Adaptive Tactical’s Rimfire Accessories line for the Ruger 22 Charger
Nampa, Idaho (Ammoland.com) – Adaptive Tactical, LLC, manufacturers of innovative firearm stocks and accessories, can take your factory Ruger 22 Charger or 22 Charger Takedown and improve its performance, all while increasing its accuracy and versatility through several products from its Rimfire Accessories line. The Tac-Hammer Ruger 22 Charger Barrel/Rail Combo, Tac-Hammer Ruger 22 Charger Takedown Barrel/Rail Combo and TK22C Ruger 22 Charger Takedown stock are the ideal upgrades for a plinker’s dream firearm.
The Tac-Hammer Ruger 22 Charger Barrel/Rail Combo and Tac-Hammer Ruger 22 Charger Takedown Barrel/Rail Combo will increase accuracy and improve the performance and portability of the Ruger 22 Charger when upgrading from the original factory barrel. The Rigid-Core Barrel delivers the benefits of a bull barrel’s larger diameter and related stiffness – greater accuracy and repeatability of the shot – without the added weight. A rigid-core, stepped barrel design is encased within a post-tension, aluminum shroud, offering the rigidity of a bull barrel with a significant weight reduction. The Tac-Hammer Package includes barrel, cantilevered optic rail and front threaded compensator. The cantilevered rail design ensures consistent zeroing for Takedown firearms.
Specifications:
Barrel:
P4140 Chromoly steel with heat and rust resistant coating
Shroud:
6061 aluminum with durable Cerakote® coating
Top Rail/Compensator:
6061 aluminum with color matched Cerakote
Twist:
1:16
Threaded Barrel End:
½ x 28 (fits common compensators or suppressors)
Barrel OD:
0.92”
Barrel Length:
Without Compensator:
With Compensator:
Exposed Barrel w/ Comp:
9”
10.125”
8.875”
The Tac-Hammer TK22C Ruger 22 Charger Takedown Stock is made from a durable, all season polymer construction that provides increased versatility. The removable barrel insert provides a custom fit for both standard tapered barrels and 0.92” bull barrels. The pistol grip is designed to fit the spring-loaded TacTRED™ Monopod for increased stability (sold separately). It includes a custom firearm sling, which improves stability when shooting. Simply attach to the stock’s rear loop and shoulder; aim is improved due to full extension along the arm. It also features an integrated rear single point sling attachment loop and front bipod swivel mount.
Adaptive Tactical’s design team, a proven leader in firearm stock and accessory innovation, led the way in award winning recoil dampening shotgun and rifle stocks and accessories. Manufacturers of the popular Sidewinder Venom™ mag-fed shotgun system and ADTAC stock systems, Adaptive offers products focused on improving speed, performance and versatility for military, LE, defense, range and competition applications. www.adaptivetactical.com
[Ed: Nick originally wrote this less than a week after the Sandy Hook shooting, but it’s still just as relevant today.]
In the wake of recent events, it’s obvious and unfortunate that the vast majority of pundits have no idea what they’re talking about when it comes to guns. Especially with a firearm like the AR-15 (a.k.a., “assault rifle”). Scanning the press coverage, there’s no end of misinformation about the ArmaLite Rifle (that’s what AR means, not “assault rifle”) design and why it’s the most popular rifle in the United States. Hopefully I can put some of that right.
Versatility
Before the AR-15 rifle made its way onto the market, gun owners needed to buy a different gun for each caliber and application.
Whether they wanted inexpensive target shooting (with cheap ammo like .22 LR) or deer hunting (with a more substantial caliber like .308 Winchester), shooters had to buy a different firearm for each use. That made changing calibers expensive, time-consuming, and generally a one-way process.
Shooters were also stuck with their rifle’s ergonomics. If the stock was too long or too short there wasn’t much they could do short of paying a gunsmith to modify their firearm. The same was true if you didn’t like the rifle’s trigger or its sights. Changing just about anything was a major pain in the butt.
With an AR-15, however, gun owners don’t need a qualified gunsmith to modify or customize their gun. The average shooter can order the parts they need online and perform the work themselves with little more than a screwdriver, a wrench, a hammer and a YouTube tutorial. [Click here for a handy how-to.]
In fact, there’s only one part of the gun that an owner has to buy through a gun shop: the “receiver” or lower (above). That’s the serialized part of an AR pattern rifle. Technically, as far as the ATF is concerned, that is the gun. I’ve assembled all of my own AR-15 rifles from scratch, having purchased only the receivers through gun stores.
