The owners here at Train Confident were conducting our weekly meeting last week. As we were talking, I had an idea and brought it up. What was this idea? The idea was to compete in a competition that requires tactical shooting and tactical fitness. What better way to show what we do here at Train Confident than to have you all follow us through this process from the start to the end.
The first step was to decide what we wanted to shoot during the competition. The first part of the decision was whether we would buy new guns or build something. I had an AR in the safe that was almost new out of the box. I consulted with a guy who used to be on our team (in the military) who now owns a gun shop @Apocalypse Sports LLC. The question to him was.... Which is better, building what we have or buying new? He recommended building what we have.
We ordered a few parts to get started: low profile gas block (@Marksman Mansfield), compensator, free-floating handguard (@vulcan_firearms), single- stage competition trigger (@CMC Triggers), and a new optic (@Apocalypse Sports LLC).
This weekend I had finally received all the parts and started working. The process was pretty simple as we are very familiar with the AR platform. The gun came apart very easily except for the barrel nut which was new and over torqued (100-120 ft/lb). I took the upper to @Marksman Mansfield and had them remove the barrel nut as I don't have a vice (We don't build guns or sell guns at Train Confident).
Once the gun was disassembled the fun part began! I greatly enjoyed reassembling the firearm. The new barrel nut went on easily and torqued down, then the gas tube fit into the gas block with no issues. The gas block/ gas tube assembly went on easily as well. The next step was to install the free-floating handguard. This went on easily as well. The last piece for the upper (besides the optic) was the compensator. Again, I had no vice, and the compensator needs to be positioned a specific way, or it won't do its job properly. It took a little ingenuity to position it correctly, but I figured it out.
The final step in this process was to install the new trigger. I made sure to follow the recommended installation procedures as I didn't want to ruin the new trigger or get smacked in the eye with a spring. The trigger was fairly easy to install but to reinstall the safety I had to partially remove the trigger to get it back in.
The optic was the last part to go on. It was installed and tightened but not torqued quite yet. I need to level the optic and set the correct eye relief before I torque it down. (check out the gun build on our social media)
The pistol? Train Confident just purchased a pistol a few months ago that I will use for the comp.
What about the tactical fitness aspect? We are fit already and would be working out regardless. I have rewritten my personal fitness plan for the next 10 months or so to focus more on the possible fitness-based tasks of the competition.
The style of fitness programming that I built for myself is very close to what I need to do to prepare for the competition. I dropped the volume of some of my movements that would not likely appear in the competition and added the frequency for one or two movements that would be more prevalent.
Check out our social media on all or any platform to see the AR build and keep coming back. I will be posting some training videos on our pages in the next week or so.
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