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Monday, July 31, 2006

The Tactical Blog from Cactus Tactical

The AR-15

A. Origins. The AR15 Rifle was designed by Eugene Stoner and his team of engineers in the 1960 s for entry into U.S. military trials for a new battle rifle to replace the M-14. Mr. Stoner, working at the time for ArmaLite (a division of the Fairchild Aircraft & Engine Corporation), engineered a revolutionary new rifle utilizing non-traditional rifle materials such as aluminum alloys and plastics. It was initially designed around the .222 Remington cartridge. It was later, at the request of the Army, re-chambered in .223 Remington (5.56×45mm) which propelled a 55-grain bullet out of the AR15 at roughly 3000 ft.-plus per second. With the .223-calibered AR15 sight rifle, for the same weight, a soldier could carry more ammunition than the older .308 Win (7.62×51mm) ammunition for the heavier M-14 rifle.

After lengthy evaluation and revisions, the AR15 rifle was only adopted by the U.S. Air Force for use by its base security personnel. For a variety of political reasons, the Army did not select the rifle. However, as America became involved in the Vietnam War, Secretary of Defense James McNamara cut through the Army Ordnance Department's red tape and selected the AR15 for issuance to troops. The Army gave it the military designation of “M16″.

In the Vietnam War, the rifle initially earned a reputation as being prone to jamming and stoppages. This was, in hindsight, due to three primary factors: 1) insufficient training of the troops on weapons maintenance, 2) poor-to-non-existent distribution of cleaning kits to those same troops in the field, and 3) improperly formulated .223 Remington ammunition which caused heavy fouling (a primary cause of stoppages). Eventually, the situation was recognized and remedied as troops were properly trained to keep their weapons clean and well-lubricated, issued proper cleaning kits, and issued .223 Remington ammunition that was properly formulated to burn cleanly.

B. The AR15 Legacy. Today, the AR15 rifle has become really one the most highly engineered and refined battle rifles of modern armies. It has since earned a reputation for reliability and accuracy. It has been in service in all branches of U.S. Armed Forces now for nearly 30 years. In the process, it has been upgraded from the “M16“, to the “M16-A1″, all the way through the latest “M16-A4″. The U.S. Marine Corps (USMC) and the U.S. Military Special Operations Command (SOCOM) also currently issues to its troops, the M-4 rifle, which is essentially an M-16 with a 14.5″ barrel, collapsible stock, detachable carrying handle, and other special accessories such as laser/infrared sighting systems, reflex-type optics, grenade launchers, flashlight attachments, etc. For these Special Forces, the M-4 has also been in certain instances reconfigured to fire “full auto”, as opposed to “tri-burst”.

The current generation of military M-16's and civilian AR15 accessories models differ from the originals in many ways, reflecting the improvements and refinements of the rifle over the last 30 years. Current Military Specifications (Mil-Spec) for the rifle s barrel is for a heavy barrel (HBAR), replacing the original lightweight barrel which was prone to overheating and bending. Nearly all current civilian AR15 sights now are built with Mil-Spec HBAR s. The original triangular-shaped, non-perforated handguards have been replaced by rounded, perforated, and heat-shielded handguards for rapid heat dissipation of the barrel. Other changes include; a tri-burst sear on the M-16 replacing the fully automatic sear of the original, adding a brass deflector to keep spent cartridges out of left-handed shooters faces, adjustable front sight and fully adjustable rear sight for windage and elevation, detachable carrying handles, etc.
Today s military contract for the M-16 variants has been awarded to Fabrique Nationale d Armes de Guerres (FN) of Belgium (though the actual rifles are built here in the United States). Colts Manufacturings Co., which lost the lucrative M-16 contract, has retained the smaller contract for the M-4 rifle mentioned above. It has been reported that prior to Colt s obtaining the M-4 contract, Bushmaster Firearms Co. had manufactured a limited run of M-4 s. (Note: According to recent firearms industry news, as of December 1997, Colt is currently in the process of acquiring FN.)

