Tactical Earplugs – PELTOR TEP-200 vs OTTO’s NoizeBarrier

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When I shoot precision rifle, for a long time, I thought about how much my hearing protection sucked and just got in the way. It just seemed that no matter which over the ear hearing protection I used, I would have issues with cheek weld pushing up my ear cup and breaking the seal. Generally, I just couldn’t get comfortable.

So forever, I have been trying different companies attempts at newer in-ear protection. Other than your traditional foamies, they all suck. They all suck so bad that I was considering the pro hearing protection where you go get molds done of your ears and they make custom eartips for you. If you look into this they start at like $1000 and go up to 5k.

Most of the time I just wear the Howard Leight Impact Sports. They have been awesome for $35. Upgrade them with gel ear cups and they are excellent. They are not a set of Peltors but you can hear what’s going on around you. Plus the volume gets loud enough that you can double up with foamies under them for indoor ranges and you are good to go. The batteries last forever and I am still using my OG pair from ages ago.

A few years back I went to a shooting match and was talking to a guy about this problem. He said that Peltore has just come out with a line of in-ear hearing protection. I looked into it and Peltor had a few different varieties based on features. The TEP 100 were the plain jane ones and the TEP 200 could connect to a lanyard that went around your neck via bluetooth for music and calls (not included). They both used to be a lot cheaper and it seems like the TEP 100 are now closer in price to the 200s. During this time Chuck Pressburg of Presscheck Consulting did a video review of the TEP 100 that had a ton of data and made me take a hard look at the TEP 100 / 200:

As of writing Peltor has come out with a pair made more for a regular guy. The EEP 100 (they come in lime green or orange) for $233 and the TEP 100 / 200 are more of their military / tactical version for $450+.  They have recently come out with a TEP 300 but those are near field magnetic induction much like the Ops-Core NFMI Earplugs. Both these are a review for another day.

I have never used or seen the EEP 100 but they may be the star of the show at their price point. Besides the Hi-Viz color of the EEP-100 in-ear pieces, the other differences are:

  • The TEP-100 kit is rated IP67. The EEP-100 kit is rated IP 54.
  • The TEP-100 only offers a High and low setting for volume adjustments. The EEP-100 offers three settings of High, Medium, and Low for volume adjustments.
  • The EEP-100 does not use as much battery life using the Environmental Listening feature as compared to the TEP-100.
  • The EEP-100 earpieces take double the time to charge as compared to the TEP-100.

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Creedmoor Sports Brass Care Media Review

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I have a rotary tumbler for cleaning reloading brass. It is a super helpful piece of kit if you run your gun suppressed as your brass gets caked with carbon that is a pain in the ass to tumble clean with corn cob.

I typically use stainless steel pins to do the dirty work. Must tumblers will come with some form of media. You can also get little shards of stainless that you can add to do a better job of cleaning out the primer pockets.

The Firearm Blog did a post on some new porcelain media from Creedmoor Sports that is supposed to be lighter and do a better job of cleaning. I picked up a container of Rods
Optimized for brass .223 caliber and above.

I tumbled around 100 rounds of Federal Gold Medal Match 308 brass in the new media. I would say around 35% had media stuck in the primer pocket that you needed a knife or super small screwdriver to pry out.

Totally sucked and such a waste of time. I dont even think the brass looks as good as it does with stainless. Plus the cleanup with stainless is easier as you can use a magnet.

I would recommend NOT buying the Creedmoor Sports Brass Care Media. The Grass is not greener on the other side, the grass is actually dead.

 

Knights Armament SR25 Precision Carbine (PC)

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Get a cup of coffee or a bourbon, as this is going to be a long one.

The SR25 PC is a gun that I sit and look at in amazement. It’s such a large pile of money sitting in the corner. I am not a rich man by any means. But this gun can cast a spell.

As I mentioned in my Battle of the 308s post, It was never my intention to keep the SR25. I had ordered a LaRue PredatOBR and was just sitting around waiting. I went on the SR25 hunt for the sport of it. I was by all intentions going to shoot it, check it out, and sell it as they are such unicorns to find at MSRP. I kind of live in a world where I hunt for rare things. I am a huge fan of Strider & Microtech knives and they are difficult to find unless you know where to look. So in my mind, just another challenge.

