StPatrick

  And that's exactly why I posted.  The old rule of thumb is when you have a bad experience you tell 20 people, while you might tell one or two about a good one.  The good ones deserve some attention too.

  If your gas block rails sit lower than the rails machined into your upper receiver:   If you want to mount your sight at the end of the handguard rail, then use the std. Picatinny height model.  If you want to extend your sight radius and mount the front sight to the gas block, you'll need a gas block height front sight.   If your gas block rails are at the same height as the rails on your upper receiver:   Use a standard Picatinny railed front sight.   Most gas blocks have rails at a height below those of a standard upper receiver, thus requiring a taller sight.  The M&P 10 pics on S&W's website show gas blocks whose rails appear to be at the same height as the receiver, but check yours to be sure.

Let's not forget the really important thing about free-float handguards - they just look good. :yum:

  Agreed...based on the press release, I'm guessing the people who did T&E were already advanced shooters.  It's an interesting concept; I'd like to see some independent reviews to see how they stack up.  TTAG would be ideal.

If you're referring to a handguard that free-floats the barrel, e.g. no points of contact past the barrel nut, the general consensus is that it provides increased precision.    What parts are you thinking need to be cut off for the installation?  From what I've seen (and with the one I installed) you generally only need to remove the muzzle device, gas block, and barrel nut, and the last only if the handguard uses its own proprietary nut.  I think Daniel Defense and a few others make handguards that don't require barrel nut replacement.

Also, I should note that I just belatedly discovered that their trigger upgrade prices for the LPK were cheaper for Geisseles than my FFL discount via Midway and Brownell's.  I could've saved $20 had I paid more attention.  Shucks.

As others here noted, what I received was in fact an AR-10 bolt catch.  I received an email from from the owner January 17 with an apology for not getting to my issue sooner due to SHOT, but I can't say I was upset in the least about that.  I expected everybody to be shut down while that was going on, especially the smaller shops that are trying to make a name for themselves.  I won't post the message, as it contains real names, but I will say that I appreciated what the man wrote and also how quickly and easily the issue will be resolved.  There will be no return authorizations or anything like that, just the correct part on its way to me.  I'll probably add the AR-10 catch to the "Pay it Forward" thread as I don't see myself getting into that platform anytime soon.     I would unreservedly do business with Ironworks Tactical again.  I'm in manufacturing, and I know that no matter how good your procedures and processes are, eventually you're going to let a defective widget out.  Knowing that, my evaluation of any customer service experience is based on how well a defect is dealt with.  In this case, I am very happy with how I've been treated.

  Seconded.  I have a project in the works that would look quite nice dressed up like that.

On the bright side, at least out towards Jackson they have spots flat enough to stretch that sucker out regardless of cost.  Range report requested.

The paint job is fantastic, as is the labrador. Here's my buddy Jake, 130 lbs. of eating and sleeping machine. He's a darned battleship of a dog:

  I just installed my SSA-E for what will be a lightweight Grendel build - not a long range rifle by any means, but something you could carry around like a 5.56 but with way more backside behind it.  I still have to choose the stock and barrel, so we're a ways away from completion.  Dry-firing the SSA-E with a different upper was *very* impressive.  My other rifle has a RRA national match 2-stage, which is a very good trigger, especially when compared to mil-spec offerings.  The SSA-E is on another level entirely.

It's called the .416 Hushpuppy, developed by AM-TAC Precision (who?). The Firearm Blog has the writeup here. Based on the limited information available, it looks like a slow-moving short range round for closer work...it also looks like some of the wildcats our own Dolomite has come up with. It looks like a hog-buster for sure, but there are no tables I could find to see how it compares to .458 SOCOM - or anything else, for that matter. The most interesting takeaway for me is that the round is designed to yaw when it hits a soft target, so the wound channel should be pretty devastating - the company is claiming a bigger channel than that of a 12ga slug, with a maximum point blank range of 200 yards. If those claims are proven out, the round would be capable of handling any TN game assuming penetration is comparable with other hunting bullet styles. Since the bullets pictured appear to be match-style open tipped, that last part is pure speculation. I don't have any need for it in my life, but I do find it heartening to see folks innovating and pushing the envelope as far as what the AR action is capable of. You never know where the next big thing is going to come from.

  Excellent.  I've got a buddy I can give it to.  Nice catch.

  I look forward to posting a nice resolution to this deal right here.  I'm glad to hear you've had good experiences with them.

  That was exactly what I thought upon comparing the two.  I think my non-functioning bolt catch was accidentally tossed into the finishing bin before machining was completed.   EDIT 1/22/14: Updating to reflect response from vendor - there was no manufacturing issue; an AR-10 bolt catch was added instead of an AR-15 bolt catch.  Having never spent much time with the 10, I did not recognize it as such, though subsequent posters did.

