Legendary firearms instructor and subject matter expert, Dr. Wes Doss is now the victim of a series of medical incidents, including Malpractice and Negligence, that is almost too ridiculous to believe. The worst part is that this incident continues to Spiral out of control and now Wes’ health, future and the continuation of his life is complete unknown at this point.
This is a Call To Action for anyone who can Spread the Word about this Injustice.
Dr. Wes Doss is an internationally recognized firearm, tactics and use of force instructor with over 30 years of military & civilian criminal justice experience, as well as significant operational time with both military & law enforcement tactical operations & protective service organizations.
Wes holds specialized instructor certifications from the U.S. Army, the U.S. Marine Corps, Arizona POST, the Smith & Wesson Academy, the Sig Sauer Academy, NRA LEAD, FEMA and the Department of State. Wes holds a Master’s degree in Criminal Justice Administration and an upper level Doctorate in Psychology, with an emphasis on sports and performance.
When I was a child, my grandfather was a pro at passing along words of wisdom. He was full of one off tidbits that were usually off color and good for a laugh. Of all of the wonderful euphemisms and sage advice that he passed along, his favorite by far was, “Son, you get what you pay for.” I have found this to be true in many occasions, but every once in a rare while, I have found exceptions to this rule. The exception that I am going to reveal comes in the form of a new scope manufacturer, Acme Machine.
The world of optics is, much like all technology advancing at a rapid pace. Not 10 years ago, a decent piece of glass for your rifle would set you back a pretty penny. First focal plane? How about you sell a kidney? Illuminated reticle? That liver will suffice in trade! Locking turrets would, for the average guy on a state budget, take a boat load of overtime to attain. Ladies and gentlemen,those days are long gone. You can have all of those phenomenal perks for the ridiculous price of $339 as of this posting.
Usually when things seem too good to be true, they are. However,I am proud to say that when it comes to the Acme Machine line of scopes, this was not the case. I had the chance to test a few different variations of the Acme Machine scopes, and honestly they were very good. The glass clarity was quite good, I would put it in the same quality tier as offerings from Vortex, Bushnell and entry level Burris. I was able to put quite a few rounds through it in different lighting conditions, and the scope handled everything from bright daylight to dusk in exemplary form.
The first scope that I will cover is the offering in 1-8x. Several things stood out for me as exceptional. The turrets were delightfully tactile, and i was pleasantly surprised with the audible response I received when turning the dials. The most apparent place that companies cut corners usually comes by way of the turrets, and these were crisp. Another pricy feature this scope brings to the table is the ability to lock the illumination turret. In addition, this scope also tracked very well. While performing a box drill at 50 yards this scope was right on the money, with a complete return to zero from whence I started. This was no easy task, as I chose a rifle that has put some optics to the test. My Bren 805 has a very large bolt carrier group, which equates to a very large reciprocating mass. This has, in my experience, changed zero on lesser scopes with ease. The Acme Machine 1-8x however handled it like a boss.
The reticle on the 1-8x was useful. At 1x, being in the first focal plane, I was able to use it in the fashion of a red dot. This made target transitions a breeze, while still providing for the capability to easily take the shots out to 300+ yards. When it’s time to crank up the magnification, the power ring was stiff, but not unusable. The reticle at 8x was a smidge busy, but as was mentioned earlier, it was usable. In the world of Christmas tree reticles and ballistic drop calculators built in, I wish the horse shoe segments were smaller, and the cross hair stadia slimmer. This is one of the very few things about this scope that I would change if given the chance or opportunity.
Alright, so the scope has very good glass, tracks well, is first focal plane, is illuminated, has nice audible and tactile turrets, and has a modest price. Whats the catch you ask? There is a very small list of things that I would change, and they are as follows. At 1X magnification, it is almost as if the scope is showing you a sight picture at .75X instead of true 1X. I found the sight picture to be closer to true 1x at around the 1.5x mark. Not a big deal to me, but when I was practicing both eyes open shooting, I made sure that the power ring was at 1.5X. The second and to me most glaring insufficiency when it came to the scope came by way of the anti reflective coating, or lack there of on the glass. This manifested itself in a few interesting ways. When turning the illumination on, it was almost as if the scope was reflecting light from the diode, and the resulting effect was a large halo around the exterior of the sight picture. The scope also reflected light off of the ocular lens at the back of the scope. Anytime I got a direct light source from about 4 o clock to 7 o clock, I would inevitably catch the light directly in my eye. This was, to me, mildly annoying at worst.
