The Pickle: My PLR is Finished

Well I've finally gotten all of the parts in to finish assembling my PLR-16 in the configuration that I wanted to get it into (mostly). Here are a few pictures:

I've attached the Kel-Tec standard front hand grip. This has allowed me to relocate the laser designator to the picatinny rail molded into the bottom of the hand grip. Initially I was concerned that perhaps the hand grip would be too loose to serve as a stable base for the laser designator. After it arrived and was attached however, I was rather pleased to see that it is indeed quite rigid once it's in place. After installing the designator in its new location, I bore sighted it with the laser bore sighter. I then smacked, tugged, pulled, pushed and otherwise abused the hand grip in an attempt to alter the designator's alignment... All to no avail. No matter how hard I tried, the hand grip remained stable and the bore sight setting remained unchanged.

In addition to the front hand grip, I've also added a stylish anodized aluminum compensator that I picked up from Veriforce Tactical in Phoenix Arizona for $19.99 (note: shipping was only $.10!). The PLR-16 barrel is threaded to accept standard AR-15 flash suppressors and muzzle brakes (½" x 28TPI). Installation was a simple matter. I simply unscrewed the stock thread protector and twisted the new muzzle brake on with a little high temperature loctite. I did however use a very small amount of the loctite because I was debating purchasing one of these 5½" muzzle brakes just to see what in might look like on this gun. Anybody have any opinions?

Now it's time for me to engage in a little rant. There was one more accessory that I wanted to mount on this gun to make it just right... A vertical fore-grip. Unfortunately, after consulting experts, I've been told that adding a vertical fore-grip to this gun would be a federal crime! You have got to be kidding me! So I took a vertical fore-grip I had laying around and set it against the gun to give you all an idea of how cool this would have looked. Let me reiterate what I just said for those with reading comprehension problems. The fore-grip IS NOT ATTACHED, merely set adjacent to the forearm of the pistol for the purpose of snapping a picture.

Attaching a vertical fore-grip to a pistol turns it into a NFA-regulated Class III, "Any Other Weapon". How in the hell does attaching a purely aesthetic appliance to a firearm make it any more dangerous than it already is? These ignorant sons of bitches banning guns simply because they are scary looking are going to make my fucking head burst! Logic just is not their strong suit!

With that out of my system, let me address some of the e-mails I've gotten in regards to my posts about this gun.

First, no, this is not a machinegun nor is it one of your dreaded assault rifles. Just because a gun looks scary does not mean that it is an evil machinegun or an even an evil assault rifle. It does not fire full-auto, only semi-auto, Further, it is a pistol and not a rifle.

Second, let me respond to the question "why do you need such a thing?" with a few questions of my own... Why do you need an expensive car? Why do you need a jet ski? Why do you need high-end graphite golf clubs. The answer is the same in all four cases. You don't need them, but you garner enjoyment from having them and one of our ineanlienable rights in this country is the pursuit of happiness. On another note, you are far more likely to be killed by a car (expensive or otherwise) than you are by a gun of any kind and I don't see too many people clamoring for cars to be banned.

Lastly let me respond to the question "What would you use that thing for?" I'd use it for target shooting and home defense.

I have yet to test fire the gun in its new configuration. That will be accomplished this weekend. I have a rather full bill of items to test out this weekend.

I picked up a Yugo 59/66 SKS at the last local gun show. I've finally managed to divest the thing of all of the gooped on cosmoline, so it's time for a test firing. Eventually it will be stripped down, reconfigured with the requisite compliance parts and fitted with a new stock for my wife to use.

The other item I'm going to try out is this:

This may look like a run-of-the-mill M1911 pistol, but it does have some very interesting features. First off if you look at the slide, you'll see the inscription "Remington-Rand Inc. Syracuse, NY, U.S.A.", but if you look at the frame, you'll see "Interarms Silver Cup". What this means is that this is pretty much a parts pistol... However all of the parts of this pistol except the frame and the plastic hand guard slab on the side facing the camera all appear to be original 1940's vintage military parts. The fit on all the parts is extremely tight (no wobbling) and the action and trigger are very smooth. The rifling in the barrel is sharp. I managed to talk the pawn shop owner into a sale price of two bills, so how could I go wrong? The history behind these particular pistols is interesting. My research indicates that Interarms found a bunch of original WWII era 1911's caked in cosmoline and stowed in crates in England a few years back. The guns were sold to England during WWII to equip British troops for the invasion of Normandy. When Interarms tried to import them, the BATF of course would not allow them to without first demilling them (oxyacetylene torching the frames). (Again more gun grabbing ignorance!!! Destroying historical relics!) So Interarms imported the remaining pieces and assembled them on new frames. My research indicates that these guns can be pretty much hit or miss in terms of quality, but nothing I've seen in regards to this pistol seems dodgy, so we'll see how she behaves at the range this weekend. At the very worst, I've picked up a low-price tuner 1911.

I've noticed a lot of interest in my PLR-16 related posts. Here is a list of other PLR-16 posts I've made:

Labels: 1911, Gun Accessories, Guns, PLR-16