Initial Review of the Primary Arms 1-4X24 Scope

This is my second Primary Arms 1-4X24 scope, the first one that I had I ended up selling with the AR that it was mounted to, when I had used that one it required very little adjusting to get it zeroed in for the .300BLK that it was on. It was rock solid at holding a zero also, I bumped it a few times at the range on the tables and posts but it never lost the zero I had it set at. Overall I was impressed with that one and that is what influenced me to get another for the Spartan Build.

Originally I had gone with the Eotech and Magnifier setup but really did not like having to flip the magnifier to the side to be able to use the Eotech by itself, but I also wanted the ability to use adjustable zoom for different distances. I quickly traded off the Eotech and magnifier and for the past month or so I have been running with just the Magpul MBUS. When I started looking for a scope I found myself going back to the Primary Arms site and checking this scope out and seeing what others have had to say about there's since I bought the last one I had. Every time I have used Primary Arms I have always been impressed with their customer service, shipping, and product quality so I decided to go ahead and order this scope again.

When I ordered it I made sure to add on the Primary Arms Deluxe Extended Scope Mount since it saves $10 to order them as a package, the mount is super sturdy and holds the scope tightly in place. One of the things that I really like about Primary Arms is that they offer multiple options for shipping and USPS Priority is one of them and is almost always the cheapest. I ordered on Saturday and the package arrived Thursday (which includes the Holiday on Monday), very quick shipping on PA's part.

As soon as the box arrived yesterday I opened it up and got the scope mounted onto my AR, to say I was a little excited to get it would be a bit of an understatement (but then again I always like to get new parts for my guns). Once I had it all lined up and tightened down I stepped into the backyard to make sure that I could get the correct sight picture through the scope where I had it mounted. I had forgotten how clear the glass is on the scope, even thought the scope only cost me $180 with the mount and shipping. There have been other "cheap" scopes that I have had and not one of them can compare when it comes to the clarity of the PA 1-4x24 scope. The magnification adjustment is smooth and very easy to use. The flip up caps that come with it are cheaper but they work well, just make sure they are closed when not using the scope otherwise you might break them off.

The illuminated reticle is a nice touch when not in direct sunlight, there are 11 settings for the brightness of the dot which is a nice touch and gives the ability to keep the red dot from being "blown" out. The cross hairs on the reticle are clean and crisp, and with the magnification set at 1X it is very easy to use this scope with both eyes open.

Once I get the opportunity to head to the range and get the scope sighted in I will make sure to post a follow up review, and more thoughts on the scope.

Update on the "Halo" flashlight

I strongly recommend that everyone stay as far away from this flashlight as possible, tonight I was trying to use it and it kept flickering on and off, it wouldn't stay on no matter how much tapping or clicking I did. Also they cannot take the force of being dropped from 4 feet. It is not often that I strongly tell people to stay away from a product but this is one to avoid.

Guard Dog "Halo" Flashlight

I realized that once we had moved to Oklahoma that I needed to get my hands on a good flashlight for those times that we lost power or a natural disaster happened (thankfully we haven't had an issue with this yet), so I started to look around for flashlights that would be up for the task. One of the first ones that I picked up was the Guard Dog "Halo" flashlight, it has 3 different brightness settings and 2 signal settings (S.O.S. and Strobe).

When I first got it I was somewhat impressed with how sturdy it was, but let down by the fact that they did not put much into the quality of finishing it or the care of the laser engraving of the label. Yes I know those are little things but the details always speak loudly to me.

The first time I turned it on I had the lights off in the house and I was very impressed with how bright the highest setting was, it lit up the entire room and if someone was standing on the business end of it their night vision would be gone for a good amount of time. The other 2 settings are also useful if you need the batteries to last for longer periods of time. The S.O.S. works very well, as does the strobe option.

I will say that the biggest complaints that I have with this flashlight and the biggest reason I only have it as an emergency backup to another light is because it uses proprietary batteries that can only be charged with the charger that is sent with the flashlight, and replacement batteries cost too much to make it worth using this flashlight as a go to light. I also have had issues with the light turning on or staying on, the click switch is very picky and if you knock the flashlight against something it either switches modes or turns off, this is very frustrating and quickly made this flashlight a no go for everyday use as a carry flashlight.

For now my search for a quality but affordable everyday carry flashlight will continue, and hopefully sooner or later I will find one or just break down and buy an Elzetta.

Frog Lube

There have been many different CLP's that have been released, and I have tried a number of them and they all did what they were made to do. Cleaning your firearms and equipment is something that I feel is very important and the products you use should help make cleaning quick and easy.

