Now that steps 1 and 2 are complete, we’ve got one nasty accurate rifle with what is perhaps the world’s most comfortable (and sporty) stock.

What’s next?

How about a two-fer. This week in Step 3, we’re adding a Force Trigger Housing System which gives us a competition grade trigger AND an extended magazine release that allows speedy magazine changes without losing your firing grip. Nifty.

We have to confess that we got lazy with the shopping process for this episode. Overwhelmed by all the possible options for this step, we simply crawled to the Brownells GunTech team whimpering and asked them to take charge of the selection process. A few days later, the Force Trigger Housing System showed up in the mail. And, as you’ll see, it couldn’t be easier to install. I suspect the folks at Brownells are well aware of our lack of engineering skills and deliberately chose something that we couldn’t screw up. Smart folks those Brownells Techs…

First, a little about this component:

This is a complete drop in aluminum assembly with match quality trigger pull of between 2 and 3 pounds. The housing is made from aluminum and is available in matte black or silver. The trigger features a serrated, semi-flat surface with over travel adjustment for individual shooter preference.

This unit includes an extended release which allows magazine drops with your trigger hand. It’s quick and easy.

Let’s get started!

That’s it! We’re done! No parts left over. No blood. All in all another successful project.

With the new Force Trigger Housing System, we’ve now added a two-fer: A competition grade trigger with adjustable travel and an extended magazine release lever for speedy mag changes. If you’re faced with a horde or rodents on your property, you can maintain a high rate of accurate fire.

Join us next time as we add some more gizmos to this fine rifle. We’re going to call the folks at Brownells GunTech to see what we ought to do next. Perhaps an extended bolt handle. Would night vision goggles qualify as a rifle upgrade? Hmmm. Not sure the Brownells folks will buy that logic…

Remember to keep track of this project here. As soon as this rifle is done, it’s getting shipped back to Ruger where it will be photographed and placed for auction on Gunbroker.com with all proceeds going to Project Valour-IT of Soldiers Angels.

Fun Hakim rifle facts…

The Hakim was begat by the Swedish Ljungman AG-42, designed by Erik Eklund around 1941.

Bored with designing guns for a country who hardly ever goes to war, Eklund later founded the pop group ABBA, where he had many fun escapades with that other guy and those two Swedish singer-babes.

Sweden later sold designs and tooling to Egypt as part of an All Middle East ABBA Mega-Tour. In return for releasing the Ljungman AG-42 design and 28% of t-shirt sales, Eklund insisted that the Egyptian government allow the pop group to sing “Fernando” in front of the Great Sphinx of Giza.

One of the design changes made to the AG-42 with the Egyptian Hakim was addition of a larger muzzle brake. The Hakim actually flies forward several feet when fired, while bathing the shooter with a refreshing mist of hot burning gas. This design feature makes rapid surrender almost effortless. Surprisingly, the French never expressed interest in acquiring the design.

The Hakim has the largest perceived weight of any rifle ever built, with most users assuming it weighs in at approximately 419 pounds. In actuality, the Hakim tips the scales at just over 10 pounds. Perception can be deceiving.

One of the reasons that only 60,000 – 70,000 Hakims were produced was weight. As the Hakim arsenal began to sink into underground oil reserves, production was halted as cleaning crude from wooden rifles is very time consuming and messy.

The Hakim features a unique bolt cover mechanism which was specially designed to allow the rifle to be thrown vigorously into the sand with an aggressive surrender motion, without allowing grit to interfere with the operation of the bolt.

Hakim designers anticipated collector interest in rifles that had never been fired before surrender, thereby preparing them for the lucrative gun show market. Collectors who know, know that Hakim’s will be squeaky clean inside due to their unique sand-proof design.

The Hakim operates via direct gas impingement, like the M16 / AR-15, meaning dirty and corrosive powder blast is driven into the firing mechanism. One primary difference between the Hakim and AR design is the addition of an adjustable gas flow regulator, which requires a special tool that is never around when you need one. Like in the heat of battle.

The Hakim fires the 8x57mm IS cartridge, otherwise known as the 8mm Mauser. This is generally a 192 grain projectile which used to be insanely cheap to buy until it rose in popularity after a series of wildly successful Billy Mays television infomercials.

