Bobbalouie
New member
Saturday, I took a new Olympic Arms “.223 Plinker” out to the range to test it out and zero it in. I've heard a few unfavorable comments about Olympic from some quarters, and it seems that the only opinions on Olympic Arms rifles are strong ones one way or the other. This is simply a performance report for those who are interested. Your mileage may vary...
The Oly “.223 Plinker” is an entry-level AR-15 which has a suggested retail of $599. I was able to order mine for $529 plus $25 for a muzzle brake. Here’s what your money buys:
16" Heavy Barrel: 1x9 twist, 4140 chromeloy steel, unlined
Cast A3 lower & A2 upper receivers with A1 sights
A1 stock with trapdoor, Oly stowaway pistol grip.
All metal action parts
10 round PC magazine
Doskocil hard case
Sling
Lifetime Warranty; 60 day money back guaranty; one inch at 100 yards, one minute of angle accuracy guaranty
A pretty good manual
The .223 Plinker is essentially an Oly PCR-5 (Politically Correct Rifle) with some changes. The second line of the above description tells you how they are able to sell the rifle as inexpensively as they do: The unit’s upper and lower receivers are machined from castings with A1 sights, rather than a forged A2 or A3 set. The upper offers the brass deflector and a rounded forward assist. The barrel, trigger, and bolt groups are shared with the PCR-5. When the rifle was delivered, my dealer walked me through field-stripping and maintaining it.
For my first day out, I took PMC 55gr rounds. After blowing off ten rounds to get used to the feel of the rifle, I settled in to zeroing-in the sights. Fortunately for me, two lanes over was a nice military fellow named Jeff who had been shooting AR-15/M-16s for the last twenty years and showed some interest in me and my rifle. He’d brought his fine Bushmaster XM15 E2S Shorty AR-15 Rifle to the range with him. Right away, the visual difference between the cast and forged receivers was noticeable: The cast Oly looks a little more, well, rustic, because it doesn’t have the smooth surface of the Bushy. No problem. I have to say that Jeff was pretty impressed, given the price.
With my new friend helping, I learned to zero-in, starting with a little factoid which should help anyone trying to zero in an AR-15: Before starting, you should “flush” the front site by rotating it down until the flat body of the site post is flush with the rifle’s sight body. This gives you an idea where the rifle is actually shooting. My rifle shot two clicks low and a click left, but was dialed in easily. By the way, my new friend gave me the twenty-five meter zeroing-in target which came with his Bushy and it made the process a breeze. Get one if you can. Hint for Olympic.
From there on, it was down to learning the two-stage trigger (I have mostly shot pistol) and getting my stance and breathing under control. Let's see: touch nose to charging handle and back off. It has been a while since I fired a rifle. I was grouping pretty well after three boxes. The trigger seemed a little stiff, with a hard break, but we’ll see how it wears in. The only failures were two feed problems due entirely to silly operator errors. Apparently the muzzle brake worked fine because the barrel didn’t jump around too much. Mags dropped clear when the released was pushed and all operating functions were crisp and tight. By the way, using stripper clips made the whole Mag. reload thingy much easier. Afterwards, the rifle cleaned up and re-lubed easily.
So, to sum it up, it works fine, is pretty much point and click, and is more accurate than a novice operator.
Bobbalouie
The Oly “.223 Plinker” is an entry-level AR-15 which has a suggested retail of $599. I was able to order mine for $529 plus $25 for a muzzle brake. Here’s what your money buys:
16" Heavy Barrel: 1x9 twist, 4140 chromeloy steel, unlined
Cast A3 lower & A2 upper receivers with A1 sights
A1 stock with trapdoor, Oly stowaway pistol grip.
All metal action parts
10 round PC magazine
Doskocil hard case
Sling
Lifetime Warranty; 60 day money back guaranty; one inch at 100 yards, one minute of angle accuracy guaranty
A pretty good manual
The .223 Plinker is essentially an Oly PCR-5 (Politically Correct Rifle) with some changes. The second line of the above description tells you how they are able to sell the rifle as inexpensively as they do: The unit’s upper and lower receivers are machined from castings with A1 sights, rather than a forged A2 or A3 set. The upper offers the brass deflector and a rounded forward assist. The barrel, trigger, and bolt groups are shared with the PCR-5. When the rifle was delivered, my dealer walked me through field-stripping and maintaining it.
For my first day out, I took PMC 55gr rounds. After blowing off ten rounds to get used to the feel of the rifle, I settled in to zeroing-in the sights. Fortunately for me, two lanes over was a nice military fellow named Jeff who had been shooting AR-15/M-16s for the last twenty years and showed some interest in me and my rifle. He’d brought his fine Bushmaster XM15 E2S Shorty AR-15 Rifle to the range with him. Right away, the visual difference between the cast and forged receivers was noticeable: The cast Oly looks a little more, well, rustic, because it doesn’t have the smooth surface of the Bushy. No problem. I have to say that Jeff was pretty impressed, given the price.
With my new friend helping, I learned to zero-in, starting with a little factoid which should help anyone trying to zero in an AR-15: Before starting, you should “flush” the front site by rotating it down until the flat body of the site post is flush with the rifle’s sight body. This gives you an idea where the rifle is actually shooting. My rifle shot two clicks low and a click left, but was dialed in easily. By the way, my new friend gave me the twenty-five meter zeroing-in target which came with his Bushy and it made the process a breeze. Get one if you can. Hint for Olympic.
From there on, it was down to learning the two-stage trigger (I have mostly shot pistol) and getting my stance and breathing under control. Let's see: touch nose to charging handle and back off. It has been a while since I fired a rifle. I was grouping pretty well after three boxes. The trigger seemed a little stiff, with a hard break, but we’ll see how it wears in. The only failures were two feed problems due entirely to silly operator errors. Apparently the muzzle brake worked fine because the barrel didn’t jump around too much. Mags dropped clear when the released was pushed and all operating functions were crisp and tight. By the way, using stripper clips made the whole Mag. reload thingy much easier. Afterwards, the rifle cleaned up and re-lubed easily.
So, to sum it up, it works fine, is pretty much point and click, and is more accurate than a novice operator.
Bobbalouie
Picky, picky.