Pennzoil
01-20-2012, 02:06 PM
Yeah ended up parking the front tire of my truck on my hunting AR.... To make a long story short after a long hike scouting out ridge lines in preparation for a up coming javelina hunt with a buddy I had a brain fart....
I typically try to get out and about at least once a week this time of year hunting small game coyote on down while enjoying some Arizona hiking. My buddy and I had just returned to the truck when I did my normal drill of removing the 5 rd magazine, ejecting the round in the chamber and then seating the magazine again on an empty chamber. Normally at this point I put my rifle in the truck with my daypack just behind my seat but noticed my buddy wrestling with his shotgun sling and backpack. I place my rifle against the rear bumper of my truck and preceded to try and untangle his shotgun sling from his pack. We were doing a lot of climbing due to wanting to spot from up high which I guess is where he got so tangled up at some point.
Area we were in this day truck is off to the right and off in the distatance but don't see it in the photo
http://img196.imageshack.us/img196/731/dsc00320lj.jpg
Once he was free we loaded his stuff into the truck behind his seat and I went around the front of the truck and put my pack behind my seat. We hopped in and I started to back up up as I was at the dead end of a trail. I'm always paranoid about leaving something behind so when I put the truck in drive I usually check my pistol, wallet, phone, pack and rifle are with me before driving off. Pistol check, wallet check, phone check, and then reach behind my seat for pack check but no rifle.....
I hop out of the truck and notice right away that it seemed awful bright under the truck. To my horror I find I just backed over my rifle with not only my back tire long ways from the buffer tube across the forward assist on the EOTECH and down the rail. Then I managed to do the same thing with the front tire only to stop with the front tire on the trail with the tire rested against the rear of the light with the button depressed. Not good even though it's on the trail not concrete or pavement this is Arizona hard/rocky ground which I think could be mistaken for concrete sometimes....
Picture after cleaning and function check minus sling
http://img684.imageshack.us/img684/3091/artire.jpg
Hop in the truck and pull forward to hop out again and pick up my rifle quickly dusting it off like if I clean it up quickly all will be forgiven. Magazine falls out and I assume the worst but appears the magazine release was just depressed when the rifle was run over. First look only damage was MS2 sling connection points, Vltor stock and Magpul grip had road rash with some minor scratches and rock imprints on different parts of the rifle like EOTECH hood but extremely minor. Lower was already a BCM demo/scratch and though I try not to abuse my gear this is a field/use gun so I could careless. Upper is a DD assembled 14.5 inch LW barrel with lite rail and pinned phantom suppressor. The barrel appeared to not be centered in the rail opening anymore but was still free floated and not touching the rail. Decided not to fire the rifle but only function check the lower then take it home and tear it down for inspection.
Lower was fine and called DD technical support with full disclosure asking their advice which was remove rail for inspection then try to adjust the rail if I run into any issues or didn't feel comfortable to just send in the upper they would take care of it. I removed the upper and disassembled it while being able to adjust out most of the centering issue with the rail adjustment. More importantly every thing appeared fine.
So I took it out to the range I use to sight in rifles where and checked zero with EOTECH XPS being about 1/2 MOA high from original 50yd zero but was removed from rail and reinstalled so no issue. Iron sights were off which is due to rail being slightly tweaked. Then pushed the rifle to steel at 200yd and 300yd with mixture of a couple hundred rounds from XM855, wolf and my own hunting reloads without issue. I know AR's can take a beating and seen the torture test videos but it's nice to know quality gear can hold up to stupid owners neglect. I love the weight and feel of this rifle as I don't even notice it when I'm out and about hiking like previous rifles I've carried around.
Learned a number of things with this and one being that I need to get a back up AR as I don't want to hunt with a bolt gun in southern AZ. I recently sold my Colt due to not liking the ban era configuration and dragged my feet on backup up rifle. Figured I'd share my mistake maybe someone can take away something away from it.
I typically try to get out and about at least once a week this time of year hunting small game coyote on down while enjoying some Arizona hiking. My buddy and I had just returned to the truck when I did my normal drill of removing the 5 rd magazine, ejecting the round in the chamber and then seating the magazine again on an empty chamber. Normally at this point I put my rifle in the truck with my daypack just behind my seat but noticed my buddy wrestling with his shotgun sling and backpack. I place my rifle against the rear bumper of my truck and preceded to try and untangle his shotgun sling from his pack. We were doing a lot of climbing due to wanting to spot from up high which I guess is where he got so tangled up at some point.
Area we were in this day truck is off to the right and off in the distatance but don't see it in the photo
http://img196.imageshack.us/img196/731/dsc00320lj.jpg
Once he was free we loaded his stuff into the truck behind his seat and I went around the front of the truck and put my pack behind my seat. We hopped in and I started to back up up as I was at the dead end of a trail. I'm always paranoid about leaving something behind so when I put the truck in drive I usually check my pistol, wallet, phone, pack and rifle are with me before driving off. Pistol check, wallet check, phone check, and then reach behind my seat for pack check but no rifle.....
I hop out of the truck and notice right away that it seemed awful bright under the truck. To my horror I find I just backed over my rifle with not only my back tire long ways from the buffer tube across the forward assist on the EOTECH and down the rail. Then I managed to do the same thing with the front tire only to stop with the front tire on the trail with the tire rested against the rear of the light with the button depressed. Not good even though it's on the trail not concrete or pavement this is Arizona hard/rocky ground which I think could be mistaken for concrete sometimes....
Picture after cleaning and function check minus sling
http://img684.imageshack.us/img684/3091/artire.jpg
Hop in the truck and pull forward to hop out again and pick up my rifle quickly dusting it off like if I clean it up quickly all will be forgiven. Magazine falls out and I assume the worst but appears the magazine release was just depressed when the rifle was run over. First look only damage was MS2 sling connection points, Vltor stock and Magpul grip had road rash with some minor scratches and rock imprints on different parts of the rifle like EOTECH hood but extremely minor. Lower was already a BCM demo/scratch and though I try not to abuse my gear this is a field/use gun so I could careless. Upper is a DD assembled 14.5 inch LW barrel with lite rail and pinned phantom suppressor. The barrel appeared to not be centered in the rail opening anymore but was still free floated and not touching the rail. Decided not to fire the rifle but only function check the lower then take it home and tear it down for inspection.
Lower was fine and called DD technical support with full disclosure asking their advice which was remove rail for inspection then try to adjust the rail if I run into any issues or didn't feel comfortable to just send in the upper they would take care of it. I removed the upper and disassembled it while being able to adjust out most of the centering issue with the rail adjustment. More importantly every thing appeared fine.
So I took it out to the range I use to sight in rifles where and checked zero with EOTECH XPS being about 1/2 MOA high from original 50yd zero but was removed from rail and reinstalled so no issue. Iron sights were off which is due to rail being slightly tweaked. Then pushed the rifle to steel at 200yd and 300yd with mixture of a couple hundred rounds from XM855, wolf and my own hunting reloads without issue. I know AR's can take a beating and seen the torture test videos but it's nice to know quality gear can hold up to stupid owners neglect. I love the weight and feel of this rifle as I don't even notice it when I'm out and about hiking like previous rifles I've carried around.
Learned a number of things with this and one being that I need to get a back up AR as I don't want to hunt with a bolt gun in southern AZ. I recently sold my Colt due to not liking the ban era configuration and dragged my feet on backup up rifle. Figured I'd share my mistake maybe someone can take away something away from it.