vhinze

The first photo I posted left something to be desired, here's a better pair.

Hey! My US Senator is Tammy Baldwin, you may have heard of her. How do you write a letter in support of the Second Amendment to one of the most radical Democratic Senators around? I dunno, but this is my best effort. The ending of this letter, you've probably seen before. Honorable Senator Baldwin: I don't think I pigeon-hole well. I'm probably best described as a sort of libertarian, although some of that party's notions strike me as wacky. Bottom line is I take seriously the notion that the rights of the People should be maximized and the scope of Government should be minimized. Accordingly, I treasure the Second Amendment and also wholeheartedly support women's rights to decide what they do with their bodies and the right of gay people to equal protection under the law. I do think that the legislation to adequately regulate firearms already exists at the Federal, State and local level. Last time someone counted, there were twenty thousand laws and ordinances at these levels. As with many things governmental, what I see lacking are the resources (read Money) and resolve to enforce these existing laws. This is the position of the NRA of which I am a member (one of 4+ million). The same is true concerning the care of the mentally ill. Back in the early sixties, State legislatures took advantage of the availability of then new psychoactive drugs to empty asylums, the stated goals were lofty and commendable but in the years to follow, funding was marginal. The result has been that we all suffer the consequences. I end with an extract from my letter to Congressman Kind: Let's quit pussyfooting around with "feel good" legislation and grandstanding, instead concentrating on the tough nut of identifying, treating or confining the individuals that present a clear and present danger to us and themselves. This Lanza guy was not an exception, he was known to those around him as a "bug-eyed sociopath". It has been reported that his eruption was directly due to his loving mothers' fruitless efforts to have him committed. Finally, how about a constructive "gun control" proposal the NRA would probably welcome? Specifically, a tax deduction for the purchase of a gun safe or other means of securing firearms in the hands of private citizens. This single proposition may well have had the potential to prevent what went down at Newtown. Thank you for your consideration. Incidentally fellow firearm enthusiasts, Senator Harry Reid (from Nevada) is rated A+ by the NRA and is a staunch friend of hunters and shooters. Being a Democrat does not automatically an enemy make!

Pardon me for reviving this topic, but I felt compelled to share the final product of my continuing effort to restore the MK22 to what it was intended to be in the first place. In addition to appearance, considerable research and effort by myself and others at fnforum.net went into the internals to make the MK22 as reliable as possible. It's still a high maintenance gun, I kinda accept that for a .22 semi-auto. The blowback action means a lot of dirt to clean out after a hot and heavy trip to the range. I get excellent reliability up to the 250 round mark, then it needs a shot of solvent and a wipe down of critical areas ( breech, magazine feed lips) to continue. Once home from the range, the bolt carrier group must be removed from the receiver, disassembled and detail cleaned. This is not spelled out in the literature, far from it. The user manual weaves a yarn about spraying out the action, but fails to mention with what. Parts in the bolt (particularly the firing pin return spring) required modification and a thin washer added to the hammer spring strut to slightly increase striking force on the primers was found to be desirable. Attention to bolt carrier screws, bolt cover screws and the recoil spring guide rods, to include application of thread locker upon reassembly after cleaning is critical to ward off broken parts and assure function. I recognize the critical weakness of the weapon is the folding stock. ISSC didn't put the beef into the clone that FN did with the real deal (SCAR). This more or less condemns the gun to be a range toy as opposed to a real "working gun". In addition, there's just too damn many parts (read more to go wrong)! Finally, ISSCs' arrangements for service here in the US seem pretty spotty ( frankly, I think I'm being pretty gentle in my criticism on this point). Time will tell if there's much of a future for this weapon. I just enjoy mine enough to be willing to put up with the BS.

