Dark Angel Medical - Direct Action Response Training - Day 2 AAR

Well that was humbling.  I started our second day thinking I was ready to deal with any basic trauma situation like a rock star.  I was dead wrong.  We returned in the morning and our instructor, Ross Francis, went over any questions we thought up the night before.  He then continued with more PowerPoints.  Ross covered environmental injuries from heat, cold, envenomation, and burns.  We then covered techniques for moving a victim and triage for mass casualties.  He defined this as anytime patients exceed medical resources.  If you find yourself alone treating two car accident victims with a single medkit, you're in a mass casualty situation, and must triage accordingly.  Triage is kept deliberately simple for speed.  "30, 2, Can Do" allows you to assess a victim in a few seconds, and designate them as green, yellow, red, or black.  Our last lesson involved calling 911 and how to respond to arriving EMS.

"Bring a damn marker!"

Fair Weather Farms cotton gin barn converted to meeting hall

After lunch, we returned to find practice stations for many of the skills we learned. At the NPA station,  we practiced inserting a nasopharyngeal airway into a dummy and familiarized ourselves with the SWAT-T and SOFTT-W tourniquets.

NPA & Tourniquet Station

 At the wound packing station, we packed inert combat gauze into a small gunshot wound, gunshot wound with exit, and severe laceration.

Wound Packing with practice Combat Gauze

 The third station was for using Israeli, Olaes, and mini-compression bandages.  We crated slings with triangular bandages to treat arm and collarbone breaks, and used SAM splints to make a neck collar and general leg splint.

Bandages

Once the entire class had rotated through the practice stations, we spent the last 3 hours running scenarios.  Each one of us was given a scenario with another student role-playing as the victim.  I went first.  It took me about six minutes to complete what should have taken two at the most.  My victim was suffering from a gunshot to the upper leg.  I had the tourniquet applied in less than 30 seconds but soon after drew a blank.  I was completely overwhelmed, trying to recall everything we had learned all at once.  Ross reminded me to remember H.A.B.C.D.E. and figure out what step I was on.  My mind was swimming but I managed to assess the victim, check vitals, perform a blood sweep (albeit poorly), treat the wound, and expose the victim, before finally wrapping him in a mylar blanket.  By the end I was sweating and forcing myself to take slow breaths.  Fortunately, I was not alone.  Every single student, including the repeat students had the same problems I did.  As a spectator, it was easier to figure out what the injury was and the next step in care, without feeling the eyes of the entire class and instructor watching for mistakes.  It took one student forever to realize her victim had been bitten by a snake, and another misinterpreted the feedback from the victim and almost began CPR on a conscious patient.  Fortunately, none of us actually killed out patient.  We often forgot small but vital steps, like assessing level of consciousness, or remembering to periodically check pulse and capillary refill.  We finished the scenarios with triage.  Two students would arrive on scene, while the rest of us were, dead, dying, or injured.  It was chaotic trying to assess a dozen people, all with varying degrees of injury, then having to recall the triage classification of each victim afterward.  

Dark Angel Challenge Coin
"Life or Death"

Class concluded with a final lesson and short video.  We watched body cam footage of a soldier being treated after he had stepped on an IED that took off his right leg and sent shrapnel into the left.  We watched other soldiers apply two CAT tourniquets and make victim assessments while under fire.  I could sense the mindset of the class had changed since yesterday, including mine.  We were all following along, putting ourselves in that video, and mentally treating the victim.  Finally, Ross provided us with some additional resources to for continuing training, and some advise on dealing with the psychological aftermath of a stressful event.  After receiving my challenge coin, I shook a lot of hands, and spend the next four hours driving home with the radio off.  I silently reflected on the last two days.  I though about how little I knew on day one, how confident I was starting day two, and how much I realized I still didn't know and needed to practice by the end.  I played "what if" the rest of the way and evaluated my performance and gear.

If I could improve one thing about the class, it would be to make it three days.  I'd like to spend two days in class, learning and practicing skills, and then a full third day running scenarios.  My biggest takeaway is how quickly things can go bad.  A medkit in my car, even if I can get to it and back in 10 seconds, is still too far away to make much a difference before the victims condition goes south.  If the victim is me, I'm dead.  I'll be spending a lot of my ammo budget this year on tourniquets and Chito-Gauze.  I plan to sign up for another Dark Angel class in the next few years, to brush up on my knowledge, and learn of any new advancements in gear and techniques.  My wife however, will be signing up ASAP.

