Personal 5.56 History

In the way back...

I was fully convinced that the absolute best 5.56 rifle was the Stoner weapons system because it looked so entirely cool on pages 2403 to 2404 of volume 22 of Weapons and Warfare.

I've never even seen one in person.

My lust moved to the Galil next.

It was perfect and because it had 35 or 50 round magazines in Twilight: 2000's RDF Sourcebook it was better than any other 5.56 rifle.  The Galil had also appeared on my radar in Top Secret.

Plus, looked damn cool.  Besides, does your assault rifle have bottle opener built into it? *mic drop*

I had no idea, at the time, that the IDF had essentially dropped the Galil in favor of the M16A1 by then.

The first 5.56 rounds I ever fired were from a buddy's AK just before I left for the Army.  Taki was a 'Nam vet and MAC-V SOG Marine.  What he learned about shooting and fighting didn't apply to anything I'd see later.  Very short sight distances, very short ranges, nearly always in the dark.

I didn't take to the M16 in the Army thanks to assholes being assholes and demanding a level of cleanliness that was not needed for the function or longevity of the weapon.  It throws one off one's feed about a rifle.

But I didn't think there was anything about 5.56 that was inherently bad for most personal problems. (Que Willard and a treatise (that I'll agree with) on the superiority of 7.62x51mm.)

In the wide world of sports, just like the Primary Arms scope vs an ACOG; 5.56 vs 7.62 is a matter of "ideals vs good enoughs" and 5.56 will do for nearly everything I am legally allowed to do with a rifle in a self-defense or anti-looting scenario.

The advantages 7.62 brings to the table become overkill, bulky and heavy for my now civilian butt.  The Willard treatise will explain why this isn't necessarily true in a war; especially for feeding a machine gun.

But, back to me, post-ETS and getting into guns.

As with so many catalysts in my life, FuzzyGeff is to blame.  He decided, out of the blue from my perspective, to buy a semi-auto rifle.  Because I knew a lot more about guns than he did (and as it turns out, not near as much as I thought I did) he asked my opinion on the "best" gun.

Once we'd determined that the Bush Import Ban had made the obviously best gun, the Galil, unaffordable; we discussed the alternatives.

FuzzyGeff's drill sergeant shaped scars were deeper and more painful than mine with regards to the AR, and the only AR you saw in Iowa in 1991 was a Colt with all of the neutering they could muster.  Plus they were expensive.

This led us to consider the Mini-14.  There didn't appear to be anything wrong with them, they were in a price range we could afford and...  Wow you could accessorize the shit out of them.

Shortly afterwards, I bought one too.

Then Software Janitor, then Technomad... and three other friends.

We all standardized on the Mini and prepared for the end of the world that never came.

Remember all that accessorizing?

I made a heavy pig out of a light, handy carbine.  Polymer folding stock, Harris bipod, B-Square scope mount and Aimpoint 1000.  Plus replacing the front sight with a flash-hider/bayonet lug combo.  It was heavier than a Galil by the time I'd finished.

And the zero wandered.

The front sight combo thing didn't stay put, so the sights moved around.

The B-Square scope mount didn't hold zero between sessions if you removed it, and we always removed it...

It was a love-hate thing.

Then the AWB hit.

Suddenly magazines were scarce.

AR magazines were plentiful.

So I sold the Mini to Anglave and got me a Daewoo DR200 with a thumbhole stock.

MUCH lighter than the Mini, decent military sights and a pedigree of being made by a nation who might just be going to war in a moment (just like Israel!).

'Round about here two of the Mini-14 converts changed 5.56 guns.  One, just as the AWB took effect, went to a Bushmaster AR from parts.  FuzzyGeff went with a Bushmaster M17 bullpup (because we hadn't yet learned that bullpups suck and the M17 took AR mags).

Then I moved to Florida.

ACE Limited even made a stock conversion that conformed to the 922r rules and let me have a normal pistol grip on my DR200.

I still had it in 2007 when I started getting into ARs...

Top to bottom: My DR200; FuzzyGeff's M17S; FuzzyGeff's first AR, Olga; my first AR, Kaylee; Marv's first AR.  We still own the bottom three, but none of them still look the same.

 It's Software Janitor's fault.

He started rolling his own AR's as soon as the AWB expired.

That led to me learning that my problems with the AR stemmed from assholes yelling at me and inadequate cleaning materials being milspec issue.

You might even have noticed that I have a couple three 'round here now.

Even FuzzyGeff overcame his scars to own a couple.