An email to my Congressman, as follows: To the Honorable Ron Kind: Just a word or two of advice concerning the rush to "do something" in the wake of the Newtown Conn. school shooting. It may be that nothing would have assuredly prevented the tragedy that occurred last week in Newtown, at least not in a society that values the entire Bill of Rights. Be that as it may, here are a few proposals I believe might have made a difference. The idea expressed by Wayne LaPierre of the NRA to place armed law officers in schools is far from crazy in my estimation. Remember, the same negative media hoopla greeted the notion of Air Marshals aboard domestic flights. Implementation of the idea doesn't seem to have resulted in the prophesied uncontrolled airborne mayhem. The use of terms such as "more guns" to characterize Mr. LaPierres' idea is indicative of bias and a failure to exercise rational thought in response to this horrific event. The fact is that "gun free" school zones do no more than advertise to these pathological cowards that that's the place to go to put their nut-job schemes into practice with minimal immediate risk to themselves. Not every plane carries an Air Marshal and not every school need host a police officer at any given time. The idea is to plant a seed of uncertainty in the miscreants' head. Other functions potentially served by this response would be outreach to young people by the local police department and suppression/control of drugs and other illegal activity. Mr LaPierre's presentation may have left something to be desired, especially considering the hostile audience to be expected at a press conference, but the underlying idea is nevertheless sound. A further consideration might be the training and arming of willing teacher volunteers, along the lines of volunteer firefighters. Training and dedication are essential to this pursuit as well. Please keep in mind that the NRA is much more that an industry lobby, there aren't four million manufacturers of firearms in this country (much less the world). The figure represents living, breathing individual members. Many of those members have a spouse and family that share to greater or lesser extent the members' passion for the shooting sports and the freedoms of the Second Amendment. To focus on elimination of AR or "assault" type weapons is simplistic. The definitive characteristics of an Assault Weapon, by the way, are fully automatic firing capability, carbine length and chambering for an intermediate round. You won't be buying anything like that from a licensed dealer or some clown at a gun show. The primary source for criminals' automatic weapons is illicit police and military sales (anything is possible if you have virtually unlimited funds). Another relevant fact, a pump shotgun loaded with buckshot (or common turkey loads) can deliver a volume of fire, in the context of a school building or other urban setting, comparable in every way to a military style weapon with a HI-CAP magazine. That is why they were so popular going back to the days of WW1 and trench warfare. So where's this approach going to end? Do we prohibit pump and semi-automatic shotguns and other classes of weapons? This is the rationale for the NRAs' spirited defense of "assault" looking weapons. Attempts to ban them simply represent the nose of the Gun Prohibition camel in the tent. It is generally accepted by knowledgeable authorities that the necessary firearm legislation is established law. The problem is largely the absence of the resources and resolve to enforce these laws. Let's quit pussyfooting around with "feel good" legislation and grandstanding, instead concentrating on the tough nut of identifying, treating or confining the individuals that present a clear and present danger to us and themselves. This Lanza guy was not an exception, he was known to those around him as a "bug-eyed sociopath". It has been reported that his eruption was directly due to his loving mothers' fruitless efforts to have him committed. Finally, how about a constructive "gun control" proposal the NRA would probably welcome? Specifically, a tax deduction for the purchase of a gun safe or other means of securing firearms in the hands of private citizens. This single proposition may well have had the potential to prevent what went down at Newtown. Thank you for your consideration. [ Feel free to copy and send to your Representative.]

