ArmaLite builds a dizzying selection of AR parts, assemblies, and complete rifles. This particular upper receiver assembly starts with an A4 flattop receiver and is kitted out with a chrome-lined, double-lapped full-profile 16″ barrel, an A2 front sight, a mid-length gas system and handguards, and an A2 flash hider.

The result is a compact but slightly heavy 16″ carbine upper which provides exceptional accuracy and heat stability in a package the same size (and price) as a generic M4 clone.

Mounting the Upper:

My entry-level lower receiver assembly has given me some grief in the past, and by ‘grief’ I’m talking about a defective chain-firing trigger and a recoil buffer that jumped its retaining pin and went walkies. After I installed an ArmaLite 2-stage trigger and re-fitted the buffer tube, these problems seem to be a thing of the past. Even so, I was delighted (and not a little bit relieved) that the ArmaLite upper attached to it quickly and positively.

The takedown pins lined up instantly and clicked firmly into place, and just as importantly they stay in place until it’s time to push them out. There’s only the tiniest bit of play between the upper and lower halves. Judging from how it shot at the range, I don’t think the play has much of an effect on accuracy.

I noticed that the outside thickness of the ‘mil-spec’ ArmaLite upper was about 1/32″ larger than the also supposedly ‘mil-spec’ lower receiver. This led me to wonder whether my dirt-cheap lower is actually ‘mil-spec’ in all its dimensions, or whether Xtreme Machining (who made the lower) might have cheated a little bit and cast it to a slightly smaller external dimension. Not being a machinist I’ll never know for sure, but I’d bet money that ArmaLite got it right.

Fit and Finish:

With a single exception, this ArmaLite upper displays superb fit and finish. All metal finishes are deep and even, and there are no visible tool marks to be found anywhere, inside or out. The charging handle was slightly stiff out of the box, but it lapped itself smooth after I fired a few magazines through the gun.

The only issue I discovered was a minor but irritating one: the fore-end halves aren’t held very firmly by the delta ring. While they’re in no danger of falling off, they rotate slightly  and rattle a bit. I added a Magpul MOE vertical foregrip, and it only made this more noticeable and irritating.

I’ve contacted ArmaLite for a fix or replacement, and I’ll keep you posted. Again, the “issue” doesn’t seem to negatively effect the rifle’s accuracy.

Sights And Scope Options:

This particular ArmaLite upper (catalog number U15A4CBA2) comes with a low-rise flattop receiver and an A2 front sight. Most shooters would probably choose to save $15.00 by swapping the A2 front sight for a low rail gas block. Flip-up front sights are cheap and widely available.

The receiver itself features six inches of indexed low-rise 1913 rail. It’s ready-made for a detachable carry handle or BUIS, and it’s also G2G for an Eotech or Aimpoint. They’ll co-witness with the A2 front sight, but a lower-1/3 co-witness (my preference) requires a riser mount.

I mounted a Leupold 1.25-4x, but my medium-height Warne 30mm rings left the scope mostly obstructed by the front sight. A low UTG riser was the cheapest solution, but I’m not thrilled that I had to bolt an extra quarter-pound of metal to the receiver.

Reliability:

Not much to report here. The ArmaLite upper fed, fired and ejected everything we could stuff into my Magpul magazines, from premium Hornady defensive and varmint ammo to Remington Green Box and even steel-cased Tula hollowpoints. I’ve never used the forward assist on any AR-15, and this upper receiver continued that exemplary tradition of positive chambering.

Ejection was also positive and enthusiastic. It turned out to be a little too enthusiastic for Joe Grine, who was shooting one lane to my right and got showered with hot brass (and steel) until we put a shell deflector partition between us.

Accuracy:

Extensive testing earlier this year proved that ArmaLite’s 1:9″ twist barrels perform best with 55-grain bullets. Luckily for everyone, these are the cheapest and most commonly available 5.56mm rounds available. When I tested a complete Armalite M-15 carbine, I averaged 1.5 MOA with cheap 55-grain commercial reloads, but I thought the gun could do better:

If I could test several brands of match-grade 55-grain ammunition, I would probably find one that prints 1.2 MOA with this rifle.

Was I right? No. I should have gone for 1.0 MOA instead. This upper consistently shot 1.2 MOA with Remington Green Box 55-grain FMJs, and slightly better with 53-grain Hornady Superformance loads. I usually accuracy-test rifles with a 9x scope, but Joe and I got groups like these with a 1.25-4x Leupold Tactical scope maxed out at 4x.

I’ll post a full review of the Leupold Tactical scope in the next few weeks (hint: OMFG), but here’s a nice picture of it to cut-n-paste into your Christmas List. Your wives can thank me later. And yes, you will be needing that riser mount (so to speak.)

It’s a marvelous piece of glass, but the Leupold’s relatively low magnification put us at a disadvantage when shooting for accuracy at 100 yards. With my mediocre eyesight, lovely cloverleaf groups at 50 yards opened up to 1.2″ groups at 100 yards. C’est la vie.

I also ran a box of the aforementioned 53-grain Superformance loads through it. They impacted slightly higher than the Remington Green Box, but they were only slightly more accurate and cost more than twice as much.

We also fired a handful of Hornady TAP defensive loads, which were (oddly) less accurate than the cheap Remingtons. Joe fired those without having much trigger time on the gun, and he attributed the lackluster results to ‘operator headspace error.’

I ‘m happy to shoot 1.2 MOA with cheap Remington Green Box all day long, exactly as this gun is set up right now. That’s more than satisfactory for a non-custom AR upper with a quick-handling tactical scope. The gun might shoot even better with a bigger scope and fancier ammo, but our next round of testing went in the other direction: the cheapest 5.56 ammo in the whole darned Internet, the dreaded steel-cased Tulammo hollowpoints.

These groups look pretty good, until you notice that they were fired at only 50 yards.

At $210 per 1,000 rounds delivered to your door, Tula ammo lets you stock up cheaply for whichever Maya Doomsday, Zombie Apocalypse or Skynet activation that you’re most afraid of. Tula ammo will let you shoot at T1 cyborgs, cannibalistic scavengers, or the living dead to your heart’s content. But it’s a good thing all these post-apocalypse aggressors are big targets: Tula ammo won’t hit anything smaller than a softball at 100 yards.

