Bluing and Cerakote Update
The slow crawl toward commercial bluing continues. Who would've guessed that with all the panic over the past few months bluing salts would be in short supply? I have almost everything I need, but am currently waiting for one backorder after another until everything gets here. I'm putting off the slow rust bluing setup for another few weeks while I build a sweatbox and boil tank... that will let me focus more on the hot dip bluing.
There's been considerable interest in Cerakote, so between now and then I'm going to see what the most popular colors are. I suspect that flat black, FDE and OD green will be mainstays and probably pink for the ladies. I will also likely grab the bright "safety orange" color since that goes with the business colors. An orange and black two tone could look pretty good come to think of it...
Any thoughts on the go-to colors beyond those mentioned? Drop me an email with requests; down the road I'll be adding patterns, camo and multiple color jobs beyond basic two tone once the color library is fleshed out.
Mepro 21 – Bullseye Reticle
The customer who purchased the FDE Tavor also ordered a Mepro 21 reflex optic, the same type used by the IDF on their TAR-21 rifles as well as the sight bundled with the IDF model IWI-US semiauto Tavor rifle. While the IDF model uses a sight attachment rib that bolts directly to the barrel and the sight bolts to the rail, the commercial Mepro 21 sights have integrated throw lever quick detach 1913 rail mounts or M16 style carry handle mounts.
The Mepro 21 has many different reticle types available, including the "bullseye" shown here, two sizes of triangle (9 and 12 MOA base), dot only in various sizes and an "open X" which is rather like a first person shooter game's crosshair canted 45 degrees. All of the reticle styles are designed for fast acquisition in all light conditions, particularly since the sight itself is dual illuminated to support it. Unlike some other sights which attempt the dual illumination setup but fall short of the mark in some areas, the Mepro 21 seems to be extremely good at gauging light levels and adjusting to the right brightness. I've used auto-adjusting/light sensor sights before and usually had issues with it being way too bright or too dim, while in my constant fiddling with my example unit here the Mepro has been spot on or just a touch dim everywhere I've taken it.
Here it is in low light, it turns out taking these sorts of pictures is incredibly frustrating. I should probably ask someone who knows a thing or two about cameras how to do this for the future!
Mepro 21 in low light
Overall I'm very impressed and can't wait to get some serious range time with the optic to try 100 yard shots on that center dot. Mako Group/Meprolight have a posted minimum price for dealers of $524.25 but units can be found cheaper on Amazon or your friendly neighborhood gunsmith!
Credit Cards No Longer Accepted
It seems that the biggest trend in banking and finance right now is categorizing firearms, ammunition and knife sales as "high risk". For the past year I've utilized Square, a very user friendly and quick paying card processor who also hands out free card readers for phones like candy. This morning all Square account holders received an email updating their terms of service, which now blanket prohibit ALL firearms, ammunition or knife sales using their system.
So, in short I'm out a card processor and once again will not be accepting credit or debit cards until I find a firearms friendly payment processor who doesn't arbitrarily change their rules when it's politically inconvenient to support gun dealers.
If anyone has suggestions, feel free to email me. I'm aware that both Intuit and Paypal are very anti-gun, so I'm open to suggestions.
Technical Difficulties – Resolved
Recent downtime was due to switching over the DNS nameservers, nothing major!
An aside to anyone holding off on ordering odds and ends... I'll have two distributor orders going out in the next week or so! Drop me an email and add some things to them! Hogue knives, slings, multi-tools... pretty much anything but ammo. I should be getting a Mepro 21 optic in as well, but those are very limited stock it seems.
The Little Things (Tavor)
Couple quick images for those curious what is included with the Tavor...
Tool Kit contents include a sight wrench, chamber brush and a set of extra heavy duty QD swivels in addition to the usual items. The giant chimney sweep brush is for cleaning the inside of the receiver and bolt rails, apparently.