So the question remains, would I pitch the Acme Machine 1-8x to my grandfather as a viable option in the low power variable scope realm? I absolutely would. For me, the few cons are drastically outweighed by the pros. I think that this is an excellent example of technology finally being applied to the firearms market, and I would offer it as a competitive option for a midrange carbine. Long gone are the days of exorbitant prices for decent rifle glass, and I am happy to say good riddance to them and welcome to the era of new exciting options. Acme Machine scopes definitely get a solid nod of approval from me.
In this wonderful day and age where technology is rapidly advancing, sometimes things get left behind. I have found this especially true in regards to the firearms industry. You want parts for a glock or an AR 15? Buckle your seat-belts because you would be absolutely blown away by the countless hours of scrolling you could do to modify your precious pieces. There are, however, some platforms that are somewhat behind the times. For me it was the AK platform that was the “child left behind”. Extremely short lengths of pull, difficulty mounting modern lights and optics, strange charging operation that requires nothing short of a degree in contortion-ism to accomplish, and that wretched spike grip suitable only to the hands of leprechauns and small children. I found myself wondering if there was a way to bring the AK into the current decade, and I decided that I was going to see if I had the testicular fortitude to take on the task of creating my “perfect” AK.
All projects have to start somewhere, and the base of my project was a bare bones Arsenal 107FR. I acquired the rifle after consulting the inter-webs and several friends who fancy themselves AK connoisseurs. The Arsenal SLR107 is a standard stamped receiver that I was assured would offer great ability to accept customization. After a trip to my local shop I was off to the races. In the attempt to insure that I made the right choice in my base rifle, I began to learn the AK platform. I spent several days on the range, and about 1000 rounds later, I had decided that there were things that I wanted to address.
I found that I was less than impressed with the length of pull and the lack of adjustment therein. I found the stock to be very short and it made me feel extremely cramped behind the rifle. While I had decided that I was going to replace it, I also looked into the option of a folding stock. Being that the AK does not require the use of a buffer tube, it would be nice to be able to have the rifle be utilized while folded, in addition to taking up less room in my gun case or underneath the seat in my truck. While shopping for an item that would fit the bill, I ran across an option that satisfied both my desire to adjust the length of pull and the folding capability. I chose to go with the Magpul Zhukov stock in OD Green. When I purchased the Zhukov, I found it to be an exceptionally easy install and a vast improvement to the original offering.
The next item that I chose really handled two issues with one piece. The main issue was that I had no way to solidly mount an optic. AK iron sights don’t really do it for me. They impede the sight picture with a severely closed-in front sight post, and to me this hampered the rifles capability in a major fashion. With the litany of extremely exceptional optic systems available to us today, I found it unacceptable that the mount on the AK platform was sub-par. What I settled on was a Zenitco B30 and B31 combo. I decided to pair this with a Holosun 403C in a low mount. To be fair, I got this in a trade which involved my old arsenal furniture, but it solved more than a few problems for me. I liked it because this rail is an absolute tank, and I found it to be extremely stable when installed on the rifle. I also liked that it was easy to service the rifle just by undoing two screws and lifting the top rail. If you can find one, I would definitely recommend the B30 rail system, as it greatly increases the capability of the rifle by allowing not only the ability to mount an optic, but a vertical grip as well.
The next thing that I set out to tackle was the grip. The grip is one of the pivotal connections between your body and the rifle. I found the factory offering to be extremely lacking. In my mind’s eye, the standard AK grip closely resembled a tent stake. I admittedly have large hands and the factory grip had to go. I settled on yet another Magpul offering in the MOE AK+ grip. This is totally an AR knockoff grip that I really like. The rubberized coating gives great grip, and I find it to be very comfortable for people of the man-sized hands persuasion.