To open the bolt of a Hakim, the user has to first push it forward in a closing motion, then pull the bolt carrier backwards. This counterintuitive design was apparently intended to prevent enemy soldiers with no musical training (think trombone here) to use captured Hakims against the Egyptians.

The Hakim was manufactured during the 1950’s and into the early 60’s. It saw battlefield service in the Suez Crisis / Sinai War of 1956 where large numbers of Hakim’s were thrown down in surrender in anticipation of a voracious military surplus rifle collector market.

And there you have it – an abbreviated history of one of the more interesting military rifles of the 20th century.

Our female Welsh Springer Spaniel has extra-sensory perception. She can spot a bird, squirrel, chinchilla, or any other furry living being from a distance of 42.7654887 light years, provided that sun spots are not acting up. Late this afternoon, she starts barking at the back yard fence – looking intently out into the swamp behind our home. Real estate agents refer to this as ‘scenic wetlands.’ Anyway, her brother, who is kind of a special needs puppy, remains clueless about the events, but starts barking anyway. Mainly because it’s fun.

Looking out into the scenic wetlands from our second level deck, we spot a doe lying on the ground looking our way. Seeing a deer in the yard is not at all unusual, but seeing one just laying there staring at us is. Then, into view comes a staggering, wobbly fawn – closely followed by another. Meanwhile the doe is continuing to tidy things up as they were born minutes prior.

So here’s something a little different for your enjoyment…

www.crimsontrace.com

Suggested Retail Price: $279.00

The Good	The Bad	The Ugly	Our Rating
The LG-850 for Glock Gen 4 pistols is easy to install, easy to use, and foolproof.	She now wants the Glock 26 Gen 4 compatible model…	We’re gonna have to buy the Glock 31 in for evaluation. That with Lasergrips and Lightguard make a compelling nightstand gun.	Four Nuns! Simply put, it’s hard to find any fault with this setup.

The Crimson Trace LG-850 Lasergrip for Glock full sized and compact models is designed specifically to play nicely with others. With it’s rear-of-frame-mount and backstrap pressure pad activation switch, it is designed to complement the Crimson Trace Lightguard which we covered in an earlier review. As the Lightguard features a front activation switch, using both units concurrently is an option. Of course, all this stuff is mounted below frame level so it does not interfere with your personal choice of iron sights either.

The rear mounted pressure activation pad is reliable and consistent. We had no problems with intermittent activation with any sort of normal grip. The nice thing about placement on the back of the back strap is that there is virtually no chance of holster interference with the switch. On occasion, with side mounted switches, we’ve had some trouble with certain holsters activating lasers while the gun is holstered. None of that here.

A noticeable difference with the Glock Gen 4 models is the design of the side panels where the batteries are housed. More angular in design, they are placed low enough that your firing hand thumb and trigger finger ride well above them, preventing an real change in the perceived trigger reach. While the middle of the grip is wider due to the panels, we found very little change in trigger finger placement.

Features

• Rear activation pressure pad
• Master On / Off switch
• Battery life: 4+ hours
• Windage and elevation adjustments
• 3 year warranty
• Dot size: Approximately 1/2” at 50 feet

Clap on, clap off

Well, not quite, but one of the things we like about the Crimson Trace LG-850 lasergrip is the Master On/Off switch design. The master switch completely disables or re-enables the grip sensitive pressure pad switch. This is particularly useful for general practice, plinking, competitions, or any other shooting situation where you don’t want the laser to operate and burn down your batteries. It is operated with a pressure switch on the back strap that is protected by a small circular ridge. This makes it very unlikely that you will power the unit on or off inadvertently. Simply hold the button in for a moment and the laser is disables. Repeat to re-enable the laser. It’s easy to operate and we had no issues with accidental activation – you have to be pretty intentional about turning it on or off.

Installation

Installation of the Crimson Trace LG-850 Lasergrips on our Glock 17Gen 4 and Glock 31 Gen 4 was a snap. We used only one tool, which was included, made no trips to Wal-Mart for batteries, and had no parts left over when all was said and done.

All in all a successful project.

