LaserMax UniMax (red)
I had it out on the M&P the last couple times I went out to the pistol range. I carefully sighted it in the first time out, and by the time I took it back out again, I was shooting about 4" to the right. I lost the teeny-tiny Allen wrench that came in the plastic box with the laser somehow, and I have to resort to using the teeny-tinier Allen wrench that was stored in the battery compartment of the laser. I also discovered, by the way, that the teeny-tiny Phillips screw that holds the battery compartment door on is not captured, and very easily disappears into dark carpet.
Millet DMS 1-4X Scope and ADM Recon-X Scope Mount
Although I would not particularly recommend the scope mount for a military or defense rifle, because it takes a little more time and coordination to remove than a Larue mount, it is getting the job done. I've put it on and taken it back off several times, and it's still holding a good zero.
The Millet scope is very clear, although it is of much lower power than scopes I normally use. Although I haven't measured it, it struck me that the objective lens of this 30mm scope seems to be a good bit larger than the objective lens of many 1" scopes. As I said about the scope mount, the combo is holding a good zero. Although the reticle and lower power don't really help to produce great benchrest groups, it's certainly adequate. I've shot several groups less than 1.5" at 100 yards, if you throw out a couple stray shots that were most likely due to the "nut behind the butt." The lighted reticle is not bright enough for use in daylight, which seem to bother some people, but the reticle is quite clear without the lighting. The scope does seem to have about an inch of parallax at 100 yards.
Loading Rifle Ammo
The sub-1.5" groups I mentioned were shot with my 16" LMT M4 upper, and my reloads. I could just about put bullets into a 2" 10-ring all day long with good bullets. I've loaded a lot of pistol ammo, but just started loading rifle ammo. The transition has not been an entirely smooth one, as I've primed brass a couple times, forgetting to trim the brass to length first.
The Midway Dogtown 55gr Spitzer bullets are shooting just about as well as the Sierra MatchKing and Nosler Custom Competition bullets. The Midway bullets have flat bases though, and won't fit in the mouth of the brass, which makes loading with them more tedious. They are a lot less expensive than the match bullets though.
Information on loading rifle ammo in load books is a little lacking in detail, and I spent several hours doing research before I started pulling the press handle. I'm still taking notes.
I learned pretty quick that my idea of a "light spray" of Hornady One-Shot case lube must be different than Hornady's idea of a "light spray." Removing stuck bottleneck cases from sizing dies sucks. I have the RCBS tools for removing stuck brass, but it doesn't help much when the decapper rod/expander button are still in the case and won't let you drill all the way through the case head.
I've mostly been loading .233Rem, but have done some .308Win. The .308Win ammo has not been performing as well from my AR-10, but that rifle currently lacks a free-float tube, and I'm unsure of the scope riser that I bought cheap at a gun show a couple years ago. At least I now know that the AR-10 is capable of shooting better than 6" groups, like what I was getting with the crap surplus ammo. The AR-10 seems to have developed an ejection problem. The problem being that it doesn't eject. The round fires, and the bolt carrier goes back, and the empty brass stays in the ejection port. The ejector seems to be fine, I'm not sure what the problem is.
More detailed reviews will follow later, but I wanted to get something posted for you all to read for now.