The first time that I saw Frog Lube I had been searching around the different forums looking for a CLP that was non hazardous and didn't smell awful, I had been using Strikehold but wanted to find something else. Each and every site and forum I ran across had people who had been using Frog Lube for varying amounts of time and each of them could not say enough about the product. Needless to say I was sold so I ordered this set from Amazon, and with Prime shipping I had it just a couple days later.

One of the very first things that I noticed when I opened up the paste jar was that it filled the work area with a very mild scent of wintergreen, talk about a big change over the normal chemical smell. I read the directions for applying it and went straight into stripping all of the old CLP off of my handgun using alcohol, rags, and q-tips. When I was sure that I had cleaned off as much of the old stuff as I could I laid the parts of the gun outside in the sun to warm up. By warming up the materials it makes it much easier to apply the paste, but it also allows the paste to sink down deep into the pores of the materials. After the parts had warmed up I applied the paste to them and let them sit for about half an hour to cool down and the paste to solidify again before wiping the excess off, the thing that blew me away was when I wiped off the excess the amount of dirt and grime that had been pulled out of the material was pretty astonishing. I thought I had done a pretty good job of striping the parts down and removing all of the grime but there was plenty left over that had been removed by the Frog Lube, needless to say that was the first thing that had me sold and hooked on using Frog Lube exclusively.

Every firearm I have has been treated and cleaned with the Frog Lube paste and the liquid, I have found that when at the range even with hundreds of rounds between cleanings that the guns continue to stay slick in all of the critical areas. Also cleaning has become much easier since most of the time all I really have to do is take my microfiber cloth to the parts and wipe away the grime. I have only applied the paste once and haven't really seen the need to reapply it on any of the firearms at this point but I am sure after 1,000 rounds fired I will, but for now if I feel that there is an area that needs a little more attention or cleaning I will use the liquid from the kit and it usually will take care of any spots that may have become a little more grimy than others.

Overall I can say that I suggest Frog Lube if anyone is looking for a new CLP, especially if they are wanting a non hazardous one. The wintergreen smell makes the work area a little more pleasant to work in. So if anyone is looking to switch to something new make sure to go and check out their website and store.

Titan Reloading

I recently started looking for the dies that I need to load .300 Blackout and everywhere that I had looked was either out of stock or the prices on the dies had been raised to offset the lack of availability. However while searching I ran across Titan Reloading, and they actually had the Blackout Dies in stock and at a much lower price than what I had found on most other sites. I looked around for a bit on the site and placed the blackout dies and factory crimp die in the cart.

While I was checking out I noticed that the shipping prices were also very fair compared to what I have paid through other sites in the past. It was $8.75 for priority shipping of the 3 dies that I ordered, which I know is a very fair price for the speed of shipping that I got. So I placed the order and I quickly received the confirmation email. The order was placed on a Saturday and it shipped on Tuesday, with the high volume of sales all companies are seeing right now I was extremely pleased with how quickly the order shipped.

If anyone is looking for reloading dies and other parts I highly suggest using Titan Reloading, the pricing and shipping are extremely fair, and the order processing is stellar.

RCBS Stuck Case Removal Kit

When you reload there is always that possibility of getting a case stuck inside the sizing die, could be for a number of reasons that it happens too. Most likely though it will be because there was not enough sizing lube on the case, which then it gets stuck and the lip of the casing breaks off in the shell holder. It sucks when it happens, and I can remember the first time it happened to me. I was on a roll getting .300BLK and bang the press handle slammed down and the case was still in the die. That is by far a very frustrating thing thing to happen, and as a friend of mine who reloads told me "It's not if you will get a case stuck, it's when will you get a case stuck." and I knew it would happen sooner or later. When it did I placed the order for the RCBS Stuck Case Removal Kit, which came pretty highly recommended by a few other loaders that I know.

The primer pocket has to be drilled out so you can run a tap through it and the drill bit they send in the kit works very well cutting through the brass, and the tap works perfect in my drill. The step after that is to take the spacer and the bolt. Threading the bolt down and against the spacer pulls the case out of the die, and once it is out the last thing to remove is the case expander from inside the case.

It is a very simple task to complete, but when you get a case stuck and you don't have a kit to remove it you are very quickly brought to a stand still. I suggest that every reloader have some sort of stuck case removal kit, because as I said before it's not if you get a case stuck, it's when you get a case stuck.