Closing arguments

Installing the Crimson Trace LG-850 Lasergrips on a carry gun is a no-brainer. There is no interference with a holster, and depending on how you adjust the laser relative to iron sights, there is no distraction of the laser dot when using iron sights. We preferred setting the dot low enough that it was covered by the front sight when they were perfectly aligned.

Where the Crimson Trace LG-850 Lasergrips really shinse is in combination with the Crimson Trace Lightguard. These two accessories, mounted on a pistol with good night sights, make a fantastic home defense gun. No switches, levers, or gimmicks to worry about. Just grip the gun and you’ve got light and laser with the option of using tradition iron sights.

Check out other My Gun Culture product reviews here!

Admit it. You’ve already got the Activia jingle going in your head.

Or at least you’re wondering why a perennial hottie like Jamie Lee Curtis is now hawking butt modulating yogurt.

Or what happens when bullets strike Bifidus Regularis bacteria – gajillions of them?

Or whether ammunition has occasional irregularity?

Or whether prune flavored yogurt has a messier ballistic aftermath than something fruitier – like strawberry mango tropi-blend with guava-kiwi-pomegranate concentrate?

Or if premium ammunition is worth the cost in terms of facilitating intestinal transit?

But enough of that. After seeing the Activia commercial for the 3,012th time, and listening to its claims of being able to handle the toughest of bowels, we had to ask some questions.

Can prunes handle Hornady Critical Defense pills?

Can Activia regulate the performance of high velocity 9mm and .40 S&W expanding ammunition?

Is the explosion caused by bullets hitting prune yogurt similar to that caused by prune yogurt hitting your bowels?

These are important questions and we aimed to find out.

If you hadn’t figured it out already, we stocked up on Prune Flavored Activia and headed to the range with a few boxes of both Hornady Critical Defense and Hornady Critical Duty ammo. Jamie Lee Curtis did not attend as ballistic testing is not covered in her endorsement contract.

What caliber is appropriate for prune yogurt? We had no idea, so we went with two common self-defense calibers – 9mm and .40 Smith & Wesson. Not knowing how tough of a barrier prune flavored Activia is, we tried both Hornady Critical Defense, designed for civilian self defense use, and Hornady Critical Duty, designed to penetrate tougher bowels barriers, yet still expand.

Here’s what we learned.

Shooting yogurt makes everyone at the range laugh like kindergartners with a whoopee cushion.

Expansion was not an issue. The yogurt expanded all over the range, and some counties of 3 bordering states.

When shooting yogurt, bring lots of wet wipes.

If you get into a running gunfight in a health food store, no worries about evil d00dz taking cover behind the Activia display – you can shoot right through it.

I’m one of those guys who enjoys reloading. Yes, I can save some money on a cost per round basis – if I place an hourly value on my time somewhere below the cost of 1/3 of a Wintergreen Tic Tac. The main reason I reload is that I like to tinker. Why experiment with 42 varieties of .357 Sig? Why shoot lead bullets at 1,000 feet per second out of my 1903 Springfield? Why not?

But lately, I’m having doubts about my patience for tinkering with one specific caliber. That would be .223 Remington, or when I’m feeling tactical, 5.56mm. Quite frankly, it’s a pain in the butt.

If it was a low volume shooting round, that would be one thing. Tinkering for hours to make a few hundred rounds of some caliber is fine if it will last a couple of shooting outings. But, as I have found out, my kids are capable of maintaining a constant cyclic rate of fire of just over 42,358 rounds per minute in semi-automatic mode with my sons DPMS A3 Lite AR-15 rifle. Doing some quick math, I might spend 42.8 hours reloading .223 ammo that lasts 19 milliseconds at the range.

Not only that, the process of reloading .223 ammo is somewhat complicated and has many important steps:

I gripe at my kids to pick up the .223 brass from the range.

Next, I have to cancel texting service on their phones so they can pay attention to the request I made in step 1.

Sort thousands of rounds of dirty brass to filter out the desirable .223 brass. Separate it from the 5.56mm brass that has gotten mixed in. Those Navy Seals have a bad habit of sneaking around mixing their military brass into my stuff. Sneaky bastards.