C. Whats in a Name? The name, “AR15“, in general is used by the shooting public in reference to all current rifles (regardless of manufacturer) made to look, function, and swap-parts with the AR15. Non-military contract AR15's are also commonly referred to as “clones”. The actual and original AR15, manufactured by ArmaLite and then Colt (after buying the manufacturing rights from ArmaLite) has been discontinued for political reasons. Each manufacturer of AR15-patterned rifles now has its own moniker for the rifle these days; like Colt's “Match Target”, Bushmaster's “XM15E2″, DPMS's “Panther”, and the hilarious Olympic Arms “PCR” for “Politically Correct Rifle”.





Shawn in the Korengal Valley, Kunar Province, Afghanistan.


For more info on these and other weapons
Technical specs compiled from:
http://armypubs.army.mil/doctrine/Active_FM.html
http://world.guns.ru/index-e.html
https://en.wikipedia.org
http://www.militaryfactory.com/
http://www.olive-drab.com/
http://www.army.mil/
http://dok-ing.hr/products/demining/mv_4?productPage=general
http://www.peosoldier.army.mil/

"The appearance of U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) visual information does not imply or constitute DoD endorsement."

Sunday, July 30, 2006

The Tactical Blog from Cactus Tactical

Automated Link Manager

Today, we rolled out an automated system on our web store: Cactus Tactical Supply, to manage our link exchange program. The direct url is:
Cactus Tactical's link program. The new system is fully automated and fill have new links visible within 48 hours. If you would like to exchange links with us, fill in the requested information and be sure to include the link to our site that you just added. Submit the request and you should get a response within 48 hours.

Reciprocal links play a major role in boosting the search engine rankings measured by search engines. When ranking sites, most – if not all – major search engines take into account the number and quality of the sites that link to you.

So getting good, solid reciprocal links is usually a major part of any web marketing strategy.

Persuading good quality, relevant sites to link to you can be tedious, time-consuming and frustrating. By automating this process, we hope to reduce our time spent maintaining our links pages and assist other worthy web pages with their linking efforts.





Shawn in the Korengal Valley, Kunar Province, Afghanistan.


For more info on these and other weapons
Technical specs compiled from:
http://armypubs.army.mil/doctrine/Active_FM.html
http://world.guns.ru/index-e.html
https://en.wikipedia.org
http://www.militaryfactory.com/
http://www.olive-drab.com/
http://www.army.mil/
http://dok-ing.hr/products/demining/mv_4?productPage=general
http://www.peosoldier.army.mil/

"The appearance of U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) visual information does not imply or constitute DoD endorsement."

Tuesday, July 25, 2006

The Tactical Blog from Cactus Tactical

Web Store Redesign - Official Announcement

Our retail web store has been completely revamped! We have added online order status checking, inventory control, affiliate support and an enhanced search capability for our customers use.

Come check it out at www.cactustactical.com and let us know what you think about it!

All previous customers are still in our database so your order status should be current. We are in the process of transferring every bit of info we have on current and past orders over to the new site so please let us know if something is missing.

We are also continuing our military support policy by providing a 10% discount on all items purchased for any order shipped to an APO / FPO, etc.

Discounts and specials will be posted on a weekly basis. This week we are spotlighting various Blackhawk products: the high end Night Ops Gladius flashlights are available for $229.99. Stop by and let us know what you think.





Shawn in the Korengal Valley, Kunar Province, Afghanistan.


For more info on these and other weapons
Technical specs compiled from:
http://armypubs.army.mil/doctrine/Active_FM.html
http://world.guns.ru/index-e.html
https://en.wikipedia.org
http://www.militaryfactory.com/
http://www.olive-drab.com/
http://www.army.mil/
http://dok-ing.hr/products/demining/mv_4?productPage=general
http://www.peosoldier.army.mil/

"The appearance of U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) visual information does not imply or constitute DoD endorsement."