Everything about the AR-15 platform can be swapped out to fit the specific end-user and their intended use. Long-range shooters might add a longer barrel and more powerful scope for increased accuracy. Those interested in home defense might choose a shorter barrel, a red dot and add a flashlight to the gun. You can even change the grip and fore end to fit your hand exactly and make shooting more comfortable.
Hunting
Gun control advocates, the media and many politicians are fixated on the idea that AR-15s are “military weapons” or “weapons of war” that “have no place on our streets.” We hear again that they’re not suitable for hunting.
Hundreds of thousands of hunters use the AR-15 platform which is often sold in complete configurations specifically designed for hunting. The gun is rugged, reliable, portable and accurate. What’s more, the ability to quickly and easily change the rifle’s caliber offers American hunters a huge advantage.
courtesy ar15.com
I use an AR-15 that fires the relatively new 300 AAC Blackout round for hunting in Texas. When deer aren’t in season I swap my AR’s upper receiver for one that shoots the much cheaper .22 LR cartridge. This kind of caliber swap cuts down on costs and makes hunters more accurate (since they can afford to practice with their hunting rifle all year long).
Self-defense
The AR-15 is the civilian version of the M-16 rifle, as adopted by the U.S. armed forces. The M-16 was developed in the wake of World War II. Generals wanted a rifle that would allow U.S. servicemen to put rounds on target accurately at extreme distances (as they did with the M1 Garand in WWII).
That’s the reason the rifle originally came with a bulky stock and precision “aperture” sights. The Powers That Be wanted their troops to take precise, aimed shots from the shoulder. So despite what the media would have you believe, the AR-15 was not designed to “spray” bullets. It was originally created as a precision rifle.
And despite plenty of misinformation to the contrary, civilian AR-15 rifles are semi-automatic. That means one round per trigger pull. Actual fully automatic machine guns are rare as hens teeth and prohibitively expensive thanks to regulation that goes back as far as 1934.
A great offensive weapon also makes a great defensive weapon. The AR-15 is an easy-to-use and effective rifle for personal and home defense. If someone was defending say, a school, and they were positioned at the end of a corridor, an AR-15 would give them the speed, repeatability (i.e. ammunition capacity) and/or accuracy they’d need to eliminate a lethal threat. Or threats.
Which is why so many Americans depend on the AR-15 for the self-defense. It’s also the reason that police rely on AR-15s to counter active shooters.
Your body is probably still digesting yesterday’s fantastic feast (and bracing for leftovers) but it’s already time to start planning next year’s Thanksgiving dinner, and now that Kraft Foods has seemingly done the impossible and invented edible slime, grandma’s Jell-O salad will never be the same.
Not content with just re-engineering the classic Jell-O formula so that the dessert can be used to make jiggly toy building blocks, a team of food scientists hidden away somewhere in Kraft Foods’ secret laboratories asked a question no one has ever asked before: what if slime was edible? Now this is not to imply that slime has never been ingested before; there’s undoubtedly countless children who’ve sampled their gooey play toy out of curiosity, or to prove their playground bravado. But Jell-O’s new DIY slime—part of its recent ‘Play’ line—is completely edible without the risk of going blind or needing your stomach pumped after snacking.
Whipping up a batch is apparently as easy as just adding water to an included mix and stirring for 30 seconds, at which point you’ll be left with a brightly colored non-Newtonian fluid that you can squeeze, squish, massage, and tear with your hands for about an hour before you’ll need to add more water to keep it fluid. There will be two flavors available at launch: pink (unicorn-themed) strawberry and green (monster-themed) lime, but there’s no word on how much each container will cost when they hit stores next month.
So what’s in the slime? According to the listing on Amazon, it contains “modified food starch, sugar, gelatin, contains less than 2% of adipic acid, disodium phosphate, sodium citrate, artificial flavor, fumaric acid, red 40.” Nothing we haven’t seen in other highly-processed snacks before, and a distinct lack of real monster or unicorn ingredients, which some might find disappointing. But those people have obviously forgotten how to have fun with their food.
The animals of the Pride Lands meet their future king.GIF: The Lion King
Trailer FrenzyA special place to find the newest trailers for movies and TV shows you’re craving.
We’ve heard barely anything about Jon Favreau’s take on The Lion King since Disney announced its plans to add the beloved film to its long list of remakes, outside of some extremely exciting casting. But now, we finally have a look. And, unsurprisingly, the man who turned The Jungle Book into a visual feast has done the same here!
The trailer is light on things that aren’t just gorgeous shots of immaculate looking CG creatures, but it captures the 1994 animated classic’s iconic opening stunningly—and of course we get the legendary James Earl Jones reprising his role as Mufasa, talking to his young son Simba (played by JD McCrary as a cub, and Donald Glover as an adult) about the Pride Lands that will one day be his to rule.
