PopRocket123

I started a project a while back to make a copy of the Black King rifle seen in Netflix's Shooter and it led me down an autistic rabbit hole of early 2000s precision shooting that I have to post somewhere. It's an ugly rifle but in that unique way that is way too memorable to leave alone. I started with my TAC-41P as a base. For no other reason than it's what I have to hand. It's not accurate to what's seen on screen but it's a solid base. I planned on printing most of the parts out of carbon fibre reinforced ABS with a few off the shelf screws and metal parts holding it together So let's start off with what it is I'm trying to replicate. The rifle seen in screen is a D&L Sports MR30PG. Which is an issue since as far as I can tell they're custom build rifles built to order. Which has led to me finding at least 4 distinct rifles each with different details. These were M700 long action recievers clamped into a solid aluminium chassis. This gave an immensely heavy rifle perfect for long range shooting with minimal felt recoil. It also gave a solid interface between the receiver and the stock, something that was hard to achieve with the more common wooden and synthetic stocks of the time. This was in the late 90s-early 2000s, when the only precision rifle using a modern chassis system was the Accuracy International L96 so most rifles in the US used for competition were basic polymer stocks. These would have to be reinforced and bedded with glass fibre and metal inserts to avoid shifting zero under recoil. The MR30 gets around this by replacing the stock with a big lump of metal. Not an elegant solution but very effective. It eliminated the internal magazine so it was a single shot. This is often done by long range competition shooters to avoid bending the cartridge as it is pushed out of the magazine (It's a whole other argument if this even makes a difference but we're talking about people so anal that that will load their own ammo and only use bullets and brass from particular batches as certain dies have slightly better results than others). The distinctive carry handle simply made it easier to lug this overweight beast between your truck and the range. Having such an adjustable stock was something of a novelty at the time, allowing for cheek height, length of pull and even shoulder pad height adjustments as well as the rear monopod. The barrel seems to have a lot of variation between rifles but the one used on screen is a fluted 20" bull barrel with a unique spiral muzzle break drilled into the barrel. All of this worked. In the only video I could find of one actually being shot, a random YouTube video from 13 years ago it barely moved when shot and made easy hits at 1000 yards. So I know what I'm making, now I needed reference pictures. That's where things got tricky. Screen grabs from the show were basically useless, too low quality and at unhelpful angles. After finding out the name I was able to find some more examples, mostly old listings of ones being sold second hand. Of those only one had all around shots and up close detailed looks at different parts. https://www.gunsinternational.com/guns-for-sale-online/rifles/benchrest-and-target-rifles/d-l-sports-mr30-professional-grade-precision-rifle.cfm?gun_id=100897224 I also found a rendering done by a 3d artist in blender. That had a lot of useful angles but was made by an artist, not an engineer, so while the general shape was usable, the details couldn't be used than anything more than a reference. But what it did have was a side shot I could use as a template in Fusion360. https://thuanha823.artstation.com/projects/Aq6YrN So that's where I started. I modeled up the receiver, bolt, barrel and the most difficult part to draw accurately, the magwell. Then I lined up the template picture, using the length of the original stock and the barrel length to scale it. The TAC-41 receiver is loosely based on the Mcmillan Tac 338 which has a .388 length ejection port instead of the .308 length one of the original so already some inaccuracy there but it could be worse. I also left the original mag sticking out of the bottom instead of the completely flat bottom. Maybe if I come back to this at a later date and design one for a VSR it'll look closer but I'm happy with how this has come out. The stock has been thickened up a bit compared to the original too as the plastic I would be printing this in wouldn't be as strong as the original aluminium.

I love that M14. I really want to pick up that one in the classifieds to go with the CAR-15 I just got but I should really finish some of the ones I have before I get more

There's the MPX sportline. The size of an MP5, polymer body, easy reloads and Luke from negative airsoft was pretty positive about the one he got his hands on. And with the picatinny rail on the back it's easy to just take the stock off and run it with a single point sling, maybe use a bungie cord on your belt to keep it secure when you're running

I've been on a fixed carry handle obsession recently so I picked up a bag of bits that theoretically I can turn into a CAR-15/Colt SMG at home

Not gonna lie I had the same idea when I watched those videos

I honestly hate everything you build. Keep going

I haven't printed anything this big before so we'll see how it comes out. I'm not expecting it to be on par with some of those custom stocks out there but it's only for a fairly cheap Reximex Pretensis so I doubt it's got good enough performance to see much difference. It'd be interesting to experiment to see if I can come up with something solid enough to be good for that

I print in carbon fibre reinforced ABS which is plenty strong. You just have to think about the direction of the layers when you're working out print orientation. And in this case I'm going to need to split it to fit in the print bed. So I'm going to split it at 45° angles in order to maximise surface area when I stick it together

This is actually for an air rifle but I'm really happy with how it's coming out. It's for the Reximex Pretensis and is based on the KRG Whiskey 3 chassis. Not bad for 3 days work. Now onto the boring stuff. Screw fittings etc.

This is what happens when you let someone with adhd who is incapable of making a decision design something. You get 4 different versions of the same thing

Yeah had to step away while my life exploded, imploded and then got stirred around in a soup of bullshit for a while. It's nice to know I was missed.

My dad and I have a few between us

That'll be cool to see. My dad was working on his own using a tm as a base gun. Unfortunately as is to be expected from him it's fallen by the wayside

I've been considering selling off my AEGs since I use them so rarely that the batteries keep dying and getting a GBBR instead. That seems like a solid option. Is it as good as the ads make it look?

I never liked the quad rails so I copied the Midwest Industries M-Lok rail

I actually started a black king build for my Tac 41 coincidentally. It's a cool look

This was my big takeaway from it, especially after Neg Air's video on it using the internals to revive his old TMP. I'm tempted to get one just as a base for 3d printed builds

Pretty sure it is, yeah. You do have the choice between an AEG or GBBR though which is nice

I love my 1-4x vision sling short dot. I've used it a lot on a few different guns. The glass is decently clear, I'm sure if I splashed out on something better I'd see a big difference but it's clear enough to still ID targets into the evening. The red dot is super dim so I never use it. It's got a bit of a weird border round the edge of the sight picture when you look through it but it disappears when you're in game. I think it was part of a poor quality batch as it was £40, around half off. My experience of red dots and magnifiers is that you need to get the more expensive ones as the multiple layers of glass cause a much darker sight picture.

If you're going down the magnifier route don't cheap out. The cheap mounts wobble making it impossible to aim when using the magnifier. The quality of the glass is important too. You're looking through 4 pieces of glass and if they're cheap each one will darken your sight picture. Have a look at the options from vortex

I've seen IR versions being used with NVGs to make target acquisition easier at ranges past 100ft. Not sure how much use it would have in airsoft though. The hunting is a good point I wouldn't have thought of though

It was looking a little naked. Still can't find a spare flash hider, pretty sure there's one in my dad's box of bits

Picked up a CZ 805 Bren that could use some love. It's missing the muzzle device and a couple of screws but is otherwise solid. I had it less than an hour and I've already taken a knife to it to improve the cable management

That's not saying a whole lot lol. I've heard real horror stories about the quality of the osprey kit.

In my experience of viper kit, the part that fails is their stitching. I've only had a few bits of viper kit but when they've failed it's always been in a corner of the stitching. I'm guessing they're cutting costs on thread quality and saving time not reinforcing those parts.