-Carry On

Dark Angel Medical - Direct Action Response Training - Day 1 AAR

Go here http://darkangelmedical.com/training/ and sign up for a class.  I'll wait...  With that out of the way.  Holy s**t! We're only halfway through the class and I haven't done more than apply a tourniquet to my arms and legs but I'm spent.  The day started at 8:30am at a picturesque lakeside venue.

Fair Weather Farms in Monroe, GA

The class consisted of 15 men including myself and four women.  We were a mix of law enforcement, business owners, professionals both blue and white collar, a stay-at-home mom, and one full-time UGA student.  We spent a few minutes introducing ourselves.  I'd say about half were "gun guys", but a common theme among the students was to simply be able to provide help if the need should arise.  A few students had first hand experience with emergency situations that led them to specifically seek emergency medical training.  After signing the ubiquitous waiver, we then settled in for a steady stream of information.  Our instructor is Ross Francis.  He is a full-time instructor with Dark Angel Medical, served as a Navy Corpsman, and is also a paramedic. 

Our Instructor Ross Francis

I was allowed to take pictures of Ross and gear, but photos or video of the students or procedures is prohibited due to Opsec/Persec concerns.  He keeps the class moving along at a brisk, professional pace, but will quickly address any questions or concerns we have before moving to the next topic.  There are a LOT of topics.  The student manual is 148 pages of slides from the PowerPoint that Ross used for class.  He also utilized videos, some funny, some graphic, and some tragic, to underscore key points.

Student Materials

While 8+ hours of PowerPoint could easily be used in place of waterboarding,  Ross often inserts his own mix of "Fozzy Bear" humor, obscure movie references, and stories from personal experience to break up the slides.  For the first three hours, Ross covered mindset, situational awareness, and the bodys response to stress.  While this isn't a firearms class, a lot of the points he made can be applied to self defense and firearms.  We then learned about critical anatomy and assessing the victims injuries and mental state.  After a 10 minute break, he moved onto to equipment.  Ross covered medical kit components, explaining the function and differences of each type.

Medkits and Components

Until today I didn't really know the difference between a dressing and a bandage.  He explained gloves, pressure bandages, hemostatic agents, tourniquets, and the emergency blanket.  You wouldn't think a mylar blanket would be considered very important compared to TQ's and QuikClot, but we learned that blood loss, equates to loss of body heat, which slows down bloods ability to clot.  More on clotting agents later.  Since day one is all classroom, we did not practice applying any of these devices, just when, where, how, and why we use them.  We go hands-on tomorrow.  One exception is the tourniquet.  Each of us was provided with a bright orange CAT-T.  We were shown how to stage the tourniquet for one-handed deployment on our arms and legs.  Periodically throughout the class, Ross would randomly yell out left/right arm/leg.  We then had 30 seconds to get our tourniquets on.  We didn't just loosely strap them on either.  We had to get them tight enough to no have a radial pulse.  If you do it right, it hurts...a lot.

Tourniquet Right Arm

Tourniquet Left Leg

Contrary to what some people think, a tourniquet will NOT automatically result in the loss of a limb, proven by the fact that I was able to drive back to the hotel and type this up.  Properly applied, a patient is in no additional danger of losing a limb for hours after a tourniquet is used.  Obviously there are situations where you cannot apply a tourniquet such as the neck or abdomen.  We also spent a lot of time on hemostatic agents, mainly QuikClot and Celox, and why gauze is better than granules.  Ross cleared up some misconceptions about them, but also cautioned us about older "Zeolite" based agents.  These heat up in contact with tissue sometimes resulting in 3rd degree burns at the wound site.  Also, other than their intended use, tampons are only good for minor nosebleeds.  Not gunshot wounds!  Around noon we broke for lunch, but not before watching combat gauze being packed into an arterial bleed in a pig.