Simba just can’t wait to be king, and we just can’t wait to see more of this in action. If that wasn’t enough, here’s an equally stunning poster of the young Simba literally standing in his father’s footsteps:
Hello there, little lion.Image: Disney
The Lion King heads to theaters once more July 19, 2019.
May St. Mattis watch over your range trip and keep the chaos to a minimum.
U.S.A. –-(Ammoland.com)- If you have not read of the first part of the tour be sure to click below and find out about Palmetto State Armory‘s impressive assembly process of their AR-15s and AK rifles.
Talking With The Engineers
Probably my favorite stop of the trip was a visit with the madmen that bring the top brass’ visions to life. These are the folks behind the upcoming PSA MP5 clone as well as the guys that are behind the PSA AKV 9mm AK. The collection of parts all over their office was something that I could spend a week digging through and finding inspiration, knowledge, and even some cool content ideas from.
They had the prototype AKV laid out on their table for us to check out when we arrived. Duncan had already had some time with the 9mm AK, but I hadn’t even had a chance to look at one yet. Let me tell you, that thing is impressively cool and as I would later find out, fun as hell to shoot.
Also hiding in the office was some prototype .224 Valkyrie barrels with an interesting twist rate that I am not sure I can tell you about yet, a new 7.62x39mm AR lower, a few prototype AK pistol braces that are sure to excite AK nerds and even some handgun stuff that caught my attention.
Sadly I am not entirely sure what I can tell you about, so I will err on the side of caution and assume that until it is listed on the website, I am to keep my dang mouth shut. That said, nerding out with the engineers about gun stuff was one of the most enjoyable experiences I have had on a work trip to date, and I can’t wait till I have a chance to visit with them again.
Lead Star Arms
In the same facility as the engineering team, we found Lead Star Arms, the ultra high-end arm of PSA. These guys have focused on lightweight competition ready rifles and AR pistols that rival guns that are double their price point.
All we were able to see while we were there was a couple of completed rifles and a ton of components that were coming off their ultra nice CNC machines, and they are something to behold. Not only are the components that Lead Star is making interesting looking with outstanding detail and interesting windows on the skeletonized models, but they also have a root in competition where performance matters.
Sadly I don’t have any experience with the Lead Star guns, but Duncan does and had nothing but nice things to say about the shooting experience. Maybe sometime in the future, I will be able to put a Lead Star gun through the paces, but until then I will differ the questions to Duncan.
Building Our Guns
Now it was time for Duncan and me to head back over to the assembly facility to pair those barrels from DC Machine with the optics we got at the flagship store. Gathering up all of the parts took a few minutes since these builds were out of the ordinary and they wanted to ensure that inventory levels weren’t messed up.
Once we had the parts I started with the lower I was provided, a standard PSA marked unit. Instead of walking you through my build, I would rather just tell you the components that I used. You should also expect a full review of my build at some point in the future.
For the lower, I decided on a Magpul CTR stock with a Mil-Spec receiver extension, a Magpul MIAD grip, and Palmetto’s own EPT fire control group lower parts kit. The upper was really built around the barrel, a 16” stainless Freedom barrel chambered in 5.56 with a 1:7 twist rate and a mid-length gas system. The BCG was a standard PSA produced unit, the charging handle also was a Mil-Spec unit, and the handguard was PSA’s 15” lightweight M-LOK units.
Once I had assembled my upper, I turned towards Duncan’s parts and put an identical upper together for him while he prepared the Strike Eagle and the Viper PST Gen II to be mounted to the uppers. My rifle ended up getting the Strike Eagle 1-6 scope nestled in a Warne 30mm cantilever mount and a Trijicon RMR RM06 on a Magpul M-LOK offset optic mount paired with a high base for the RMR, a combo that I have been wanting to try for years. Duncan, on the other hand, had opted for a Vortex Viper PST Gen II 1-6 power scope in the same model Warne mount that I was using on my rifle.
Shooting Our Builds & The AKV 9mm AK
With the rifles built, the next step was to gather some ammo and head out to the shooting range that PSA owns not far from the assembly facility. We also asked to take one of the AKV prototypes out to the range with us since I hadn’t had a chance to shoot one and Duncan was chomping at the bit to shoot it again.
Both rifles functioned flawlessly over the several hundred rounds that we dumped through the rifle in the short time we were on the range. My initial groups should be categorized as acceptable, something that I was expecting since we were shooting off wooden blocks without rear bags to even get the rifle close to stable. Once I get the rifle out to the range, I will do a proper accuracy test with good match ammunition to see what she will do.