Leave it to the Russians to make ammo that turns your tackdriving AR into a bullet-spraying Kalashnikov. You gotta give it up for Tula, though, because this commercial ammo (manufactured for the American civilian market) is only 1/3 more expensive than Soviet-surplus 5.45×39 ammo.

I’m neither surprised nor disappointed by the Tula ammo’s crappy accuracy out of this exceptionally accurate upper receiver. In fact I’m pleased as punch that it functions with 100% reliability, and I can’t wait to blast through the rest of it and order more. (Tip o’ the hat to www.sgammo.com for some insanely low prices and quick, cheap shipping.)

Weight:

The ArmaLite’s heavy barrel and mid-length handguards inflicts a weight penalty of more than a pound over the thin and heat-sensitive barrel of an M4 clone. With a typical collapsible-stock lower receiver, your carbine will tip the scales at about 7.5 pounds empty. Remember that a loaded 30-round magazine weighs another pound, and choose your accessories carefully if you’re going for a lightweight CQB rifle!

With the exceptional accuracy this upper has demonstrated, I’m more inclined to build it out as a handy 16″ version of a Designated Marksman Rifle, and I’m seriously considering ditching my collapsible stock for a fixed A2 unit.

Summary:

A really cheap 5.56mm AR upper, assembled from unidentified parts by an anonymous builder, will run you a hair less than $450 if you’re lucky. You’ll get an unlined barrel thinner than a buggy whip, and if your luck holds it will function properly and shoot less than 3.5 MOA until the barrel heats up. You might even get a warranty, at least until the builder goes out of business.

For fifty bucks more (or $65 more for the A2 front sight) you can get an Armalite upper receiver like this one. You’ll get 1.5 MOA or better accuracy from a double-lapped chrome-lined barrel that won’t overheat, all with 100% reliability and a lifetime warranty from a manufacturer that’s been in the AR business since the very beginning.

Your mileage may vary, but I know how my dollars would vote.

Specifications
Caliber: 5.56x45mm NATO/.223 Remington
Barrel: Chrome-lined 16” full-contour (.750″ diameter at the gas port), 1:9″ twist
Gas Tube: mid-length, 11”
Feed Ramps: enlarged M4 style
Finish: Hard-anodized alloy receiver, manganese-phosphate barrel and bolt carrier, black stock furniture (O.D. Green available)
Rear Sights: None (flattop upper receiver with no integral riser)
Front Sights: A2 front sight
Price: $515.00 plus shipping ($500 without the A2 front sight)

RATINGS (Out Of Five)

Accuracy ****1/2
What’s wrong with a 16” barrel that puts you in the hunt for 1.0 MOA? Absolutely nothing.

Reliability ****
100% reliability with good, bad and just plain ugly ammo. When we finish the crate of Tula I’ll add another star.

Fit And Finish ***1/2
Good machine work and deep, even metal coatings. Subtract a star (for now) for the rattly handguards.

Overall ****
100% reliability and bolt-action accuracy from a competitively-priced (but heavy) AR upper.

The NCStar handguard rails are solid lumps of aluminum that bolt into your stock handguard halves and give you exactly six inches of M1913 rail space each. They weigh 2.2 ounces each, and screw into special washers that perfectly fill the handguard cooling holes. Their slightly angled shape (see photo) compensates for the slight taper of M4 handguards; guaranteeing that your lights or lasers will be parallel to the rifle barrel.  When mounted on the top handguard, the top rail is level with the receiver rail on a flattop A4 carbine.

The NCStar rails mount firmly enough for accessories like grips or lights or bipods, but most 2-piece AR handguards aren’t steady enough for scopes or red dots. Those need to mount on the receiver rail itself, or on more sturdy handguards than mine.

So many gadgets, so little time…

You can mount the NCStar receiver rails on the top or the bottom handguard or both (not pictured: the little top rail section is from another gadget I’m testing). They only cost $9 for two, plus shipping.  No disrespect to Troy Industries, but I’m not sure they’ll sell you a single Allen screw for that.

I know that the name ‘NCStar’ doesn’t carry very much cachet, but these are solid lumps of aluminum that won’t break, bend or wear out. If you want some cheap rail space for your M4, you can’t go wrong for nine bucks.

Five stars.

Strangely, the ‘VK’ in the name stands for the (not PETA-approved) “Varmint Killer.” I could care less about offending PETA, whom my carnivorous diet already mocks thrice daily. But for the sake of truthfulness I would have called this rifle the EK (Enthusiasm Killer) -22 instead.

Upper Receiver:

Chiappa Firearms (of .357 Magnum Rhino fame) supplies the VK-22′s upper receiver. It’s a dedicated .22lr-only flattop receiver with a polymer body, a functional dust cover and shell deflector, and a non-functional forward assist. The flattop Picatinny rail is low enough to mount a standard detachable carry handle; if you plan to mount an optic or red dot you’ll need a riser. High-mount scope rings will co-witness with the front sight pillar, but the front sight sight base will obstruct much of the scope. It’s distracting as hell, so use high scope rings and add a short riser for a lower 1/3 co-witness.

The 16-inch M4-contour barrel is a dead ringer for the real thing save its tiny rimfire chamber and missing gas port. Designed for the utmost in visual verisimilitude, it sports an A2 flash hider, forward sling swivel, grenade launcher cut and a bayonet lug. I don’t have an M-16 bayonet hanging around the house (loitering with intent), but the VK-22′s lug is purported to be a cosmetic fake. The foregrip halves are held in place by the a spring-loaded collar at the rear, just like a real AR. No, they don’t have heat shields, but thanks for asking.

As befits a .22lr, the VK-22′s action is a straight blowback operation with a fairly light mainspring and a fairly heavy bolt. The mainspring requires just a bit over four lbs. of pressure to compress, and the moving mass of the bolt weighs about six ounces. That’s just enough to delay the case ejection until after the bullet leaves the muzzle. The bolt reciprocates very smoothly via the fully-functional charging handle.