Troy BattleMags

I know that there are a lot of people that are PMags or nothing, but right now in the uncertain times of magazine availability and the possibility of a magazine size restriction looming, you have to really look at the other options that are out there. One of those options which is currently still in stock at Primary Arms are the Troy BattleMags, the pack of 3 is $69.99, not quite what they were a few months ago but still a fair price for mags in stock.

As far as the fit of the magazines in the rifle, they fit perfectly there is zero wiggle and they lock in perfect every time. I have run these mags out at the range only 2 or 3 times and have not run into any issues with them yet, they have dropped freely every time and the springs are more than strong to push every last round to the top. I have dropped them right out of the rifle and into the Oklahoma red dirt and loaded them back up without cleaning them and they still work. So far I have been impressed with them and I look forward to giving them more abuse in the near future.

I am planning on doing a bit of a torture test on them in the near future (hopefully when ammo becomes reasonably priced and available again) and once I do that I will be posting a follow up of this initial impressions review. For now though I can recommend these magazines, and if you find them don't hesitate to pick them up, just don't pay the crazy amount of $125 for 3 like I have seen at some gun shows lately. 

Primary Arms

Primary Arms is another company that I frequently use, every time I have ordered something from them I have received a shipping notice the next day and usually have the package in hand 2 days later. Even during all of this craziness of things being sold out or selling out within hours they have managed to keep up with the demand and keep their site up and running.

This past summer I had ordered their 1-4X Illuminated Scope, and I was very impressed by the quality of it. I had it mounted on my .300BLK upper and it was extremely easy to get sighted in, and the clarity of the optics was stellar for the price that I had paid for it. It was one of the best budget scopes I have come across ever.

I have also heard great things about the Red Dot sights that they have, and when your on a budget they are a great way to get one onto your rifle, that is of course if you can find them in.

I am looking at getting another of the 1-4X scopes to mount onto my 5.56 upper in the near future and I will be doing a review of it, but I do urge you all to give their website a look and maybe you might find something there that you need or want.

Kies Adjustable Gas Block

There were quite a few different gas blocks that I had looked at when I started ordering parts for the Spartan build. I had decided that this build I wanted to do an adjustable gas block so I could really fine tune the rifle, and if sometime in the future I picked up a suppressor I would be able to adjust the settings to make the rifle function properly.

The Kies Firearms Adjustable Gas Block caught my eye when I was browsing through the parts section on Joe Bob Outfitters, it was in the price range that I was looking to spend and it had some pretty decent reviews on it. Oh and for those of you who have done gas rails before and hate the roll pin as much as I do, the Kies gas block uses an allen screw in it's place.

Being that I was using the the Midwest Industries Gen-2 SS hand guard I knew that the inner diameter was smaller than the normal hand guards that are out there and I was a little concerned that the two pieces wouldn't work together. So I contacted Joe Bob Outfitters and asked if they knew if the two would be compatible, and as always I received a quick response with a for sure answer that they would and I was good to go with my order.

When the package arrived 2 days later (I have always appreciated Joe Bob's quick shipping!) I pulled out all of the individual parts that I had ordered and checked them over to make sure that everything was there and nothing was damaged. When I came to the Kies gas block I checked it over really well and was very impressed with the quality and finish of it, especially for the lower end price tag that it had on it.

Installing it onto to my Rainier barrel was really easy, unlike some other blocks I have used in the past this one did not require any tapping with the brass hammer to get it into place. Another thing that I really liked about it was the allen set screw that was included to be used in place of the roll pin, let me tell you all this now, it is one of the smallest set screws I have ever messed with so be careful not to lose it if you get this gas block. Running the set screw in was probably one of the easiest things I did on this entire build, and once it's in it is not coming out. My Rainier barrel has a divot for where the set screw should set for the gas block, which made it very easy to get it into position and properly secured.

The first time I took the rifle out to the range I had to make the initial adjustment to the gas block, and the only problem I had was that the set screw for adjustments was behind my hand guard and there is no way to adjust it without removing the hand guard. Not really that big of a deal with as easy as the hand guard is to remove.

The first shot that I took the set screw was all the way in, the rifle fired but did not cycle which was expected. I backed the set screw out a turn and fired, the bolt cycled but only part of the way and did not lock back on the empty magazine. Again I made an adjustment but this time I took it out 3 turns, which was too much and slapped the bolt forward. At this point I was trying to figure out exactly how many turns I needed to go in, so I bottomed it out again and took it out 2 and a quarter turn, this was the ticket, everything functioned as advertised except for the ejector (which I discussed in the RGuns BCG post).