Once I had my fun with the rifle that I had built we broke out the 9mm AK they are calling the AKV and headed over to the pistol range where there were several pieces of steel set up for us. After burning through the better part of a case of Winchester 9mm NATO trying to see who was the fastest to run the steel challenge course we called it quits. I can see why Duncan enjoys the AKV so much, that is a soft shooting gun that you can really run fast if you do your part.
We packed up as the sun was setting and headed back to the hotel after dinner. Tomorrow was going to be a big day.
STS Machine In Jacksonville
The next day we headed to the airport to board a plane to Jacksonville, Florida where STS Machine is located. STS Machine makes several things, but the ones that we were most interested in were the upper and lower receivers, hand guards, barrel nuts, flash hiders, and gas blocks. STS also does work in the automotive and motorcycle industry in addition to the gun stuff, but who cares about that, this is a gun blog, right?
A Space Force lower next to a Mad Dog lower on the STS production floor prior to anodizing.
While I am not allowed to go into detail on how they produce the parts, I can tell you that while I was there the professionalism that the STS Machine team, as well as the level of knowledge, was impressive. These guys and gals knew their stuff and were ready to answer any questions that I might have about the process. I wish I could tell you more about how they make their parts since it addressed a lot of my questions about quality control and acceptable tolerances.
I did get a look at the Space Force lowers that had just sold out on their website as well as the Mad Dog lower that had yet to be released when we saw them being produced. Both had awesome roll marks, and I am really looking forward to what PSA cooks up going forward!
A bin of barrel nuts at one point in the manufacturing process.
Duncan, Josiah, and I said our goodbyes and grabbed a bite to eat at a super nice steakhouse in Jacksonville that I couldn’t recall the name of if I tried. Once we had eaten more than our fair share of steak, we headed back to the airport to catch a flight back.
A Final Full Auto Shoot & The Flight Home
Now that we had seen everything that Palmetto wanted to show us we had a bit of time to kill on the final day before Duncan, and I needed to be back at the airport home. How does PSA fill that downtime? Time on the range with some machine guns of course!
Josiah had arranged for us to get to one their stores before open and had ammo set aside for several machine guns like a full auto converted M&P-15 .22LR, an Uzi, MP5, a PSA AK converted to full auto, and a PSA AR converted to full auto as well.
While we were on the range, I broke out my carry Glock 19 and got some practice in before I headed back home since the next day I would be at the Modern Samurai Project 2-day Red Dot Course. I know Duncan ate up the chance to mag dump the machine guns and don’t get me wrong, I did too between strings with my Glock 19.
Being responsible and brushing my shooting skill up a bit before class instead of shooting the crap out of machine guns killed me a bit inside but that is the price of adulating sometimes. I did get a chance to mag dump as well as deliver some controlled bursts out of everything PSA has laid out for us, just not as much time with them as I would have preferred.
I want to thank Josiah and the other folks at PSA for understanding the importance of me getting a bit of practice while I was out of town, so I didn’t show up at class shooting like a fool that hadn’t shot in a while. The ability to keep my practice schedule up while on the road was invaluable.
Right about 11 AM Duncan, Josiah, and I loaded up in the rental and headed to the airport so that Duncan and I could get back home and process everything we had seen. The amount of stuff that we saw, did, or learned on this trip was like drinking from a fire hose, and I knew I was going to need some time to decompress and process it all.
What I Learned During The Tour
While I know that this post is nearing the length of a short story, but I think it was well worth taking my time to explain everything that I saw.
Before the trip I had a positive impression of Palmetto State Armory’s products, I don’t want you to think that I didn’t. What I didn’t have was an appreciation for the mission of PSA or the amount of quality control and thought that goes into everything they produce.
Quality Control is taken seriously at PSA.
It has become in vogue to refer to PSA’s lowers as “hobby grade,” and I now know that couldn’t be farther from the truth. Why is it that folks feel that PSA’s stuff is of lesser quality? The price of the product plays a lot into perception. Because PSA has learned how to keep their overhead super low and is essentially offering their products at “dealer price” to consumers they blow most other companies out of the water regarding value.
Just because you are getting factory direct pricing doesn’t mean that it is of lesser quality.
QC on the majority of the parts is on par with many other manufacturers out there based on what I have seen and I would even go so far as to say that many of Palmetto’s components are of higher quality than those found other rifles that have an MSRP double of what a PSA rifle would run you.
Barrels are even checked with fancy machines I don’t understand.
I guess the cliff notes version is don’t discount PSA just because it is attainable, more expensive is not always better.
Special Thanks
I want to thank Josiah and everyone else that either spoke with us on the tour or made it happen. The hospitality shown was nothing short of above and beyond what anyone would expect on a media trip.