Magazines:

The full-size polymer magazine has a handy thumb-loading button. This really helps, because for most of us, the magazine holds 28 rounds. If you live in an anti-gun state it sucks to be you; you only get a bulky 10-rounder. Either way, the VK-22′s magazine locks firmly into the lower receiver and drops free using the mil-spec magazine release button. The rifle’s lower-receiver bolt catch is mil-spec functional, but it doesn’t work with the rimfire upper.

The bolt will still hold open after the last shot, but it releases when you drop the empty magazine. Other than the nonfunctional forward assist, it’s the only chapter of the VK-22 manual of arms that differs from a stock AR-15.

Additional .22lr magazines are available from many online retailers (search for ‘M4-22 magazine’) at around $20 to $30 each. Both of mine fed and functioned well as long as I followed the proper loading procedure, arrived at by trial and error. Pull the loading button down just far enough to slide in one more round at a time. If you pull the spring too far down, the .22 rounds wiggle all out of position and you might have to start over.

During one of my range testing days with Joe Grine, we lent the ATI magazines to several other shooters who were having fits with their Black Dog aftermarket .22 AR magazines. The ATI versions fed perfectly in their rifles. Aside from the slightly tricky loading, which is a snap once you get used to it, the MK-22′s magazine works exceptionally well for a high-capacity rimfire.

They fed many different brands of ammo with less drama than an episode of Antiques Road Show—with the exception of some Winchester lead hollowpoints with a fairly flat nose. The Winnies tended to jam upwards between the bolt and the face of the charging handle. They were a real PITA to clear; I had to hold the bolt back with my finger (not the charging handle) and wiggle my other hand up inside the magazine well.

Lower Receiver:

ATI  mounts the Chiappa uppers on a mil-spec AR lower from an outfit called Xtreme Machining. Some ‘net sleuthing reveals that Xtreme has been manufacturing forged AR uppers and lowers since 2005.  They make ARs, milled AKs, and even a .338 Lapua sniper rifle.

The milling on the lower receiver is decent. Although it’s not not luxuriously deep or ‘creamy’ like the best examples of the genre, the phosphate finish is smooth and even. Inspecting the VK-22′s lower gives the impression of generally good machining work, compromised by one very visible toolmark on the magazine well’s front face. It looks like the CNC mill tried to shave a little too much metal off the front, and the operator stopped the bit just in time so he didn’t have to trash the whole lower. He should have; the result isn’t pretty.

The VK-22′s magazine release and bolt release are sturdy and operate smoothly. While serviceable, the lower receiver assembly is a few quality notches lower than the ArmaLite M-15 I tested earlier this year.

Note that the receiver is (faintly) engraved with the designation “MULTI CAL 5.56MM-.22.” This is the only real giveaway that the VK-22 doesn’t sport an off-the-rack AR lower. Disregard the apparent blemish beneath the “CAL 5.56MM” engraving: this is an artifact of the photo editor that I used to obscure the serial number.

The parts kit is obviously a really cheap one. The VK-22′s trigger is a single-stage affair with a grittiness that made it feel a lot heavier than its measured 6 lb. pull. It got smoother as it broke in over about 500 rounds, but the gun started double-firing as the trigger got smoother, so I don’t consider this a good thing. Triggers and hammers should be made of high-quality hardened steel. If they ever wear out, they should do so after many thousands of rounds, not just a few hundred.

The VK-22 also has lots of sharp edges waiting to cut your fingers around the grip and trigger guard.

This picture shows the annoying ‘gap’ area at the rear of the milspec AR trigger guard.  The stock El-Cheapo grips were a tad undersized for a full-fisted chap like myself, and the very sharp edges of the gap dug into the top of my middle finger.  The metal trigger guard itself was almost knife-edge sharp, so I replaced both parts with a polymer Magpul MOE trigger guard and grip for $20.  If you’re not a fan of stock AR grips and trigger guards, this $20 is very well spent.  The MOE grip components provide a more hand-filling grip, fill the annoying gap, and open up the trigger guard for gloved shooting.  They look pretty bitchin’, too:

The ATI’s trigger and hammer pins are slightly loose, and they started ‘walking’ even before I started firing.  You’re not supposed to be able to push them back into place with your thumbnail, are you?

Accuracy:

The VK-22 gave disappointing accuracy during initial testing.  At 50 yards it would deliver approximately one-inch groups using the cheapest brands of ammunition I could find: Federal bulk-pack and old Winchester Wildcat.  You’re probably thinking that one-inch groups at 50 yards aren’t too bad for a semi-automatic .22, and you’d be right if those one-inch groups didn’t wander all over the target every time you changed shooting positions, changed magazines, or made a scope adjustment.  I seriously doubt I can blame the scope, since it was a $600-plus Leupold VX-R Patrol 1.25-4 power variable with steel Warne 30mm rings.

When I disassembled the gun to investigate the double-firing problem, I discovered the cause of the wandering zero: the barrel nut wasn’t more than finger-tight.  I tightened it firmly, with the result that the barrel no longer wobbles, but the front handguards are now canted slightly clockwise and the Magpul virti-grip now hangs at 7:00 instead of 6:00.  It’s a good thing I’m right-handed.

Reliability:

A lawyer friend here has been perfectly happy with his new VK-22, which was bought the day before mine.  My example, however, has been a shiny tart lemon, plagued with fundamental mechanical defects that have rendered it either impossible or unsafe to operate.  Most of my time with this gun has been spent trying to zero it, trying to fix it, or waiting for replacement parts.

Problem #1: The Broken Bolt

The VK-22 came out of the box and shot quite well for the first 250 rounds, before the bolt broke and put the gun completely out of action.  That’s not a good sign with a new .22, but I give two thumbs up for Chiappa’s customer service, who had me back up and running in four business days.  The new bolt installed easily and worked perfectly.

Note: Conventional Internet Wisdom suggests avoiding hypervelocity .22s with this rifle, especially Remington hypervelocity cartridges, which tend to suffer case ruptures and violent ejection.  If you didn’t *always* wear ear and eye protection before you watched that video, I hope you will afterward.  The Kentucky Gun Company’s test VK-22 later suffered a total trigger failure on-camera.

