Had a blast with my new toys today!!

[TonyAngel]

I'm so excited that I just had to share. I recently bought a Remington 700 SPS Tactical and in the midst of getting that together, I built a new AR upper. I had two new toys to shoot today.



The AR in a Daniel Defense upper receiver, Spike's Tactical lower receiver, Douglass barrel (18" with rifle length gas system) profiled by Compass Lake and coated by Superior Barrels, the stock is a Magpul UBR, Geissele SSA-E trigger group and a Nightforce 2.5-10X32 in an American defense mount.

The Remington is pretty much stock out of the box, although I do have an HS Precision LTR stock coming and an HS detachable magazine kit coming as well. The scope is a Swarovski 4.5-18X44 on a Leupold one piece standard mount with medium rings.

That AR is a shooter. It REALLY liked the 77gr SMKs over 24gr of RL15. Good solid .8" groups. This thing shot SMOOTH. I really think the trigger and stock are holding me back. When I get some disposable income together, I'm going to go Magpul PRS and Geissele DMR.

What really surprised me and made me sick at the same time was that the .308 bolt gun was shooting one hole five shot groups out of the box. That Swarovski is nice. I was going to go with a the Nightforce 15X, but it's really heavy and BIG. I think the Swaro compliments the rifle nicely and I'm thinking that it has better glass, although I'm going to look more closely tomorrow when I go back to the range.

 

[LoonWulf]

thats a pair of sweet looking toys there

 

[dacavasi]

That's a big chunk o' change, my friend! Enjoy! More detailed range reports would be most appreciated...

 

[Pictures]

I love those UBRs. I wish I could have one.

 

[TonyAngel]

It was a bit of a chunk of change, but on that AR, I had the whole lower already built. Some of you may have seen it in its last iteration. I already had the Nightforce scope and mount too.

The Swaro was a bit of a surprise to me too. I had my mind set on getting another Nightforce, but one look through the Swaro sold me. It had a $1500 price tag on it, but I believe in buy once, cry once. I think the glass is the most important part of the rifle. You can't hit what you can't see. Anyway, I went to check out and it rang up at $1300. Apparently Cabelas is having a sale that none of the sales staff knew about. The tag attached to the scope confirmed the price. I've also gotta tell ya, the SPS is a shooter. I'm really impressed. My purpose in going to Cabelas was that I was going to get another SPS Tactical in .223, but they didn't have any. Oh well, I got a scope out of it anyway. Now I have a good scope on my rifle rather than having another rifle that needs a scope.

I was too excited to shoot pics today. I'll try and remember the camera for tomorrow.

 

[kis2]

awesome rifles, great compliments to each other. BTW, 1 hole 5 shot groups is not just a testament to the rifle... nice shooting!

 

[jpwilly]

Really Like that AR Build!

 

[unwise11]

nice toys, watch that hougue stock, if you rest it too far forward on bags or a bipod it can flex and touch the stock with heavy barreled guns. my hougue stock hasnt bothered me though.

 

[TonyAngel]

kis2, thanks, but believe me, I don't always shoot like that and this rifle made it seem easy.

What was killing me yesterday was that a friend of mine is selling a rifle and I had a really hard time deciding between it and the scope for my SPS. His rifle was put together by Don Gerracci (sp?) and it is nice. It was a 700. Action trued and bolt face squared. New bolt handle, 26" Krieger heavy barrel, DM bottom metal, HS precision PSS (I believe) stock and other stuff I couldn't remember. He wanted $1100. I had a hard time walking away from that.

I have the bolt gun bug bad, and yeah, the AR is pretty nice. LOL.

 

[taliv]

very nice! i've had two swarovski scopes, plus their laser range finder. definitely premium glass, even compared to nightforce

sometimes you get lucky and get a factory gun that shoots perfectly, but it is luck. they don't all shoot like that. when you get one, don't let it go.

$1100 is a great deal for your friend's gun. wow

the trigger and stock shouldn't be holding you back on the AR. i have several SSA (though not the new E) and UBRs and a PRS. The triggers are ok and the UBR is a better stock than the PRS. In fact, there are many things I don't like about the PRS anymore. I'd never buy another one.

it's amazing how smooth rifle length gas systems seem after you get used to shooting carbines.

i'm really interested in how your barrel does with the superior coating. i'm sending some barrels off soon to be coated. i've also got an AR barrel in a custom profile that compass lake did for me. they do great work. you'll enjoy it.

 

[TonyAngel]

taliv,

To tell the truth, the barrel (and my last one) was disappointing me. I was going through some older pics of .6 and .7" groups that I used to shoot all of the time and although I'm still getting them, it's not with the same frequency. I was thinking about it last night and it dawned on me that my first batch of reloads were loaded with CCI 400 primers and then my second batch were loaded with Federal small rifle primers. A while back, based on the recommendations of what I read on the web, I switched to Remington 7.5 primers. It's the only ingredient that I've changed. I was talking to some guys out at the range to day and I realized that a primer discussion never came up. When I mentioned it, a few guys said that they hate Remington Primers and always use CCI. If they can't bench rest, they just use the 400s. Unfortunately, I'm still sitting on 5000 Remington Primers. Oh well. I'll use them for my blasting ammo.