I am looking forward to making my way back to Columbia for the next visit!
About Patrick R.
Patrick is a firearms enthusiast that values the quest for not only the best possible gear setup but also pragmatic ways to improve his shooting skills across a wide range of disciplines. He values truthful, honest information above all else and had committed to cutting through marketing fluff to deliver the truth. You can find the rest of his work on FirearmRack.com as well as on the YouTube channel Firearm Rack or Instagram at @thepatrickroberts.
So what about the .30-30 Winchester as a viable defense round? Is it any good, or should it be hung over the wall with Granddad’s antique snowshoes?
Winchester 94 Rifle is .30-30 Winchester
USA – -(AmmoLand.com)- There’s been a lot of talk over the years, in gun shops, around camps and occasionally even in print that the .30-30 Winchester rifle should finally go the way of the Dodo.
I have heard more than one conversation between so-called learned experts that it’s a useless round past the 100-yard mark and that even at that distance, it’s really barely just getting by and that’s just for hunting. So what about the .30-30 as a viable defense round? Is it any good, or should it be hung over the wall with Granddad’s antique snowshoes and left as a memory of another time?
.30-30 Winchester Ammo
Most experts, of course, will throw out there that the best choice for a defensive round would be some semi-auto rifle, and in many cases they would be right, but in some locales, the laws are not always on the side of gun owners, and in some cases, those semi-auto rifles, are restricted or have to be “compliant” which to many of us, translates into another word. Neutered. For instance, in my particular state, any AR platform can’t have a pistol grip with a detachable magazine, which can only be 10 rounds anyway so they have this bizarre stock that resembles PVC pipe or you can have a pistol grip but must load from a stripper clip from the side at an angle. I applaud the gun makers for coming up with alternatives, but these guns are still shadows of their former selves.
Getting back to the .30-30 Winchester, look at the round itself. The 150 grain round is listed at 2,400 fps, and while this isn’t blowing the doors off the competition when you compare it to the .308 or .30-06, you have to be impressed when you compare it to one of the most respected military rounds on the planet, the 7.62x39mm, which with its 123 grain FMJ is also listed at the 2,400 fps mark.
One of the reasons the .30-30 Winchester has always been so popular is because of the gun it was chambered in. Putting the round into the 1894 Winchester rifle and the more desirable carbine with its 20-inch barrel standard gave the shooter a gun that weighed a little more than six pounds and was only thirty-seven inches long. Compare that to say an SKS which weighs over eight pounds and is three inches longer. If the Winchester 94 is not your thing, the Marlin 336 Rifle and it’s predecessors, the 1893, the 1936 and the Model 36 are all fine guns in their own right.
While many tout the .30-30 Winchester’s history of killing game all over this country and even the world, it saw action and military service for decades. In World War I, the US Military bought Winchester 1894 rifles in .30-30 and handed them over to the US Army Signal Corps who were protecting the tree cutting crews in the timber forests in the Pacific Northwest. These crews were cutting spruce which was vital to aircraft production, and these guns have been known afterward as “spruce guns”. There were some eighteen hundred of these carbines issued, with a “US” and flaming bomb ordinance mark on the top of the barrel behind the rear sight.
Closer to the actual battlefield, the British purchased some five thousand 1894 rifles and they were issued to the Royal Navy for use on board their ships, but the French acquired the most, more than fifteen thousand that had sling swivels mounted on the left side of the buttstock and the rear sight had graduations in metric. While not issued to front-line troops, it’s hard not to imagine them seeing some sort of action throughout all that chaos.
Where the .30-30 has been proven and documented, however, has been right here in the US and in the waning days of the Old West.
By the time the 1894 Winchester was introduced, most of the frontier had been settled, the Indian Wars were over, the bison were all but gone from the plains and most of the wild in the wild west had now been tamed. Still, the 1894 Winchester and the .30-30 found favor on both sides of the law and both sides of the border.
Tom Horn
Isom Dart
One known and well documented hard case that favored a .30-30 was noted Indian Scout and manhunter, Tom Horn. Horn, who was an interesting character, to say the least, helped bring in Geronimo, hunted down and apprehended men for the Pinkerton Agency before he became a hired killer for the Colorado and Wyoming cattle companies under the guise of the title of “range detective”.
Horn was convicted of shooting and killing fourteen-year-old Willie Nickell and hung for it on November 20, 1903 and while there is still a lot of debate that Horn might not have killed Nickell, there is universal consensus among historians that Horn shot and killed a man named Isom Dart, a cattle thief that had been warned to get out of the area.
On the morning of October 4, 1900, Dart walked out of the front door of his cabin and was struck squarely in his chest, he hit the ground dead. Later two .30-30 shells were found 150-200 yards away from where Dart had been shot.