One catchy mantra is, "stop the bleeding, start the breathing".  After lunch, we dove into the second part of that statement.  We covered airway, breathing, applying occlusive devices for chest wounds, why we should keep duct tape and safety pins in our medkit, and nasal airway tubes.  Around 3:00pm the room became even more serious when we moved onto specific injuries and treatment.  While I'm not particularly squeamish, some of the material is hard to watch.  One particularly unsettling video showed a loss of consciousness within 15 seconds of a hit to the femoral artery.  We got our tourniquets on a lot faster after that.  Photos of real wounds are displayed in full detail.  Gunshots, stab wounds, lacerations, amputations, facial injuries, compound fractures, and evisceration are fair game.  I'm glad I wear a silicone wedding ring after seeing examples of "degloving".  Unlike the gory photos we were shown in high school drivers-ed, the purpose is not to gross-out or shock us.  Most of us instinctively avoid or turn away at the sight of such things, but without seeing them, and having them explained and put into context, how would we be able to assess and treat them?  The last thing we went over was shock.  The big takeaway was to stop bleeding before the victim loses more than 750ml of blood, where survival rate is 94%.  Past 750-1500ml, it drops to 14%.  As with many things, speed is life.

Many of the lessons we learned are intertwined with each other.  Stress effects heart rate and breathing.  So does blood loss which reduces oxygen/glucose in the body, which in turn causes shock, which again effects heart rate and breathing, and so on.  Much of what we were taught is related, and Ross is always circling back to previous concepts as new ones are introduced.  He also constantly drills us to hammer home important points.  I'll probably never forget that an occlusive dressing is used on penetrating wounds between the collar bone and belly button, all the way around the torso,

At the close of day one, students who purchased them received their Gen3 medkit.  I don't operate operationally so I chose high-vis orange.  We we encouraged to take our ornage tourniquets home to practice with.  Apparently we'll be using them a lot more tomorrow so we better get good with them.

Dark Angel Gen3 D.A.R.K

Back at the hotel, I pulled the "trauma kits" from my car and took a close look armed with a ton of new info.  About a year ago, I purchased a $25 Elite First Aid, Inc. Tactical Trauma Kit and a $25 Adventure Medical Kits Trauma Pak with QuikClot.  When I signed up for this class a few months ago after listening to a podcast featuring Dark Angel founder Kerry Davis, I also purchased a Dark Angel Pocket D.A.R.K insert.  I also keep two CAT-Ts in the car.

Elite First Aid, Inc. Tactical Trauma Kit

Elite First Aid, Inc. Tactical Trauma Kit - Components

This is NOT a trauma kit.  The scissors might work once and the pouch and gauze pads seem okay, but nothing in it will stop a major bleed.  There's a "tourniquet" consisting of a 1" wide 18" long latex strip.  It could be useful in other ways, but it's all but useless as a tourniquet, and it's narrow width could cause nerve damage if employed as such.

Adventure Medical Kits Trauma Pak with QuikClot

Adventure Medical Kits Trauma Pak - Back

The Adventure Medical Trauma Pak seemed better since they make great first-aid kits and it contains QuikClot.  Again only the pads, gloves, bandages, and duct tape roll are worth keeping, but the QuikClot sponge is in the trash.  Here's why.

It's not 12' of gauze, it's a sponge.  Sponges are fine for non-life threatening wounds, but cannot really be packed into a wound site with an uncontrolled bleed.   It's also Zeolite based, which heats up in contact with tissue.  The label even says "product will feel warm in use".  It's gone.

Dark Angel Pocket D.A.R.K.

I did have enough sense to purchase the Pocket D.A.R.K.  I bought it specifically for the QuikClot Combat Gauze (Kaolin based, no heat generated) and SWAT tourniquet which is better suited for children, adults with small limbs, and even pets.  I shudder to think what would have happened if I tried to use any of this stuff prior to receiving training though.  My vehicle kit now consists of the Gen3 DARK and the red molle pouch with the boo-boo kit and Pocket DARK inside .  The Gen3 will come with me anytime I leave the car where its size isn't an issue, work, training, the range, etc.  I'll be purchasing additional Gen3's for my wife's minivan, the house and garage.  The Gen3 is a bit large for EDC, but a DARK Mini will remedy that.  I'll also be supplementing my kits with Chito-Gauze and Red Cross CPR face shields.  Of course, we still have to actually practice using it.

I started the day thinking I'd just learn how to use a medkit and sip from a fountain of knowledge.  Instead it was a fire hose.  Learning how to use the tourniquet in this class is like learning how to load a gun in a firearms class.  It's a single technique, and a tiny fraction of the skills and information you need to learn and practice.  We haven't even gotten to hands-on application, but already I feel a million times more prepared for an emergency.  While I may have fallen victim to the Dunning-Kruger effect, most of the concepts are kept very simple.  Keep blood in.  Keep them breathing.  One of Dark Angel's principles is after all: "simplicity under stress."  

