Readers can legitimately question the wisdom of buying a $650 AR and spending $700 more on it. Such is the case with the Modern Sporting Rifle. It is a hole into which you can just keep pouring money.
I recently bought my son a new Smith & Wesson M&P15 Sport rifle, one of the company’s newish, affordable AR-15s, for $620. There was a lot to like about the rifle.
Chambered in 5.56 mm NATO, it came with a 30-round detachable Magpul PMag magazine. The Melonite-finished 4140-steel barrel was 16 inches long with 1-in-8 rifling. The front sight was an adjustable A2 post backed up by a Magpul Folding MBUS rear sight. The stock was a 6-position telescopic unit. Overall, the rig was lightweight and compact, coming in at 6.5 pounds.
But he has an unquenchable desire to tinker with stuff, and he has his own bank account. So we went over the gun and identified some products that would improve his Sport’s performance and cosmetics.
Are the items we bought for his AR of interest to you? Here’s what you need to know before you buy.
Sights
The big hit was an improved sighting platform. He can still shoot irons pretty well, but I suggested a compact EoTech optic was the way to go. He bought a $479 XPS2-0 model, which features a reticle with an easy-to-see 65 MOA circle with a 1-MOA aiming dot in the center. The XPS units weigh only 8.8 ounces.
EoTech’s XPS Holosights deliver all the fast, heads-up, both-eyes-open target acquisition of the traditional EoTech sight in a smaller package. The sights are only 3 3/4 inches long because the battery sits across the front of the housings. The base requires only 2 3/4 inches of rail space and fits MIL-STD 1913 Picatinny or Weaver rails.
The most compact EoTech holographic sight yet, the XPS and EXPS series have 1-minute-of-angle dots that run on a single CR-123 battery, yet they deliver up to 600 hours of continuous operation.
Fully adjustable for windage and elevation in half-MOA clicks, these non-magnifying, fogproof optics employ a shatter-resistant anti-glare-coated laminate screen that provides exceptional clarity and unlimited eye relief.
Trigger
Once you can see the target better, the next major area of improvement in accuracy is the trigger. I suggested he buy the $120 Rock River Arms’ 2-Stage National Match Trigger.
The RRA 2-Stage Trigger is a drop-in match-grade unit that provides a crisp 4- to 5-pound 2-stage pull to improve accuracy for competition or varmint shooting. It fits AR-15 receivers with .154-thousands hammer and trigger pins. Its sear-engagement point is located behind the hammer to reduce pull weight. And the low-mass hammer speeds lock time. The part includes the trigger assembly and hammer pins.
Bling+
There are plenty of ways to improve the looks of your battle rifle, but one subtle visual change that has a performance upside is a new muzzle brake.
He bought a $60 Tactical Muzzle Brake that substantially reduced felt recoil without the penalty of increased flash. The compensator uses 16 tuned oblong ports arranged in pairs, spaced evenly around the brake.
The precisely angled walls in the ports direct the gas evenly to the sides, above, and below the muzzle, rather than back at the shooter, without increasing muzzle flash. An internal expansion chamber provides a slight delay in gas release to spread the recoil impulse.
At the tip, a unique “posthole digger” muzzle deploys four chisel-points to provide a backup pain compliance weapon for hand-to-hand combat. The tipped-in design won’t snag on other objects or cause unintentional injury during routine handling.
Wedgie for Accuracy
There are dozens of ways to improve mechanical accuracy in the AR, but we’re just getting our feet wet and had already spent more than the gun actually cost.
The final item in his upgrade kit was the $5 Accu-Wedge, one of the fastest, easiest, cheapest accuracy improvements you’ll ever find for your AR. The tough, high-density synthetic-rubber wedge drops into the space behind the takedown pin in the lower receiver to provide tension between the receiver halves and prevent movement for improved accuracy.
Before You Buy
Readers can legitimately question the wisdom of buying a $650 gun and spending $700 more on it. Such is the case with the Modern Sporting Rifle. It is a hole into which you can just keep pouring money, but you get a big smile along the way.
All the products and prices cited here are from Brownells. I love to buy stuff, but I hate to shop, and the “Interweb” solves that problem—especially if someone else’s Discover is totin’ the load. The EoTech XPS2-0 Holographic Sight is stock number 100-004-277.
The muzzle brake, RRA 2-stage trigger, and Accu-Wedge are part of a AR-15 Performance Upgrade DIY kit, $200, which also comes with an AR-15/M16 Upper Receiver Action Block and DPMS AR-15 Multi-Tool. The Upper Receiver Action Block and the Multi-Tool make disassembling and reassembling the rifle easier. The brawny DPMS powder-coated steel wrench combines seven tools-in-one for maintenance, building, or repair of AR-15 series rifles.
What were amazingly helpful on the Brownells site were links to a video explaining general AR-15 trigger choices, a video showing the parts in the kit, a step-by-step installation video, and a link to download written installation directions in a PDF document. Just navigate to the website and type in the DIY kit stock number, 080-000-921, to jump to the page with all this information.
