This is one of the many projects I am working on, and one closest to my heart. I am truly enjoying sharing my passion for firearms, and building AR-15’s with my love. The his and her AR-15 project consists of 2 Aero Precision consecutive serial numbered AR-15 receivers. The goal with this project is to build 2 identical, light weight rifles while balancing performance and overall cost.

To help reduce the over all weight we chose to run a 16” pencil barrel from Faxon Firearms this barrel comes in at a low 1.2lbs. The barrel had been a suggestion from Tim @ TACCOM3G.com which also brings up another item, we went with TACCOM’s ultra light weight comp to keep the extended weight to a minimum. A few other items we are working into the light weight mix are a NON-Forward assist upper receiver, an a Air Lite series 15” keymod handguard from GunTecUSA which comes in at only 8.5 ounces. I am anxious to see how this project turns out, once we have the rifles assembled with the components we choose, the next step is a custom Cerakote finish by Applied Arsenal Finishes. Stay tuned and subscribe to the BigGunner81 youtube channel for more updates and videos.

Till next time, “Have Fun Shooting…” -Rick

MIDDLETOWN, CONN. (04/15/16) – Magazine manufacturer Mec-Gar® Srl recently announced the passing of its founder, Edoardo Racheli, 78, after a brief illness. Racheli passed on Feb. 22.

Racheli founded Mec-Gar Srl in 1965 in Gardone Val Trompia, Italy, with a focus on manufacturing high-quality firearm magazines. His passion for the outdoors, toolmaking and metal stamping led to the now-international company’s founding. In the 50 years since, Mec-Gar has grown from simple beginnings in a garage to three modern manufacturing facilities in Italy and a distribution center in the United States.

Mec-Gar has been recognized as the leading manufacturer of magazines in the industry, supplying its products as original equipment for many of the world’s leading firearm companies.

During his time at Mec-Gar, Racheli enjoyed developing many personal relationships with factory owners, engineers, buyers, vendors, distributors and sales representatives, one of them now-Vice President of Mec-Gar USA David Kochol.

“His legacy is seen in the pride, hard work ethic and dedication of the employees at Mec-Gar and the high-quality magazines produced,” Kochol said. “We all feel honored to have known and worked with Mr. Racheli. He was a charismatic and kind gentleman, and he will be missed by his family and many friends.”

About Mec-Gar®
Mec-Gar® Srl is a privately held, family-run business located in Brescia, Italy. Since opening in 1965, the company has been proud of its fully in-house engineering, design and manufacturing process, positioning Mec-Gar Srl as an industry leader in quality and innovation. Mec-Gar® USA is owned and operated by the same family and functions as the sole U.S. importer and distributor for Mec-Gar Srl products in North America. To learn more, visit shop.mec-gar.com.

Are You Competition Ready

This is really awesome! A while back I along with several others had been asked as a beginner in the world of competitive shooting to offer ideas for a checklist for others who are thinking of making the leap into the world of competition shooting. Today the match prep check list is now available for others to see through Armscor / Rock Island Armory’s website. I’d like to thank Armscor for this opportunity to share my ideas as beginner to this project. There are a million different ideas on how to do things, and I’m still learning. Check it out at: http://news.armscor.com/are-you-competition-ready

You may know that for the 2016 shooting season my goal was to attend (and shoot) my first major match. In February I attended the 3 Gun Nation Southeastern Regional. Unfortunately, that trip ended with a visit to Dairy Queen. Yes I DQ’d by making a simple mistake before shooting. So I wasn’t going to give up, I had the opportunity to attend the 3 Gun Nation Southern Regional. I’m proud to say I completed the match, despite a few (ok more then a few) mechanical failures with my shotgun. I look forward to shooting more matches in the future, however for the remainder of this season I plan on shooting relatively local matches.

To hear my match story, along with Josh Tarrant (who happens to be sponsored by RevArms & Taccom) check out this weeks episode of ((BigGunner81 LIVE!)). Again I would like to thank Josh Tarrant for hanging out with us for the re-cap of this match. Till next time “Have Fun Shooting…” -Rick