Cav Arms receiver

Had a nice day today-The weather was a balmy 26 degrees F with a slight chance of precipitation (only 3 or 4 inches so far!). With that being said, it seemed like a perfect opportunity to work out the cav arms receiver some more with a 223 upper on it. This receiver has been working out well- and I am starting to really like it. I currently have it equipped with a standard buffer tube spring and an H2 buffer. For an upper, I have a Del-Ton ultra-light 223 16 inch carbine length. Even with the reddot, the gun weighs in at 6. lbs 7 oz. With a 20 round mag, I'm running at right around 7 lbs- not at all a bad deal for such a potent little package.

remember sun screen. Target marked with Yellow Circle

The receiver worked well with my leather gloves, and I had plenty of room in the trigger guard without feeling like I would have a negligent discharge at any second. The target today was a highly visible steel plate at 300M.I marked it with a yellow circle in the picture at left, just to make it 'jump out' a bit more for the readers at home.

Hits were not as consistent as I would like- as it was difficult to spot the misses with all the snow. I was fairly pleased though for cheap irons and a zero magnification reddot optic.


I will note that I had an issue today  I had never considered when putting this gun together. The snow hit the front of the reddot, and obscured my view of the irons. Whenever I had thought of reddots failing, I always just imagined the battery dying or losing zero at a bad time. Never had I thought about material  coating the lens in such a way as to make the view opaque.

covered in the miracle of Christmas. . .

It certainly gave me something to think about. I don't use the dot often on this gun,instead focusing on the irons. I might pull the dot off and save it for another project. Removal of the rings and the trophy dot would put the gun in the high 5 lb, to barely 6 lb range- which is mighty tempting. I doubt I would change the rear sight. Though cheap, I like having the elevation and windage drums (ala A2 style rear sights) instead of just windage, as is more common among flip up rears on many ARs.

This rifle is really becoming my 'go-to' shooter for range visits. When it had the E.A. lower, I liked it. However, the feel of the grip frame and trigger in the Cav is really appealing to me- and it has proven to be a completely reliable package so far. The only maintainence I run on this gun is:

Every 550 bulk pack of 22lr I run through the conversion kit- I try to shoot at least 1 mag of 223. oil liberally when dry. That's it. No deep cleaning, no scrubbing, no bore snake. Just shoot it, and when concerned about dirt, shoot it in a bigger caliber.