Archer Manufacturing Patrol Rifle

Bill Blowers

Bill Blowers

Sausage Six Actual
VIP
Finally got some range time in, worked some drills and skills. 324 rounds fired today, which brings the total to 5095 rounds fired with ZERO gun related malfunctions. 90 days is up next Tuesday, but I have three days on a 200 yard range next Wed-Fri so I'm gonna make this a 93 day test so I can shoot some groups and kick it's teeth in a little bit more.
 
Bill Blowers

Bill Blowers

Sausage Six Actual
VIP
The MK8 is probably the most rigid rail out there, so for rail mounted laser aiming devices there would be less concern about deviation. Especially at distance, but I can bang steel at 100 with no perceptible problems right now. It is unlikely I would engage anything beyond that as a cop, but you never know.
 
Chris Taylor

Chris Taylor

Random Factor of the K Power
S.W. said:
Just curious, why replace the EMR?
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@S.W., as Bill mentioned, the Geissele rails are much more robust and rigid. The EMR rails are great for a GPR, like our EPR model that Bill is testing. They're ridiculously light and comfortable (hence the "Ergonomic" in the name ;) ), but the trade off for light is decreased rigidity for mounted aiming solutions.

The EMR line is plenty rigid for most shooters, and the decreased weight is a big factor for a "do it all" rifle, which covers ~97.6% of patrol rifle use, especially the exciting 'standing for hours on a perimeter carrying a rifle'. The narrower form factor also helps in the already cluttered in-car workspace most officers deal with on a daily basis.

The G rails are bulkier, heavier, and more rigid, which helps for rail mounted aiming solutions or bipods, which is great for SWAT studs like Bill, or SPR/sniper use, but may be unneeded for a general use/issue rifle.

Add in the increased cost to the increased weight, and the EMR starts to shine for a general issue/use gun.
 
AndersonAUB

AndersonAUB

Newbie
Interested to see how this panned out. Seems solid as shit. I know we shot some good distances and some up close fast stuff this week and the final analysis should be good.

We are now doing the bidding and research to replace the uppers on our SWAT guns. We are looking at a Rainier Arms RUC upper with a 12.5" barrel and Silencer Co cans.

We already run Rainier lowers with Daniel Defense Mk18 uppers.

So I may get in contact with the Archer guys about uppers. My only concern is the FoF issues due to them being our training equipment.
 
Bill Blowers

Bill Blowers

Sausage Six Actual
VIP
Accuracy day at the range today, half on pistol and half on rifle. Did a 200 point aggregate on a B8, five rounds fired from 50, 100, 150 and 200. My score was 192 with the Archer. Picture below was from drills. 150 rounds fired, 5245 total. I was using a T-2 and a Samson 3.5X magnifier.
image.jpeg
 
Bill Blowers

Bill Blowers

Sausage Six Actual
VIP
Well hell, just went through 90 rounds of FoF cartridges with no malfunctions or pellet stacking! 3 mags full, I stopped after each magazine to ensure the barrel was still clear. It appears that the barrel needed a few rounds through it to get with the program. Or maybe the Archer gun finally told the FoF cartridges what's up.
 
Bill Blowers

Bill Blowers

Sausage Six Actual
VIP
So the 93 day review is complete. The gun went through 6035 live rounds, I'm guessing half of,those were suppressed but I wasn't tracking that. It also attended 222 hours of training and deployed on 15 missions, would have been more but I was out of state for SHOT, DARC and my own vacation time to teach classes for my company.

