It's finally complete! Part 2: Range report.

[Big_E]

Hey folks, this is my second part to my previous thread found here: http://thehighroad.org/showthread.php?t=544197&highlight=AR+thread

Now, I forgot to take some pics of my rifle at the shooting stands, so I will just repost old ones from home.



Okay now to the range report.

I was mostly trying to get my sights zeroed and didn't replace the target so I will highlight my first and last groups. All sighting and grouping were done at 50 yards. Off a bench in a Caldwell Lead Sled Solo.



The firearm in use is a 16'' BCM Midlength Gov't Profile upper w/ CHF barrel. I have the standard A2 front sight and a Rear Magpul MBUS, the handguards are Cavalry Arms fat style from Brownells. The lower is an SI Defense forged lower w/ a DPMS lpk, Magpul MOE grip and Magpul MOE stock. Ammo was 100 round Federal Bulk Pack from Walmart.

The guy next to me was kind enough to help spot me while his barrels cooled so I finally was getting some progress after 3 groups. He also let me borrow his super tiny allen wrenches to help adjust the FSP after having trouble using a pocket knife and bullet tip. I didn't know this gentleman was a former Marine and he seemed happy when I offered to let him shoot the AR after getting it zeroed saying, "I haven't shot one of these in years."

I inserted a 30 rounder and started doing some offhand shooting at the 200 yard gongs, one was shaped like one of those tall helium tanks and was about the same size. The other gong was much smaller and the spotter said it looked like a ram silhouette. Both were colored light gray against a light brown background so using open sights at 200 yards made them darn hard to see.

I was getting a lot of hits on both and the spotter said that most misses were just a few inches off. That made me feel pretty good since I don't have a lot of time behind AR's and this was open sights offhand.

It was a pretty good range trip. The AR is now my new favorite rifle by far and it seems pretty accurate to boot! I can't wait to put some match grade ammo through it at 100 yards to see how capable it is. Once I get the free float tube installed it will probably get even better.

**On the paper I did two or three 3 shot groups, the best ones are highlighted. I was doing two shot groups to save ammo for fun time. Those are randomly scattered around the paper.

 

[husker]

They are quite the rifle. Hands down my favorite for open sight shooting

 

[Big_E]

Thanks husker, I first learned to shoot with irons then I got into that red dot/optics phase in my teens, lately I have gone back to enjoying irons because they present a little more of a challenge.

I will probably get a 1-4x scope w/ a QD Larue mount in the near future, but I really enjoy military pattern rifles with peep sights.

I think my next range trip I will bring along some Bear ammo to see how well it handles it. I predict it will handle them without trouble, it's a BCM, it's already near perfect!

I also want to start running the rifle a little harder and try out some different lubricants. I followed most of the online guides of where to lube the bolt and this time I used Breakfree CLP since that's what I had on me. I hear Slip 2000 is fantastic though.

 

[Skylerbone]

That's a good lookin rifle by any standards. Happy early birthday and all that Jazz. One thing about that Bear ammo if it's steel case; don't mix it with your brass on range day. Just read up on this (who knew?) The steel case stuff doesn't expand as much as brass allowing carbon to build up on the chamber walls. If you fire steel then switch to brass, the brass will expand to the now coated with carbon chamber and FTE. The pictures I saw were of rims being torn by the extractor and leaving the casing in the chamber.

Once you get back in to the irons those groups will really tighten up. Here's the first 10 rounds I fired out of my Rock River. Fiocchi 55gr. FMJ, 10 rounds at 50 yards. I had to wait 2 months for Cabelas to get a Leupold Mark AR to me (they were new to the market).

 

[Big_E]

I am fully aware of the risks involved with steel cased ammo. I just want to see how the rifle can handle it.

I have a question about the Magpul MBUS, there are two settings for the rear sight, like on most military pattern rifles. One is smaller for which I assume is for longer distance/precision and a larger opening which I assume is for CQC purposes. What ranges are the different sights most effective?

I love this rifle so much. Now I know what I have been missing out on for all these years. Can you believe I was an AR hater at one time? From watching all that propaganda on TV shows about the "ineffectiveness" of the DI system and the .223 round. Ha! A high quality AR is near perfect if maintained properly and 5.56 is one heck of a mean round in the right situations.