Call Discovery Channel, again, to request that Mike Rowe does an episode of Dirty Jobs about sorting range brass. Ask why they have stopped taking my calls.

Shoo my dogs away from nosing around dirty, leady brass that suddenly seems more interesting to them than bacon topped with Cheez Whiz.

Dump a pile of filthy .223 brass into my Lyman 1200 Auto-Flo Tumbler. This causes earthquake like sounds to reverberate from my garage for hours. Fortunately the neighbors no longer call 911 or the University of Southern California Earthquake Research Center.

After the brass is reasonably clean, I make sure that all of the walnut / corn cob / gritty tumbler media stuff is out of the cases. As the .223 case has a mouth diameter just smaller than a mosquito’s left nostril, this step is more difficult that it sounds. Shaking the case vigorously doesn’t always do it, so I’m thinking about rinsing them with an insect-sized Neti Pot.

Now for the brass depriming and resizing step. Here is where things get interesting. Invariably, at least 5 out of 4 cases will get stuck in the sizing die, causing me to stop the operation, drill out the case head, and remove it with bolts and a thread tap I bought at Wal-Mart. Yes, the stuck case situation might have happened one night after proper hardware stores were closed. Friends don’t let friends buy tools at Wal-Mart after all – that’s what pawn shops are for. Oh, by the way, Mighty Putty is on sale.

In a fit of impatience trying to get the show back on the road, I break the tap. What, anger issues? Me? Hey it was a cheap tap bought at Wal-Mart after all. It was asking for it.

Figure out how to remove a case that’s stuck in the die, that in turn has a broken tap stuck in it. This is a great time to go watch a re-run of Home Improvement. And ask my neighbor if I can borrow a flame thrower.

After the load of brass is successfully deprimed and resized, I break out the case trimmer. Don’t lose heart, we’re 10% of the way done.

My wife and kids decide to go on vacation. They know I will be trimming brass 18 hours a day for the next few weeks.

I gently move my dogs that have camped out on top of my feet. Apparently they think I have died standing in this position and are holding vigil.

Some ammo companies have the audacity to crimp their .223 primers in place. I have reason to believe that this is a plot by my dogs to keep me from moving for another couple of weeks as they are continuing to soundly sleep on my feet. Apparently my shoes are comfortable and smell nice. In any event, this step involves either reaming or swaging the primer pockets to make sure that new primers will actually fit. Swaging is the way to go here. You don’t cut away metal and the results are consistent. It’s kind of like making an auto part fit by hammering it really hard. Dillon makes an excellent swaging tool that is well worth the money.

Now we’re on the offensive and are beginning steps that are actually adding stuff back to the empty case. So you can think of this as the beginning of the 3rd quarter. Except that the Colts are ahead.

Using one of several highly scientific techniques, I stuff new primers into the newly reamed or swaged primer pockets. Depending on volume and how bad my mood is from dealing with stuck cases in my resizing dies, I will use the hand method or a progressive reloading press. If something really good is on TV, like Band of Brothers reruns, I use my hand operated Lee Auto Prime tool, since I don’t have DirectTV in my man cave. If Fashion Stars is on, and I therefore have no access to the TV due to the ‘Chicks Occupying Den Movement’, I’ll configure the Hornady Lock and Load Auto Progressive press to knock out a few steps at once – priming, powder charging, and bullet seating. But for discussion’s sake, let’s follow the hand priming route. It’s far more dramatic for this particular column.

If you’re feeling like the Anal Retentive Chef, it’s time to chamfer and deburr the case mouths with some sort of hand or electric tool. I’ve been dying to try out Hornady’s Lock and Load Case Prep Center, but for now am using stone tools fashioned from cinder blocks. Either that or I skip this step entirely.

It’s time for charging the case. This is fancy techno-speak for adding powder that makes things go bang. I like to use TAC by Ramshot as it works well, and more importantly, is really easy to measure consistently. And it looks like something people would identify as gunpowder.

It’s bullet time. The grand finale. The climactic moment. Add the bullet and crimp the case – usually in one simple step.

