Tactical Life Gun Magazine: Gun News and Gun Reviews
  • Guns
    • Rifles
    • Handguns
    • Shotguns
    • Airguns
    • Specialty Guns
    • Custom Guns
  • Ammo
    • Handgun Ammo
    • Rifle Ammo
    • Reloading
  • Parts
    • Handgun Parts
    • Rifle Parts
  • Accessories
    • Optics & Sights
      • Night Vision
      • Thermal Vision
    • Lasers & Lights
    • Suppressors
    • Holsters
    • Slings
    • Shooting Rests
  • Gear
    • Ears & Eyes
    • Knives
    • Apparel
    • Tactical-Gear
    • Storage
    • Flashlights
    • Electronics
    • Less Lethal
  • Lifestyle
    • Sport Shooting
      • Hunting
    • Competition Shooting
    • Precision Shooting/Long Range
    • Training
    • First Aid
    • Pop Culture
    • History
  • News
    • New Products & Industry News
    • Gun Facts & Laws
    • Police News
    • Military News
    • Politics
  • Videos
No Result
View All Result
Tactical Life Gun Magazine: Gun News and Gun Reviews
  • Guns
    • Rifles
    • Handguns
    • Shotguns
    • Airguns
    • Specialty Guns
    • Custom Guns
  • Ammo
    • Handgun Ammo
    • Rifle Ammo
    • Reloading
  • Parts
    • Handgun Parts
    • Rifle Parts
  • Accessories
    • Optics & Sights
      • Night Vision
      • Thermal Vision
    • Lasers & Lights
    • Suppressors
    • Holsters
    • Slings
    • Shooting Rests
  • Gear
    • Ears & Eyes
    • Knives
    • Apparel
    • Tactical-Gear
    • Storage
    • Flashlights
    • Electronics
    • Less Lethal
  • Lifestyle
    • Sport Shooting
      • Hunting
    • Competition Shooting
    • Precision Shooting/Long Range
    • Training
    • First Aid
    • Pop Culture
    • History
  • News
    • New Products & Industry News
    • Gun Facts & Laws
    • Police News
    • Military News
    • Politics
  • Videos
No Result
View All Result
Tactical Life Gun Magazine: Gun News and Gun Reviews
No Result
View All Result
 
ENTER TO WIN > Free Gun Friday for your chance to WIN the SIG Sauer P320 AXG Legion and Black Hills HoneyBadger Ammo

STAG ARMS 8TL

Dave Spaulding by Dave Spaulding
March 1, 2013
in Uncategorized
0
STAG ARMS 8TL

A new, sleek-looking, piston-driven AR carbine, the Model STL by Stag Arms features a Diamondhead VRS-T triangular free-floating handguard. Shown here with an Aimpoint PRO red-dot sight.

0
SHARES
47
VIEWS
Share on FacebookShare on Twitter
A new, sleek-looking, piston-driven AR carbine, the Model STL by Stag Arms features a Diamondhead VRS-T triangular free-floating handguard. Shown here with an Aimpoint PRO red-dot sight.
The Stag Arms STL’s ejection port is located on the left side of the receiver. The left-ejecting brass went safely over the author’s head when shooting right-handed
The Stag Arms Model 8TL utilizes a modified bolt carrier with extended pads to prevent additional wear on the receiver and on the buffer tube

The VRS-T handguard has an angled front that clears the piston’s self-regulating gas system. The piston block’s low profile helps increase accuracy.
The Stag Arms Model 8TL features flip-up Diamondhead front and rear sights.
The Model 8TL’s single-sided safety lever is located not on the left side of the receiver but on the right.

The allegiance of people to certain brands has always interested me. We’ve all seen it, a person decides a particular brand (it could be cars, crackers or guns) is “the best” and forever after, no matter what happens or how low it sinks in quality, they stand by their favorite brand as though it could never do wrong. Recently I was riding in a car with a good friend who just happens to work at a large gun distributor. During a conversation about AR-15 carbines, my friend made the comment that only the high-end, expensive AR’s (he named a few) were worth buying. Low-end guns, he said, were “worthless.” He went on to say that many less-expensive guns come back for repair or are returned to the manufacturer as defective, again naming brands. I just smiled: it was obvious to me that he was displaying his bias for a certain brand.

The truth is, every gun, regardless of who builds it, will malfunction, just as everything human designed and engineered will at some point and in some respect fail. I accept this, looking not for absolute perfection in my ARs, but for “total” performance combined with excellent value.