These are the last two photos I plan to post in this thread (except maybe, some groups @ 50 and 100 yards). You're looking at a replica of a wartime ZF4 scope from Sarco (made in Taiwan) constructed of blued steel. Elevation is on the side (nominally 100-800 meters) and windage is on top, reticule is a German #4. Rather crude adjustments, but plenty fun bouncing wood chips at fifty yards. Exterior lens coatings present a pale bluish reflection as would be expected from WW2 era magnesium fluoride coatings. The replica mounts perfectly in 30mm UTG low rings. Elsewhere, I read the original tube diameter was 27mm. I'm OK with 30mm. The charging handle looks closer to the UTG HK02 mount in the picture than it is, it actually clears the mount handily. The mount locks up solidly on the receiver rails although the steel mounting feet of the HK02 mount mark up the finish somewhat. Some observers, however, feel the StG replica looks better with a bit of wear. I'm in that camp. Edit: After I took receipt of my UTG mount and scope, I took them out and shot the StG with them. At fifty yards, the ZF4 zeroed at 7 (the scope has settings from 1 to 8 ) this left nowhere to go for 100 yard shooting. I cured that by stacking three (3 ) square centimeter pieces of Gorilla brand duct tape on the bottom rear scope ring to point the scope slightly downward in the mount. The result, once snugged down [not necessary (or desirable) to get the ring screws white knuckle tight] was a scope that shoots to fifty yards when cranked to 5 and 100 yards when set to 7. I can live with this. This time out, I was shooting Winchester bulk "555" ammo. Feeding reliability was not quite as good with this copper washed hollow point ammo as experienced earlier with gilded solids (plain lead round nose bullets seem to drag across the die-cast feed ramp), but a little field cleaning with CLP inside the receiver, on the bolt face and around the mag feed lips improved function. There were several ammo related failures to fire out of 250 rounds fired with this particular brand (about average, it seems, for bulk pack stuff). I'd recommend a brand that is crimped tightly, avoid brands whose bullets are easily twisted with your fingers in the case. These often end up bent when fed from the magazine and standing up between the bolt and breech. As for the markings on the scope: Opticotechnia GmbH, Prerau (Czechoslovakia), code "dow", K43: built for the G43. The color of the triangle indicated the internally used grease. Blue: grease for cold climate, most originals are seen with a blue triangle (Eastern front, anyone?) White: grease for temperate climate Green: grease for hot climate Info comes from this fine site: http://claus.espeholt.dk/zf4.html

Hump? What hump? 1.75~5 x 32mm Vortex Optics "Diamondback", Weaver high extension rings and UTG mount, model # MNT-HK02.

You know, I don't wish to come off sounding like the Head Shill for this StG, and time may reveal some surprises regarding durability, etc. In fact, many good guns had early teething troubles. I think the jury is still out on ZAMAK as a material for firearms. It may just depend on how and where in the weapon the material is used. IMHO high G, cyclic load applications like a pistol slide or other recoiling part is probably a mis-application of this alloy (ZAMAK is actually a group of alloys, consisting of differing percentages of Zinc, Aluminum, Magnesium and Copper). The Alloy used in the StG, we're told, is ZAMAK 3, a zinc and aluminum alloy with ultimate tensile strength of 38,000 psi. It get tougher with age, but the fatigue strength isn't on a par with steel by a long shot. The same is true of aluminum alloys, but it doesn't prevent engineers from building aircraft out of it, they just limit the number of times the airframe is cycled under load. In the case of the StG, it appears to me the engineers may have gotten it right, taking advantage of ZAMAK's strength to construct a static shell without directly subjecting it to recoil. That job is handled by steel parts, a plastic buffer and springs. Edit: At another posters urging, I did a Google search for "cracked P22 slides". The result was a long list of reports of cracked slides on P22's, Sig Mosquitoes, and GSG 1911s, all constructed of ZAMACK . Then it occurred to me to do a search for just "cracked slides". Here, I found accounts of cracked steel slides on S&Ws, Colt 1911's and clones, the EAA Witness (in 10mm and .40) and plenty of other pistols with steel slides. Cracks in guns don't limit themselves to ZAMAK guns. Steel fails too, especially the non-forged variety. It might be helpful to keep in mind there's over 200 million guns out there, we're gonna hear about failures. Sorta like there's 310 million people in this country, it doesn't surprise us any more when one comes off their rail every few days. {End of philosophical rant } As can be seen in the pictures below, today I received my UTG HK 91 quick detach steel mount. I have a reproduction ZF4 scope on the way, in the interim, I'll make do with the Weaver V7 steel tubed scope from the seventies. The mount snaps on and off and sits solid and level. I had zero issues once I figured out how to work the lever and lock (the middle lever). Note to the sharp eyed: the scope eyepiece needs to be further forward. It is my hope that the shorter ZF4 will correct this problem when it arrives in a few days.