  That is from a Rock River I bought several years back.

I recently started building up my CMT TGO upper and lower (which was way more painless than I'd been led to believe - combined they took maybe 30 minutes and I'd never done it before). When I mated the upper and lower and started testing function, I found that my bolt catch would not engage the bolt lugs and lock the action open. Looking through the ejection port, I could clearly see that something was impinging on the bolt catch and preventing it from pivoting into position. It appeared that the bolt catch was contacting the upper receiver wall. In order to test that, I removed the BCG and rear takedown pin. When I pushed on the bolt catch as though I were locking the bolt back, I saw the upper receiver pivot up and away, confirming my suspicion. Here's where I went wrong - I assumed that it was an issue with the upper receiver. Here's where I went right - I enlisted the help of Dolomite_Supafly. He suggested I mate a different upper to the lower (why didn't I think of that first? dumb!) and the problem was still present. I then compared the bolt catch installed on my CMT lower with the one on my functioning RRA lower. The picture below shows the difference - the malfunctioning bolt catch is on the left; the RRA is on the right. You can clearly see how much more metal is present left of the centerline of that bolt catch and how that extra material would cause it to interact with the wall of an upper receiver. The non-functional bolt catch was purchased as part of an LPK from IronWorksTactical.com. I chose them because they offered LPKs minus grip and trigger - I wasn't going to use stock parts, so they saved me some money. I've emailed them this evening with a description of the problem as well as the picture, so I'll post their response and remedy once I receive them. All other parts worked as intended. Unrelated aside - my RRA has the National Match 2-stage trigger installed, and if you're familiar with it you know that it's worlds better than a stock AR trigger (if you like a two stage trigger, which I prefer). The Geissele SSA-E in my CMT lower throws the RRA NM trigger to the ground and has its way with it. That is all. EDIT: Response received from Ironworks 1/17/14; read the whole thread for resolution details.

  Definitely need a stamp for that project.  As an aside, welcome (someday) to TN!  The deer are scrawny, but the girls are prettier and the weather is better.

Best of luck to you, and I hope your decisions end well.  I'm honestly jealous - none of my ancestors set foot on this continent until the 1880s.

  Ha!  Actually, my reaction was from years of practical factory experience and enjoyment of data crunching - outliers and flyers often contain far more information than the results you expect.  Identify and fix their causes and you get better results quickly and cheaply.  In this case, identifying why the slowest and fastest rounds are what they are carries no value in solving the primary problem, since the OP is trying to fix a chrony issue, but even knowing that couldn't prevent a mental flinch on my part.

  Not in centerfire, but I'll admit that the first time I ever bought a case (5k) of .22lr was shortly after Newtown, once it looked like things were about to get weird.  I'm glad I did, too.  I have just as much or more fun shooting a bunch of .22 as I do '06, 5.56, etc.

  While this is certainly a practical thumb in the wind way to go about things, the analytical side of my brain just recoiled sharply while hissing something about "social sciences math".

  If Gaston Glock or anybody else can figure out a mechanical method to prevent short-shucking a pump shotgun under stress, the gun world will beat a path to their door.  Otherwise I don't see the attraction for a Glock-branded shotgun. 

  RC3, you'll never get a better offer on this forum than that above.  I suggest you take it.

I think a couple other posters have nailed it - yearly gun sales have been increasing steadily and at rates never seen before as Americans in general are becoming even more gun-friendly.  To cope with that trend, up to this point ammo manufacturers have added shifts, and in the case of Hornady, cut down of low-demand calibers to limit line changeovers.  This has surely helped some, but demand is still above what the mfgs. can supply without adding more capacity, and that takes time, money, and a fair amount of certainty that the millions they plow into new lines will pay off 5 and 10 years down the road.  Remington is already bringing a new plant on line in Arkansas later this year, and I think it's likely that the smaller manufacturers are already researching the feasability of doing the same (and *everybody* is smaller than big green).  The trouble for them is they can't make their plans based on current prices - they have to do their level best to predict where prices bottom out once the supply / demand relationship is balanced, and I doubt they have good data on current domestic production to work with, much less what foreign companies such as PMC, Aguila, S&B, Barnaul, Tula, Wolf, etc. are up to.  This is in addition to the potential losses to be incurred if the EPA goes hog-wild and does something like banning lead ammo, or worse yet, lead in primers.  The manufacturers have seen that the fedgov is already moving towards lead-free ammo, so that risk is there as well and requires no legislation.