I started working on my Mech-Tech CCU again

[Big Frank]

I took a couple more pictures of my M203 forend so you can see how well I followed the original contours of the ribs when I trimmed the hot glue off it. In case I didn't mention it before, the Vortex SPARC II (Speed Point Aiming for Rapid Combat) 100% co-witnesses with the flip-up sights. The sights lock in the up position, but not in the down position, so they're easy to flip up.

The SPARC II is in Limited Distribution, but the SPARC AR Red Dot is available for $20 more. They both have a 2 MOA red dot, but Battery Life is Up to 300 hours on highest setting. Up to 6,000 hours on lowest setting, and the VMX-3T Magnifier is not recommended for use with the SPARC II. You get 50,000 hour battery life and night-vision compatibility at the lowest two settings on the SPARC AR red dot. It's .2 inches shorter and 1.6 ounces lighter than mine, but both are 22mm Objective Lens Diameter, with 90 MOA of adjustments for windage and elevation. The SPARC II has 4.8 stars with 264 reviews, and the SPARC AR only has 4.5 stars with 27 reviews. It got a 1 star review from some guy who bought it and broke the glass, but he doesn't say how he did it. It got a 2 star review from a guy who switched ammo on his 7.62x39mm AR and lost zero. Now he can't sight it in at all. It got one 3 star review and the rest were 4 and 5 stars. More 5 star reviews than all the rest put together, so I expect the rating to go up when they get more reviews. The SPARC II got mostly 5 star reviews. There were only 2 one star reviews and they were from the same guy.

https://vortexoptics.com/vortex-sparc-2-red-dot.html?queryID=08caeb5c0c356a06e62179835e3e3a03&objectID=4810&indexName=magento2_default_products

https://vortexoptics.com/vortex-2019-sparc-ar-red-dot.html

[alfsauve]

Wow.  Just WOW.   While its not for me this is something you're having fun doing and are passionate about.  I chuckle every time I see the title because in my last career, CCU was Camera Control Unit and it does cause me to pine a little over the fully digital control room I built out.  I'm guessing that was my passion (at that time) like this is with you.

[Big Frank]

I do believe I have a one of a kind carbine conversion now. If not, maybe it will be after I put an A2 style flash hider on it. I have 2 of them I got cheap, but  haven't bought the .578x28 (37/64" - 28) die and Threading Alignment Tool yet. I need a Threading Alignment Tool to make sure everything is lined up straight, the die, and a 1-1/2" Die Stock to put the die in. But I have so many other things to do, it probably won't happen this year. I'm on the list to be notified if NTC Trading gets the Muzzle Threading kits n stock. If not, I can get the Threading Alignment Tool  from them, and the die and die stock any ole place.

https://www.ntctrading.net/shop/p/muzzle-threading-kits-die-handle-alignment-tool

https://www.ntctrading.net/shop/p/jzvwr5w41j5ouspbc3cc8rmderelvb

https://www.ntctrading.net/shop/p/aluminum-threading-alignment-tools

[Big Frank]

I took the Magpul RSA QD - Rail Sling Attachment QD off my shotgun and put it on the CCU. Instead of buying another one of these for 30 bucks for the CCU and keeping this one on the shotgun, I'm going to get a 40 buck Strike Industries Strike Shotgun Barrel Clamp for 12-Gauge and put that on the shotgun. It has a Picatinny rail on one side, and a QD socket on the other, and will eliminate 2 Picatinny rails and the Magpul RSA QD I was using on my current mag clamp. One part instead of four.

The Magpul Rail Sling Attachment QD mounts really low, and uses 3 consecutive slots on the rail. But my non-Picatinny standard rail didn't have 3 consecutive slots to attach it to. So I got a flat file and used the edge of it to make a slot between 2 of the 3 existing slots for the fat crossbolt. When I had it where it would work, I decided to use my rat-tail file to widen it out about 3 times as wide as the screw. I accidentally filed my front sight before I was through, but a black Sharpie fixed that up good as new. It's what I used to color the raw aluminum of the slot too. You can see that the Rail Sling Attachment doesn't take up the full width of the 2nd and 4th slots, but it's enough to hold onto the rail between them. Other than the flash hider, I think I'm done screwing around with this thing.

[Big Frank]

I got an AT3Tactical 4xRDM 4x Red Dot Magnifier with Flip-to-Side Mount today, but there's nowhere to put it. I already have the rear sight and Vortex SPARC II red dot on a 5 1/4" long 1/2" riser and the front sight on a matching riser. Now I have to buy a 3rd 1/2" riser, so I can put the rear sight, magnifier and red dot all in a row on 2 risers. I looked at UTG because that's who made the old risers, but they have a new style now that looks a lot better. They don't have 2 big knobs you turn with your fingers anymore. So instead of just getting 1 riser, I might buy 3 so they all match. I could put a new one on the front and both old ones on the back, but the new ones looks so much better it might be worth it just to improve the looks, and not have knobs sticking out that can snag on stuff.

https://www.at3tactical.com/products/at3-4xrdm-4x-red-dot-magnifier-with-flip-to-side-mount

https://www.leapers.com/products-utg-mt-rsx5l.html

[Sponsor]

[Big Frank]

This morning as I lie awake in bed it occurred to me that didn't need to buy any more risers for my CCU. I didn't need any risers on it at all. The sights were kind of high and I'm better off without them. I only put the risers on so the front one would properly position the tri-rail for the front sight and keep it from moving. But as long as it stays put, I don't need a riser to bridge the gap. But I still had a problem. The eye relief on the 4x magnifier is only 2.5" and it was twice that far away. So I took the CCU Monorail off and turned it around backward. Then instead of not coming all the way back to the end of the receiver, it stuck out an inch and a half too far. So I took it off and chopped the end off with a hacksaw, filed it down, sanded it, and dabbed some Birchwood-Casey Aluminum Black on it. I didn't follow the directions, I just swabbed it on, waited a minute, repeated twice, rinsed it with cold water, wiped it dry, oiled it and wiped it off. I cut the rail at the back of the 4th slot from the rear and filed almost to the front of the slot, then filed it down at a 45 degree angle. I forgot to file the burr off the bottom, so I took that off with the file my multi-tool and blackened the raw edge with a Sharpie.

