After getting tired of the concussion from my 10.5" barreled LMT upper and getting curious about different styles of shooting I ordered a 12.5" Kino configuration upper from Bravo Company. Unexpectedly BCM shipped a couple of Panteo DVD's with the upper, one of them from Travis Haley. I've watched some of the video and he gets into the theory behind the "thumb over" style of shooting the AR15 rifles. With the added length of my new upper I decided to give it a shot last week. After getting the irons and T1 zeroed I moved up to 7 yards from the target and started shooting head shots, alternating between my typical style and the thumb over. Initial results were good and I found I was able to hold the dot on the top of the head more consistently with the thumb over.
That settled it for me and I'm going to give it an honest go for awhile. If I end up going back at least I can speak from an educated position on it. This presented a few small issues for me in how I had my rifle configured. Mainly, the pressure pad I used to run in the 10 o'clock position wasn't going to work any longer. I set out to correct that issue and with some slight modifications to the MOE handguard I got that corrected yesterday by mounting the pressure pad in the 4 o'clock position.
Once I had that straightened out I did some dry fire and handling drills with the rifle. It was too hot to go outside and shoot. The new position seemed to work well enough but I started wondering how the Magpul AFG might feel on there. After work I stopped into Elmore's to check into it. I liked the feel of the AFG with my new, farther forward support hand position but it sat too low on the handguard preventing me from reaching the pressure pad easily. I had an idea so I bought it anyway and brought it home.
After I got home from my 2nd job (which allows me to spend money on things like the Kino upper and Magpul stuff) I took the AFG2 to the belt sander. I completely removed the upper portion which allows the AFG to be attached to a rail. It wouldn't sit quite right due to the placement of the pressure pad so a little more sanding was required for clearance. I put a couple of screw holes through it and stole some hardware from another MOE rail I had laying around and attached the AFG2 to the handguard.
I ended up with what feels like perfection. I've got a nice trough to place my index finger into and my middle finger falls nicely on the pressure pad. It is a long way from being pretty but it's solid and functional, at least while I'm giving the thumb over approach an honest effort.
At the moment, the Magpul Koolaid is tasting pretty good.
That settled it for me and I'm going to give it an honest go for awhile. If I end up going back at least I can speak from an educated position on it. This presented a few small issues for me in how I had my rifle configured. Mainly, the pressure pad I used to run in the 10 o'clock position wasn't going to work any longer. I set out to correct that issue and with some slight modifications to the MOE handguard I got that corrected yesterday by mounting the pressure pad in the 4 o'clock position.
Once I had that straightened out I did some dry fire and handling drills with the rifle. It was too hot to go outside and shoot. The new position seemed to work well enough but I started wondering how the Magpul AFG might feel on there. After work I stopped into Elmore's to check into it. I liked the feel of the AFG with my new, farther forward support hand position but it sat too low on the handguard preventing me from reaching the pressure pad easily. I had an idea so I bought it anyway and brought it home.
After I got home from my 2nd job (which allows me to spend money on things like the Kino upper and Magpul stuff) I took the AFG2 to the belt sander. I completely removed the upper portion which allows the AFG to be attached to a rail. It wouldn't sit quite right due to the placement of the pressure pad so a little more sanding was required for clearance. I put a couple of screw holes through it and stole some hardware from another MOE rail I had laying around and attached the AFG2 to the handguard.
I ended up with what feels like perfection. I've got a nice trough to place my index finger into and my middle finger falls nicely on the pressure pad. It is a long way from being pretty but it's solid and functional, at least while I'm giving the thumb over approach an honest effort.
At the moment, the Magpul Koolaid is tasting pretty good.
