Tag Archives: fab defense

Research, Thoughts

Sig 556 Platform Modernization Project

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On the recent Primary & Secondary modcast 187, Matt was discussing his new DSA FAL and the general concept of taking what was an obsolete battle rifle and making it new again. I thought this was a cool idea, and decided to embark on a similar project. I have a number of relatively obsolete guns in my safe, but a fair number of them are in “mil-spec” configuration, and thus I don’t want to alter them. But I do have a Sig 556 SBR and a Sig 556R Gen2 that are basically just old “cool guy” guns from a decade ago, and thus fair game.

I took a long look at them, and what I thought needed to be improved… and did it.

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Reviews, Training

FPF Training Home Defense Shotgun Class AAR (AGR-870 edition)

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I’ve been enjoying quite a lot of high quality training this year, but have wanted to see what the other quality instructors in the area have been offering. One thing I’ve never done before is take a shotgun class, so I was very interested in the Home Defense Shotgun class that Tim Chandler and FPF Training offer. Tim has been on the Primary and Secondary podcast, and enjoys an amazing reputation for his courses.

I was fortunate enough to be able to get in to it, and have an AAR for you… more after the break!

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Research

FAB Defense KPOS G2 Follow-Up Thoughts

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I’ve been shooting the FAB Defense KPOS G2 a little further on my Glock 17 lately, and I have some follow-up thoughts and findings.

First: it’s not compatible with iron sights that go forward of the rear sight cut, to include many, many of the fiber optic sights out there such as the Tru-Glo TFX. I have not tried it with suppressor sights.

Second: I tried using my Tactical Solutions TSG-22 22lr conversion with it. The conversion sits slide sits low enough that I would be VERY concerned about striking the “compensator shroud”. You could, in theory, remove the shroud to make it work correctly, which might be a viable alternative in some setups. The charging handle mechanism is also a little suspect with it, but it does seem to work. I might experiment with this more later on if I have time.

Third: an extended magazine release helps a lot with this setup. I highly recommend one.

Fourth: it seems like your gun gets very dirty VERY quickly in this enclosure. My front night sight was blacked out after a few magazines of shooting..

Finally: I am still concerned about this gun’s ability to retain a true zero due to the slight up-down movement that you can get with the flexing of the frame. My groups are larger than I would have expected, albeit this is when shooting at 25yds with trash ammo. Now, the truth is, since the front of the gun is latched in pretty good, it might look worse than it is, since the back is going to show a larger flexing due to variance. Still, it’s not what i would call a precision weapon compared to a “real” rifle. It does seem to more-or-less hold zero between taking the gun in and out of the chassis, though.

Reviews

FAB Defense PLR Light Mount Review

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One of my projects of late has been putting weapon lights on my various rifles. This has been a much larger undertaking than I gave it credit for… the advent of LED lights and relatively high-quality Surefire clones has really created a fascinating market. While I’ve mostly been putting old Surefire M-series lights on the rifles, I’ve also been exploring mounting hand-held lights on my SBRs, where a larger light makes less sense (and a Surefire Scout is way too expensive).

To that end, I’ve been looking into the appropriate mounts. There are a lot of them out there, and some are made by CAA and FAB Defense. In this review, I’ll be looking at the FAB Defense PLR light mount. More after the break.

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Reviews

FAB Defense FBS / RBS Backup Sights

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Backup sights are a controversial issue these days. There are an increasing number of shooters who feel that the current crop of military-grade reflex and prism sights (Aimpoints, Trijicon ACOGs, etc.) are tough enough and reliable enough that backup sights are no longer useful – that is to say, any event that’s traumatic enough to destroy an ACOG is probably not going to leave behind an intact rifle.

To my knowledge, most militaries still embrace backup sights as an essential. About the only first-rate military I’ve ever seen field optics without backup iron sights is the IDF – you can find plenty of pictures online of optics deployed on flat-top M16s without a rear backup sight..

Therefore, I assume FAB Defense developed the FBS / RBS backup sights for export. I have a 9mm AR-15 that needed some backup sights, and the FBS / RBS seemed like an interesting option. How did I like it? More after the break.