Here are my impressions of the ATI StG44 the day after I picked it up. A word to those who choose to judge it based on the GSG5, go ahead, it'll leave more available for the rest of us. That is to say, GSG has clearly taken the lessons of their earlier efforts to heart as they developed this one. I got out today and shot the ATI StG44, let me get to the bottom line, this gun works great. I jammed the magazine with 25 rounds each time I loaded it. ATI advertizes it as a 25 rounder although it's marked for 24 rounds. There were no failures to feed or other mag related failures. I did lube the bolt carrier and bolt with a light spray of CRC white lithium grease before going out and applied a coat of LPS silicone lube (a plastic compatible water based lubricant) to the plastic magazines' feed rails. Other than that and an inspection of the receiver and bore for obstructions, no special care was taken. First up, twenty-five rounds of CCI AR "Tactical" ammo, ate it all up. Next was twenty-five rounds of the dreaded Remington Thunderbolts, one failed to fire despite a strong primer hit. Twenty-five more went through without incident. Shot up fifty Winchester Super X, no problem. I found some scuzzy old Remingtons, it ate all thirty-five of them too. Tried fifty PMC Sidewinder 40 gr HV, ate them up. I was very impressed with the strong primer hits, examination of the bolt face reveals a large aperture that the firing pin passes through, there appears to be no place for crud to wedge the firing pin in it's passage through the bolt (great design work). SUMMARY: 210 rounds fired, one ignition failure (ammo related), the gun gave every indication it was ready for much more. Bullets? Didn't seem to care, it went through copper washed round nose and hollow points, lead round nose and those golden sh1t metal gilded Remingtons. Main thing is; feed it HV like it says on the side of the gun. Subsonics and standard velocity will not reliably cycle the action. Ejection, by the way, was vigorous and almost straight out to the right several feet. As for accuracy, the gun is at least as accurate as I am. I fired at twenty-five and fifty yards with the iron sights. The front post comes to a sharp point and the rear features a military style ramp with graduations from 1 to 8 (presumably a replica of the original 100 to 800 meter optimistically graduated sight). I found it worked best stock at the ranges I was shooting with the rear set between 7 and 8. Posters on another forum report that filing the front sight down slightly to a flat yields a sight that zeros at fifty yards with the rear leaf set at 3 and 100 yard zero set at 5. This sounds ideal, I may just do the same. Windage on my gun was spot on, there is a functional windage adjustment on the rear sight assembly. There are rumors that ATI is working on a replica optical sight. The original was called the ZF4, made during the War by Zeiss and/or Optotechnica (Czech?), later known as Meopta. Originals are expensively crafted of Unobtanium. There are less costly reproductions available, leaving only the problem of finding a native mount for the StG44 platform (such as the excellent, all steel UTG STANAG HK Gen 2 mount). This is a fantastic plinker/fun gun, it is a ZAMAC "shell gun", but a very heavy and detailed shell with carefully hidden seams. Before beating up on ZAMAC or ZAMAK, one might do well to read up on the zinc "super alloys" on Wikipedia. It turns out that zinc/aluminum/copper alloys have their place, with tensile strengths in the range of 38,000 to 52,000 psi (approaching mild steel!). In short, this is not your father's cap gun. Inside the receiver, the bolt and carrier are ALL STEEL (a plastic buffer rides behind the bolt carrier, the only plastic I've yet found on the gun besides the magazine and the pistol grips) and the trigger mechanism seems sturdy but does not look over engineered. I haven't measured it, but the trigger break seems heavy, like about five to seven pounds, this may be about right for a real StG for all I know. As mentioned, the pistol grips are a decent wood grain plastic with the color dyed through. The butt is wood with an attractive (looks like stained oak) grain, verified steel heel caps and a storage compartment (like the original) with a steel, spring loaded cover. Controls on this gun are all about the right handed shooter. If that's you, then the safety is large and easy to find, although kinda backward, up for "fire" and down for "safe". A large button on the left (also easy to locate) releases the magazine. The weapons' guts dump out with minimum fuss, should be fairly easy to clean. I take my hat off to the developers. The finish is an attractive replica of a phosphate finish that should look even more authentic with some wear, although it won't ever show rust, like some of the crusty originals. The most noticeable shortcomings are the huge magazine sticking out of the bottom of the weapon and the weapons' weight ( 9 pounds 15 1/2 ounces with an empty magazine). One other notable peculiarity is the fact the K98 style sling points are on the "wrong" side of the gun. Historically, goofy Germans didn't use the sling to aid marksmanship, just to lug the weapon around. As a consequence of the sling being on the right (wrong) side, if pulled up too snug the sling interferes with the dust cover/ejection port. Lefties may be able to wring some use out of the sling in regard to marksmanship, the rest of us must settle for admiring the historical accuracy of this silly set-up. Of course, it wouldn't be much of a replica without these cons, but few will choose to drag this baby around to squirrel hunt. Finally, as the StG comes to you "out of the box", the butt stock wiggles when mounted on the receiver. I corrected this with a thin layer of JB Weld applied to the scuffed up (for good adhesion) inside bottom surface of the butt stock socket where it doesn't show, to take up some of the space between it and the receiver. No big deal here, but feels much better without the slop. Last word, what a terror this gun would be chambered for .22 WMR or .17 HMR !