And now, last but not least, it’s final check time. As I put the rounds into plastic ammo boxes, I like to do one last visual check to make sure primers are there, they they are not upside down, that the case looks good with no cracks, and that there are no love handles on the case shoulder. Sometimes, a case will sneak through the system that is a tad to long, and when it gets to the bullet seating and crimping step, a very unsexy bulge is created at the shoulder. Not good. Mainly because it creates another step – pulling the bullet out and fixing the case.

And there it is. Just a few simple steps to prepare for my kids unleashing a hailstorm of .223 downrange – for at least 9 seconds.

Sometimes I think it’s just better to buy some bulk .223 from my friends at LuckyGunner.com.

We were looking for some decent plinking .223 ammo for the DPMS A3 Lite that wouldn’t break the bank – and that had brass cases acceptable for reloading. We’ve had decent success with some of the less expensive steel-cased ammo, and there is certainly a convenience benefit of not feeling guilty about picking up all the brass to save for future reloading. But given the very small price difference between the reloadable American Eagle and some of the communist block steel cased stuff, we elected to give it a try.

Is it acceptable bargain plinking ammo? Yes. It works – we have yet to experience an ammo related problem with it. Weighing random samples, we found reasonable consistency round to round. Looking at overall cartridge length was another matter, with about a .08 inch variance from rounds in the same box. Did we care? No. This was purchased as plinking ammo for fun, and at about 40 cents per round it’s great for reloaders. Shoot it once and keep the brass for the next several outings.

Way more cost efficient than buying raw brass as you get to shoot it first before the reloading process.

We’ll buy more.

AVAILABLE HERE: American Eagle (Federal) .223 Ammo 20/box

Last Week…

Last week in Step 1: Sportify the Stock, we replaced the standard stock on our Ruger 10/22 with a custom Revolution Extreme one, graciously donated by Brownells. This week, we’re going to replace the barrel with a sporty competition model from Tactical Solutions – also graciously donated by Brownells.

Remember, at the end of this series, we’re going to end up with one heck of a rifle. And we’re going to auction it on GunBroker.com so 100% of the proceeds will be donated to Project Valour-IT of Soldiers Angels.

Step 2 Objectives

1. Take a perfectly good barrel off a perfectly good Ruger 10/22 carbine. Because we can.
2. Do NOT butch up the receiver. “Butching up” is a techincal gunsmithing term that loosely translates to “gouging metal.”
3. Do NOT butch up the shiny new Tactical Solutions barrel.
4. Try to avoid the use of large sledgehammers and/or blowtorches. This might cause the Brownells GunTech Team to resign en-masse and we wouldn’t want that to happen. Who would we call for advice about Step 3?
5. Make sure that the rifle still feeds and shoots. In a forward direction. Preferably .22LR ammunition.

The Parts

Tactical Solutions X-Ring Barrel

The Tactical Solutions X-Ring Barrel upgrade adds the “bull” part of this step

• .920” diameter, 6061-T6 billet aluminum construction
• Threaded end with included matching thread protector
• Oversized shank (more about this below)
• 1 in 16” twist 4140 button rifled steel liner with 11° target crown
• This one is silver. And quite sporty looking.

Tactical Solutions Compensator

Given the massive power and recoil of the .22LR rifle, we opted to include a thread-attached Tactical Solutions Compensator. Ok, to come clean, we didn’t really add this to help reduce recoil, because it’s pretty much non-existent anyway. It just looks cool, OK? Isn’t that a good enough reason?

• 

  360° gas ports allow for even distribution of gasses for optimum accuracy

• Machined from solid billet of 6061-T6 aluminum
• No indexing or gunsmithing required to fit on Tactical Solutions ½ x 28 TPI Threaded end barrels
• 0.920” Outside diameter so it fits exactly flush with the X-Ring barrel

How To

Admittedly, we were more than a little nervous going into this step as our previous gunsmithing experience has been limited to advanced techniques like ordering extra magazines from Brownells.com and replacing the factory grips on a Beretta 92-FS with Hogue Rubber Grips . That one was kind of hairy – we had to remove at least 4 different screws. And put them back.

However, Larry Weeks from Brownells talked us off the ledge and convinced us we could do this without professional assistance. While psychiatric services might be required, there would be no need for professional gunsmithing.

