FUN day at the Indoor Range

[jaybet]

An indoor range I belong to had an open house and I stopped by because Armalite was going to be there hawking their wares, and I have just about zilch experience with ARs.

First thing I did when I got there was try out the 9mm AR-24. A very sleek looking 9mm, the AR-24 I fired seemed almost new- there was no wear on it anywhere. The detailing, while plain, was sleek and lean.
The magazines seemed kind of crappy and I'm not sure if they were standard or had been provided by the range.
I fired about 100 rounds through the thing and I enjoyed it. The angle from grip to sight line is pretty natural and it was pretty accurate- not "knock your socks off" accurate, but quite serviceable. Recoil wasn't bad and it felt good in the hand.
The firing went well except twice the last casing didn't eject, instead falling out through the mag well when I ejected the magazine. Not sure how that happens or even COULD happen, but it did.
Other than that little thing, the gun operated well and was fun to shoot. I didn't field strip it, so I can't vouch for what's inside.

I was joined by my oldest daughter and my son-in-law who is a state level cop. He's always grousing about his off duty carry, so we decided to try the Springfield EMP. Looks like a 1911 that somebody washed in hot water and you could probably slip it into a shirt pocket. Between the three of us we fired about 200 rounds through it, with mixed success. My daughter, who is an infrequent shooter, was able to hit the bullseye about 1/3 the time at 10 yards. Her hubby took a few shots to figure the thing out then did real well, as did I . BUT...it is a little hard to rapid fire. There's just nothing there to hang onto.
Well made gun, no screw ups, and fun to shoot, but for the money(over 1000 right?) I think I'd try something else.

We spent a little time with a Beretta Storm- 9mm rifle. I didn't care for the feel of it at all. I found it physically hard to sight- just couldn't get into a good position. Also theres a tiny hole at the rear sight and a dinky little pin for a front sight. Me being so old, I could barely see the thing and couldn't figure out where I was aiming. Somebody might like it, but I wouldn't trade a bucket of clamshells for one. Just my opinion.

Then we talked to the Armalite guy and tried out a standard M15. Again, I didn't do well with the standard sights- I just hate peering at a little peg through a tiny hole, but it was infinitely better than the Beretta. And what a piece of machinery! Really nice action, nice recoil compensation... we did some decent shooting with it but only fired about 100 rounds through it because there were bigger fish to fry!

So we then jumped on the AR-10 with a scope. My daughter was a little scary and decided .308 was where she would draw the line. So Junior-in-law and I set about trying the thing out. I enjoyed it much more than the .223 because, well, I like the bigger bang. The recoil was substantially greater but still easily managed. After the first round the gun didn't cycle, but once we cleared it there was no problem. We fired about 100 rounds each, then the Armalite guy pulls out a fully dressed SASS. We forgot all about the standard Ar-10.
The SASS was really something...an AR-10 with all the addon stuff like the hand guards, a bi-pod, and a nice scope. You need the bipod because this thing is heavy. Being indoors we could only send the target out 25 yards. After three shots feeling it out, I fired about another 30 or 40 rounds pretty quickly and ended up with only one hole in the target that was just a little bigger than a .45. Makes you feel good.
Really nice gun and if I ever wanted to set up on my front porch and pick off Taliban pizza guys or something that would be my weapon of choice.

My daughter got back in on the action as we rounded out our session with a few hundred rounds through a Springfield XD .45. I'm not big on that style of gun...XDs, Glocks, M&Ps, but I have to admit the thing was simple to operate, accurate, and without a hiccup. We all fired nice tight groups with the thing, as the recoil wasn't bad and it's fairly light for a .45, so no fatigue after laying out a few clips.

All in all a wonderful morning "pokin' around" a nice variety of weapons. I can't afford them all, but I would own any of them if I get the chance. (read "Money") 

[Hazcat]

Good report!  I need to talk to my gun club and see if we can get some reps out.

[jaybet]

The place I was at does a lot of deals on contract supplying police departments, etc. and that's just what I know about...he might be even more connected. So naturally Armalite would cater to him.

That should be standard though...unless you know someone with a particular gun there's not much chance of getting to try out a new one unless you buy it. They had very tight controls though- no guns brought in that day- only what was in house, to bump up the safety factor.

There's nothing like having a company rep show you the product before you try it out.