-Carry On

Dark Angel Medical - Direct Action Response Training (DART) - Preview

As I've grown more serious about self-defense, I've realized I was lacking training in a key area.   I've shelled out over $1,000 on a weekend firearms training class.  My CCW Glocks are far from stock and both wear Trijicon RMRs.  My defensive rifle is an SBR, built with top of the line parts, a PWS upper, and wears a Surefire light and suppressor.  I've spent all my training time learning how to put holes in scumbags, but I've never considered what I'd do if someone put a hole in me.  Even though a defensive shooting is rare, run of the mill accidents are not.  I'm most likely to experience life threatening injury in an auto accident, so all my vehicles have multiple tourniquets and trauma kits.  Yet the only formal training I have in first aid is from the Boy Scouts 20 years ago.  And none of that included severe trauma.

My trauma kits contain Quik Clot gauze, but I have no idea how or when to employ it.  Stuff it into a thigh?  What about abdominal wounds. I have SWAT-T tourniquets, but what about a laceration to the neck?  I have two small children.  How does this stuff apply to an infant or toddler?  My experiences in firearms classes have taught me that YouTube is not a training ground, and I expect it to be no different in this case.  I need training.  I'm not looking to be an EMT but I want to know enough to keep myself or someone alive until medical help arrives.  I started researching and eventually found a YouTube broadcast from Practically Tactical with Kerry Davis of Dark Angel Medical.  Dark Angel has been making high quality trauma kits suitable for soldiers, law enforcement, and EDC.  Hearing Kerry talk, I could sense his commitment to saving lives by provinding high quality gear and training.  Their dedication shows in their lifetime trauma kits.  Lifetime, in that if you ever need to use one, they will replace the components free of charge.

Knowing I've taken the responsibility to protect my loved ones, I've enrolled in Dark Angel Medicals D.A.R.T. class.  It's a 2-day course, three hours away near Atlanta.  Their course bridges the gap between basic first aid/CPR and EMTs.  From their website the course covers:

• Physiological and Psychological reactions to environmental stress
• The importance of having the proper Combat Mindset
• Basic Anatomy and Physiology of life-sustaining systems
• H, A, B, C’s—Hemorrhage, Airway, Breathing and Circulation
• Breakdown and usage of Individual Med Kit components
• Proper stowage and employment of the IMK
• Hands-on application of the IMK
• Basic and Advanced Airway management -treating and monitoring tension pneumothorax, sucking chest wound and flail chest
• Airway adjunct device placement-Nasopharyngeal Airway
• Basic First Aid and Advanced wound care
• Application of Bandages and Hemostatic Agents
• Application of tourniquets
• Recognition and Treatment of various injuries (Gunshot, Laceration, Burn, Airway, Head, Orthopedic, Environmental)
• Recognition and treatment of hypovolemic (hemorrhagic) shock
• Moving and positioning victims with various injuries
• Response to active shooter situation
• Proper use of cover and cover vs. concealment
• Casualty recovery in an Active Shooter situation
• Mass casualty triage procedure
• Emergency Medical Dialect/Lingo (911 protocol, cooperation with LE, Fire and EMS and First Responders)

Included in the $525 course fee is a Gen3 D.A.R.K. trauma kit, which I will receive at the class.  I'm intentionally avoiding reading up on any more trauma care or looking at videos on YouTube.  I want to go in without any preconceived notions or false confidence in the subject matter, and I certainly want to avoid bad information.  I've made that mistake before.  I want to absorb as much knowledge as possible without the burden of unlearning what I thought I already knew.  I'll be heading out this weekend with AARs of both days forthcoming.

-Carry On

Tacdrop UTC Targets from Targetsonline.com

This is going to be a quick one.  Tacdrop UTC targets from targetsonline.com are awesome.  What they aren't is cheap.  The backs are $0.60 each and the fronts are $1.40.  You have to order in quantities of 50 and they are considered oversized when shipped.  For 50 fronts and backs plus shipping, I paid $155.  Yikes that's $3 a target!  But...it's worth it.  Below is a single set I used for three hours of shooting.  I used the back by itself to zero my new uppers red dot and BUIS, and zeroed my new RMR equiped handgun.  I then shot some drills until the target looked like this...

Then I attached the front and voila, brand new target.