While many speculated that Horn used a Winchester 1876 in .45-60, and he may have, at the time of the killings he was carrying a Winchester 1894 rifle in .30-30 with a button magazine equipped with a folding tang sight
Horn’s killing of Dart is probably the first known and documented use of a .30-30 for something other than game at long range.
Mexican Revolution Armory
The 1894 Winchester also found favor during the Mexican Revolution, whether in the hands of those fighting for Pancho Villa or the “El Tigre del Sur”, Emiliano Zapata, guns in .30-30 were extremely popular because ammunition was readily available on the American side of the border. During the more than nine years of the revolution rifles and carbines in .30-30 were sought after and used heavily during the whole conflict.
Law enforcement agencies across the country also found the Winchester 1894 in .30-30 to be of value. The New York State Police and the LAPD at one time issued the little carbines to their officers on either coast with many other police departments in between including the Texas Rangers. Arguably the most famous Texas Ranger Joaquin Jackson carried a Winchester 94 in .30-30 that had the barrel cut down to the length of 16 inches, commonly known as a “trapper”. Jackson stated in an interview that he carried that gun at his feet the entire time while working as a Ranger.
Joaquin Jackson
Getting back to the here and now, I decided to see what a good .30-30 could do at some distances some might not consider shooting them, at least not for personal defense. My .30-30 is nothing spectacular, it’s a Winchester 94, known as a “transition” gun, it was made in 1939 and had an earlier style receiver and buttstock of the old saddle ring carbines, which had two factory screw holes in the tang, which allowed for the use of a fold-down sight, but it had a newer style barrel with a ramped front sight. Winchester was essentially using up older parts and in 1940, a new buttstock was used with a flat recoil pad and then the receiver was different slightly with a single hole in the tang and all that was mated to the newer style barrel that was on the transition carbines. My Winchester 94 still has open sights, no peep sights, no scope.
I set up a cut out silhouette target without any aiming points and set it out at 125 yards which was the farthest I could shoot at our little range. I took five of my handloads, a 170 grain Hornady SP with a charge of IMR-4064 that essentially duplicates the factory ballistics. The five shots were all fired from a rest but as quickly as I could get the sights on target and they all hit close with three clustering nearly dead center, and all were pretty much to the point of aim. As you can see, the .30-30 will do just fine out to just past the 100-yard mark, and I would say out to 150 and 175 yards with practice is certainly achievable. Once the .30-30 gets to 200 yards and beyond it begins to lose altitude pretty quickly.
Winchester 94 group shot at 125 yards
So in this day and age of the war on semi-auto rifles, lever action rifles chambered in .30-30 make a pretty good alternative for personal defense, and since they have a long history of their performance on game, can make a pretty good case for having only one long gun to perform several jobs. Ammunition in .30-30 is literally everywhere and one of the cheaper ones to buy, and handloading for it is simple and easy.
The .30-30 Winchester has been with us for more than 120 years now and it’s been all over the world, and it’s a shame that it seems to have taken a back seat to the belted magnums and wonder rounds that have come along ever since. While it might not be the most powerful round when it comes to knocking down game, it has more than enough for the job of personal defense and it’s almost always found in a lightweight carbine that lends itself to the task. In a compact gun the .30-30 Winchester is at home today at your side as it was in the early squad cars of the LAPD and riding along with those early New York State Troopers. Don’t overlook the .30-30 Winchester in a short carbine like the Model 94 Winchester or Marlin 336, especially in those states were gun owners are stuck behind enemy lines and are not trusted by their own elected officials with any semi-automatic rifles that aren’t neutered or have to be “compliant” in order to even be acceptable.
David LaPell
About David LaPell
David LaPell has been a Corrections Officer with the local Sheriff’s Department for thirteen years. A collector of antique and vintage firearms for over twenty years and an avid hunter. David has been writing articles about firearms, hunting and western history for ten years. In addition to having a passion for vintage guns, he is also a fan of old trucks and has written articles on those as well.
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Want to catch package thieves (especially inept ones) in the act? Or just see who’s at the door so you know whether it’s worth getting off the couch? The Ring Video Doorbell 2 is down to $140 on Amazon for Black Friday, plus a free Echo Dot. That’s $60 less than the usual price for the doorbell alone, not even accounting for the smart speaker.
The Ring 2 will give you an instant alert and a live video feed when someone’s walking up to your door, works as a two-way intercom, and can even record security footage to the cloud with a subscription.
U.S.A. –-(Ammoland.com)- Have you ever wondered what goes into a Palmetto State Armory rifle? I have. Since Duncan and I were invited to visit with them and tour their facilities, we were about to get a first-hand look at how the rifles, uppers, and other parts are produced.