Problem #2: Double-Firing

In a more relaxed legal climate, an infrequent double-fire might be considered an amusing malfunction that you would want to get fixed before you took the gun out shooting again.  In our legal climate, however, this mechanical defect can become a legal nightmare of the first magnitude, and it’s a problem that needs to be fixed right effing now.  It happened once the first time we used the new bolt, but I couldn’t be sure if it was a ‘double-fire’ caused by a worn trigger or disconnector, or a slam-fire caused by a dirty firing pin.

Instead of being an isolated break-in phenomenon, however, the double-firing continued throughout testing.  As the trigger pull lost much of its gritty feeling (and lightened to about five pounds) the doubling became more frequent.   By the time I’d shot about 750 rounds through the rifle, I couldn’t fire a five-round target string without at least one double-fire.  We discontinued testing at this point for safety reasons, and to avoid being thrown off the range.

The VK-22 was starting to fire .22 bullets the way Chicago union members vote: early and often.

I discovered I could recreate the problem at home by dry-firing the gun and holding the trigger back while I racked the charging handle.  Each time I released the trigger forward to reset the disconnector, the hammer would fly forward and the gun would dry-fire again. This indicates that the problem is not the disconnector, but rather the hammer and trigger themselves. Click here for another VK-22 owner’s YouTube video explaining the problem: scroll to the 9:00 mark and he’ll get to it, eventually.

After only 750 rounds, this is what the face of the trigger looks like:

After a dismally short service life, it looks like there’s a lot of metal missing from the sear engagement face of the trigger.  Here’s a closeup of the sear notch of the hammer where the engagement face of the trigger is supposed to lock up with it:

Pardon my poor eyesight, but don’t those look like metal shavings in there?  You’ll only need one guess to figure out where they came from…

I don’t want any part of anything the ATFE might try to call ‘automatic’, so I’ve removed the broken lower receiver parts.  Maybe ATI will want me to return them for their own testing, or maybe I’ll just crush them into uselessness in a bench vise.

I contacted ATI with a detailed description of the problem, but it was a holiday weekend and I did not expect an immediate followup.  I emailed ATI again a few days later.  I would have tried to use their warranty registration page, but it was still down.  Just like it was when the bolt broke more than a month ago.

My emails got no response, so I called their customer service number and was diverted to voicemail.  I’ve asked them to just send me a new trigger parts kit, since the shipping and FFL fees alone would cost twice as much as a replacement set of lower receiver parts. We’ll see how they respond, and until then the jury is still out on ATI’s customer service.

The verdict on the VK-22, however, has already been rendered.

Conclusion

Selling a mil-spec AR lower with a dedicated .22 rimfire upper is a great idea, and a great way to get the AR platform into the hands of a lot of first-time shooters and their families.  It’s like a Trojan Horse: an affordable .22 rifle that you can always ‘upgrade’ into an Evil Assault Rifle Modern Sporting Carbine later if you really dig it. But…

The VK-22 itself is a deplorable piece of trash.  From its CNC-bungled lower receiver to its razor-sharp grip gap to its under-torqued barrel nut, it’s plagued by shoddy assembly and careless machining.  These aren’t exactly mortal sins for a gun that sells for less than $400, but a self-destructing bolt and an illegal and incredibly dangerous trigger are absolutely unacceptable for any firearm.  Period.  Ever.  At any price.

Even the best companies occasionally sell a product that breaks, but our test VK-22 suffers from so many manufacturing and assembly defects that it reminds me that my factory-reject Marlin 1894C was at least mechanically sound, safe, and functional when it left the factory.  The VK-22 is not.

RATINGS (out of five)

Accuracy ***

One inch groups at 50 yards doesn’t make it a tackdriver, but it’s not too bad for a .22 autoloader now that the barrel is screwed on tight.

Reliability

That’s not a typo.  With a mean time between catastrophic failures of about 350 rounds, it proudly earns ZERO stars despite being blessed with good magazines.

Ergonomics ***

It’s an AR; what else is there to say?  I like the angled buttstock, but I had to replace the grip and trigger guard.

Customize This *****

It’s an AR; what else is there to say?

Overall Rating 

That’s not a typo.  Our test gun is charitably best described as an entry-level parts kit.  Assembled by the factory, however, it’s a lawsuit waiting to happen.  You might be lucky and get one that works, but if you really like gambling you’ll have more fun blowing $350 in Vegas instead.

I’ve never been a huge fanboy of the AR-15. My ambivalence isn’t based on the comparative hypothetical merits of gas guns versus piston guns, or the teething pains of the M16 in Vietnam. Nope: my decidedly “meh…” attitude toward Eugene Stoner’s Greatest Hit comes entirely from my own experiences with the gun itself . . .

The first one I ever fired had a failing disconnector and a tendency to pretend it was an M16A2 firing 3-round bursts. Hella fun, but wickedly unsafe and calamitously illegal, too. Don’t get antsy, ATFE guys: it was repaired tout de suite, and it all happened so long ago that the applicable Statute of Limitations has run.

The other ARs I’ve shot were also high-maintenance girlfriend’s, but it was Armalite’s M-15 that (eventually) started to bring me around. It had a superb trigger and outstanding accuracy, and once it was running properly I started to understand why “America’s Rifle” is selling hotter than Justin Bieber albums. Baby, baby, baby…

Lots of middle aged guys have expensive hobbies, and the back pages of Popular Mechanics are full of plans and kits for Tesla coils, Shelby Cobras, and even helicopters. Since my expensive hobby is shooting, I’ve always thought it would be cool to build my own rifle. I could pick the caliber (within reason) and customize everything about the gun exactly the way I wanted it, with nothing but the skill of my hands and the funds in my debit card.  M203 cuts on the barrel? Hell, No!  Stainless barrel? Hell, maybe…

With their almost-universally interchangeable uppers and lowers, buffers and barrels, ARs are as modular as LEGO kits these days. I know what I would buy if I wanted an off-the-shelf AR and price were no object (I’m lookin’ at you, Rock River). But I’m a babe in the woods when it comes to rolling my own.