I spend the next 200+ rounds shooting various drills with my handgun from contact distance out to 25 yards.  Since the target has three available sides, I was able to give my self different angles to shoot "into" as I visualized the critical regions of the head and upper thoracic cavity.

The cardboard used to make the back is tougher than the lighter colored fronts.  It's sturdy enough to staple on paper targets and can support the front for hundreds of rounds.  Both the front and backs have perforated zones marking the vitals, two rectangles on the chest and an inverted triangle in the head.  One way to make the targets last nearly forever is to punch out these sections and aim for the "empty" part of the target.  As long as your shots are in the vitals, you'll never actually damage the target.

Another trick I want to try is suspending the target from balloons hidden inside.  This makes the target react to gunfire, dropping only when every balloon is hit.

These targets don't make much sense if you're stuck at an indoor range, where the target is always squared to you.  But if you have a place to shoot where you can move around a little, I highly recommend picking up a set.

PWS MK111 Mod 2 Upper Receiver

Short answer:  If you plan to purchase or build a high quality upper for your NFA toys, just buy a PWS.

Prior to the 2016 election, my only panic buying was to get my SBR and Suppressor applications in to the ATF.  With my tax stamps in hand, I dove into the world of suppressed SBR AR-15s.  What I found wasn't pretty.  First off, discount parts weren't going to cut it.  SBR's put a lot more stress on the action and gas system than it was originally designed.  A can exacerbates that.  Not to mention the additional fouling that makes its way into the action of a DI rifle.  Since tax stamps are such a PITA, I decided not to skimp on a rifle would probably never see another owner.  My SBR lower is an Aero Precision Ambi with BCM LPK, Magpul furniture, PWS buffer assembly, AXTS Talon ambi-safety, and HiperFire 24E trigger.

I wanted to build the lightest upper possible to offset the weight of the can, with an 11" barrel to minimize length with the can attached yet still maintain good velocity and reasonable gas pressures that wont beat the action to death.  Originally I went with an SLR adjustable gas block and a Bootleg adjustable bolt carrier for gas regulation.  The SLR is set for PMC Bronze unsuppressed, with any subsequent gas adjustment done from the carrier.

Here's the cost breakdown of my upper build.

Bootleg Upper: 159.95
Bootleg Port Door Assy: 9.95
Bootleg Adj Bolt Carrier: 249.95
Bootleg Bolt: 79.95

BCM KMR Alpha10 Handguard: 179.95
BCM Gas Tube: 14.00

AXTS Raptor Ch. Handle: 89.95

Faxxon 11.5" Barrel: 149.00

SLR Sentry6 Gas Block: 119:99

Surefire Socom556 Muzzle Brake: 149.00

RailScales HTP Scales: 29.00

Total 1,230.69

What I didn't realize at the time was that I was basically building a DI version of what PWS already makes with a piston.  More on that later.

After getting everything assembled and torqued I hit the range.  Everything went great until I attached my Surefire 762 Mini.  I chose the 7.62 version for caliber versatility, and I figured the larger bore would reduce back pressure. I knew that suppressed SBRs were dirty but I didn't realize how bad it could be.  I was shooting 3-5 round strings of Federal M193, not Wolf or PMC, but even outdoors and moving, my eyes were watering after just a few rounds.  Support side was even worse. While I could tolerate this during a zeroing session or an actual encounter, this was something I didn't want to have to deal with during a defensive rifle class or at my indoor range.  I knew I wanted a piston upper.  I'd been looking at piston uppers for the past few years, but the drawbacks and cost held me back.  Most of the systems used heavy short-stroke pistons.  These often come with heavy profiled barrels, gas blocks that are large enough to limit rail length, carrier tilt, and reports of spotty reliability.  I knew PWS made a long-stroke AR, but I dismissed them as too expensive and assumed a long-stroke design would be heavier.  The release of their Mod2 line changed my thinking.

The first obvious change was that they incorporated the Bootleg lightweight upper into their build.  While this eliminates the forward assist, none of my current uppers have one, both as a weight saving measure and because I've never needed to use it.  The Picmod rail is skeletonized with Keymod on 3,6, and 9 o'clock as well as picatinny rails on the forward sections.

