Sons of Liberty Gun Works Rifle Review

Matt Shockey

Matt Shockey

Amateur
Primary and Secondary was contacted by Michael Mihalski of Sons of Liberty Gun Works for us to conduct a comprehensive review of one his AR-15s.

I have just received this rifle today and will begin reviewing it next week. This review will run 60-90 days and will be done with 5k rounds. This is going to be a professional grade review of the rifle. This isn't going to be scientific in nature, meaning Im not going to be testing throat erosion, etc etc.

I dont know much about Sons of Liberty Gun Works honestly, other than they were started in 2012. As I delve deeper into the test, I will provide more info into the structure of the company.

This review will consist primarily of its reliability and suitability to be a duty grade rifle. I am currently assigned as a full time rangemaster for a mid size department of 170 officers and serve on a regional SWAT team and also own a tactical training company (Falcon Tactical) where I host instructors from around the country. Once the review is complete, me giving this rifle a thumbs up means I would allow my officers to carry it and have full trust in it for them using it to defend their life, my life, your life, my family and your family. With that said, I dont take that lightly, so take that how you may. This rifle will be reviewed as it would be used in reality for the most part. There isnt going to be any dropping the bitch from a helicopter, dragging it behind my truck on the way to the range or any other unreasonable shit. It will be cleaned once, at the mid point, and lubed appropriately. There will be phase where I run the rifle bone dry, because this is Texas and police officers sometimes fail to realize oil evaporates, so a rifle baking in a trunk in August can dry out rather quickly.

Other than that, if you have any specific things you want to see, feel free to post em below and I will do my best. I will post periodic updates throughout my review and the results found.

SOLGW is not compensating us for this test and the rifle will be returned post testing. With that said, this is an impartial test and I will call a spade a spade. If the gun sucks, Ill let a playa know, if it runs good, same applies. This test will be objective in nature, with some subjective feedback given on things like ergonomics, etc.....since those tend to be user dependent.

Here is the rifle being tested:

https://sonsoflibertygunworks.com/collections/rifles/products/m4-sml-rifle-with-solo-m-lok-rail?variant=3084041345
 
Matt Shockey

Matt Shockey

Amateur
So went out today and zeroed the rifle. The rifle took a good number of rounds to zero because I initially wasnt on paper using an 8x11 target, but this due to a H1 being put on a lower 1/3 from its previous absolute mount. This is the quick group I shot from 50 yards with 64 grain Speer Gold Dot. That group is 5 rounds and I attribute the top round to my error. With that said, minus the top round, the group is half an inch or essentially 1 MOA, so Im impressed thus far. SOLGW has told me they have gotten to as good as half MOA with MK262, so I will attempt to do the same at one point during the review. Tomorrow I have SWAT training and will have the chance to throw several hundred rounds down the tube and start getting a real chance to feel it.
 
Matt Shockey

Matt Shockey

Amateur
The rifle is now set up with a H1 Micro on a lower 1/3 ADM mount and it has a Surefire Scout on a Danger Close offset mount with a SR07 switch. Everything else will remain stock on the rifle for the duration of the test.
 
Matt Shockey

Matt Shockey

Amateur
400 round test yesterday. The rounds were fired at a pace of about one round a sec.

The recoil impulse is good and the rifle is fairly well balanced. The rifle comes stock with an birdcage on it, so you can upgrade and get further recoil reduction. On my personal rifles I run a Surefire Warcomp and feel it would be a good edition to this rifle and make it even sweeter to shoot.

The rail was solid in terms of heat retention. It wasn't until I got to about 150 rounds that I could not longer hold the rifle without a glove. I then made it to be about 280 before I had to brace the rifle off the palm of my hand on the bottom pic rail and then at 310 I had to go straight to the mag due to heat.

The rifle performed solid, albeit 1 malfunction. The ejection pattern didn't get erratic and the rifle maintained it's pace. Prior to the review starting the rifle was cleaned and lubed with Slip EWL. I did not add any extra lube to the rifle prior to this 400 round test.
 
Matt Shockey

Matt Shockey

Amateur
As for the malfunction, it was a fail to eject. I actually didn't catch it happening, my AI did who standing next to me feeding me rifle mags. Apparently what happened was the round ejected back into the upper receiver, however it was the last round of that mag. So normally I would have known this occurred for obvious reasons as the BCG attempted to chamber another round, etc.....however because it was the last round, as I dropped the mag, that opened up a gapping hole in the rifle and gravity does what gravity does, so the round fell through and this was all unknown to me, cause I was not in a position to see it go down.

What caused this?....not 100% sure. Could have been a short stroke, a temporarily weakened extractor and/or ejector. This was at the mid point of the test, so it was fouling or degradation of parts, I would have expected to see it again, however did not.

Round Count at 463
 
U

Unobtanium

Regular Member
Matt Shockey said:
As for the malfunction, it was a fail to eject. I actually didn't catch it happening, my AI did who standing next to me feeding me rifle mags. Apparently what happened was the round ejected back into the upper receiver, however it was the last round of that mag. So normally I would have known this occurred for obvious reasons as the BCG attempted to chamber another round, etc.....however because it was the last round, as I dropped the mag, that opened up a gapping hole in the rifle and gravity does what gravity does, so the round fell through and this was all unknown to me, cause I was not in a position to see it go down.

What caused this?....not 100% sure. Could have been a short stroke, a temporarily weakened extractor and/or ejector. This was at the mid point of the test, so it was fouling or degradation of parts, I would have expected to see it again, however did not.

Round Count at 463
Click to expand...
A case ejecting back into the upper sounds like an overgassed rifle. The case leaves the bolt face "late", because the bcg is moving rapidly. It then impacts the front of the ejection port as its thrown more forward than out by the base of the shell deflector/rear of the port, and bounces back into the upper.

The fact that it was the last round in a mag is a large part of my hypothesis, as this is when carrier speed is the fastest due to lack of friction on the bottom of the bcg.
 
Matt Shockey

Matt Shockey

Amateur
Sure, that's an absolute hypothesis. Problem is, when it's only one round out of 450, it's more a fluke than a sign of over gassed, wrong buffer, etc
 
U

Unobtanium

Regular Member
Matt Shockey said:
Sure, that's an absolute hypothesis. Problem is, when it's only one round out of 450, it's more a fluke than a sign of over gassed, wrong buffer, etc
Click to expand...
Very true. Sample of one, all the way around. What does the ejection pattern normally look like? That's important to know, to rule in favor of or against my hypothesis. Also, the ejector and extractor spring. Some manufacturers use relatively weak ejector springs, and I've had to replace them to get consistent, robust ejection. Otherwise some cases eject cleanly, and others literally "dribble out " of the ejection port. Here is a slow motion video of a dribbler...


Upgrading the ejector spring fixed it.
 
Matt Shockey

Matt Shockey

Amateur
Shot 336 rounds today. No malfunctions or issues.

The gun is well balanced and shots well. I run straight PMAGs for this iteration, however have several different brands I will run here soon.

The rounds were ran in a semi quick fashion, at which point I took temp readings on the barrel and rail.

No more lube added since I started, so round count is now 799.
 
Y

yamaha450

Newbie
If I can make a request for when the final review is done, I would like to see the overall impressions of that rail. Specifically how the barrel nut matches up with the rail and if the anti-rotation piece (which seems hokey) actually does what it is designed to do.
 
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