Duncan and I flew out from our home bases to Charleston, North Carolina and met with Josiah McCallum, the Affiliate Marketing Manager and co-founder of Palmetto State Armory, at the airport for the long trek to Columbia, South Carolina where Palmetto State Armory is based.
After getting checked into the hotel and settled, Duncan and I grabbed a bite to eat and planned out how we were going to tackle writing the tour up since we had an insane schedule.
NOTE:Some areas of the tour were not photographed or videoed to protect trade secrets so your imagination will have to suffice, sorry.
DC Machine
The first stop on our grand tour of the PSA facilities was DC Machine, the facility that produces not only PSA’s barrels, but they also make lower receivers, upper receivers, barrel extensions, receiver extensions and a ton of other stuff that makes its way onto PSA rifles.
Just a few of the machines inside of DC Machine.
While we were in the car with Josiah, we got the rundown on the history of the company as well as a good feel for the mission of PSA. They want to put a serviceable rifle in the hands of every American, a noble goal if we are honest. More gun owners inevitably lead to better gun rights and more 2A supporters.
The staggering number of barrels that they are able to produce daily is nothing short of awes inspiring. 1,800 new barrels are born a day in this facility on top of the many upper and lower receivers making the level of QC that they achieve pretty impressive.
A giant box of barrels that will later be built into uppers.
DC Machine has over 70 CNC machines that run almost non-stop to feed the beast that is Palmetto State Armory, and that isn’t even enough to satisfy their needs.
While Duncan and I were at DC Machine, we were given the two newest barrels off the line. Later those barrels would be built into rifles by us in their assembly facility.
PSA Flagship Store
While PSA has its largest presence on the internet, they do have 6 physical stores where you can shop their selection in person. While this is a pretty cool experience, it is also just as dangerous for your wallet as the daily deal section of their website.
The flagship Palmetto State Armory store in Summerville, SC.
While we got the tour of the store and range, we also were there to do some light shopping for optics that would be used on the rifles we were to build. I opted for a Vortex Strike Eagle paired with a Trijicon RMR to give the dual optics setup a try while Duncan chose the more 3 Gun orientated Vortex Viper PST Gen II 1-6 power scope.
I will have to admit, I was rather pleased by my experience in both of the stores that I visited. Now you might be thinking that since Duncan and I were there as guests of PSA that is why they were on their best behavior. I will confess to wandering off several times to see how the staff interacted with customers as well as myself and had to say that it was nothing short of impressive for a brick and mortar gun store. The staff was friendly, knowledgeable, and eagerly helpful.
As for selection, the stores somehow have MORE stuff than the website! Pretty much anything that I was looking for, they had in stock and at reasonable prices. The selection and how they had stuff priced is probably why I spent far more money than I intended on while taking a tour of the store.
After we were done with the store tour, we headed back to Columbia where I asked Josiah to drop me off at a local range so I could get a bit of practice in with my Glock 19. I will talk more about why later but I am very appreciative that Josiah accommodated my need to get some practice in while on the road.
We got the full tour of the impressive facility where Palmetto State Armory ships all of their web orders from as well as assembles ever upper, lower, and complete rifle at.
While I wish that I had taken some photos of the facility, much of what I wanted to show I wouldn’t have been able to share in good conscious like steps in the assembly process and secure areas like the gun room. Rest assured that the entire facility was nothing short of impressive, the most impressive thing I saw was the AR assemblers.
The assembly area has a couple of different sections, each working on different areas of the rifle or even an entirely different platform like their AKs. I want to touch briefly on the AK rifles before we get into the ARs that PSA is most well known for. I intend to go back and spend a ton of time looking at how the AK platform parts are sourced and assembled. I really want to show you all as much about the manufacturing process as they will allow for the simple reason that I feel most don’t understand exactly how good of a rifle they are without seeing one come together. The fact that they are producing what appear to be reasonably high-quality US made AKs for under $1,000 is nothing short of impressive when you understand the hurdles that US made AKs face.
The AK team at PSA is a well-oiled machine that makes putting an AK together look like child’s play. As I previously mentioned, they use quality parts from what I could see and assemble them systematically and efficiently. What was the coolest thing about the process? The way the barrels were installed and head spaced. I wish I had a photo to show you, but that will have to wait until I can cover the build process in far more detail on my next visit.