Now I can get a good cheek weld without having any metal jabbing me in the face, as long as I flip the rear sight up. Otherwise I can rest my nose on top of the folded sight, but  there's no rail hanging over the stock to gouge my cheek. The large aperture peep sight doesn't seem to be any hindrance to aiming, so I'll probably shoot with it up at all times. Pulling the stock back one click gives me a nice LOP of 13 3/4". The next hole, the one I drilled in the stock tube, is 14 1/2". Fully closed it's 13" with the butt pad on, so a fixed stock is a viable option for most people, but it adjusts in 3/4" increments all the way out to 16", for any literal knuckle-draggers with gorilla-like arms. I have to flip the magnifier to the side to pop open the rear lens cover on my red dot, then I can flip it right back in place.

I put both of the 1/2" risers on my can cannon. The knobs on the side are so big you can't place them directly above one another, but I previously cut part off the end off one riser. When I matched the new end with the other one, it staggered the screw heads just enough to clear one another. Otherwise I would have had to put one riser on with the screws facing left and the other one facing the right side of the gun. The screw on the Firefield mount just cleared the screw on the top riser where I mounted it, too. It will be interesting direct firing the can cannon with the circle-dot reticle. Green looks better than red to me, but there may be places in the woods where red shows up better among the greenery. I use 2 Strike Industries Mini Bang Bands to to give my pistol finger grooves, and put one on my LDA 12-45.

[Big Frank]

MechTech Mini Quad Rails are on sale for 30% off and I bought 2 of them. One to try to replace the front of the Monorail I lost when I turned it around backward, and another Mini Quad in front of it to mount my front sight on. I didn't need all these rails and ended up covering most of them with ERGO low profile Picatinny rail covers. But they're there if I want to move things around. I had to cut off the back end of the left, right, and bottom rear rails, to get the top rear rail as far back as possible. The front rails are butted up against the rear rails. The rail sections are all screwed on and I may remove some later if I'm still not using them. I have my tac-light straddling both mini quads to give me more room on the forend without running he light out to the muzzle. I'll have to move it ahead one space if I want to remove the rear rail on that side. The QD swivel mount is between the screws on the front mini quad, in what I think should be the sturdiest place. 

[Big Frank]

That premium, free-range, organic sticker is from One Hundred Concepts. The last bit of kit I have for my CCU is a Weapon Light Improvement Package. It consists of a LightCap and ShockCollar, that are also sold separately. The ShockCollar can also be used on their ScopeCaps. A couple of their products I like the looks of are the HexCap anti-reflection device, and ScopeCap Pro. The ScopeCap Pro is a combination of a HexCap and ScopeCap. A ShockCollar would be a good accessory to use with those. I bought 2 rolls of Multicam Camo Form Gear Wrap from them too. It works like Coban bandage that sticks to itself, if you're familiar with that stuff. I have a couple rolls of Realtree Edge Duck Tape that I may use on one or both of my ARs. But once it's on, it's glued in place, and this is easily removable. There was a video I watched where this guy said a bunch of them were hog hunting at night with night vision scopes, and he accidentally turned on his weapon mounted light while everyone was sitting there in the dark. Oopsie. So he bought a light cap. Some guys in the military have been using lids off pill bottles for this. Skip to 4:00 in the video for info on the LightCap.

https://onehundredconcepts.com/

P.S. The budget build rifle has the same light as my CCU.

P.P.S. There's enough of the muzzle exposed for my A2 flash hider to go on, but it will be awhile before I buy a die to thread the barrel.



https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IybFMA62ldo&t=242s

[Big Frank]

I occurred to me some time this week that now that I have bottom rails on the CCU, I could put my light on the bottom where it should be, instead of sticking way out on the side. And now I have the sling back on the left side where it was for a long time, before I got QD sling swivels. I took the LghtCap off and remounted it facing a different way too. Now I can swipe the tab on the cap with my left hand, and it flips over on the right side, out of the way. I moved the light forward 1 or 2 slots when I moved it to the bottom too, to gain just a bit more hand room. The front of the LightCap doesn't stick out past the muzzle, but only sets back about 1/8". I won't have to worry about the lens getting carboned up when I'm shooting without the light on. And when It does get dirty, I can peel the THYRM CLENS Protector off and stick another one on.   The situation will be better whenever I thread the barrel and put one of the A2 flash hiders on. I was thinking about taking one of the rail sections I'm not using off one of the Mini Quad Rails, and putting it on top of the receiver, between the Monorail and Mini Quad. But I would have to drill new holes off-center, and drill and tap the barrel clamp which has a slot in the middle with a hook that attaches the recoils spring to it. I'd have to drill holes close to the sides of the rail at the back, and between the front and middle. The front would be unsupported. And it would mostly be to make it look better, not to serve any purpose other than covering the empty space.