A 9mm dedicated indoor/pistol range carbine.I've been thinking about a 9mm carbine for a while now. I really like the idea of a rifle I can shoot at the indoor range - it'd be nice to keep up the rifle skills in the cold winter months without freezing my digits off. 9mm is a heckuva lot cheaper than .223. I'd finally have a reason to get a holographic sight! I'd been leaning towards a Kel-Tec Sub2000 carbine (or perhaps one of the Beretta Storms), when Tam's comment got me to thinking...
A dedicated 9mm AR-15 might be just the thing I've been looking for. It gives me a centerfire version I can shoot at the indoor range; it keeps the same platform as the intermediate .223 carbine; optics and other accessories can be shared between the two rifles; there's a lot of good reasons to get an AR-15 in 9mm. IIRC, most 9mm ARs use Uzi magazines, of which there are a goodly number of "pre-ban" 32 rounders kicking around.
Now, of course, there's another question: New AR, or just a new upper? I'm leaning towards a complete rifle - I've seen used 9mm ARs for sale for $800 - $1000, whereas the uppers alone tend to run upwards of $700 or so. Then again, it's a lot easier to store one lower and two uppers than two complete rifles - especially when uppers don't even need to be locked up (although I would just for security concerns). If I were to look at a 9mm upper, what should I be looking for? I think I've mentioned that I'm a wicked noob to this whole AR thing, right?
And boy howdy, wouldn't one of those S&W M&P22 rifles be just the trick for a full-on .22 version???
That is all.
10 comments:
I see we've been assimilated by the ARFCOM borg.
heheheheheheh.
What you need, is the 9mm AR pistol I saw this weekend... That, $200 bucks for a stamp, and a Magpul CTR stock, wicked fun indoors carbine.
Tactical solutions .22lr upper.
Either that or the Spikes upper.
You might think about the dedicated 9mm rifle. I believe if you want to use your 5.56 lower, you have to change out the buffer which is easy, and install a 9mm hammer, which isn't so easy.
Regards,
heheheh
Go with a dedicated lower. You'll need a dedicated buffer for 9mm (as heavy as possible, really).
Also, the magwell insert must be swapped over. Colt used roll pins on their builds - effective, but not pretty nor convenient to swap. The newer inserts use an internal screw to hold them in place. Setting the height of the magwell insert sets the height of the mag when feeding, so it can be important and is one of the few things that can be tweaked with a 9mm setup. Once you get it right, you probably want to leave it there instead of having to futz with it every time you shoot 9mm.
The 9mm hammer is NOT needed for a semi (and it is very bad juju for a legal MG) just run a regular AR hammer that doesn't have the notch cut in the front. I believe this un-notched style hammer is in all the DPMS parts kits, or can be made by taking a M16 hammer and grinding off the sear tail.
If you go with a Colt style, be sure to have the carrier ramped (I'll be happy to ramp it for you if you like).
When colt build the original 9mm MGs, they were frikin' fast. They screwed with the bolt & hammer geometry to make the action inefficient and slow down the action. The result is beating the crap out of the hammer pivot pin which beats the heck out of the receiver and can egg out the pivot holes. Colt went to a harder material for pivots on the 9mms to delay the onset of the problem. Regular hammer, ramped bolt will keep you safe. KNS anti-rotation trigger pins for ultimare security.
+1 for picking a gun that has a metric ton of preban mags available. You'll pay dearly for ones with horsies on the side, but uzi mags can be made to work.
Heath,
Can't do. AR pistol is double-plus verboten in MA unless it's pre-1994... Not only is it not on any Approved Firearms Roster {spit}, but it runs seriously afoul of the AWB...
Mike W.,
I'd prefer a dedicated .22 for one simple reason: Magazines. The S&W M&P22 has 10 round magazines available. If I can't find 10 rounders, it's a very expensive single-shot rifle...
NMM1AFan,
I'm leaning towards complete rifle, actually. Unless it's a true "pop two pins and swap" type switch, I'd rather drop a few extra bucks for a complete unit.
Wally,
The more I hear the more I think I'll look for a complete 9mm AR from the get-go. It'd be nice if I could find one that took Sig P226 mags, but I think those are too wide.
Then again, 32 Uzi mags are pretty frikkin' sweet... ;)
No AR pistols in MA, but you could do a SBR I think...
Preban Uzi mags are astonishingly easy to find and pretty cheap. The Uzi-type AR is by far the most common and you can use colt parts for spares - which is a big plus.
Saw a neat 9mm AR vid on youtube:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=utz1nwmg_N8
Jay- I understand you can't have AR pistols, but I was talking an NFA one. Technically an SBR..
I don't know all that much about the legal loopholes one has to jump through to get there though.
Get a Spikes
If youd decide on a 9mm carbine (which I detest), then please ensure that it runs.
I have yet to see a working 9mm carbine at gun skul.
Best wishes,
Shootin' Buddy
I have a superior arms lower ($100) with a DPMS parts kit ($55), Rock River 9mm upper($480), RRA 9mm buffer & hammer($??), and a c-products magwell adapter($100). I also have KNS anti rotate pins (they were coming loose, apparently they are needed in 9mm conversions.) Add a Magpul stock and that's my setup.
It runs like a champ. I havent had any problems aside from the intial magwell problem and discovering I needed the KNS pins.
Here it is 1/2 way down the page (user name: sparty):
http://www.ar15.com/forums/topic.html?b=3&f=15&t=208426&page=41
The only problem I had with it was the cproducts magwell adapter. I got one of the version 1.0s and the feed ramp was not ground smoothly or to spec. 15mins with a dremel and it works great. The new ones have fixed this.
You can pick up those uzi mags for $10 each. I live in a free state and use cproducts mags which work well.
I reload 9mm with lead bullets for around 0.11/round.
The gun gets way way more use than anything else I own.
Email me if you want more details.
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