In this edition of Gunning for Tactical/Practical, I will discuss the gun upgrades that make sick to just look at. Here are the three gun upgrades that no one should sacrifice pennies for:
Crimson Trace Rail Master (CMR-201) ($90)
NC Star Ar15 Qr Weaver Mount/ Cantilever Scope Mount Rear Ring 30mm ($30)
2 scopes from NC Star ($75 and $70)
1 Red Dot Scope from NC Star ($40)
Many moons ago, I was a cheap bastard looking for upgrades to make my AR-15 as awesome as possible. I searched through the gun show tables and found many cool pieces of jewelry for my AR-15 to shine while locked in combat with the swine. Seriously, I mean killing pigs with the most bad ass gun upgrades. My eyes saw beautiful scopes, red dots, and ACOGS from the major companies, but my wallet and brain said it was a waste. For there were WAY cheaper upgrades only two tables down, and the price
difference was literally $500 or more. I was pushed into a false sense of reassurance as I saw a couple of friends buying the cheaper stuff from the orientals/asians. This by no means a racist remark, but these folks always sell the cheaper brands, will make a deal on anything, and never give you shit. I knew my gun needed a couple upgrades that would not be cheap, and decided to get the most I could out these “cheaper” tables.
Most of the best pig hunting is at night or early morning, thus I needed a quick targeting system. I had read and seen laser mounted on the rails of AR-15’s and REALLY wanted one. There are many brands and I had seen a few. Most are crap as the recoil hurts the accuracy of follow up shots due to crappy construction, thus I researched hard for the best one. Crimson Trace makes really good lasers for pistols and thought maybe this one would work for my AR-15.
It would nest perfectly on the rails for instant use to attain fast target acquisition. I bought the CMR-201 ($90) from a vender for $20 bellow cost, and thought it was a steal. It needed a battery and I hit Radio shack on the way home for a 1/3N 3V Lithium Battery ($7). I was not happy about that, but it should last as I don’t intend on leaving it on. Next, I went to my gun range and attached the the laser with ease. It was very low profile and the laser was vey bright. It sighted in very quickly, but I noticed a slight issue. The laser turns on from breathing on. The side lever/switches activate the laser with little or handling. I went home and checked it before night time to see if it was off. Next mooring I checked it and it was on. I turned it off. Hour later I checked it and it was
on again. WTF? I put my rifle on the dinner table to see what turned it on with a piece of paper at the end to get my attention. It turned on from the air hitting it from the air conditioning vent. I was perplexed at the situation, and had no idea what to do about it. I called the company and they said it was not a factory defect, which is technically true.
I tried using it on my handguns and it still would not turn off for any length of time. I need thing at the ready, not with the battery out. If a pig or general intruder shows up; I can’t say “hold on, I need put this difficult battery in to prepare for home defense”. I never thought an upgrade could be this annoying that fast, but Crimison Trace definitely kicked out a lemon here.
http://www.opticsplanet.com/crimson-tra ... -laser.htm
The option to shoot long distance is allows for safe shots, but in a pinch, the limitations of scopes can be frightening. Trying
to quick draw with a scope is damn near a crap shoot for accuracy. It takes great practice to be quick with scope in forced CQB. Now if you are on a 2 man team or prefer options in Battle; I recommend getting a quick detach scope mount.
Years of growing up with Winchester rifles have caused me to love iron sights. I shoot more accurate when using iron sights on quick target acquisition shots. The option of iron sights is comfortable and a great advantage when need to shoot CQB, no batteries for night optics, or your scope is damaged. At the time there were not many options as the AR was coming into its own with serious aftermarket upgrades. There was a table at a gun show that had decent priced upgrades on scope mounts, and I picked a the scope mount as there was not much else at the time to compare. The scope attached just fine and accepted my Nikon scope
with ease. Tightening the mount was easy and my shots were accurate. After a few outings using the new scope mount, I noticed my groupings were opening up more. Tightening did nothing either and it was getting worse. I put the scope and mount on another AR and it shot accurate again (both rifles). WTF?
I let the rifle sit for a while and had to use it on a trip again where I completely dismantle it to fit in a suitcase (traveling in a small car to a ranch). A huge problem was discovered with the tension bracket. It no longer kept tight pressure regardless of how much tightening I did. The damn scope slid up and down the rails with irritating ease. I would pictures, but it died in an angry explosion. Before sending it off to a new age viking funeral; I used a magnifying glass and found the metal bracket had becoming butter flexible because the metal used was a cheap piece of crap. You could say “what do you expect for $30?”, but 3 outings of limited use? Quality is not a foundation of NC Star. I was
recommended a better version from GG&G which I later bought for $120. It works perfectly fine and has seen many shooting outings with now accuracy issues. This was not the last of the NC Star let downs.
When I first bought my AR-15; I needed a scope to shoot longer distance accurately as pig shots can be difficult in brush. At the gun show, I saw a rubberized scope that was small and another that if bought together was $75 and $70 instead $160. Both used batteries and could change the scope article color to red or green. It was awesome to me as now I could see the target reticle at night. How awesome is that for an old school hunter!
Attaching and tightening down was easy with no errors. Sighting in was a breeze and the rubberized scope was on a .308 while the other was on a .223. Everything was fine for 3 months till
accuracy started to slip on the .308. I had a fixed scope mount on the that one, thus it was obvious the scope was having issues. re-sighting in the scope lasted 4 shots past the acceptable accuracy. Another issue was growing with the lighted reticle as it was flickering on and off. I set the still attached scope and rifle aside to contemplate the my options. Further shooting with the .223 rifle proved a similar result from the .308’s scope. Now I am down 2 scopes. I went back to the gun show and found that the warranty was really only for the venders (meaning sit out of luck even though simple recoil destroyed the scopes designed to shoot on said rifles). I still have the scopes and have since replaced them with Nikons.
http://www.opticsplanet.com/ncstar-3-9x ... 3942r.html - The rubberized version.
http://www.opticsplanet.com/ncstar-illu ... 3942r.html- The one I overpaid for, but it was new to the market when I bought it.
There is one last NC Star let down and was bad. I needed a red dot scope which is limited in range but fun to use. I found a table at the gun show that sold nice red dot scopes and bought this one for $40. I got home to sight it in and it would not sight in at all. Each shot was either wild high or low. I put 30 rounds through my .223 trying to get a grouping, but it was useless. Trying to the guy who sold it to me to refund or give me a new on was futile. He said my receipt could not prove it was bought from him. So I just started hollering really load that he was a fraud, selling damaged goods, and secretly an Obama supporter. Nothing happened and he just stared at me with pure hate as folks who were making a purchase demanded money back or requested for the vender to be thrown out. I have yet to see said vender ever again and I go to a lot of gun shows. Still stuck with said red dot.
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So far, this article says I lost 90+75+70+40+30= $305 lot to crap gear. Please ignore the cheap brands of scopes and red dot scopes. It may look great, but simple recoil destroys them.
The laser was just useless when I think about it now. Relying on a light for target acquisition makes one sloppy. I can understand using an IR laser with night vision, but that is a lot of money for just bling night equipment. Don't waste your money on lasers as they don't really help. I tried the one I bought on many handguns and rifles and found it slowed me down checking it constantly. Accuracy bonus was unnoticed most of the time as I spent to much time looking for the laser dot than shooting. It's another Hollywood tool in my findings.