So here’s my question: would you build yourself a custom AR from hand-picked components? If so, what kind of rifle would you assemble, and which components would get the nod? If any of our Armed Intelligentsia have already built their own AR, was it an experience you would recommend to the rest of us?

Timney Triggers produces hand-assembled, hand-tested and hand-calibrated precision triggers for all sorts of guns, from the modern AR-15 to the Mosin Nagant m1891 and m1891/30 rifles. Most of their triggers drop easily into the gun, with very little “gunsmithing” required. According to the sales rep I talked to, Timney only makes single stage triggers, no two stage or national match triggers.

Included in the package: the trigger, the standard NRA propaganda pamphlet, and a sucker. I was momentarily torn between interpereting the lollipop as a bribe or as a comment on the person opening the package. But I think it’s probably a sign that the people at Timney are just very nice and friendly people. Plus it was cherry, my favorite flavor.

The trigger group itself comes in a pre-assembled housing that drops straight into the receiver and keeps all the little bits and pieces together. Which is fantastic. I still have memories fresh in my mind of trying to manuver all of the different bits of the trigger assembly into place with the stock parts kit I ordered from DPMS, eventually having to resort to sticking the lower receiver in a plastic bag to contain the springs that kept flying everywhere.

Installing the trigger is a breeze; the hardest part is getting the old trigger group out of the gun. To install the trigger, simply remove the grip, the safety, and the old trigger. Then slot in the Timney trigger and re-install the grip and safety.

The housing was designed to be inserted into a standard AR-15 lower receiver, so those with larger trigger group pins or other oddities might have some issues. The safety is also a bit tough to re-insert once the Timney trigger is installed, as the safety catch on the trigger rests right against the safety itself. I had to gently push down on the safety catch to get it to let me put the safety back in the gun.

The true test of the trigger isn’t how easy it is to install; the true test is how it feels. And for that, we need a point of comparison.

When I first built my rifle I used a standard DPMS parts kit for the lower. Standard trigger, standard safety, even a standard grip. One by one these parts have been replaced, mainly because I couldn’t stand how crappy they felt. The standard A2 grip was first to go (replaced by a Magpul MIAD), followed shortly by the safety (RRA Ambi Safety).

The only part left from the original build (as of yesterday) was the trigger. Which was awful. The pull was like a long, winding mountain path in West Virginia. As you gently apply pressure the trigger creeps backwards for AGES before hitting a bit of resistance. You think to yourself “Oh! It’s a two stage! Sweet!” But no. It’s a red herring.

The break is actually just a little bit further. But because of the pressure required to get over that rough patch on the trigger it’s damned difficult to stop before hitting the break. This leads to some jerking of the trigger in high stress situations (competitions) and some pretty poor shots when they’re least welcome.

The Timney trigger, in comparison, is like jumping off a cliff. There’s a little bit of resistance, and then it goes. Nice, crisp, clean. There’s no guesswork involved about how much pressure to apply before the break because the break is RIGHT THERE. With the safety engaged the trigger goes absolutely nowhere, compared to the slight movement permitted by my old standard trigger.

The best comparison I can give you is if you were to use an icicle as a trigger. After applying the right amount of pressure, the thing just breaks without any bending beforehand.

There’s one other feature that makes this trigger live up to the claim of being better than anything else out there: the shape of the trigger itself.

Go check out my review of the Armalite National Match M-15 A2 rifle, and pay special attention to the shape of the trigger. See how its curved like a piece of aluminum that a chunky guy sat on? Now look at the trigger installed in my lower above. Timney designs their triggers with less of a curve and a flatter face, which they claim promotes a good trigger pull (straight back instead of slightly side to side). A straighter pull means less torque on the gun and straighter shooting.

The flatter trigger face takes a little getting used to. Fifty rounds later I can’t imagine how I got along without it. This trigger is a work of art, a vast improvement on the stock AR triggers, and easy as pie to install. If you’re planning on making your AR more accurate, start with one of these. The improvement in the feel of the gun is well worth the price tag.

Specifications: Timney AR-15 Trigger

Pull Weight: 4 lbs
MSRP: $209.95

Ratings (out of five)

Ease of Use * * * * *
Drop this puppy straight into your receiver and you’re good to go. No mucking about with springs and Allen wrenches. Just drop it in and it works like a charm.

Feel & Function * * * * *
The trigger pull is crisp and clean, and the reset is short and sweet. The flattened face makes for a better trigger pull and gives a little more surface to place your fingertip on. This trigger “feels” better than any other single stage trigger I’ve tried on an AR platform.

Overall Rating * * * * *
They made the claim of being the world’s finest triggers. We called them on it, and it turns out that everything they claim is true. The finest single stage triggers that money can buy.

The headline pretty much says it all.

“Border officials say they caught a Fort Worth woman trying to smuggle more than a dozen assault rifles into Mexico in the trunk of a BMW,” kdfw.com reports.
“The 22-year-old woman, who is a U.S. citizen, was turned over to immigration and Homeland Security officials. U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) officials did not release her name. On Tuesday, CBP officials took a second look at the woman’s 2001 BMW 740 as she drove across the border at Del Rio . . .

In the trunk they found 14 assault rifles, a shotgun, a pistol, 22 gun magazines and 25 rounds of ammunition, according to a news release.

Most of the assault rifles were AK-47s and AR-15s, said the CBP.

Man, don’t you know those ATF guys are stittin’ around thinkin’ “Whew! This will divert attention away from all that Gunwalker crap. People will believe that there are people smuggling assault rifles into Mexico.”

Yes but—where was the ATF in all this excitement? Isn’t this exactly the kind of action Project Gunrunner is supposed to tackle? What’s the point of sucking up $160 million in “emergency” funding, opening four new branch offices, hiring dozens of new agents and setting up elaborate stings when some guy at the border can catch a gun smuggler just by stopping a car?

In fact, why didn’t some astute media flak at ATF make sure they horned-in on the bust before it went public? You know; to catch those gun smuggling kingpins that the Inspector General wanted so bad. Or at least get some credit for doing good when they’ve been caught in a world of doing wrong.

