So I parked my truck on my AR the other day....

[Pennzoil]

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.

[JHC]

Great report and story. My bad habit was setting the cased long hung on the roof when departing the hunting woods. Near misses never taught me the lesson. Not until I actually drove and bounced the cased Rem 11-87 and broke the stock did I get it through my thick skull not to put anything on top of my rig or anywhere else for that matter. Straight into the back of the vehicle.

Impressive testament to the durability of the platform and components. Have you seen Vickers video of try to tear up that DD rifle with T-1 on it? Including the drop from a helo?

[Pennzoil]

Have you seen Vickers video of try to tear up that DD rifle with T-1 on it? Including the drop from a helo?

Yes and that was an impressive video. Now that they have the 2moa dot on the T1 I think that is probably what I'm going to shoot for on back up for weight savings.

[Tamara]

That must really be an AK. Everybody on the internet tells me that ARs are fragile, finicky things that break if you look at them cross-eyed. :D

Glad everything's okay! :cool: (And, yes, this is the universe's way of reminding you that you need a backup AR.)

[LittleLebowski]

Yes and that was an impressive video. Now that they have the 2moa dot on the T1 I think that is probably what I'm going to shoot for on back up for weight savings.

Losing that 2 MOA did drop some weight from the Micro.

[Pennzoil]

Losing that 2 MOA did drop some weight from the Micro.

I mean from my XPS to the T1 in regards to the weight loss. I probably would of gotten the T1 regards of dot size eventually either way.

[fuse]

I mean from my XPS to the T1 in regards to the weight loss. I probably would of gotten the T1 regards of dot size eventually either way.

Pretty sure LL was attempting humor.

[LittleLebowski]

Pretty sure LL was attempting humor.

Yup.

[Odin Bravo One]

I can certainly see the need for a back up rifle. However, I would argue that the big take away for our readers here is to never place a gun on, or against the external parts of a vehicle. Bumpers, tires, roof, hood, etc.

I had been doing that for awhile when one of my mentors caught me placing an AR against a truck tire at training. After tearing me a new orifice from which to defecate, he explained the why behind it. Less than a year later, it happened.........being as I was young and knew everything already, once said mentor was no longer in a position to actively monitor my stupidity, I rested a rifle against my truck tire. Someone else got in to move the truck, and that was it. I ended up out a rifle, optic, and other expensive accessories. My experience was not nearly as forgiving, and I could hear another of my mentors inside the voice in my head as I stood there being "that guy". His statement was something along the lines of "Only after repeated, demoralizing failure, has learning occurred."

Rest assured, learning did occur that day. And I have never placed an firearm anywhere on the external part of a vehicle since. The only exception being the tailgate of my truck, while I am physically tending to the gun. If I leave, it gets stored, or brought with me.

Thanks for sharing. It is often difficult to admit to other shooters our mistakes, lapses in judgement, or poor decision making. But if we don't, we take away the opportunity for others to learn from those mistakes.

[Pennzoil]

Well I managed to finally to mess up this upper while hunting last month with a buddy. Took a fall while hiking on the side of a mountain getting to the spot I'd been using to glass from. I mostly slide down the side and ended up on the rifle for most of the fall/slide. Rifle appeared fine other then a rock stuck in the flash hinder which I cleared with my cleaning rod. The surefire still worked, rifle function checked fine, EOTECH good.

I think I'm just trying to tell myself that I need to go back to my Match Target Colt I hiked with for 10 years with out issue. At this rate I'm going to have to change my user name to gracefull.

I then decided to test zero just incase and found the windage to be off enough that the BUIS didn't have enough adjustment to zero. Inspecting the rifle it appeared the gas block was resting against the Lite rail which is when I decided just to shelf the rifle for the rest of the trip and contact DD when I got home. Still managed to procure dinner with my pistol later that day.

http://img834.imageshack.us/img834/9199/img0229rh.jpg

When I got home I contacted DD and told them what happened and they said to send it in. They stated to send in the complete upper and they would disassemble/inspect everything to ensure the upper was still good. I shipped it in with my info taped to the box, attached to the rail and on a sheet of paper in the original DD box. DD had the upper less then a week before I received a shipping notice that the upper was en route back to me.

http://img831.imageshack.us/img831/5610/wocombogasblock.jpg

Upon receiving the upper it appears they disassembled and cleaned everything. The gas block and rail appear to be centered again. They also tested the rifle and though the group isn't great ( may of been adjusting elevation?) the windage appears to be fine which is where my issue was. I expected to pay for any repairs as it was really due to negilect on my part but only had to flip for shipping to DD.

Really happy with DD's customer service with the only negatives were they shipped the upper to the wrong address but UPS guy recognized my name catching it before delivering to the wrong address and the rear gas block screw appears rounded off now. I'll be taking the rifle out tomorrow to rezero and test it out. I'm pretty confident the rifle will be good to go. With that said though this will be my first and last upper with a clamp style gas block. When I originally order the upper I was surprised DD used clamp on gas blocks just figuring they pinned them all.

back together ready to zero and I just realized I did it again leaning my rifle against another vehicle:mad:
http://img190.imageshack.us/img190/3104/img0273qxy.jpg