9MM AR-15 done and range report
The UPS man arrived yesterday bearing presents. Enough presents to finish up the 9mm AR build. I received the Rock River Arms upper receiver from Steve at ADCO Firearms. And I must say hats off to Steve. I ordered this on Sunday night and it arrived on Wednesday. I figure he wasn’t working Sunday, processed it Monday and turned it around in two days. Impressive. I was also impressed with their two day service for the magazine block. I’ve decided to name him El Nino. Here he is all dolled up:
And here he is next to Mr. Blasty for gratuitous gun porn err comparison purposes:
Got to Coal Creek this morning intent on putting him through his paces and he performed quite well. I fired 160 rounds of Winchester White Box ammo without any gun malfunction whatsoever. I was using 9mm AR magazines made by ProMag. This rifle is a real pleasure to shoot. It’s rather quiet compared to a 5.56Nato AR and has no recoil nor muzzle flip to speak of. Highly recommended.
Now, on to the actual range report. I get there and borrow a rest since I plan on sighting it in. Since it would be an indoor range gun, my plan was to sight it in at 10 yards with the EOTech and sight the irons in at 25. I switched on the EOTech and it didn’t work. Odd, since it worked yesterday though I recall the reticle flashing to indicate low battery. I changed the battery and it still didn’t work. That and the fact a job I thought I’d landed falling through convinced me that fate was conspiring against me to ruin my day. And the irony of my Aimpoint v. EOTech deathmatch weighed on me. I had one of the guys from Coal Creek look at it and his conclusion was That’s a busted EOTech. I groaned. He recommended I contact EOTech who has good customer service. He left the range. Then, it started working. Odd, I thought but I was there to shoot. So, I fired a few rounds that were low, which was expected since it came factory zeroed. Once I got it sighted in, two 10-round groups looked like this:
I was perfectly satisfied with that.
Then, I wanted to play and shoot standing. And the EOTech stopped working again. Groan. I removed the battery cover, checked contacts and was content it wouldn’t work again. So, with open sights I was getting the same groups but they were about five inches lower than the point of aim, about what I expected. At 25 yards, it was about two to three inches low, again what I expected.
I decided to hit the EOTech button again, and it worked. I shot some more and, in the middle of squeezing a round, watched the reticle fade away very slowly. It stopped working again. That particular EOTech is less than two-years old and they come with a warranty. It’s an older model without the protective shield, which I figured was perfectly fine on a range gun. I have a call into customer service regarding how to proceed with fixing it. I’ll let you know how that goes.
Update: The EOTech is all better now. See here for how to fix.
March 16th, 2006 at 2:38 pm
Bastard. I’m still waiting on my lower parts kit. Granted, I decided to get the DPMS kit, since all my reading suggested that the DPMS hammer will work with both 9mm and standard uppers. And of course, I’m still waiting on the lower. Oly’s lead machinist was sick for like a week and they built up a huge backlog.
BTW, what mag block did you end up going with?
March 16th, 2006 at 2:40 pm
I used the Rock River mag block.
March 16th, 2006 at 4:29 pm
Sweet! I’m considering the flip-up/Eotech combo for an AR build, but it’ll be in .223. My RRA 9AR can accomodate it, but I like the add-on carrying handle/Trijicon Reflex for the added weight (it doesn’t have a muzzle brake).
March 16th, 2006 at 5:08 pm
[…] I reported here that my EOTech was busted. It seems all better now. I just needed to reset the circuits by: […]
March 16th, 2006 at 5:09 pm
The EOTech is all better now. See here for how to fix.
March 16th, 2006 at 8:27 pm
Blob, highly recommend them, so much so I have 2.
March 17th, 2006 at 1:05 am
Nice look to El Nino (or El Nine-o?). I like the apperance of that shorty fore-end. Nice shooting too.
Heads up on the Winchester White Box 147 grain 9mm ammo, It didn’t feed in my rifle worth a damn, four bolt-over-round feeding malfunctions while trying to shoot ten rounds over the chrono is a bit too many.
March 17th, 2006 at 11:42 am
[…] I’m thinking about turning El Nino into a short barreled rifle (pay the $200 tax, get law enforcement sign off, yada yada). Now, through the magic of photoshop and my first real effort photoshopping an image and not just text, I present what El Nino would look like with a 10.5 inch barrel: […]
March 22nd, 2006 at 12:19 am
[…] Say Uncle posts photos and a range report of his nine millimeter AR-15, “El Nino”. In my small corner of the gun blog world Say Uncle was the one who got me interested in building one. […]
April 3rd, 2006 at 9:41 am
[…] Took El Nino to the range again last week and put another 300 rounds through it. No problems at all. Ran perfectly and accurately. Excellent. Money well-spent on an indoor range gun. Finally had some time to take it down for a cleaning. I’m not sure if it’s the 9mm blowback design or the Wal-Mart special Winchester White Box Ammo but I have never seen a gun with innards so dirty. There were these little clumps of a gritty powder all over the fire control group, bolt and inside of the lower receiver. Took like 30 Q-Tips to clean it up. Anyone have an idea why it’s so dirty? […]
April 18th, 2006 at 9:21 am
[…] Yeah, you’re wondering why I haven’t blogged about my Buy a Gun Day purchases. Being unemployed means I can’t go buying guns willy-nilly. So, I’ll consider the 9mm AR my month early BAG purchase. Or I guess I could file an extension with the BAG agency and get one later. […]
July 26th, 2006 at 8:53 am
[…] Yes, I have a 9mm AR-15. It would never have occured to me to make a 9mm AK though. But it did occur to Lichtenberg Research, whose slogan is: Because you can…and…it drives them crazy!!! […]
August 22nd, 2006 at 9:13 am
[…] This brings us to fun with my 9mm AR-15. Since I only shoot it at the indoor range and have decided it would make a good house gun, it’s set up for short range work. I have it zeroed in at seven yards (gunnies will know what that number means). On the EOTech, at 7 yards, I put the dot on the target and that’s where the bullet goes. At 7 yards, firing as fast as I want to, it gets groups like this: […]
October 30th, 2006 at 9:19 am
[…] For a while, the 9MM AR-15 was all the rage. Soon, it may be the 45ACP. Here’s a guide to how it’s done. […]