Maybe the Customs and Border Protection (CPB) is slightly miffed that the ATF put guns in the hands of a drug gang that used the weapons to murder one of their own. Of course, if we wanna get REALLY weird, we could go the tinfoil hat conspiracy route . . .

Say, Agent Stan…didn’t you say you really wanted to ditch that woman you’ve been dating? Just give her this sweet ride we had in the impound lot and tell her to meet you in Del Rio for a ‘nooner. We’ll take it from there. We’ll get ourselves out of this Gunwalker scandal and solve your dating problems in one fell swoop! . . . Whaddaya mean CBP got to her before we could get across the border to stop her there?

A headline announcing a U.S. to Mexico weapons bust like this could have done a lot to mitigate the bad PR the ATF’s been a-gettin’ as of late. Notice the use of the past tense. I would imagine things are way past tense over ATF-way.

Why in the Wide, Wide World of Sports didn’t we get this collar? Who in the Hell let CBP get out in front on this thing? Why didn’t WE know about it? What are we spending all that money on, anyway?

I was just kidding about that last bit. Given the highly insular nature of all governmental bureaucracies, I’m sure nobody at ATF thinks anything about taxpayer money-fueled budgets other than “mine.” I’m sure they look on what they do as God’s Work, and how dare you impune their motives and methods with questions about filthy lucre. The nerve!

The simple truth: when guns DO head South, Me-hi-co way, the good Ole U.S. Customs and Border Protection is the best agency to interdict the flow. If the ATF knows there are guns headed south, they should simply give Border Protection a heads-up and let them take it from there. I guess that’s a problem when you’re the ones creating the trade in the first place.

If you’re just now joining the party, we strongly recommend that you go back and start at the beginning with Parts I thorough IV. If you enjoyed Part IV, on flying and the Suarez controversy, sit back and get ready for some more thought-provoking ideas from the acknowledged expert on personal defense. Today, we cover personal defense in the home, and the burning question of the TTAG Armed Intelligencia: What about modifying my gun?

Here’s a controversial one – for the average person, what do you recommend for personal defense in the home?

I recommend if the budget allows and the mindset allows, a minimum of one serviceable   handgun and one long gun apiece per designated combatant. When I say “designated combatant,” the family has sat down beforehand and just like you’ll determine what will you do if there’s a fire in here, have determined what are we gonna do if we experience a home invasion.

The reason I don’t go with just the one, is if you’ve got to be moving, if you’ve got to go down the hall and scoop a baby out of the nursery and bring it to the safe room, you’ve got to go down the other hall where 85 year old grandpa with Alzheimer’s lives and you’ve got to lead him to the safe room, in this situation you’re gonna need at least one hand free.

You’re gonna need a hand free to work the phone, you’re gonna need a hand free to turn doorknobs, to handle light switches. Any time you take one hand off a two-handed weapon, if somebody jumps you out of the dark, you’re gonna lose it before you can retain it. I say that having taught handgun retention for 30-something years now.

The handgun is the easiest of all firearms to retain, one-handed, and that does leave a hand free. If you need to go mobile for any reason, I prefer the handgun. If we’ve counted noses and everyone is here in the safe room with me, and the bad guys are kicking in the bedroom door, now I’d like to have something more substantial than a handgun, and that’s where the AR-15, the Mini-14, the shotgun come in.

If the budget or the situation only allows the one, I’d go with the handgun for the greater flexibility, even though you’re giving up some firepower.

I know it’s probably the last thing you’d worry about in a life-or-death home invasion situation, but being a musician, I alway worry about my hearing, especially when shooting indoors. Any advice on ear protection?

Yes, I always keep a pair of active hearing protectors by the bed. If there’s gonna be time to grab the shotgun, there’s gonna be literally the two seconds it takes to grab those, slap them on your head and turn them on. You can still work a phone, you simply hold the phone near the microphone of the earmuffs. If you have to fire a shot, you’re not going to be stunned out.

If you’ve ever fired a high-powered rifle at close quarters without some sort of hearing protection, it literally rings your chimes. In the next few seconds, if you need to hear a soft footstep on a carpet to determine where the second bad guy is, you’re not going to hear it any more. And there’s the definite potential for hearing loss.

That said, when people say “Well, gee, I don’t wanna cary a gun, cause if I fire my gun inside the car in a carjacking, or I fire my AR-15 in the hallway, I’m gonna lose some hearing.” I ask them, “Look, you wouldn’t have fired unless you believed you’re about to die. How much are you gonna hear in the grave? Let’s have a little sense of priorities.”

So I think it’s a very nice thing to have handy for home defense. I can see it even having some purpose for SWAT teams. They are even available wired-up for communications devices and all that. It’s most unlikely they’ll be available in a field situation. Also in the field, where you’re outdoors, there’s much less likelihood of permanent hearing damage, than firing a powerful weapon in a hallway where the sound tends to reverberate much more.

What about modifications to guns – not just handguns, but pistol grips on shotguns, AR-15s, AKs, et cetera. What are the ramifications for prosecution goes when it comes to modifying a gun?

As far as the whole “evil black rifle” thing, your readers would do well to do a Google search for some of the stuff that’s been researched by Dr. Glenn Meyer. His focus group work with juries and that sort of thing indicates there is a very real prejudice out there in the public, which is the jury pool, against the what some would call the “Rambo-type” weapons.

It can be defeated in court, but it’s going to be more expensive. You’re gonna need to bring in expert witnesses, people from the gun industry, to say nah it’s not the avatar of death. Owning a red Corvette Sting Ray doesn’t mean you’re a chronic speeder, and owning an AR-15 doesn’t mean you have homicidal fantasies, blah, blah.

In so far as some of the gear that goes on it, ask yourself, what do you really need? I don’t see a whole lot that you need, more than possibly something that will carry some spare ammunition on it, because you’re not going to have time to throw on a spare shell bandolier when the burglar alarm goes off, and some kind of a white light as a last-ditch verification of target, which I think is critical.