PWS MK111 Mod2 Upper: 1,349.95

Compared to my SBR build, the difference is 119.26  When factoring the included Triad flash hider and BCM Ch. handle vs Surefire brake and Raptor Ch. handle the difference is $238.31

While nearly $240 is nothing to sneeze at, PWS uppers often sell for $100 less.  Now factor the cost of shipping from multiple vendors and the difference shrinks to less than $100.  Do you already own all the tools needed to assemble an upper?  A torque wrench, action block, or armorer's wrench will set you back $50 each.

All the referenced prices are MSRPs.  I sourced the original upper parts while I waited for my suppressor Form4 to clear.  I had months to scour the web for deals and wait for price specials.  For the PWS upper, I asked a few Facebook friends to point me toward a Mk111 Mod2 and had one in my hands in 4 days.  My actual cost difference all in for both uppers was ~$100.

When the postman handed me the 28" long black cardboard box, I must have looked like a kid on Christmas morning.  I tore it open, and as I stared at the beautifully machined and anodized upper, a painful realization hit me.  There was nothing more to do.  No parts and tools to gather, no Googling torque specs, no assembly.  As a guy who actually enjoys putting together Ikea furniture, this was quite a a letdown.  But then I saw the BCM sling mount and the RailScales, and then I remembered I still had to transfer over my buis, MRO, Raptor charging handle, Karve handstop, X300U, and Surefire muzzle brake.  Since PWS specifies an H2 buffer with their rifles, and I was going out of town, I used the $25 gift card to purchase theirs.

A week later, I finally got some time to hit the range.  I set the gas block to position 3 (suppressed full power ammo), attached my can, set a target down range at 100 yards, and fired my first 3 shot group from sandbags using PMC Bronze .223.  PMC is known for being pretty weak and I wanted to see how the gun functioned.

1st 3 shots @ 100 yards

I'm pretty happy with that.  I didn't clean or lube the upper prior to firing.  As I got my red dot and BUIS dialed in, every so often the bolt would fail to strip off the next round.  Thinking it was the weak PMC, I tried XM193 5.56, but the same thing happened.  Checking the manual, I learned that setting 3 is for suppressors and heavy ammo, 62 to 77 grains.  I turned the gas block to setting 2, and experienced zero failures afterward.  I removed my suppressor and even though I left the gas block on setting 2, it still functioned flawlessly even with low powered PMC.  I didn't notice a difference in recoil but even with the can, the gas coming back through the action was much less than with an unsuppressed DI.  The real test came when shooting defensive drills.  This is where PWS's system shines.  Excess gas no longer vents a few inches from my head.  No matter the shooting position, I could breathe deep, my glasses stayed clean, and my eyes never watered.  After 6 full Pmags of ammo, I broke down the action to check for fouling and wear.

After 180 rounds

After 180 Rounds

After 180 rounds

After 180 rounds

After 180 rounds

There was no evidence of carrier tilt or any abnormal wear.  The bolt and carrier were lightly coated in a mix of factory grease and fouling, but the guts of the carrier and bolt return spring were clean.  Nothing was baked on or crusty.  The nooks and crannies in the receiver and trigger well were no dirtier than my handguns get.  Getting the bolt carrier out is a little more involved than with a DI gun since the BCG and charging handle have to come out together.  It was a minor annoyance during repeated bore cleanings at break-in, but a worth while trade off compared to scraping the bolt.  I always keep a spare bolt and gas rings handy for my DI uppers.  I'll have to inquire with PWS about spare parts.  All the parts wiped clean with just a patch soaked in Slip 2000 725 Cleaner.  I only needed 4 patches to clean the upper, BCG, and lower.  Keep in mind that only about 15 of the 180 rounds were shot unsuppressed.

Bolt Group Cleaned

Lower Cleaned

Upper Cleaned

I currently have a Griffin Recce5 5.56 can waiting in NFA jail, so I don't know how the upper will perform with a dedicated 5.56 can.  I can say that the recoil impulse feels softer than my DI guns.  It feels like the difference between a mallet and a dead-blow hammer.  When the bolt locks back on the last round, the impact of the bolt feels almost muffled somehow.  It's probably due to the gas acting on the piston over a long period and the added weight of the piston rod slowing the carrier speeds.  Needless to say, I like it

I can't say how happy I am with the PWS MK111 Mod2 Upper.  I've already ordered their MK114 a 14.5" upper that I plan to pin a Griffin Flash Comp for my non-NFA lower.  To pay for it, I'm selling my DI uppers.

-Carry On.