As I understand it, the difference between one AR and another is the quality of the components used. While AR platforms abound, there are very few who actually make the parts that go into the platform, with many of the “high-end” manufacturers acquiring their parts from just a few suppliers. One of the oldest manufacturers of AR parts is Stag Arms. They were making AR parts decades before deciding to make entire rifles, and in my experience theirs are some of the best guns currently on the market—and because Stag uses self-made parts, their rifles are sold at reasonable prices.

Gun Details

While the AR was designed originally as a gas-driven gun, more and more people are switching to gas-piston-driven ARs, as they run cleaner and more reliably in poor environments. They also eliminate the need to scrub the bolt assembly—which is for me a major plus, though, admittedly, I’m lazy when it comes to gun cleaning. Happily, Stag is adding two new, sleek-looking, piston-driven AR carbines to its product line, the Model 8T and 8TL. Both rifles are variations of the Model 8, Stag’s first entry into the gas-piston-driven-AR market. The “T” stands for tactical and the “L” for left-handed.

Why tactical? Well, one reason is the rifle’s VRS-T triangular free-floating handguard. Newly manufactured by Diamondhead Advanced Combat Solutions, the trim VRS-T fits neatly over the Model 8’s 16-inch, chrome-lined, 1-in-9-inch-twisted M4 barrel. The VRS-T features a full-length flattop rail and is relieved for ventilation and lighter weight. The handguard’s triangular shape and front-to-back finger indents feel good in the hand, and as a top-quality tactical forend, it accepts Diamondhead rail sections for mounting accessories at the 3, 6 and 9 o’clock positions.

Accompanying the handguard is a set of Diamondhead flip-up sights, which are some of the best AR sights I have ever used. I have Diamondhead diamond-shaped sights on one of my ARs and have used them in several other gun reviews—they are truly the “best of breed.” Diamondhead sights are indeed diamond-shaped and take advantage of the way the eye works. In a nutshell, your eye can easily place one shape inside another, whether a diamond or a square, but straight edges align more easily to the eye than do round objects. Your eyes match patterns immediately; consequently, they can place a diamond in a diamond more fluidly than they can a slim front-sight post in the middle of a round-peep rear sight. The speed and precision of the Diamondhead sights must be experienced to be truly appreciated.

The short-stroke piston system is low profile and can be seen from the front edge of the handguard, as the VRS-T has an angled front that just barely clears the piston’s self-regulating gas system. The low-profile design of the piston block eliminates the possibility of its coming into contact with the handguard, increasing accuracy. Like all gas-piston systems, the 8T’s runs cooler and cleaner than would a direct-impingement setup, and with the 8T there is no need to worry about bolt-carrier tilt, as the rifle utilizes a modified bolt carrier with extended pads to prevent additional wear on the receiver and buffer tube.

A new, sleek-looking, piston-driven AR carbine, the Model STL by Stag Arms features a Diamondhead VRS-T triangular free-floating handguard. Shown here with an Aimpoint PRO red-dot sight.
The Stag Arms STL’s ejection port is located on the left side of the receiver. The left-ejecting brass went safely over the author’s head when shooting right-handed
The Stag Arms Model 8TL utilizes a modified bolt carrier with extended pads to prevent additional wear on the receiver and on the buffer tube

The VRS-T handguard has an angled front that clears the piston’s self-regulating gas system. The piston block’s low profile helps increase accuracy.
The Stag Arms Model 8TL features flip-up Diamondhead front and rear sights.
The Model 8TL’s single-sided safety lever is located not on the left side of the receiver but on the right.

The rifle’s remaining features are like those found on other Stag carbines. The 8T uses forged 7075-T6 aluminum receivers with a mil-spec hardcoat anodized finish. The Model 8T is certainly set up for the street, having all the features necessary for waging battle. But not all warriors are right-handed, though it was with the “righty” population in mind that Eugene Stoner designed the original AR-15 platform. For the sake of our left-handed friends, Stag has introduced the Model 8TL.

According to statistics, 18 to 20 percent of the population have their hands on backwards, or is “wrong”-handed as it were. Those friends of mine afflicted with this condition don’t find it to be a handicap, however, as it relates to combative skills. From what I can tell, left-handed people are more adaptable, or at least more ambidextrous, having had to work all of their lives with right-hand implements. This isn’t to say that left-handed operators don’t appreciate tools built specifically for the wrong hand—they do—and I expect they’ll appreciate most of all Stag’s left-handed Model 8TL. I am right-handed, and I thought it would be quite interesting to test a left-handed model, just to see what “wrong”-handed people go through adapting to a “right”-handed world.

