Went out yesterday with a friend to try out the SSAR-15 stock and we brought along an M-16 to compare it to. I want to let you know that I am not a bump fire person and someone that is good at this would probably do much better than I did. Saying that, it is obvious that I had some problems with it. It took me 4 20 rd. mags to get used to it before I got a full mag dump on the 5th. Then after that it was hit or miss if I could do it. I'm sure with enough practice it could be reliably fired. The main problem I was having was knowing the correct amount of forward pressure needed to keep the rifle firing. The firing stoppages I was having were not a trivial thing either. When it would stop firing it was not as easy as just put forward pressure on it again to start firing, I had to manually cycle the bolt to continue to fire. When it stopped the hammer was not being locked back and was sitting on the carrier. This happened every time it stopped firing and I believe it was caused by too much forward pressure. For an accuracy test we had a 2'x2' box set out at 50 yards. For full mag dumps both the stock and the M-16 were equal in accuracy for the first few shots and then started spraying all around the box. All I can say is the M-16 had a smaller spray ring then the stock. Burst fire was more accurate with the M-16. As far as I could tell the cycle rate for both were identical. In conclusion: I have not made my mind up yet whether or not I will purchase one of these. I shoot right handed and pulling the stock towards my shoulder with my right hand and the front of the rifle away from me with the left is very unnatural. I WOULD NOT recommend this stock for any kind of life threatening encounters because of the stoppage problems. It is a novelty item that is fun to shoot at the range, once you get used to it, and will definitely lower your ammo supply quickly.
Scratch that one off the list. I was talking to my dad about this "new" bump firing thing. He told me that they did the same thing in Vietnam (3rd Batt/5th Marines). I don't fully understand exactly...but, he said they would wrap their thumb around their belt loop, and just the recoil on SA would be enough to make it emulate FA. I asked him why, if you had had FA...then, I remembered he was about 18 or 19 years old back then. He went on to tell me that they had tracers every 5th round and and could be fairly accurate when in FA by walking your hits to the target if you're off. I don't know if this was training or not. Seems to me that you wouldn't want tracers in combat because it would mark a line right back to your position. He also told me a story about setting up a field of fire where you'd have 3 guys on one edge of a field and 3 on another (I'm a little fuzzy about the placement here too) and they would have fire zones. He said when they'd let loose, the tracers were so thick it looked like you could walk across the top of them.
No, they issued tracers in Nam...it is where the LEARNED that your fire gets traced back to you. My dad told me horror stories. One about a kid who wore a Red LZ card on his helmet. Poor dude got his head blown off by a VC RPG, due in fact to the high visibility of the LZ card as a target.
Bump firing with your thumb...I am posting this for educational purposes only. Panther DPMS Bumpfire .308 caliber - YouTube
I guess I must be dull. I still don't really get this. So, he's putting his thumb in front of the the trigger, then behind and around the belt loop, then pulling the gun forward with his other hand and the recoil makes the trigger continually bump against the thumb? No wonder I didn't have a clue to what my dad was telling me...I had it all backwards in my mind. That man should smack the stupid out of that kid...white kids trying to be gangsta thugs...I'll never understand that.
Lordy, saves us ALL from Idiots with Firearms.... Those two need to be locked up in a Rubber Room.....
Ended up telling my friend that I was not interested in buying one because of the stoppage problems. If it was a matter of just pushing the gun forward to begin firing again I would have bought it, but having to cycle the bolt is unacceptable.