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Reviews

FAB Defense T-FL Folding VFG Review

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I have a love-hate relationship with vertical foregrips (VFGs). On one hand, they are a life-saver when you don’t have much handguard to hold. On the other hand…pretty much everything else. They add weight, they promote a grip not conducive to accuracy, they make it hard to shoot from the bench, and they are another point of potential failure. LuckyGunner has an old-but-still-excellent article about the correct usage of VFGs, and I encourage everyone to give it a skim. I run VFGs on a couple of my rifles, but am rather picky about what they go on.

That said, I had been wanting to experiment with a folding VFG on my 22lr AR-15 SBR to see if it made it easier to shoot from the bench. Since this is an Israeli weapons blog, I decided to give the FAB Defense T-FL a try… more after the break.

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Research

SR-22 Usage in the IDF

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TheFirearmBlog has a terrific article up on the usage of the Ruger 10/22 to suppress violent riots by Palestinians. Apparently, someone noticed that an unsuppressed Ruger SR-22 had made it over to Israel and was being used. That particular model has not been seen before, so it’s news. We’ve linked other articles on the 10/22’s usage in Israel before. I am personally waiting to see the IDF deploy some 10/22s tricked out with FAB Defense stocks.

The big takeaway from the article is really at the bottom and in the comments section, where’s there’s discussion of the rules of engagement for the 10/22. The rules are stricter than they were back in 2001, but it’s still in play for injuring violent protesters and shooting rock/molotov throwers. Shooters are supposed to go for non-lethal shots unless things get too crazy, but 22lr is still a lethal round.

TFB doubles down on the Israeli goodness with a write-up on the original Tavor 3x magnifier. The current Tavors use a Mepro 3x magnifier, but the first run was apparently reticle-less Trijicon TA33s. It’s a bit surprising that Trijicon never tried to release them in the US – they would have been an option at a $500 price point with a decent QD mount. (Probably too heavy to compete in the market?)

Industry News

FAB Defense releases 30rd AR-15 and AK mags

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I guess I missed this because of high holidays, but FAB Defense has announced their 30rd AR-15 and AK magazines under the brand name of “Ultimag”. I’ve heard they’ve been in the wild for a few months, but expect a US appearance soon.

The AR mag is your standard windowed polymer magazine. I assume it is meant for export to non-US countries, given the complete market dominance of the Magpul “pmag” in the USA. FAB Defense might also try to sell them to the IDF domestically – they bought 10k CAA mags a few years back, and I suspect there’s a lot more aluminum magazines to replace given how often they become unusable due to dents.

The AK magazine is similar to Magpul’s MOE AK magazine, which is to say it doesn’t have steel-reinforced locking lugs. On the other hand, it does have a window, which makes it unique. I have had some evolution on my views of the necessity of a window on a magazine, but I admit that it’s a feature which can be construed as reasonably helpful. I am skeptical it will see much take-up in the USA, but I could see buying one for testing.

Research

Nice write-up with pictures on IDF 10/22 usage

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I was alerted to a very nice write-up on Rugertalk about the suppressed IDF 10/22 variant. No pictures of any with the new FAB Defense stock, but I’m sure they’re coming as the situation in Israel heats up.

Several of the comments I’ve seen on the IDF 10/22 gripe about the “Maglite suppressor”. My theory is that the rifle used an integral suppression system like the Great Lakes Tactical system (but cruder), and that the knurled part of the suppressor/barrel is actually to give the soldier some grip to unscrew the suppressor covering for cleaning the rifle. The similarity to a Maglite is unfortunate, but makes sense.

I am finally getting to the end of Jewish holidays, but real life continues to be “exciting” (but not bad!). I recently won a rare BUL Storm Compact off Gunbroker for a very reasonable price, so I am eager to see how that turns out.

Research

Mounting Optics to the Galil

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One of the key deficiencies of the Galil series of rifles is optics mounting capability (or lack thereof).  In all fairness, the Galil’s service rifle competitors at the time of its design weren’t barn-burners in this area, either. You could make a reasonable argument that the M14 wasn’t a bad platform for optics, but pretty much everything else under the sun (FAL, AK, G3, M16A1, etc.) had serious issues. It wasn’t until the mid-90’s and the introduction of the flat-top M4 carbine that shooters got more comfortable options on black rifles.

However, due to the Galil’s popularity as a sexy retro rifle, modern shooters often want a way to get some optics on it. What are the options? Read on.

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