A tale of... 3 carbines (the trifecta?)

[toolboxluis00200]

LOL AT the Jock itch joke

[alamo5000]

Note to self: Jock itch is a "no-go!" This is why I love this forum. I'm always learning. :p

I've read on the internet that it sucks.

[Txfilmmaker]

😎


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[crenate]

I became much more interested in the omega can when this came out.
http://www.store.silencerco.com/coll...omega-flat-cap

[UWone77]

Nice spec'ed out guns. I see your reasoning. Does that mean you're just sticking with 3 AR's total though?

[rob_s]

Nice spec'ed out guns. I see your reasoning. Does that mean you're just sticking with 3 AR's total though?

Basically, yes. and if I were buying today from scratch (boating accident?) it might be only 2 (probably two KACs, one 11.5" one 16", and no can at all), or even just 1 (Noveske stainless 12.5" w/ Switchblock and 1.x-Y optic).

I do have a 9mm factory SBR with can, and a .22 S&W M&P15-22 that I need to decide what to do with. I'm investigating modifying those to match the others as well, but they are pretty far down on my list.

I also have a pretty good stack of stripped lower, and a couple of stripped uppers, and a 6.8 SPC upper, that I need to decide what to do with. Many of these things, and the 9mm and .22 above, aren't likely to be worth my time to sell.

[Jerry R]

Some good questions, and some very good common-sense answers Rob. Your insight is always spot-on.

[UWone77]

That's basically how I started getting a lot more carbines than I needed. I stocked up before the '08 elections and then bought a few more during the sell off after. Had too many at that point and started building them up as it wouldn't have been worth it to sell.

I should have taken the opportunity to cash in during the panic of '12 but never really did. Now I'm stuck with more than just a trifecta!

[rob_s]

I've gone boom and purge a couple of times. The original "tale of two carbines" was with the intent of having just those two. Screwed around and wound up committing to two 6933s, one of each from the first two batches, and had two guns. Then started getting people to send me free stuff, and it exploded. The goal here, for me, is to have tools for specific applications. If someone calls me up and says "hey, want to go shoot three gun?" I want to know that I have all the gear to go do that, and good quality gear as well. If someone calls up and says "hey, want to go hog hunting?" I want to be able to say "yes I do!" if they say "guide doesn't allow military style rifles", then I'll have a cheap .308 bolt gun to take. Etc.

[UWone77]

I've been thinking about this thread quite a bit today, because out of all the guns I own, I really keep shooting basically the same 3 over and over. What I really need to do, is like you sit down, think about what each purpose they serve, and start thinking of what parts if any I need to strip off of other builds to make them "complete" as I need them to be.

[Ride4frnt]

In for Rich's clearance sale when he liquidates!

[UWone77]

In for Rich's clearance sale when he liquidates!

I've already given away at least half a dozen uppers this year. You must have missed that fire giveaway.

[Ride4frnt]

I've already given away at least half a dozen uppers this year. You must have missed that fire giveaway.

If I had anymore uppers I wouldn't have lowers to put them on, and I'm not one to switch em out often. Accessories however, can never have too many.

[alamo5000]

The goal here, for me, is to have tools for specific applications. If someone calls me up and says "hey, want to go shoot three gun?" I want to know that I have all the gear to go do that, and good quality gear as well. If someone calls up and says "hey, want to go hog hunting?" I want to be able to say "yes I do!"

This whole concept of having purpose driven rifles has been my theory on it from very early on. In ways though it scared me off for a while because it's just too complex and there are so many manufacturers out there. It really scared me off of building a rifle for a while until I could figure some of the stuff out.

Now though I think about that very thing all the time. Not just the rifle but how it's set up, with what optic or whatever.

It's become sort an obsession of mine to tell the truth. It's easy to build a gun. It's not so easy to get all the parts working together with a specific intent in mind.

I have a few ideas in the back of my mind but I haven't came to any conclusions yet on the other things. That said, when I built my rifle I hand picked each part. Some things I had to make a leap of faith on. But by and large I got the rifle that I wanted and I am so glad that I put that extra thought into it.

[rob_s]

Establishing a use case is key, in my mind. We learned this in architecture school. When designing a building, you first establish what the building will be used for, then you establish a "theme" (so to speak) for the aesthetic, and if you've done those two steps correctly almost every design decision comes easily because you simply ask yourself if it's the best embodiment of the use and the theme.

When it comes to gun, I'm not really into the idea of "aesthetic". In fact, I find it a little odd (especially when put into sexual terms, super creepy). For me, when something "looks good" in the gun world it's because I can see the thought that went into the assemblage of parts relative to a use that I'm familiar with. I don't find a gun pleasing to the eye any more than I do a hammer. And I'm certainly not going to set about investing time and money into my guns to make them look better, or cooler, or impress the internet, or whatever. I did all that when I was in my early 20s, thank you very much. And what I learned from that experience was that it's a waste of money and it sucks as soon as you step onto the range, away from the bench, and start actually shooting the gun in a "dynamic" environment.

The thing is, though, that you have to have gone through some amount of fiddle-fart to make this all come together. I can look at pictures of a pistol grip online and say "that looks too much like the Ergo grip I tried 15 years ago, not doing that!" But someone who is just starting out doesn't benefit from that experience. And, that experience is not infallible. I just bought two Magpul MOE SL grips and a K2. I got them, installed them, and hate them all already. I should have *known* that I don't like that newfangled more vertical grip angle, and that I prefer a fatter grip to a thinner one. As soon as I had it in my hand I knew it was wrong, but I still installed them and shouldered the guns and immediately thought "nope". Looking back at the use-cases, the SL may still not be wrong in the case of the Gray gun as it's meant to be used with new shooters as well in which case many of which may be women or kids, so the slimmer profile may be warranted.

And look, this is all 99% fun. The ultimate fun is getting out and shooting the guns, but I'd be lying if I said that there have been times when I didn't enjoy the hell out of the fiddle-fart. This period in my life is not one of them (and so the grip mistake above is a bit soul-crushing...) and my goal here is to get these guns set up correctly as quickly as possible and move on. or, I keep telling myself that, but the truth is that all of these guns were probably just fine when I started down this road. So there's probably some closet fiddle-fart that will always reside in me.

But at the end of the day, stepping up to the line at a match, or getting through an entire course without one complaint about my gun, or seeing that hog drop, or that new shooter's grin, brings a pretty big sense of pride knowing that you got the right assemblage of parts. For the guys that don't shoot, and just stuff their safe and post pictures on the internet, I guess that same point of pride is when someone sees the staged picture of your gun with the plate carrier and scattered brass or whatever, but I've been there, done that, too and it's not the same. Not by a long shot. I LOVE building and customizing things, but the real point of pride for me is when I go out and USE the thing and know that I got it all exactly right.