Our last day on the range at GUNSITE had to be one of those fantasy gun days, starting out with full-auto FNH SCAR Light and Scar Heavy and finishing up with the amazing DS Arms reengineered RPD belt-fed carbines in 6.8.
First off, I've added the civilian semi auto SCAR Heavy, the Model 17 in 7.62 NATO (pictured above), to my list of must suck it up and purchase guns. I've shot a lot of iterations of the SCARs as they were being developed, and I've always thought it was the softest shoots, most accurate of the 7.62 platform guns. It has kind of slipped out of my mind until this week...now it has kind of popped to the forefront. As you know, my present choice of an MBR is my beloved retro-FAL from DSA. Even grumpy old guys like me need to change...occasionally...
And — OMG! — the DS reengineered RPD carbine may be about the most fun you can have shooting! We had 2 flavors, the 7.62 X 39 and the newest in 6.8...I think we bought up all the 6.8 in Prescott and Phoenix to feed the little monster. DS reengineered the buffer system to slow the gun down bait in full auto...that plus the top end fluted barrel and modern rail system solves the nasty RPD habit of the wooden forearm bursting into flames...entertaining, to be sure, but counterproductive to good shooting. The new carbine weight in at just 13 pounds, about 3 pounds less than a SAW, I think.
The buffer system makes the RPD easy to handle offhand...you can quite literally keep the barrel level in full auto fire either in 7.62 or 6.8.
We shot until all the ammo was gone (funny, that happened with the SCAR Heavy as well) and the sun was going down. Just like the SCAR, the RPD is available right now in a semi auto civilian version for about $2K, pretty amazing for a belt-fed gun you can take to the range. Belts are in production, cheap and readily available, And a part of me keeps saying that an RPD at the top of the stairs pretty much trumps most home defense weapons.
5 comments:
You chose to move to CO. If you don't like heavy snows why in hell did you move to the mountains of CO?
Move away, for goodness sake, and quit harping on the snow!
It is human nature to complain about the weather no matter where you live....Give MB a break, already !!
So THAT's why I couldn't find any 6.8 here last weekend... :)
Don't forget that MB gets to write off all that ammo as a business expense also !
So ExurbanKevin, it will probably break your heart when I tell you we used up the cheapo S&B and were forced to go to the last 100 rounds of 6.8 Hornady V-Max in Phoenix!
Even Marc from DS flinched when the director said, "Ah Michael, can you just run out the belt?"
Man, this season's shows has totally chewed through my ammo stash...half of my .22s are now empty cases, a ton of .223, all my DPX in 3 pistol calibers...jeeeez...
OTOH, it was FUN sending them all down range!!!
mb
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