"Works for me" ... a slippery slope?

[ASH556]

As I've been intentional over the last year about withdrawing from hobbies to spend more time, money, and mental headspace with my family; I found myself a little flat-footed with this latest spin-up. I sold all my cool-guy, thousands-of-dollars AR setups and reduced to a Glock 19 as my only pistol. I have been disciplined to keep up with dryfire and in my (roughly quarterly) live fire sessions I'm finding no degradation of skills and actually some increases in certain things (mainly SHO and WHO trigger control and reloads).

I wasn't completely "social" rifle barren as I have a pair of 6920's in the safe for my boys when they get older, but I did have just a complete SBR lower sitting with no upper. I also did have a NIB Colt SOCOM barrel and Colt BCG. So, around the beginning of last month when it looked like things were going to get interesting I picked up a stripped upper from BCM and put something together. Not wanting to jump back into debt and still wanting to be fiscally responsible I went with a set of MOE SL handguards and then picked up a used Aimpoint PRO.

I assembled it and then took it out to the range and zeroed it. Next, I ran a set of pistol and rifle standards from member @Kevin B. and cleaned the pistol and passed rifle with a PR. This gave me a lot of confidence in the setup and I feel pretty good about it.

At the same time, I have found myself wishing a little bit for one of my former setups. This has caused me to give some thought to the whole "works for me" mentality.

Yes, the rifle setup I have does work for me. Is it free floated? No. Does it have the $250 Geissele trigger I prefer? No. Does it have a Nightforce NX8 or even a higher-end Aimpoint? No. Is it cost effective while still having a Surefire light, Aimpoint sight, and a good sling. And, I know I can perform with it.

But, where's the baseline? And does it shift with time? There's plenty of "fuddery" that gets passed off under the "works for me" moniker too. Does your POS, out-of-spec, bottom of the barrel AR15 "work for you?" Maybe, but for how long? Or how do you define "work?"

I've got a buddy that loves his Taurus pistols. They "work" for him, which means he probably puts 200 rounds/year through them, if that. I wouldn't recommend using a Taurus to anyone, but do we also all need Staccato P's? Not saying people shouldn't have them, but I guess just verbalizing my thoughts. Is it reasonable to think you're ok with a rifle with an Aimpoint PRO and Magpul handguards or do you need a full-on Hodge, KAC, whatever with the latest greatest LPVO, and NODS or you gonna get kilt in da skreetz. I think we all know the answer there, but at some point you cross over into Taurus-land.

[Mark D]

I assembled it and then took it out to the range and zeroed it. Next, I ran a set of pistol and rifle standards from member @Kevin B. and cleaned the pistol and passed rifle with a PR. This gave me a lot of confidence in the setup and I feel pretty good about it.

THIS is the important part of your post, in my humble opinion. You verified that your setup does indeed work for you. And, perhaps just as importantly, you stayed out of debt. Most of the "works for me" crowd don't know how to zero their equipment, and never test themselves and their gear against standards. Well done.

[Joe S]

I don't know much about the AR world, but it sounds to me like you ended up with the rifle equivalent of a stock G19 with upgraded sights and a good holster. Seems solid to me.

[Joe in PNG]

To echo the thoughts of others, there's a difference between works and 'works'.

'Works' is the annual range trip, shooting a half box of indifferently chosen ammo, fired in the general direction of target, and dismissing or flat out ignoring any failures... and that's for the more active of the bunch. A surprisingly large group of people will straight up load, holster, and their brand new gat without a single shot fired through it.

To be fair, this is good for us, as a lot of good guns are seldom shot before they are traded in for the new hawtness of the moment.

[Clusterfrack]

Sounds like you have a solid, minimalist carbine. As long as it’s reliable, that’s good enough. Simple can be better than fancy for many applications. But it’s the home-built aspect that’s important to consider as well. Only you know if you trust your own work to be ‘life safety equipment’ grade. I trust my work, but not many others. And I when it counts, I prefer to default to assembled uppers from known brands. Eg. BCM, LMT.

[ASH556]

Sounds like you have a solid, minimalist carbine. As long as it’s reliable, that’s good enough. Simple can be better than fancy for many applications. But it’s the home-built aspect that’s important to consider as well. Only you know if you trust your own work to be ‘life safety equipment’ grade. I trust my work, but not many others. And I when it counts, I prefer to default to assembled uppers from known brands. Eg. BCM, LMT.

Good point about assembly. I do trust my work as do several others who carry rifles into harm’s way daily. I was privileged to be twice certified by Will Larson (RIP). I have and use the proper tools and techniques.

[Clusterfrack]

Good point about assembly. I do trust my work as do several others who carry rifles into harm’s way daily. I was privileged to be twice certified by Will Larson (RIP). I have and use the proper tools and techniques.

"Works for me."

[Casual Friday]

What you have is a setup that was widely considered to be the standard for a fighting rifle not that many years ago. I was looking at picture threads on M4C the other day while sitting by our outdoor fire pit and day drinking coffee and Bailey's and it was interesting to see the amount of MOE handguards, fixed FSBs and 30mm Aimpoints from a decade plus ago.

It may not be the Gucci setup that you were used to at one point, but it was certainly up to the task then and it still is now. My FSB Colt 6933 and salty Comp M2 went with me for a drive in the mountains today. It's wearing a set of SL handguards as well for the time being. It was a relaxing, uneventful drive that resulted in me not having to use it, but if I'd needed it I have enough rounds and time behind it to know it works.

The "just as good" and "works for me" comments that I see in FB gun groups always makes me wonder if it truly does work for them? Have they ran enough rounds through the gun to be able to actually deem it reliable? Is it properly zeroed? Have they taken a class of any kind, ever? I mean, I don't own any Hodge or KAC guns, but I don't own any PSA, Anderson, or Bear Creek Arsenal either. I tried to make a few PSA guns and parts builds work for me, but in the end they didn't. The Colt 6920/6933/BCM/LMT Defender group is my lane and I'm staying here.

[jeep45238]

Context matters. Yours fits your context and works.

[MickAK]

Well, the Taurus 92s work pretty good, so....

I think the question you should ask yourself is whether the slight improvement in your hardware is what is going to matter if things get sporty and you need a social rifle. Given as how you say you gave them up to use that headspace in a better place, you can probably put the headspace that would have gone into equipment into logisitics, mindset, so on, and come out far ahead. Guy in the right spot with a HiPoint is going to beat the guy in the wrong spot with any Gucci rig.