The [shotgun or rifle] pistol grip only, I don’t like, because it is very difficult to hit well within a reactive situation if you haven’t been able to get yourself exactly set up for it. And if you have to struggle for the gun, again, going back to 30-some years of teaching weapon retention and disarming, it is very easy to get the pistol grip-only gun away from anybody who is not trained in gun retention. It’s going to be very easy to get the AR-15 configuration rifle, even with a fixed stock, away from somebody else.

There’s a certain movement that, at the instant of the attack, jams the base of the good guy’s thumb. You either let go of the gun, or the gun is torn out through the base of your thumb. I much prefer the conventional stock type of gun, possibly with a shorter stock, to allow for fast handling and the different statures of people within the family. The stock you’d find on the conventional 870 for example, or the stock you’d find on a conventional sporting model Mini-14 – anybody who’s been trained in basic stick techniques in a dojo knows how to defend that against a disarming attack.

Generally, as a rule of thumb, anything that will make the gun shoot better for the shooter under extreme stress and poor light is absolutely defensible. And the reason is, if it makes you more likely to hit under those adverse conditions, it concomitantly reduces the danger of a wild shot that might hit a bystander.

The two things I would strongly advise against doing and have strongly advised against doing, would be a trigger pull lighter than the factory recommends, and removal or de-activation of a safety device.

You try not to give weapons to your opponent. If I have an [opposing] attorney trying to nail my scalp to the wall, I’m not gonna give him the sound bite of “Ladies and gentlemen, you’re here to determine whether this man was reckless, and arrogant, and negligent. Ladies and gentlemen, he was so reckless, he deactivated the safety device on a lethal weapon. And he was so arrogant, he thought he knew more about this gun than the designer.” Tell me how you’re gonna get past that.

As far as the light trigger pull, your problem there, number one, is it has historically been linked to unintended discharges. So problem one, under stress, we SAY we’re gonna keep our finger off the trigger.

The trouble with that study done in Europe with trained emergency-response personnel, indicated that several times, the sensors that were put on the test gun picked up a finger touching it [the trigger], when the officers swore that during the high-stress exercise their finger had never entered the trigger guard. It apparently occurs unconsciously, as the mind says “Hey, if we have to shoot this thing, we want to verify we can reach the trigger.”

Second, you can go to court and say “I didn’t accidentally discharge the gun, I always keep my finger outside the trigger.” And they will then hit you with the bomb. “So, you want this jury to believe that you’re incapable of making a mistake? You’re the first perfect human being in two thousand and ten years. Is that what you’re telling this jury?” Now that is gonna be a pretty tough sell.

Where the accidental discharge theory comes, is they know you have a justifiable shooting, but you’ve got either the rare prosecutor that is politically driven and has some political hay to make by hanging you out to dry, or the much less-rare plaintiff’s lawyer who’s trying to sue you or your insurance company for something – mainly your insurance company.

They know there is no such thing as a justifiable accident. They know that in a state like Florida, or many other states now, even on the street, the so-called Castle Doctrine has been extended. Basically, particularly if you’re attacked in the home, the presumption is that you were right to shoot the intruder.

If you read the fine print, you’ll find all those laws are worded so they do not cover negligence. So all the other side has to come up with is say “Yeah, well, but he killed him by accident, and that’s not what this law is about. Our theory is, he accidentally shot him.” The light trigger lends itself to that. And you’ve basically just given them an argument they can use against you.

The prosecutor who is politically-motivated will use that argument, because he knows it’s a very tough sell to convince the jury that somebody like that, somebody like you, a productive member of society, with a clean criminal record has suddenly turned into Hannibal Lecter and decided to maliciously murder another human being for sport. They know it’s an easy, slam-dunk to convince the jury that somebody just like them got careless for just one second, and did something stupid.

So that becomes their theory of the case, and it’s a much easier sell. They don’t get bonus points for convicting you for murder instead of manslaughter. It’s really real simple, pass/fail. If you win the conviction, you done good. If the guy is acquitted, you’ve made an ass of yourself. So a lot of them will go for that low-hanging fruit, and that is where the false theory of “he shot him by accident” comes from. And that’s one of the reasons I don’t want to see a lighter-than factory spec trigger on a defensive firearm.

The other is in the civil case. The plaintiff’s lawyer is not looking for justice – they are  looking for money. There are damn few people who are both so rich and so stupid, that if I won a civil judgement of a million dollars against them, there would be an unprotected, liquid million dollars that I could put my claws on and seize to satisfy the judgement.

Probably everybody reading your blog has a million dollar homeowner liability coverage. The insurance company has the money. And bingo, that’s where they go. If they make their theory that he shot them by accident, it’s homeowner negligence, they can get into the deep pockets of the insurance company. If they say, no, he deliberately, maliciously shot my client to watch him die, the attorney knows there’s not a homeowner’s policy in America that covers you for what’s called a willful tort, the deliberate act that harms another person.

So if they say you deliberately shot him, basically, they are closing off their access to where the money is. So that’s why it’s so attractive to them to say you shot him by accident with a hair-trigger gun. I do not like to leave blood like that in the water for the sharks.

Someone might argue that with a lighter trigger, I’m gonna hit better, so therefore it comes under your thing  it’s safer for the bystanders. Actually, no, it fails to pass another legal test called the doctrine of competing harms. History tells us that light triggers are so often associated with accidental shooting tragedies, that trying to say “Well, I did it for safety,” just is not going to pass muster. It doesn’t pass the balance test.

So what I tell folks is, nothing lighter than “factory spec” in the trigger. Certainly make your trigger smooth, I’ve  never seen anyone accused of having too-smooth a trigger pull, in 31 years as an expert witness, and 39 years of teaching this stuff, and 40 years of writing about it. But what I have seen again and again, is that the trigger is too light, and therefore reckless and negligent, and guilt-producing, and culpability-producing.

If I don’t like the disconnector safety on a Browning, I would get another gun, or have the one I have smoothed up so my problems with it are solved. If I don’t like the grip safety on a 1911, I’d buy a pistol that did not have a grip safety and be done with it. And the other modifications I think are going to be very defensible, and I my experience has been that they are very defensible.