Yes the front sight post has a tritium element inset into it. It seems to be about as bright as Meprolight night sights (not as bright as Trijicon) which makes sense given the rifle's lineage.
The rifle ships with the bolt group and other metal parts lightly coated with Weapon Shield gun oil. Yes, I can tell just by the smell. This is a nice touch because my usual advice to customers is to clean their gun immediately before taking it to the range. Most manufacturers use thick shipping grease or other protective products that are not intended to be gun oil/grease and of course fail miserably at it. Seems like the Tavor is range ready out of the box!
Introducing the Tavor
As I hinted a couple posts back...
NOTE: NOT FOR SALE. FDE model is spoken for and the black model is remaining with me as a range rental and generally all around awesome thing to have.
The folks at IWI are great people and I'm glad to have been given the chance to work with them and get my hands on a couple of Tavors. I followed the entire development cycle of the semi-auto rifles, their introduction in Canada and the long bumpy road to being available here in the US... but I never imagined they'd also be very supportive of local small businesses!
To nobody's great surprise I have one of the rifles stripped down in front of me on the computer desk and have a number of ideas for tuning the oft complained about trigger. The entire rifle's build quality is stellar, I really can't wait to get that trigger tuned down to 5-ish pounds and give more range report feedback.
I'll likely be posting more on the Tavors later and the work I perform on one of them.
Lionhearts and Ammo
During my spring cleaning adventure I dug up a small quantity of Federal American Eagle .223 and a scattering of .22LR. With ammo being impossible to find I don't really want to sell it, but I also don't have personal firearms in either caliber at the moment, so someone else needs the ammo more than I do. I have about 400 rounds of the .223 on hand to sell in either 50 or 100 round packs. The .22LR will be available in 50 round boxes, no bricks left.
No posted pricing, if you need ammo email me and we'll work something out. If it saves me posting it on Gunbroker or shipping it, even better.
LIONHEART PISTOL UPDATE: The Gen 2 pistols with Novak wide notch combat sights will be available in roughly 2-3 weeks. The price difference over the standard models is about $40 which is a steal for quality combat sights installed by Novak themselves. As always, if interested drop me a line and we'll get something ordered up!
Spring Cleaning!
Over the next week I'll be digging through my parts boxes looking for random accessories, mags, useful bits and whatever else I come across that needs a new home. I'll probably post it as a list and a picture of one table full of stuff at a time, and just about everything involved should ship in a flat rate box for about $5.
Along with that, all clean and oil jobs are discounted! Get that grime from hunting season off or have an old gun you inherited cleaned and checked out for $25 until the first of next month.
Finally, the bluing setup project continues with some minor setbacks due to medical bills. With the weather warming up finally and unexpected circumstances handled, we're back on track for returning to cerakote operation and full blown hot dip bluing in the very near future. Then after that... range improvements and machine shop.
Updates, Lionheart Pistols and More
I've been meaning to put up a post with finalized pricing on the Lionheart pistols for about a week now but have been all kinds of busy. Not that that's a bad thing! Here's the rundown:
Compact Models, $580 out the door
Full Size Models, $600 out the door
Mark II (railed), $630 out the door
Right now the full size in black is definitely in stock, and the compact in brown is definitely out of stock (UPDATE: ETA is March 15th for brown LH9c pistols). The other models and colors I don't have certain availability on as of right now but I'll be checking in with Josh again for another order this week.
Additional magazines will be $25 each if ordered with the gun or as part of a combined backorder. Ordering mags by themselves, $30 each. Mags right now are backordered about 2 weeks and I have 10 on backorder currently, so feel free to add to it!
In other news, I'll be taking my sharpening on the road over the next couple months. My folks run an online toy and collectibles store and will be attending numerous flea markets and the like, so between those and possibly some gun show weekends I'll be wearing my arms out sharpening. Make sure to check the updated sharpening page for current rates, finishes and some pictures showing off the finished products!
Last but not least, stay tuned for something really cool coming down the pike here at the range...