Tyrone Goes Dumpster Diving - 11/05/22
Not really, but I did buy a cheap upper.
I've been wanting to get a .350 Legend upper or rifle but I haven't wanted to spend a lot of money on one. I figure a .350L barrel ought to be good for at least 4,000 rounds so if I shoot deer with it every year it will last me about 1,000 years.
So when I saw the Davidson Defense 'Aviere' 16" AR-15 .350 Legend NIT Upper for about $225 assembled, I pulled the trigger on it. Service was good, they shipped it the next day.
When I got it, I went over it. It looks nice. I got the Mlok I wanted along with the sling attachment points.
I pared it with an existing lower, a PSA BCG and a T-handle. The upper was very difficult to pair with my lower that pairs flawlessly with BCM uppers. It was so tight, I had to beat both pins in with a tack hammer. Hope my lower doesn't stretch!
I stuck a Vortex Viper 1-4X on it and called it good.
Then I slugged the barrel with a .358 wadcutter. It started out tight, got to the gas port and was looser until the muzzle. There it was so tight I removed the flash hider, thinking they had put the wrong one on it. I drove it out and the slug measured .355". Then I scoped it.
The rifling lead looks good, just some lube from the slug.
Moving to the gasport, it looks good too, again just a little dirt from the .38 slug. None of the "custom" port chamfering you see from custom barrels but good nonetheless.
The rifling looks good overall, much better than I expected. Very little chatter and the lands are sharp & crisp.
Getting to the muzzle, I find out why the slug was so tight there. The barrel looks like it was cut off with dull tooling and left uncrowned. You can see how it shredded a patch. It's evenly bad all the way around. I don't have anything to fix it, so I'll shoot first, fix later. You never know, it may shoot good enough as-is.
I've been wanting to get a .350 Legend upper or rifle but I haven't wanted to spend a lot of money on one. I figure a .350L barrel ought to be good for at least 4,000 rounds so if I shoot deer with it every year it will last me about 1,000 years.
So when I saw the Davidson Defense 'Aviere' 16" AR-15 .350 Legend NIT Upper for about $225 assembled, I pulled the trigger on it. Service was good, they shipped it the next day.
When I got it, I went over it. It looks nice. I got the Mlok I wanted along with the sling attachment points.
I pared it with an existing lower, a PSA BCG and a T-handle. The upper was very difficult to pair with my lower that pairs flawlessly with BCM uppers. It was so tight, I had to beat both pins in with a tack hammer. Hope my lower doesn't stretch!
I stuck a Vortex Viper 1-4X on it and called it good.
Then I slugged the barrel with a .358 wadcutter. It started out tight, got to the gas port and was looser until the muzzle. There it was so tight I removed the flash hider, thinking they had put the wrong one on it. I drove it out and the slug measured .355". Then I scoped it.
The rifling lead looks good, just some lube from the slug.
Moving to the gasport, it looks good too, again just a little dirt from the .38 slug. None of the "custom" port chamfering you see from custom barrels but good nonetheless.
The rifling looks good overall, much better than I expected. Very little chatter and the lands are sharp & crisp.
Getting to the muzzle, I find out why the slug was so tight there. The barrel looks like it was cut off with dull tooling and left uncrowned. You can see how it shredded a patch. It's evenly bad all the way around. I don't have anything to fix it, so I'll shoot first, fix later. You never know, it may shoot good enough as-is.