Yesterday at DCC we had the local (Avon) chapter of the US Naval Sea Cadet Corps out for a full day of rifle instruction and shooting.
16 youth (ages 11 to 17) and 1 adult took the course, and some of the adult leaders were there also. Good weather, great time had by all.
We used the S&W M&P15-22.
We went through a bit more than 1,000 rounds of ammo, a bit over 250 rounds in each rifle. And I was *very* impressed with the funtion and relaibility.
There were a handful of failures to feed on the first round; some may have been user error, but was certainly compounded by being dirty. I would say that cleaning this rifle every couple hundred rounds (not bad at all when you think about it) will keep it reliable. Using the bolt release rather that slingshotting the charging handle will help to mitigate this occurence on a dirty rifle.
There were a couple failures to feed caused by rounds improperly stacked in the magazine (user error, not the fault of the magazine) and one that stood up and got stuck on the feed ramp. I didn't see this one, so I can't comment on why it happened.
We used about half Blazer high velocity and half Winchester T22. Both types of ammo fed and ejected reliably. Some semi-autos like hi-vel to cycle properly. The S&W had no problems feeding the std vel and zero failures to fire or eject. The std vel empties were tossed about 5-6 feet and the hi-vel got chucked 10 feet or more.
Accuracy for all of the shooters (for many of them was their first time) was in the 2-3" range at 25 yards. The adult shot a 1" group (was her first time too!).
Cleaning the rifle couldn't be easier. Remove magazine, check chamber, close bolt, pull the pin, and break the rifle open. The bolt and charging handle is pulled out of the rear of the upper and is easily field stripped into four parts for cleaning, the bolt, the charging handle, guide rod/spring, and I don't know what to call it... a bolt carrier/rail.
The one small issue to be aware of is the ejector. We cleaned the barrels with a bore snake, and the ejector is piece of flat steel with a hook that is attached to the breech/chamber area, rather than part of the bolt carrier like I would have expected. One of us when pulling the bore snake got the webbing of the snake hooked over the ejector. Not a problem per se, if you know to avoid it.
The rifle operates by simple blowback, and I have to hand it to S&W for making such a reliable, easy to clean rifle.
The rifles came with adjustable stocks, four rails, and quick detach AR style sights. One of the four appeared to be an upgrade model with a set of cool flip up sights and a nicer butt stock.
OK, here's where Plainfield Shooting Supplies comes into the story... as if anyone needs another reason to shop there...
Deb Cheek (Bob and Deb own the store) is a nationally competetive shooter and has won nationals, twice I think. Deb and one of our instructors split the cost of the student material, bought eveyone, including the adults and the instructors a Kroger box lunch, stayed all day - about 11 hours - to help with the coaching...
...and provided four brand new S&W rifles. All at no cost to any of these young cadets.
Interesting side note... Deb and a couple of the instructors were talking and said she had a bunch of new Colt rifles that she intended to bring, but she didn't like them, had parts break, sent them all back and ordered S&W's.
Will post pics if I get time.
16 youth (ages 11 to 17) and 1 adult took the course, and some of the adult leaders were there also. Good weather, great time had by all.
We used the S&W M&P15-22.
We went through a bit more than 1,000 rounds of ammo, a bit over 250 rounds in each rifle. And I was *very* impressed with the funtion and relaibility.
There were a handful of failures to feed on the first round; some may have been user error, but was certainly compounded by being dirty. I would say that cleaning this rifle every couple hundred rounds (not bad at all when you think about it) will keep it reliable. Using the bolt release rather that slingshotting the charging handle will help to mitigate this occurence on a dirty rifle.
There were a couple failures to feed caused by rounds improperly stacked in the magazine (user error, not the fault of the magazine) and one that stood up and got stuck on the feed ramp. I didn't see this one, so I can't comment on why it happened.
We used about half Blazer high velocity and half Winchester T22. Both types of ammo fed and ejected reliably. Some semi-autos like hi-vel to cycle properly. The S&W had no problems feeding the std vel and zero failures to fire or eject. The std vel empties were tossed about 5-6 feet and the hi-vel got chucked 10 feet or more.
Accuracy for all of the shooters (for many of them was their first time) was in the 2-3" range at 25 yards. The adult shot a 1" group (was her first time too!).
Cleaning the rifle couldn't be easier. Remove magazine, check chamber, close bolt, pull the pin, and break the rifle open. The bolt and charging handle is pulled out of the rear of the upper and is easily field stripped into four parts for cleaning, the bolt, the charging handle, guide rod/spring, and I don't know what to call it... a bolt carrier/rail.
The one small issue to be aware of is the ejector. We cleaned the barrels with a bore snake, and the ejector is piece of flat steel with a hook that is attached to the breech/chamber area, rather than part of the bolt carrier like I would have expected. One of us when pulling the bore snake got the webbing of the snake hooked over the ejector. Not a problem per se, if you know to avoid it.
The rifle operates by simple blowback, and I have to hand it to S&W for making such a reliable, easy to clean rifle.
The rifles came with adjustable stocks, four rails, and quick detach AR style sights. One of the four appeared to be an upgrade model with a set of cool flip up sights and a nicer butt stock.
OK, here's where Plainfield Shooting Supplies comes into the story... as if anyone needs another reason to shop there...
Deb Cheek (Bob and Deb own the store) is a nationally competetive shooter and has won nationals, twice I think. Deb and one of our instructors split the cost of the student material, bought eveyone, including the adults and the instructors a Kroger box lunch, stayed all day - about 11 hours - to help with the coaching...
...and provided four brand new S&W rifles. All at no cost to any of these young cadets.
Interesting side note... Deb and a couple of the instructors were talking and said she had a bunch of new Colt rifles that she intended to bring, but she didn't like them, had parts break, sent them all back and ordered S&W's.
Will post pics if I get time.
