee trimmer gauge for 7.62x51; I get sticker shock for common calibers costing $1.25-1.50 per round so I'm going to (try to) roll my own match ammo for longer ranges. I still have quite a few bullets I purchased 20+ years ago for the Garand (155gr Palma, 168gr SMK) to test. The main 7.62x51 stash is 99% surplus, mostly south African with some Australian F4, British, and Venezuelan (pre-chavez, it was well rated at the time). I was hoping to get to an outdoor 100-200 yard range this week (time off) but the weather has blown out both days I had available, so that will have to wait.

I still have one gift card left that would make another UU in 6.5 CM affordable (NOT counting cost of ammo and reloading gear!) but then I'd be eligible for another lower, so why not just get the whole deal? Of course there's yet _another_ better scope too; not so affordable...

And who knows what will come next quarter?

But Yet Another Caliber, God save me...

I don't think .308 counts as "yet another caliber." It's more of a staple like .22lr, 7.62x39, 5.56, etc.

I agree, it was such a staple I bought nearly 3000 rounds of it years before I ended up with a rifle that could use it. I was referring to the 6.5CM as the potential (no! NO!) YAC.

For me it's more of "yet another magazine" given that I already invested heavily in Saiga .308 mags. But I am going to sell that rifle and its stuff eventually.



To be continued....