Click here for Part I • Part II • Part III • Part IV • Part VI

So I’m driving around yesterday, all situationally aware and all that, and I get a call from my offspring on her new iPhone. (Santa been belly belly good to her this year, mon.) She tells me that she and her mom are in their car, driving near a Chase Bank branch less than a mile from their (my former) house. And they can’t help but notice the place is surrounded by police. Armed police. And S.W.A.T. guys. In full battle regalia, armed with either AR-15s (at least) or M-16s (I presume police get to go full-auto, right?). My ex wisely decided that the best way to avoid trouble is to not be there when it happens, so she pulls a u-ey and moseys on outta there, taking a different route to home base. This got me to thinking, though, and what I thought does not make for a pretty picture.

Okay, I’m sure if you’re a faithful reader of TTAG, you read the (sadly) regular feature Irresponsible Gun Onwer of the Day. How could you miss it? The reason nothing is ever foolproof is that fools are so bloody ingenious. A fair number of said stories regale us with details about the local constabularies around our nation and their negligent discharges. Some of them are pretty careless/stupid/idiotic. And a lot of them are completely and utterly avoidable. And the more avoidable, the more defensive the perpetrators seem to be. Call them “premature ejerk-ulators.” But let’s do a little math here and you’ll see why I’m more than a little unnerved.

I’ve got a couple of .22LRs in the house, one of which I bought to teach my daughter how to shoot. My ex once asked to borrow the gun because she was going to join the boys on a dove hunt. Pause with me for a nanosecond whilst we consider the physics involved and the possible outcome of such a project . . .

.22LR bullets can travel over a mile and a half shot flat. I’d presume that distance might even increase a skoche, if the barrel is aimed up where the birdies fly, right. So let’s say she misses (what are the odds?) and the round flies by the dove and off, into the wild blue yonder. Remember the kid’s limerick, I shot an arrow into the air, where it lands, I know not where? Yeah, um…like that, but with a potential police report, coroner’s inquest, and manslaughter charges for when Murphy’s Law rears it’s ugly head.

So I did the right thing. I told her you only hunt birds with a shotgun. (Although, in retrospect, I would have been funny in a cruel, sick sad world kinda way to have thought about the looks on my ex-brother-in-laws faces, had she brought a rifle to a bird hunt.)

So, where was I? Oh, yeah. We take an AR15/M16 platform black gun chambered in .223, perhaps, put it in the hands of a policeman who’s perhaps amped up on 5 Hour Energy or Red Bull, put them in a stress situation (maybe a bank robbery with a side of hostages) and then hope and pray that nobody chooses THAT day/time/location to have a negligent discharge of a weapon that treats body armor like tissue paper.

Now before you all start throwing trajectories, vectors, population densities, actuarial tables, probabilities and such my way, let me make a couple of sobering observations. It only takes one perfect storm of screw-ups to end somebody’s life. I realize that S.W.A.T. teams are likely better trained than your typical boy/girl in blue. But I also realize some of that can be offset by The Law of Unintended Consequences, plus a heapin’ helpin’ of plain ol’ bad luck. Wrong place. Wrong time. That sort of thing.

So without getting/sounding like some idiot from the Bloomberg’s Raiders, I’m wondering, just how far away do you want to be when the shooting starts? Seriously. How far away is far enough, when you’re dealing with high-powered rifles?

I mean, forget for a minute that the bad guys may actually have the local cops out-gunned (see the L.A. bank robbery from a few years back) and those guys don’t care WHO they kill. The cops are acutely aware of the downside to NDs, and I’m sure they train to avoid them. They are also well aware that a misplaced round can end their careers and result in years of legal actions that will drain their bank accounts faster than you can say “Johnny Cochran.” And I’m aware that an automobile is effectively “camouflage” – NOT “cover.” Get close enough, and a frame house’s walls wouldn’t be enough to keep you safe.

But my question stands – just how far away do you need/want to be when the shooting starts, assuming that Sgt. Murphy was an optimist?

The Mini-14 has long been thought to be a poor man’s AR-15, costing at times as little as half the price of a comparable American Rifle. But the Ruger suffered from a reputation as being comparatively crude, dated, and inaccurate. So why on earth would I want one?

Because it isn’t an AR. Whereas the AR-15 and all of its many variants look mass produced and are stylistically cold as death, the Mini-14 – even with a synthetic stock – cuts a classic figure, even historic. It is a scaled down M-14 optimized by designers Jim Sullivan (father of the M-16) and Bill Ruger for the .223 Remington cartridge. Furthermore, the Mini-14 has long been praised for its tank-like durability and real-world practicality.

Perhaps this is why producers chose to put one in the hands of silver-haired silver screen himbo George Clooney in his latest flick, The American, in which he plays an assassin in search of true love and absolution. Or maybe it was a paid product placement coup. Either way, it is a step up from the A-Team.

Today, Mini-14 owners need not hang their heads in shame over accuracy concerns. In 2005, Ruger retooled its Mini-14 manufacturing facility to produce an updated design featuring numerous small alterations that in sum equals much greater precision from the shooter’s bench, returning groupings smaller than 2” with a standard 18.5” barrel and off the shelf ammo at 100 yards, rather than the 5” groupings typical of previous iterations.

Nevertheless, the Mini-14 will never be an AR-15 — for better and worse. Automatic reload is powered by a fixed-piston gas system that will always create a little more jiggle from the [inconsiderable] .223 Remington / 5.56x45mm NATO kick than the direct gas impingement system of the AR-15. At the same time, the breech of the Mini-14 isn’t constantly being gummed-up and roasted by escaping hot combustion gasses that create reliability and early wear problems. Which would you rather live with?

Mini-14s aren’t as cheap as they used to be; street prices for most new Min-14 models range between $650 and $800. That is still less than a basic AR, but it isn’t the bargain it was 22 years ago when I made my first foray into Ruger ownership.

For now I am left fantasizing about shooting at coyotes like a Texas governor with a Stainless Steel Mini-14 Tactical with a polycarbonate stock, 20-round magazine, 16.25” barrel with flash suppressor, and fitted with a red-dot site. Or maybe an 18.5” barrel Mini-14 Ranch Rifle with a classic wood stock and telescopic site. Better yet: one of each.