So, I took part of my tax refund and bought a civilian-legal version of an M4 carbine. Had it out for a test drive with eight magazines and a can of British surplus L2A1 5.56 ammo.

Break-in: ten rounds of shoot-one-and-punch-the-bore, then forty more rounds of shoot-five, then punch. Seemed to settle in pretty well, so we cout things short and moved on to:

Familiarization and Zeroing: fifty rounds of shooting five and adjusting sights, plus learning the peculiarities of this particular model. Space was limited - I had to use a 25-meter zeroing target. This at least allowed me to get rough sight data for 300-meter battlesight zero.

Free-play: 200 rounds from 50 meters on in: snapshots, rapid fire, "Groucho" firing on the move, et cetera.

Conclusions:

1) Over sandbags, it'll group into 1.5 - 2 minutes-of-angle. Good accuracy, especially for a carbine-length weapon. (If I'd wanted a tack-driver, I'd've bought a Remington PSS, or a match-grade M1A, or like that. This'll deliver for you as long as you do your part.)

2) Three hundred rounds without a hiccup. DPMS makes good stuff. So does Royal Ordnance Radway Green (As good as any of Lake City's M855 ammo I've used). I can also heartily endorse Shooter's Choice MC-7 bore cleaner and MD Labs XF-7 weapons lubricant - cleanup was much easier than with the old-school RBC bore cleaner and Break-Free CLP oil.

3) It handled well, did everything I asked of it without complaint, and shot better than I do. If further experience bears out my initial impressions, I'll put DPMS on my "bet-your-life" list.

4) Ya know, I forgot just how much fun a lightweight high-cap carbine can be...

Man, I gotta get something like that someday, that sounds like a lot of fun.

That's a mean looking gun. It's pretty