The Tactical Solutions X-Ring Barrel includes a very easy-to-follow set of instructions. And, as it turns out, swapping a barrel on a Ruger 10/22 couldn’t be easier. Apparently this rifle was designed with interchangeability in mind. As for the compensator, we were able to do without detailed instructions – you just screw it on.

Here goes…

Voila!

Purely as a quality control measure, we took the completed rifle with it’s shiny new barrel to the range to make sure it still worked. After all, one of our Step 2 objectives was to make sure that the rifle still was able to fire .22LR ammunition in a mostly forward direction. We tried a small variety of ammo types and experienced not a single problem with ejection or feeding. Considering we just put a whole new barrel on the Ruger 10/22, that was some very good news.

Yes, this rifle is already more fun to shoot than should be legal. Golf balls will be at your mercy at most any reasonable distance.

Next Steps…

Join us next week when things get really hairy. Hairy and triggery. We’re taking apart the receiver to install a new trigger group. Be on the lookout for explosions originating from an undisclosed location somewhere in South Carolina.

Stay tuned!

Continuing momentum for the gun industry was evident at the Brownells 2012 Gunsmith Career Fair. Attended by nearly 200 current and prospective gunsmiths and 50 exhibiting companies, Larry Weeks of Brownellscalled the event a great success. “I was particularly impressed by the professionalism of the attendees” noted Larry. “Many participants from various gunsmithing schools showed up dressed in official school shirts – the sense of pride was evident.”

Brownells hosts the annual event to help match prospective gunsmiths and employers and to provide cutting-edge educational seminars to the gunsmith community. Dozens of big name gun, reloading, tools, and accessory companies all gathered at the Des Moines Marriott Friday and Saturday, almost certainly sending local Department of Homeland Security staffers into apoplectic shock. Fortunately, no hospitalizations have been reported. Among others, representatives from Hornady, STI International, FNH, Caesar Guerini, Les Baer Custom, DSA, Berry’s Manufacturing, Cylinder and Slide,  Lauer Custom Weaponry, Forster Products, and Barrett exhibited at the event. And generous giveaways were abundant. Paul and Sharon Dressel put together a mountainous prize pack from their suppliers and their own stocks of premium gun stock blanks, Krieger Barrels brought over a dozen barrels, and Hawkeye gave away a $2,000 video Borescope system to one lucky gunsmith – just to name a few of the donations.

According to Larry, three major themes emerged during the event. First, nearly everyone was looking for CNC talent. That’s Computer Numerical Control. Sort of like HAL 9000 for guns. It’s a fancy way of defining the combination of computer aided design and computer aided manufacturing that allows gun makers to automatically link design and milling processes. Second, companies are hiring gunsmiths in record numbers. Some of the participating companies were looking for hire a dozen or more gunsmiths – each – and that’s a great indicator of the continued health of the industry. Last, the professionalism of the students continues to increase with each passing year. More and more people are getting into gunsmithing as a vocation and the serious commitment shows. Another great sign for the shooting industry.

As an example of the type of content featured at the event, the folks from Hawkeye Precision Borescopes put on a session showing students how Borescope technology, integrated with personal computers, allows today’s gunsmiths to create a customer ready video showing the interior of their rifle barrels. What a great way to sell barrel conditioning or replacement services. Please use these devices for gun barrel analysis only, no medical procedures allowed! Oh, and Hawkeye generously donated a $2,000 video Borescope setup. Sometimes it’s nice to be a gunsmith.

Perhaps the most important item learned at this years event came from John Krieger of Krieger Barrels. During his keynote speech, John  confessed that when you get right down to it, no one really knows why one barrel shoots better than another. They can use the same metal stock lot, air gauge the barrels, find perfect matches, and one will somehow shoot better than another. Fortunately John offered up an explanation for this. Back in the day, somewhere around 17,358 B.C. or thereabouts, when rifling was invented, some believed that the rifling spun the demons off of the bullets, thereby making them more accurate. Apparently some demons hang on with more gusto than others. We still use that excuse here when accuracy suffers…

If you are interested to learn more about the annual Gunsmith Fair, check out the site.