Before you start cutting, please take into account the internal "box" that contains the trigger mechanism. This part is wider than the slot in an AR style grip by quite a margin and has been a show stopper for my plan to adapt an aftermarket AR grip. Not only would one have to chop the lower receiver shell, but this box would need modification too. Parts needing modification inside the box probably will add further complications. Looks like a blue twill, 75 dollar, nickel plated PITA to me.

Sorry to confirm the bad news. The pig importer insists on getting 64-65 bucks for the plastic magazines. I emailed ISSC to explain that this tactic is gonna serve to kill sales of this already problematic gun. The sales boob said he'd bring it up in their next meeting. No results since. This sucks doubly hard in view of the fact that the old importer was able to pry their hands off them for $37 last year. They mismanaged the business and went tits up last year, but not before I got my four! As you may know by now mags for the S&W MP15-22 and Sig 522 are around twenty bucks. This ISSC outfit and their beady eyed greed soaked importer are some kinda nuts.

I think you'll need an AR lower to take measurements from. Then you can aim to duplicate the screw post and surface the grip attaches to. My plan involves cutting away what needs to go, then melting window screen into the base plastic. This will provide a rough edge and a "wireframe" to shape the lower to accept the grip. Build up would be done with JB Kwik or your favorite brand of metal filled epoxy. More than one ply of screen might be prudent. Remember, Legacy Sports ain't gonna take a bright view of your modifications. If you start, you're going to be on your own for repairs( warranty is toast). I say "screw 'em".

You may need to spend some time getting it working reliably before getting all excited about its' appearance. If so, check out this thread over at fnforum. net http://fnforum.net/forums/fn-scar-16s/25613-issc-mk22-supressors-scopes-acessories-etc-3.html

I considered that option. I could not be certain of the dimensions, ISSC apparently has an airsoft background, but the MK 22 parts are subtly different than the commonly available airsoft parts. An example is the stock plate, it has an oval pocket for the charger handle spring follower and the ears on the side are shorter, having only a single screw hole. Another example, the lower receiver, it was intentionally modified to make it less SCAR-like, so it does not dovetail into the stock plate like the real deal and direct clones do. I plan to use G&G side rails to get that detail right, but it will require some new holes poked and threaded into the upper. The ultimate plan is to also modify the lower receiver to accept a AR style grip, this will take some doing. Lucky thing I'm having fun!

Belt sander took most of the silly "rail" off. File finished 'er up. The modifications to the stock involve fusing aluminum window screen into the plastic then building the area up with metal filled epoxy and shaping the part. Front sight is airsoft, required finishing the dovetail with a small piece of aluminum, rear is a real SCAR sight. "All" I have left to do is the side rails and the pistol grip. What got me started was repairing the crumby OEM stock. It went well and the rest is history.

Mine is a work in progress. Here's the latest.