In my last post I was complaining about FedEx. They did finally deliver, and so did UPS. I spent that next weekend happily assembling my first upper.
I should stop here to mention that since the last range day I paid the local gun shop to rebuild the troublesome 6.8SPC with an AR upper to go with the AR barrel, leaving the M4 upper surplus. The packages I was talking about in my last post were the parts to go along with that surplus M4 upper to build another complete upper in 5.56. I went with 5.56 because I really didn't want another caliber to have to buy reloading equipment and supplies for, otherwise .300 Blackout would have been on the table. But I digress.
Anyway, all went well until I discovered that putting the hand guards on is nigh unto impossible by yourself. I finally had to have Mrs Hades put the hand guards on while I held the delta ring down. There has to be an easier way, I thought... and indeed there is. It is humorously listed on Amazon as a "Steel Wrench Removal Tool with Vinyl Coating for bike repair (1 Pcs)." Just as well, I needed sights, too. So an order was placed, then received. The sights were installed and then range time was scheduled.
(No I had not been to the range since I last posted about the 6.8. Yes, that really was February 2023. Yes, I know that's way too long. No I have no excuse. But at least I have been dry-firing. In fact, for Christmas, Mrs Hades and I bought ourselves a Strikeman dry fire system with both 9mm and .45 ACP cartridges. We have yet to take it out of the box, but we have it.)
But first... when I had the 6.8SPC upper built the shop put both front and rear sights on the picatinny rail atop the upper, and I was given the reason that vibration may throw them out of alignment if the front sight was on the gas block. I thought that was a BS reason, so I relocated that front sight back to the gas block again.
My thought is the farther away the sights are from each other, the better the aim will be. Perhaps I am wrong, but it makes sense to me, and I need all the help I can get. So, when the sights arrived for the 5.56 upper, I put that front sight on the gas block, too, for the same reason.
Did you know that the gas block picatinny rail isn't always the same height as the upper picatinny rail? I didn't. I do now.
The 6.8SPC upper has the Adams Arms piston system installed, and the rail on the gas block with that system is the same height as the upper. Not so on the standard gas system that I had on-hand (it was taken off of the 6.8 upper when the Adams system went on it). As a result, the 6.8 upper sighted in with nary an issue, but the 5.56 upper shot way high. Like, off the paper and onto the cardboard way high.
I figured it out by shooting at the bottom of the target, and finally hit near the center of the paper. I then took a close look and saw the problem, the gas block rail is about a quarter inch lower than the upper rail. I moved the 5.56 front sight back to the upper rail and then was able to sight it in.
The verdict... both guns now shoot flawlessly. The AR 6.8 barrel feeds perfectly from the AR upper, as it should, and of course the M4 5.56 components work perfectly together, too. I can't really say which one I like the best. I like the 6.8 for the bigger caliber which will allow me to use it for hunting if I so desire, but the 5.56 is the first one that I have built both upper and lower from individual parts (I did build the 6.8 lower), so I have a sentimental attachment to it.
I found a gas block height flip up front sight for the 5.56 and ordered it, so sometime in the future I will install that sight on the gas block and re-zero the rifle, but it's just fine for now. Mrs Hades insists that the next time I take her with me to the range, she was quite annoyed that I went on her work day.
I also acquired that .357, a Smith and Wesson 340 PD. That's the scandium framed 5 shot snubbie, and it is every bit as painful to shoot with full power .357 loads as I remember it being. I put a full box of .38 through it and found that it shoots about 3 inches low at 15 yards, which is still within an acceptable strike zone. Aiming high center mass will still get you a hole somewhere in the torso, and with full power .357 loads that should be plenty close enough to carry the message.
What's really nice about it, in its pocket holster it slips unobtrusively into a front pocket and is so light as to be un-noticeable... until you try to put something else in that pocket, that is. I tried the round type speed reloaders, but I was actually faster with the strip type, and the strips fit inside the cargo pocket on my right side (yes, I wear cargo pants. Deal with it).
I carry two reloads in strip clips, which gets me as many rounds as one magazine in the Glock 19. I hope to never have to find out if that is sufficient. It has become my EDC carry, but much like the friend from whom it was obtained told me, if I ever need to use it I will try really hard not to shoot them to death, because I would rather beat them to death for making me shoot it with full power loads.
And that's it for this range report. I promise it won't be two years until my next one.