Shooting Impressions

The Stag 8TL’s ejection port is located on the left side, while the single-sided safety lever is located on the right, an arrangement I happen to like. For years I have been adding ambidextrous safety levers to my ARs, as I find it easier to flip off the safety with my thumb, but re-engage it with my index finger (to reengage with my thumb required shifting my shooting grip). It took me very little time to learn how to flip the safety off with my index finger, though there’s always cause for concern when you’re using your trigger finger for something other than operating a trigger. You really need to pay attention to what you are doing.

Another concern was whether it would be distracting having the brass ejected in front of my face. Truth be told, I never noticed! The test gun ejected the brass high and over my head, so it’s possible they never really entered my field of vision—though it is a necessity in any case to wear eye protection while shooting a left-ejecting firearm from the right shoulder.

I began testing by shooting several groups at 50 yards to get the gun on paper. That finished, I moved to 100 yards. On the 8TL I attached a Leupold 3x HAMR combat sight, which offers wonderful clarity and an easy-to-use circle reticle. I use the HAMR with several of my AR platforms, and I continue to be impressed by not only its robust design but also its simplicity. Using a stack of Wilderness Giles bags, I methodically shot five five-shot groups, trying to achieve the best group possible. I charted the velocity of each shot fired with a Shooting Chrony chronograph placed 10 feet in front of the muzzle. Since the 8TL has a barrel with a 1-in-9-inch rate of twist, I stuck to medium-weight bullets.

The Stag Model 8TL is not a sniper rifle, but it is entirely combat accurate. Given the distances from which most law enforcement officers operate, misses are far more likely to be attributable to poor marksmanship than to some deficiency on the part of the rifle. I completed my testing by shooting 250 rounds of various ammunition via several practice drills. I experienced not a single stoppage or failure to feed.

Final Notes

The Stag 8TL’s features are certainly a step up from those found on most of Stag’s guns, but they don’t add much to the sticker price. The sights and Diamondhead handguard alone would cost you around $400, yet the 8TL’s total cost is just $1,295 ($1,275 for the right-handed 8T)—certainly a bargain for an AR with so much to offer. Like all of Stag Arms’ carbines, the 8T and 8TL come with lifetime warranties. If you are looking for a well-appointed, piston-driven AR, you’d be hard-pressed to find a production rifle as well done as the T-series guns from Stag Arms. To find out more call 860-229-9994 or visit stagarms.com.

Didn't find what you were looking for?

CLICK HERE FOR COMMENTS

RELATED POSTS

The Pointer side-by-side provides a well-appointed, affordable double gun.

Pointer Side-By-Side: A Modern, Affordable Double-Barrel Shotgun

The Armasight Watchman IR Illuminator.

Enhance Night Vision with the Armasight Watchman IR Illuminator

Officers respond to Nashville School Shooting.

VIDEO: Metro Police Respond to Stop Nashville School Shooting

Shooting the SilencerCo Switchback 22 suppressor.

VIDEO: Shooting SilencerCo Switchback 22 Suppressors

Load More

WATCH NOW: TACTICAL-LIFE’s RELOADING ZONE

Discussion about this post

FEATURED POST

The Pointer side-by-side provides a well-appointed, affordable double gun.

Pointer Side-By-Side: A Modern, Affordable Double-Barrel Shotgun

The side-by-side shotgun remains a quintessential American shotgun form. From the Old West to the southern quail fields and home...

Read more

TRENDING

New Jersey LEOSA, federal law

Big Court Win for New Jersey LEOSA Permits

...

The EAA-imported Girsan MC 14T uses a tip-up barrel system.

Girsan MC 14T: New Tip-Up EDC Pistol Eliminates Slide Racking

...

The Dicken Drill is named for Eli Dicken who saved many lives in the Greenwood Mall

The Elisjsha Dicken Drill

...

U.S. Secret Service adopts Glock G47

FIRST LOOK: Glock Just Very Quietly Unveiled the New Glock 47 Pistol

...

PICK A CATEGORY

TACTICS & TRAINING SPOTLIGHT

CMP surplus ammunition.

CMP Surplus Ammo Coming Soon in M2 Ball, .30 Carbine & More

Some big news for trigger pullers recently from the Civilian Marksmanship Program. A wide selection of CMP surplus ammo will...

