P80 vs G80: How the Polymer80 Frame and G80 Compare
Polymer80 frames are no longer made. Here is how the P80 and the G80 compare, from the steel receiver to swappable grip modules, and which of your P80 parts still fit.
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RMR Footprint vs RMSc & Doctor
If you’ve shopped for a red dot lately, you’ve probably noticed that not every optic fits every slide. That’s because red dots aren’t built on one universal mounting pattern — they’re built on a handful of competing “footprints,” and picking the wrong one means your new optic sits in a box instead of on your…
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The Best Barrel Length for 5.56/.223 (With Ballistic Data)
The .223 Remington and 5.56 NATO cartridges are based on the .222 Remington, an old varmint hunting round designed to be fired from a bolt-action rifle. That rifle was the Remington Model 721, to be exact, which had a 24″ barrel. In other words, the 5.56 and .223 cartridges we all chamber in our AR-15s…
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All About AR-15 Gas Port Sizes
The importance of the AR-15’s gas port is often overlooked. When there’s talk about gas systems and tuning a rifle, the conversation usually focuses on gas blocks, buffers, and gas tubes. There’s little mention of gas port size. Maybe you’re building an AR-15 from an 80% lower, and need to verify you’ve got the right…
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The Ultimate AR-15 Cleaning Guide
There are a lot of guides on the internet that tell you how to clean the AR-15. Most of those guides are miss important steps. Some are just wrong. This writer was once an armorer’s assistant in the U.S. Army. I spent nearly a decade cleaning M4 rifles, and I spent many hours stopping angry…
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Which AR-15 Twist Rate is Best?
This guide covers all the important aspects of the AR-15 barrel: Rifling, forging, and barrel steel, treatments and coatings, and the best barrel lengths and twist rates for the most popular cartridges. What is a “Twist Rate,” Exactly? A barrel’s twist rate describes how tightly a gun barrel’s rifling twists. The rifling rotates the bullet…
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Nitride vs. Chrome Lining: Which AR-15 Barrel Finish is Best?
Whether you build or buy a rifle, picking out a barrel is arguably the most important thing you’ll do. After all, the barrel determines how your rifle performs; everything else comes second. In addition to choosing between carbon and stainless steel, and your barrel’s type of rifling, you’ve got to pick what finish — if…
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Which Type of Barrel Rifling is Best? A Comparison
Every shooter wants the most accurate and reliable barrel. If you’re building a new AR-15 or just buying a rifle off the shelf, you’re probably deciding between different types of rifling: Cold-hammer forged (CHF), cut rifling, and button rifling. Which one’s the best? Is one the best? Each type of rifling offers advantages (and suffers…
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Can you Store Magazines Loaded? (Yes, Here’s Why)
You’ve heard it before: If you store a fully loaded magazine long-term — say, six months or longer — then you might as well throw it away. That magazine’s spring is ruined and unreliable, because it wore out. You might’ve also read that you shouldn’t store magazines fully loaded, but that you instead leave space…
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300 BLK vs. 5.56 NATO: Which One’s Better?
300 BLK vs. 5.56 NATO: Which one’s better? Is one better? (Yes). Which one should you pick for target shooting, self defense, short-barreled rifles, long-range accuracy? The answers to these questions might surprise you. We’re covering ballistic data for both rounds and comparing their performance in depth to give you the answers. Before we get…