I swapped out some parts due to personal preference, nothing broke on the gun during the review. It still has its original gas rings. Wear and tear is pretty normal stuff and certainly nothing alarming.
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The ejection port side of the gun is the side that rubs on me as lefty, some of the cerakote in the high spots rubbed off. Again this is to be expected, the other side of the gun didn't suffer the same treatment.
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In the posts above this, you can see the gun is still shooting 1" at 100 yards. Zero shift with can and without is negligible. It has seen a variety of magazines and ammunition with no issues. After talking with the guys at Archer, they asked me to continue kicking the shit out of it until June. My agency is hosting their armorers course and they will recover it when they come up. At that point Chris Tayler is gonna chop the barrel to inspect rifling. Although that thought is greatl upsetting, it also shows the level of commitment to excellence those guys have to turning out an excellent product. This is a great gun and one that I would highly recommend as an agency purchase. The value of the patrol rifle package is stupid for what you get. Any citizen would be well served with this rifle, it will be my next purchase.
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Most importantly, Fat Dog approves. Check Archer out, you will not disappointed.
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bkelly47

bkelly47

Newbie
Just wondering is it a standard phosphate bcg or does it have some some type of melonite or other coating/surface treatment?
 
Chris Taylor

Chris Taylor

Random Factor of the K Power
@bkelly47 that one has a standard phosphate finish. We're looking at other surface treatments and coatings as well, but plain boring phosphate has a lot going for it in that application.
 
U

Unobtanium

Regular Member
Bill Blowers said:
In the words of Tupac, "the mothuhfuckin' saga continues". After the previous range debacle I went digging for a decent scope. I went rooting around and found an old Leupold 10X that was in the range. I recall one of our snipers using it awhile back, but alas, no rings. So I dug around and found some rings, unknown make/model. Mounted it up and felt like a sniper, which I am not.

Went to the range and started shooting. Spun dials and shit until I was on paper, I wasn't trying to zero it, just get it close and then do my best to shoot tight groups to measure. Problem is, I couldn't shoot tight groups. I'm like, what the fuck? Shooting decent quality ammo of different weights.
View attachment 995
I was shooting the same size groups with T2/magnifier as I was with 10X. Which doesn't make sense to me so I think there may be a reason the scope was pulled from service OR I over torqued the scope rings OR the rings are just junk. Any of those things could be possible. I printed roughly 2" groups with both setups but really feel like the gun is capable of more with a better scope and maybe a better shooter.
View attachment 996
View attachment 997
I will be going again, with a known good quality 14X and bringing a guy that I know can get down on the precision shooting as a check measure. I am nut unhappy with a 2 MOA gun in a 14.5" patrol rifle! I do think I can compress that group consistently since I was able to shoot a 1" group above this post. Sun was in my eyes.....

Round count is now 3060, no malfunctions.
Click to expand...
RA556B is about a 2MOA round no-matter what you launch it from.
 
Bill Blowers

Bill Blowers

Sausage Six Actual
VIP
The last 100 yard group I posted was RA556B. Also, FoF update, it's still not working correctly with pellets jamming up the barrel. Sometimes it works, sometimes it clogs. When it stacks them up I am doing a thorough cleaning of the bore and then it stacks again. Or doesn't. Really weird.
 
U

Unobtanium

Regular Member
Bill Blowers said:
The last 100 yard group I posted was RA556B. Also, FoF update, it's still not working correctly with pellets jamming up the barrel. Sometimes it works, sometimes it clogs. When it stacks them up I am doing a thorough cleaning of the bore and then it stacks again. Or doesn't. Really weird.
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I'm a 10-shot kind of guy. I've gotten some very good 5 shot groups that I have never come within 1/2" of using the same gun/ammo when doing 10-shot groups. However, my 10-shot groups are very similar to a 30 shot group, when I care to try them. My version of ES is "what is the literally mechanical worst that can happen, to within a sensible standard deviation." but this is a debate for another thread. If you have RA556B that is punching legit 10-shot 1" groups, then you got a killer lot.
 
KUTF

KUTF

Regular Member
Bill Blowers said:
The last 100 yard group I posted was RA556B. Also, FoF update, it's still not working correctly with pellets jamming up the barrel. Sometimes it works, sometimes it clogs. When it stacks them up I am doing a thorough cleaning of the bore and then it stacks again. Or doesn't. Really weird.
Click to expand...

Are you running a dry or lubricated barrel with the FoF rounds?
 
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