TACTICS & TRAINING SHOWCASE

Active School Shooter Training: 14 Key Points to Consider

Active School Shooter Training: 14 Key Points to Consider

Tactical Reload Semi-Auto Pistol Step 8

5 Strategies For Effectively Completing a Tactical Reload

The Colt CBX Precision Rifle ushers in a new era in colt bolt-gun offerings.

FIRST LOOK: Colt CBX Precision Chassis Rifle Ready to Compete & Win

Fact vs. Fiction 5 Myths Gunfight Survival lead

5 Common Myths on How to Survive a Gunfight

Standing Your Ground Castle Doctrine lead

Understanding Stand Your Ground Laws and Castle Doctrine

long distance shooting tips

Long-Distance Shooting: 5 Must-Know Tips For Spotters & Shooters

IMPACT Experience Events.

IMPACT Experience Events Redefine Your Long-Range Shooting Limits

Enhance your shooting precision skills in a course with Modern Day Sniper.

Sniper Skills: Taking Your Shooting Precision to the Next Level

Once you find a carry gun that works for you, get another for a spare. These “hammerless” S&W J-frame lightweights are M340 M&P with Hogue Bantam grips, top, and a M442 Airweight with Crimson Trace Lasergrips, below.

10 Commandments of Concealed Carry

AMMO SPOTLIGHT

The Rock River Arms RBG-1S.

Rocking Out: Going Long Range with the Rock River Arms RBG-1S

Spotter up. Steel silhouette at 1,075 yards. Half-value wind, hold right edge. Send it. The shooter presses the trigger, and...

site logo
Tactical Life Gun Magazine: Gun news, gun reviews and gun magazines for gun enthusiasts, military and law enforcement

Tactical

  • tactical-life.com

Magazines

  • Tactical Life
  • The Complete Book of Reloading
  • Guns of the Old West

Facebook

  • Tactical-Life Facebook
  • Guns of the Old West Facebook

Twitter

  • Tactical-Life Twitter

Self Defense

  • PersonalDefenseWorld.com

Magazines

  • Personal Defense World
  • Combat Handguns

Facebook

  • Personal Defense World Facebook
  • Combat Handguns

Twitter

  • Personal Defense World Twitter

Shooting Lifestyle

  • BallisticMag.com

Magazines

  • BallisticMag.com

Facebook

  • Ballistic Magazine Facebook

Twitter

  • Ballistic Magazine Twitter

Alpha Lifestyle

  • SkillsetMag.com

Magazines

  • Skillset

Facebook

  • Skillset Magazine Facebook

Twitter

  • Skillset Magazine Twitter

Instagram

  • Skillset Magazine Instagram
  • Contact
  • Advertise
  • Subscribe
  • Terms of Use
  • Privacy Policy
  • California Privacy Notice
  • Cookie Policy
© Athlon Outdoors, All Rights Reserved.
You use of this website constitutes and manifests your acceptance of our User Agreement, Privacy Policy, Cookie Policy, and awareness of the California Privacy Rights. Pursuant to U.S. Copyright law, as well as other applicable federal and state laws, the content on this website may not be reproduced, distributed, displayed, transmitted, cached, or otherwise used, without the prior, express, and written permission of Athlon Outdoors.

Manage your GDPR consents by clicking here. Manage your CCPA consents by clicking here.
No Result
View All Result
  • Guns
    • Rifles
    • Handguns
    • Shotguns
    • Airguns
    • Specialty Guns
    • Custom Guns
  • Ammo
    • Handgun Ammo
    • Rifle Ammo
    • Reloading
  • Parts
    • Handgun Parts
    • Rifle Parts
  • Accessories
    • Optics & Sights
      • Night Vision
      • Thermal Vision
    • Lasers & Lights
    • Suppressors
    • Holsters
    • Maintenance & Tools
  • Gear
    • Ears & Eyes
    • Knives
    • Apparel
    • Tactical-Gear
    • Knives
    • Storage
    • Flashlights
    • Electronics
    • Less Lethal
  • Lifestyle
    • Sport Shooting
      • Hunting
    • competition-shooting
    • Precision Shooting/Long Range
    • Training
    • First Aid
    • Survival
    • Pop Culture
    • History
  • News
    • New Products & Industry News
    • Gun Facts & Laws
    • Police News
    • Military News
    • Politics
  • Videos
  • Contact Us

© 2023 JNews - Premium WordPress news & magazine theme by Jegtheme.