The last area that I found needing improvement was on the very front end of the rifle. As an AR shooter primarily, I found the recoil impulse of the AK unpleasant. The rifle was equipped with a slant muzzle brake originally, and I found that it did too good of a job. I say this meaning that when I was shooting the rifle it was actually driving the muzzle end of the rifle down. This is usually a good thing, but in this case too much of a good thing was actually uncomfortable. It created a fulcrum effect which in essence drove the stock into my cheek bone. I swapped it out for a Strike Industries J Comp. This addition made the recoil more linear in nature, and while it is absolutely obnoxious for the people around you, who needs fillings right?
The end result is a rifle that I find to be an absolute joy to shoot. It is surprisingly accurate at formidable distance, and honestly it surpassed my expectations. For those of you that are of the opinion that the AK platform isn’t capable of accuracy, think again. I can confirm wholeheartedly that technology can be successfully applied to the AK platform, and if you’re thinking of trying it yourself, I would strongly encourage you to try.
Have you ever fallen in love with something at first sight? I surely have, and when it comes to firearms I have found that sentiment to apply in exactly the same manner. The first time that I laid eyes on my CZ Bren 805, I fell in love. When I shot it, my love was validated. Conversely, there are some times where you have an inherent dislike for things…No reason in particular, you just don’t like somethings face. The topic of this piece was not one of love, but more in line with the latter, at least at first.
The first time I looked at the sig p320, I was very much underwhelmed. I found the trigger to be less than awe inspiring, the aesthetics rather bland and borderline bulbous, and while the fit and finish was acceptable it left me wishing it were more than what it was. I had always found Sig Sauer pistols at the very least aesthetically pleasing, so to me the p320 was a total flop. As time went on the idea of a p320 faded into obscurity. My wife was the one to bring the idea back to the forefront, but the p320 that she presented was not the disappointment of the pistol I remembered.
The Sig P320 VTAC was striking. From the X series grip frame, the angular slide cuts, to the radiused slide, this pistol reeked of svelte. I found the grip to be very comfortable in my man sized meat paws, and I found the flat faced trigger to be an absolute joy to depress. I really appreciated the detail that went into the anti-glare ridges cut into the slide itself. That got me looking at the slide in more detail. There are two large lightening cuts on the side of the slide, and to further reduce weight Sig actually milled the slide down across the whole top. This paired nicely with the interesting sights from vtac. They are an extended height affair, with both a fiber optic set of green three dots and a lower set of tritium vials for low light use. I really enjoyed these sights, and they will be staying on the pistol instead of the Trijicon sights that I usually adorn my pistols with.
On the frame I saw several things that deserve mentioning. Firstly, the flat trigger is amazing. The weight is about 5 pounds, but it feels lighter than that. Paired with the awesome grip angle and just right grip texture, this pistol is quite the shooter. I found the controls very easy to use and intuitively placed. The magazine release was crisp and very positive, when depressed it virtually launches the empty magazines from the frame.
Off to the range I went, and the anticipation was palpable. I brought my Glock 34, old faithful as I call her, to bring what I consider a benchmark pistol to compare it to. Long story short I was both severely befuddled and extremely impressed at the same time. The VTAC is a tack driver. What befuddled me was that despite the thousands of rounds through old faithful, the VTAC held virtually the same size groups from magazine one.
From 15 yards, I was able to measure out one 17 round magazine in a group that measured just a hair over 4 inches with controlled quick paced fire. From the same 15 yards as fast as I could squeeze the trigger the VTAC produced a group that was about 8 inches centered on the target. The groups that I shot were imperceptible from the groups shot with my trusty 34, perhaps a bit better even. The recoil impulse was extremely manageable. The only way I can describe it with the justice it deserves would be to say it runs like a sewing machine, precisely and extremely linear.
What started as a hate affair turned into a tale of adoration in regards to the P320 VTAC. If you’re looking for a handsome, smooth pistol that begs to be pushed farther quickly, this is at the very least a solid contender. I believe that soon it will be the new old faithful. For those of you wondering if it is worth the $700 price tag I would say buy with confidence, you’re getting a steal.