Since the first trip out I have run somewhere around 400 rounds down range with the rifle and have not had a single hiccup out of it. All of the set screws for the Kies Gas Block are still tight and in position, and I am looking forward to seeing how much abuse I can actually put this block through once ammo becomes available and affordable again.

If you are looking for a budget adjustable gas block make sure to add the Kies gas block to your list, I am happy with it so far and I will definitely use one on the .300 Blackout build I plan to do in the future.

JoeBobOutfitters

I'm not sure how many of you have actually used JoeBobOutfitters before but I can tell you that I have used them for quite a few purchases over the past two years. There have been plenty of times that I have had to email or call to have an order changed or to make sure that what I ordered was compatible because I ordered before really checking. Every single time I have ever had to get ahold of Joe he has been more than willing to work with me and respond as quickly as possible. This is one thing that I have always had a lot of respect for when working with businesses, I feel that it is important to take care of your customers and in doing so word of how you cared for that customer will spread. Also as many of you have read in other reviews I really like to use Veteran Owned Companies as often as I can, and Joe is a veteran and offers a veteran and police officer discount.

One of the other huge things with JoeBob's is that the shipping is phenomenal, nearly every time I have placed an order it has shipped out no later than 2 days later, and since he is only a couple hours away it usually is here within 2 days. Being on top of shipping products out is awesome, being on top of shipping stuff out during a mad craze is just plain amazing.

I know currently he doesn't have much stock available but I would highly suggest giving his website a check whenever you can cause you may just be surprised what he gets in.

15" Midwest Gen-2 SS Free Float Hand Guard

When I started searching around and looking for that "perfect" hand guard to put on my first ground up build I had a few things in mind. First I knew that I was going to be putting a 14.5" barrel onto the build, and I knew that I would want to cover as much of that barrel as I possibly could with the hand guard. There were plenty of companies out there with 15" hand guards, and quite a few caught my eye, but not nearly as much as the Midwest Industries Gen-2 SS Series Free Float Hand Guard. When I first saw it I was immediately drawn to the fact that it is very sleek and simple, there isn't all the mess that you get with the typical railed hand guards. I knew as soon as I saw this one it was what I wanted to put on the build.

Now finding it was actually a lot easier at the time, we hadn't come into this crazy period of everything being sold out with unknown times of when we will ever see them again. It just so happened that a friend of mine who has his own business, came across one that a supplier had and he let me know what his price on it was and if I wanted it I could get it. Needless to say I quickly jumped on the opportunity and had him pick it up. When I met with him to pick up the hand guard I was surprised at how light weight it actually was, weighing in at 10.9 ounces it is very light for such a long hand guard.

Once I finally had all of the parts to build the upper I did a quick browse around the forums, google, and youtube to see if anyone had any issues with putting this on their builds. Quickly I found out that this was a very simple and straight forward design to install (much easier than most free floats out there), I needed to use supplied barrel nut and get the holes lined up for the gas tube, then simply just slide the hand guard into place and tighten the two set screws, it was as simple as that and I loved it.

Functionality:

This is a great hand guard, as I have said before it is a super simple design and if you want to keep you rifle on the light side this is a great way to do it. Even though there are not rails on the sides or bottom of the hand guard there are pre drilled holes where you can put "floating" rail sections on (3 with screws are included in the original box). Having the ability to move and remove the rail sections is really convenient, because it gives you the ability to add accessories to your rifle, without the excess weight that you would have with a full rail system.

With the hand guard being as slim as it is, I have found it very easy to wrap my hand around and get thumb over bore positioning without feeling uncomfortable.

Looks:

What can I say, I really like the way that it looks, I think it is very sleek looking. It has a very small profile when installed, actually slim enough that I have been asked if the Rainier barrel is a bull barrel because the hand guard doesn't have all of the typical bulk. 

Finish:

As with every other part that I have used from Midwest Industries the finish on the hand guard is top notch. When I took it out of the packaging I looked it over really well to see if there were any imperfections in the material or finish and I was unable to find any. Any edges that could have possibly been sharp have been smoothed out.

Overall I am completely happy with this hand guard, it truly fit the bill of what I was looking for, and the more that I use the rifle with it installed the more I like it. As I said earlier everything I have bought from Midwest Industries has been awesome quality and the attention to detail that they give their products is evident. 

I will fully recommend the Midwest Gen-2 SS Free Float Hand Guard series to anyone who is looking for a nice lightweight hand guard, but it still wanting the ability to add rails for accessories.