Now that we have the AKs out of the way, the AR assembly line is likely what most people care about. Again, PSA has worked with some amazing process engineers that have developed an efficient assembly line that allows for near no QC issues to slip through. After all, with the volume of uppers, lowers, and rifles that PSA is sending out to Americans everywhere, there is bound to be a couple of small things that slip through the cracks. Don’t worry though, they have a process to identify who built any components or rifles that weren’t up to snuff and stressed that they will do everything in their power to improve the assembly process. That said, the percentage of components that experience an issue are staggeringly low. While I don’t recall the figure offhand, I do recall that when I heard the number, it was substantially lower than any other facility that I have had the pleasure of visiting.
The upper receiver process starts with the forward assist being pinned in place by a single station. The engineers at PSA designed an impressive jig to ensure this pin is placed in the upper uniformly. Once that is done, and the dust cover is installed, the uppers are sent down to the assembly stations. If the upper build calls for a front sight post, the FSP, delta ring, and any needed hardware is placed on the barrel and is drilled for the taper pins on a CNC machine and the taper pins are put in place.
Now that we have the barrel and upper ready to mate at the assembly stations one of the skilled assemblers gathers all the parts they need to finish the upper build. They have their own upper blocks that were designed by one of their engineers that makes the process easy and fluid. Once the upper receiver is pinned to the block, they insert the barrel, apply some grease to the threads and tighten the barrel nut. Once that is done if the build has an FSP the assembler checks to make sure it is aligned properly with yet another special tool. They add the gas block if needed and install the gas tube then the flash hider or brake is attached to the barrel and timed properly. Now is the time that the assembler either slaps on some plastic hand guards if the build calls for that or secures the free float handguard to the upper. Once all that is left is to add the charging handle and BCG, the upper is tilted up so that the assembler can stamp their mark on the upper. This stamp allows PSA to track who built what and ensured that any problems that are returned are addressed by not only making it right with the customer but also training the assembler to look for that issue going forward.
The assembly of the lowers is equally impressive. Where the upper assemblers have special tools to help them produce the best possible product in the quickest manner possible, the lower assemblers have developed nimble fingers, and ways of installing parts that help prevent them from damaging the finish on the lowers as well as retain all the parts they need to build the lower. The lower starts as striped and one worker installs all of the lower parts but leaves the buffer tube untorqued and the endplate unstaked. That particular part of the build process is completed by another worker at a separate station. While the lower build process is just as impressive as the upper build process, the number of steps required is far fewer.
Every PSA upper, lower, or complete rifle is either function checked in the case of lowers or test fired in the case of uppers or complete rifles. This is done on site in a test range located just off the assembly area.
At the end of my tour, I have a newfound respect for PSA’s rifles that I frankly didn’t have before visiting their assembly facility. It wasn’t that I thought that PSA didn’t make decent rifles, it was more than I had no idea that they were building rifles to the quality level that they are. Everyone there cares deeply about putting out the best possible product to be sold at an attainable price point. Every single employee that I spoke with believes in the PSA mission of putting a rifle in the hands of every American that can legally own a firearm.
Read Part 2 of the Tour Tomorrow
Special Thanks
I want to thank Josiah and everyone else that either spoke with us on the tour or made it happen. The hospitality shown was nothing short of above and beyond what anyone would expect on a media trip.
I am looking forward to making my way back to Columbia for the next visit!
About Patrick R.
Patrick is a firearms enthusiast that values the quest for not only the best possible gear setup but also pragmatic ways to improve his shooting skills across a wide range of disciplines. He values truthful, honest information above all else and had committed to cutting through marketing fluff to deliver the truth. You can find the rest of his work on FirearmRack.com as well as on the YouTube channel Firearm Rack or Instagram at @thepatrickroberts.
Want a truly relaxing Thanksgiving? Try this: Pop the turkey in the oven, then watch TV for a few hours. When people start saying “Shouldn’t you check the turkey?” just pull your phone out of your pocket, and tell them its exact temperature.
That’s the magic of a bluetooth thermometer. I use an iGrill Mini (about $40), the same model our own Claire Lower uses in this video on how to make the perfect turkey. There’s a metal probe on the end of a long wire, attached to a little gadget the size of a chicken nugget. Place the probe like you would any thermometer: into the thickest part of the thigh, near where it meets the body. Make sure it’s not touching bone.
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Then set the nugget next to the stove. (Or stick it right on—it’s magnetic.) The nugget will glow yellow, then orange, then red as the turkey approaches its final temperature. Pair it with your phone, and you can watch the turkey cook from afar.
Screenshot: iGrill
After telling the app what kind of meat you’re cooking (it also does steaks of any doneness!) you’ll see a graph of temperature, beginning with a dip when the room-temp probe goes into the refrigerator-temperature turkey. You’ll get a notification when the turkey is almost ready, so kick back and relax—until it’s time to get moving on those side dishes.
