New Year's Eve…and Counting Down the Hours!

A "murder" of 9mms, including from the top the Angstadt Arms/Shockwave Brace pistol (Glock mags), IWI X95 bullpup in 9mm (Colt mags), "ole reliable" Spike's Tactical 9mm (Colt mags) and the newest, QC10/Dead Foot Arms (Glock mags). Note that, realistically, an X95 is not appreciably larger than an SBR'd AR pistol, and much less of a pain in the butt.

Ha! The miserable abortion of 2016 has one lousy day to go! Been a long time since I so passionately wanted a year to end!

Going to post more later, but I wanted to answer some comment/email questions. I also want to thank Greg Ellifritz for including me in his Weekend Knowledge Dump, a weekly must-read, for 30 Dec…and yes, I've asked Greg onto the shows, but no dice!

Build for the 9mm folding stock pistol was pretty straight-forward:

Upper: Quarter Circle 10 complete upper, 5.5-inch barrel
Lower: Quarter Circle 10 stripped lower, Glock mags, with mag release installed
Folding Stock: Dead Foot Arms Modified Cycle System; includes folding system, short buffer tube, proprietary bolt and dual spring system
Trigger: Timney, Targa 2-stage
Lower Parts Kit: Seekins Precision Build Kit, which includes a Seekins Enhanced ambi safety and enhanced bolt release. I opted to install the safety with a 60-degree, rather than a 90-degree throw.
Pistol Buffer Tube: Phase 5 Hex-2 hexagonal pistol buffer tube
Pistol Grip: Tyrant Designs; looks absolutely cool, but I am not necessarily sold on it yet. I must say that TriTech Tactical's pending pistol grip that holds a Glock magazine has some appeal. Use, they look wonky as all get-out (especially compared to the too-cool-for-skol Tyrant), but working with the RONI Glock SBR conversions, which carries a spare Glock mag in its vertical foregrip, proved to me how handy it is to have a spare magazine at hand. I've reached out to them, and will probably meet them at SHOT.
Sight: Aimpoint Micro H-1
Sight Mount: Daniel Defense Absolute Co-Witness
BUIS: TBD, probably Troy flip-ups
Magazines: Obviously Glock; I have noticed that the factory Glocks activate the QC10 bolt hold-open while the Magpuls do not. I have not tried any ETS mags yet.

Couple of points on the build:

• The MCS from Dead Foot changes the operating system for the AR, something you won't notice until you try to take the gun down. Instead of just popping the pins to pul the upper receiver, the MCS has a different sequence! You must first remove the dual springs from the shortened buffer — no big deal…you just unscrew the knurled back-end of the buffer tube. Then it's business as usual.

• Regarding the bolt hold-open, this has never been a huge deal for me. I've run AK, H-K and Israeli weapons without bolt hold-opens. I believe it's more of a training issue than anything else. I recall that Gabe Suarez wrote on this years ago (found it). In short, I won't go into conniption fits if the bolt hold-open doesn't, but that's just me.

Note that with the full-sized pistol buffer folded out, the QC10 is pretty close to the size of the X95. What can we learn from this? If you want an SBR-sized gun to use and shooting off your shoulder is important, go with the bullpup. If you can handle the "cheeking," go with the AR pistol…in both cases, lots less paperwork…as stated by my commenters, much better as an actual "using" guns.

• Two other components for the build are not listed, because I don't have them in place yet. I think a 5.5 inch-barrelled upper MUST have a hand stop, so Mr. Hand doesn't interface with Mr. Flash Hider, or, worse yet, Mr. Bullet. I've typically used Magpul here, but I think I'm going with the Troy Industries stop because it is small and light, more in keeping with the build. Not to mention, cheap. Given the length of the barrel, I've gone back to gripping with my week hand on the magazine well instead for the forward rail, which works fine (you're not slinging a lot of mass around with a 5.5-inch barrel). Accordingly, I've ordered some skaeboard grip tape to cut and fit to the forward and side parts of the magazine well on the receiver. Yes, you can get a grip on the foreend, but I'm not sure it buys you anything over a magazine well grip.

• I have no idea what to tell you about shouldering a buffer tube, except not to do it in front of an ATF agent. There are earlier episodes of SHOOTING GALLERY that show me running the Spike's Tactical 9mm pistol shouldered (shot great that way). This was well before the ATF began their yes-it-is no-it-isn't dueling letters on what constitutes a Short-Barrelled Rifle. I've actually been fiddling around with some old silhouette stances (quartered onto the target, weak arm folded in front of the strong hand and arm, with weak hand gripping the foam rubber part of the tube. The tube never touches the shoulder, and it is dead steady. I'll keep you informed. Once again, check out my earlier post one this whole mess.

On another topic, yes, I finally made a decision on the optic for my Galil ACE 7.62 Nato. After agonizing a bunch over scopes, I decided to keep it simple, stupid, and go with a Lucid P7 4X combat optic.

I like the reticle, and it is available in the STRELOK ballistics app on my iPhone. The Lucid HD-7 red dot has been a workhorse on my Tavor, and I totally support Lucid's mission to provide high qaulity optics at a price that require you to sell your car. The ACE will be fun to shoot 3-Gun Heavy Metal in matches where the long shots don't reach out to the stratosphere. You need to Galil clip-on cheekpiece (provided with the ACE) to get a good cheek weld, BTW.

Okay…gonna stop now and take some pictures, which I'll use to update this post…