Ladies and Gentlemen, I'd like your attention please....

...I want to introduce you to the newest member of the gun cabinet, and what is, by far, the crown jewel.

Allow me to introduce....

"VERA"

She is a 16" midlength AR chambered in 6.5 Grendel, topped off with a nightforce scope, and a few other bells and whistles

She has been a long time coming to fruition. A very long time. In fact, Vera started out as a 5.56mm M4gery. I had settled on getting one with the money I had been given for my graduation from medical school, and over a year ago, I had placed an order for the Rock river Arms upper of my choice from Legal Transfers, LLC. Well, Legal Transfers is run by a damned idiot. I ponied up the sizeable cash, and was told to wait a couple of months. So I did. After nine weeks, no upper. So I called, and he said that there were delays, and to be patient, and it would be another month. I said 'okay.' A month later, I call again. Again, there is no upper, and Legal Transfers says that I should call Rock River arms (RRA), since they are shipping it to me direct. Well, I do, and they say that they can't be sure, and that they generally only discuss things with those who placed the order (legal transfers). So, I call hiim back, and this goes on and on. In the end, while he took my money, Legal transfers had no clue about where in the supply chain my order was, he had no clue when it would be shipped. He kept on telling me that "it's being shipped tomorrow/wedndsay/next week." Well, fed up, I canceclled the order, and told him to give me my money back, or I was going to contact Visa's fraud department. The money came back, but at this time, I was so soured over everything that I had no interest in getting an AR of any type. So, I gave up for a bit.

Then something happened shortly thereafter. I had heard of the 6.5mm Grendel carttridge (65G), and it had all been good stuff. Unfortunately, it was also hideously expensive (close to $1 a cartridge), and was out of my price range. Well, it turnes out that Wolf had started making brass cartridges for 65G that was closer to $.50 a round. Now, while that is not as cheap as 5.56, or even .308, it is a heck of a lot closer, and brings it into the affordable range. So, suddenly, there is this confluence of events where I have the funds for an upper, and 65G just became affordable.

Let me point out a few difference between the 5.56, the 6.5, and the 7.62 NATO before I go any further

 Now, while it may at first glance appear that the 65G is a somewhat underpopwered cartridge compared to the 7.62...well, it is, but that difference tends to even out over distance. You see, the 65G is a more efficient slug with a higher ballistic coefficient, and cross sectional density. What this means is that the 65G does not slow down as fast as either the 7.62 or the 5.56. In fact, by the time the 7.62 and the 6.5G get out to 800 yards, they have roughly equal ft/lbs of energy. 

Now, I was re-examining what I wanted, and what I wanted was a universal, all-around rifle. I wantred a rifle that could do it all. Now, I am no fool, and I realize that I would have to make some compromises, but I decided to first settle on some principles and then stick to them. What would an ideal rifle be for me? First, I had decided on the AR platform because it has a ubiquitous amount of parts, accessories, and variations available which would allow me to customize the rifle to my specifications. Also, I am already familiar with the AR from my time in the Corps, and under stressful situations, I am confident that that training will serve me well. I wanted something that could be used for CQB, as well as being able to reach out to 800 yards, if not further. The M16/M4 rifle has two large drawbacks, IMHO. First, the cartridge is anemic. Second, it's reliability is questionable. Now, the 6.5G handily addresses the first shortcoming. While a .308 may be too much, and a 5.56 may be too little, the 6.5 is just about right. The second problem (reliability) comes from two design flaws in the AR. First, is the direct impingment system, which, IMHO, was a compromise done by Eugene Stoner. It was a sysytem which would cut down on the moving parts, and also, if the system were to fail, it would fail slowly, but not be knocked out of commision altogether if the gas tube were to occlude or blow apart. The drawback to this is that the thing gets foul very quickly, and is a bitch to clean thoroughly. The other weakness in the system is the buffer tube. If that breaks, then the rifle will fail, and will be completely out of commission. Now, my thoughts on the reliability is that while it is a pain to clean, as long as you keep the thing lubed, the direct impingment system is not terribly unreliable. It will be a pain to clean, and that is something I will just accept until such time as I can retrofit the thing with a piston upper that is reliable, and retains accuracy. As for the buffer tube, I spent a few extra dollars and got a reinforced buffer tube. It may not be a perfect answer, but I think that the perfect is the enemy of the good in this case.

So, I started building a 6.5G Ar with a 16" barrel. Ifloated the handguards to tweak accuracy. I put in a set of BUIS, and kept a bayonet lug. You always want to be able adapt to when things go wrong, and your primary optics get messed up. So, I got some flip-ups. Also, you can always ditch the optics, and go with irons if you want to cut thew weight to the bare minimum. Along with this, I went with LaRue sight mounts. They are known for their durability and quality, and being able to pop them on and then pop them off is huge.

For the stock, I went with a CAA collapsible stock. They are very nice, and I like them a lot. The rubber buttpad is also very nice

Speaking of CAA stuff; I also got the CAA Flashlight grip adapter. Let me explain why. It dawned on me that it would very helpful if I could quickly and easily modify the rifle for particular uses, particularly CQB. CQB requires fairly specialized stuff. The two big things I wanted to be able to put on were a flashlight, and also a laser sight. The role of the flashlight is to ID targets in the darkness, and to keep you from tripping over stuff in the dark, and hurting yourself. The CAA FGA has a thumb actuated button which can be put on either flash or constant on. It took a little while for it to loosen up, but now it works pretty well. The FGA also has a rail on the side. The original instructions said to heeat this, and hammer that to get the rail onto one of the three available positions. I just superglued the damned thing, and it seems to have worked well. On this rail, I mounted a 12mw green laser. It is very bright, and has a touchpad switch that I put on the FGA. While not something that is an absolutely necessary, a laser is a very useful tool for particular times and places, not the least of which is the ability to make precise hits in very dynamic environments, without the need for perfect sight alignment.

The sling is a Vickers tactical two-point sling. It is easily adjustable, and while single point slings look neat, and may be handy in a very narrow range of applications, I think that more traditional two point slings are more useful accross the board, especially when using a sling to steady a weapoin you are firing.

I also put an angle Cosine indicator on the side. It is light and idiot proof. I first found the utility for one of these things while plinking with an enfield in the Sierra Nevadas. I was shooting downhill at a tire about 300 yards away. the round went high. I adjusted the sights, and hit the thing. The sights were on 250 yard settings. I was a little disappointed that I had missed a tire from only 250 yards away. Well, the thing is that when you are shooting up or down inclines, since the gravity vector is not perpendicular to the line of sight, the vector that is perpendicular to the line of sight is smaller. In other words; whenn shooting up or down at significant angles, your rounds will go high. the angle cosine indicator gives me a percentage to multiply the range by in order to adjust.

For sights, I went with a nightforce 2.5-10x variable power scope. 2.5x is low powered enough to use the Binden aiming concept at close ranges, and rapidly moving targets. The 10x will allow me to engage targets accurately out to up to 1000 yards. Again,  the principle is to have a rifle which can do it all.

So, there it is; the universal rifle.

As for the name, well... Grim suggested it, and it sounded good. Also, Vera means "true." which sounded appropriate. Anyway, here are some more shots of the rifle.

Hopefully, I will be able ot get it out to the range soon.

Respectfully Submitted,
-doc Russia