If you were so inclined to go on a hunt, I would recommend signing up for every notification on every website that sells SR25s. You may even want to setup a generic gmail account that only gets said notifications and add it to your phone and set the notification to be something crazy annoying. Then no matter what happens, you will get the notification and can stop on a dime to buy it. Seems like sometimes my website notifications get lost if I get a lot of emails. You will need to respond very quickly. Another tip would be to look at Kelly Enterprises as he keeps a list to notify.

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LaRue PredatOBR 7.62

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I dont know if this has happened to you, but there are moments in my journey with firearms that have made a huge impression. One, I was at a Pat Rogers class and at the end of the second day there was a guy there that had a not yet release Noveske 300 Blackout that was beyond badass that he let me shoot. That experience made me make a gun very much like it and fall in love with 300 blackout.

But before that, very early on, before I had a clue about any guns other than handguns I was at the range with some friends and I saw a guy with a Larue AR with a super nice case (back in the day when the cases were super nice with their logo embossed on them) and I remember one of the guys I was with pointing it out and saying “thats a really nice rifle – its a Larue”. Since that day, in the back of mind I always wanted a Larue.

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The Battle Of The 308s

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Once you start shooting accurate rifles it becomes a dark road. You start to look at the guns that you’ve accumulated overtime and if they aren’t meeting your accuracy requirements you stop and ask yourself what’s the point. I have an 11.5 BCM that I love but even with stellar ammo it could only do 2 MOA (not indicative of BCM rifles today). I know there’s a lot of people that will say that’s all you need. It Isn’t all you need when you’re spending Black Hills prices on ammo and you’re only getting 2 moa. Not to mention 4 moa with plinking ammo. I eventually did a barrel swap on that upper to a Daniel Defense barrel and it shoots 1.5 moa all day and sub MOA with good ammo.

At this point you might be asking where the hell am I going with all this? The answer is that I concluded that only accurate rifles matter. And when you get into 308, it can either be a shitshow or it could be sub MOA.

Several years back I was doing some side work for someone that was in the industry and they asked if they could pay me with a rifle. I said sure, give me an SR25. That didn’t happen, they got me a SCAR 17. Now the SCAR is a fantastic battle rifle, especially if you throw down for a Geissele trigger and an extended handguard. When I first got the SCAR, I could honestly say I didn’t know what the difference was between a battle rifle and more of a DMR. There were some things that the SCAR did wonderfully and other not so much. On a good day with match ammo, you could do sub MOA but the vast majority of the time it was a 1.5 MOA gun. Not that there’s anything wrong with that. That type of accuracy out of such a light gun was and still is amazing. Continue reading →

Never forget

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Picture courtesy of idovermani

We must never forget

I remember

I remember that Chicago filled all the trains and sent them away from the city.
I remember thinking Chicago was next.
I remember trying all day to get in touch with my brother in DC and the phones were down there.
I remember calling my other brother to wish him a happy birthday, and thinking they took that away from him. His birthday will never be the same.
I remember talking to my sister in law in VA and her saying she felt the plane hit the Pentagon.
I remember I couldn’t sleep and I stayed up all night watching Jennings’s trying to get the next bit of information.
I remember thinking that Peter Jennings who had seen and reported every significant story for the last 40 years was suddenly at a loss for words.
I remember thinking this was the start of bad things.

We must never forget

 


Semi vs Bolt Action Trigger Control

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I love this video! SHLowlight‘s metaphor between a gas gun and a bolt gun is spot on. I learned on gas guns and how to aim small / shoot small. So, when I moved over to a bolt gun there are massive differences but overall I think it’s easier to shoot a bolt gun well vs a gas gun.

The idea that the trigger on a gas gun is the START button and not the STOP button is spot on. There is a lot that can happen after you pull the trigger. Anyways, he says it far better than me. This is a valuable 6 minutes:

The Truth About The ATF Pistol Brace Proposal Letter

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So much BS out on the interwebs about the ATF Pistol Brace proposal. As usual Mike over at Mrgunsngear breaks it down.

https://youtu.be/ABCczG9HUjQ

Please Comment over at the Federal Register and let the ATF know you disagree with their proposed rule change:

To submit your comment to ATF/DOJ – HERE

To contact the President – HERE

To contact your House Rep – HERE

To contact your Senator – HERE