The AR shot pretty well today, although I was concentrating on the bolt gun today. I didn't do as well today as I did yesterday, but my shoulder was a little sore from the 80 rounds that I did yesterday. I'll tell you this about the Superior barrel. When I got it, I took a pair of scissors and raked the blade across the barrel several times to see if the finish lived up to the hype. Not a scratch on it.

I think that blaming the trigger and stock was just an excuse or me looking for a reason. I went that way because the trigger doesn't feel nearly as nice as it did last week before I started shooting the bolt gun.

One thing I noticed with the Superior barrel is that the POI shifts about half an inch when it gets hot. That disappointed me a bit, considering that the POI didn't shift at all with my Bravo Company SS410 16" barrel, which was shorter and lighter than the Superior barrel. I'm going to try the different primers and have an AR day next week to try to work the kinks out of it. If I can't, there will be a Superior barrel for sale at a good price and I'll get another Bravo Company barrel or a Schillen or a Krieger or something.

I'm really liking the bolt gun. I ran another 75 rounds through it today. It shot well, but I'm looking forward to my HS Precision getting here. I may be crazy, but I swear that I can feel it flexing. We'll see. The HS Precision should be here by the end of next week.

 

[TonyAngel]

Hey guys, I just wanted to update my last post. I've had a bit of a change in the stable. I sold that AR pictured above and regretted it the day after I did it. It just so happens that I traded a barrel for a Vltor MUR upper and I had one last Spike's lower in the parts cabinet, so I built another AR. It's a bit different, but the scope is the same one.

These are now my "precision" sticks...


I took them out shooting and shot some groups at 100 yards on paper. I tried to calculate the group sizes using the edge of the markings from edge to edge, at the widest part of the group, and then subtracting the diameter of the bullet. Right or wrong, it's good for my own relative reference anyway.

Here are some of the results. My control load for the .223 is a 77gr SMK over 24gr of RL15 seated to mag length with a mild crimp using a Lee FCD. My control load for the .308 was a 168gr SMK over 42gr Varget loaded to 2.8 with no crimp.

The results of the trials.....




The AR barrel from Superior Barrels definitely prefers the 77gr pills. Oddly enough in the .308, it preferred the A-Max bullets. This is the first time I've ever seen a rifle prefer the A-Max over the SMK. Yay for me, since the A-Max is cheaper for a box of 250 than the SMKs are for two boxes of 100. Needless to say, I also picked up five more pounds of Varget too. I just ordered some of the 150gr A-Max pills. I want to see what those will do. The .308 showed a preference for the lighter bullets in the SMK line.

 

[kis2]

nice groups! I use the 168gr amax, but a lot of guys are going the 150gr route with faster MV's and having great success. and with a 1:12 twist I bet theyll do good out of yours as well.

have you heard of ontarget? it will take some of the guess work out of group measurement as long as you know the distance, the caliber and have a size reference in the shot. assuming those are one inch squares, I show all your groups about .1 tighter than what you measured. I wouldnt have said anything if they measured bigger

http://www.ontargetshooting.com/

regardless, those are some good groups. and that's out of a brand new barrel right? some of them get a little better with a few more rounds down the pipe.

 

[Sky]

Tony you suck!!! hahahahaha


errr I mean congrats and nice shooting!

 

[SpeedAKL]

Nice sticks!

 

[TonyAngel]

Thanks guys.

Kis2, my SPS seems to be showing a preference for the lighter bullets. I just ordered some 155gr (I think) A-Max, since my rifle seemed to like the 168 A-Max better than the SMK. I still have a LOT of experimenting to do. I'm still new to loading rifle, so I'm still learning. I used 43.5gr of powder under the 150s and 155s, so the case was pretty full. I was using 42gr under the SMKs and I could hear some powder rattle, indicating that I still had some free space. I just realized that although Sierra publishes 42gr as approaching the max, other sources show 42gr as a starting load. Maybe I need to push the 168 SMKs harder. I'm thinking this because I was near case capacity with the lighter SMKs and getting pretty darned good results.

In any case, I'm going to try the A-Maxes more extensively. If I can get good results with those, I'm going to stick with them. They are cheaper and they look cooler.

Oh and yes, they are 1" squares, and if what you say about my groups is true, that barrel from Superior Barrels is a helluva shooter and I really can't articulate how smoothly the 18" barrel on the AR shot with the rifle length gas system. I was double tapping an 8" gong at 100 yards with it.

 

[jpwilly]

168gr is near perfect for 1-12 twist bbls. Also some of the bullets you have fired that didn't do as well as the AMAX may do better at different velocities.

Nice rifles and good shooting!

 

[TonyAngel]

jpwilly, that's what I was thinking. My biggest problem is that I get to shoot once a week. I'm obsessive compulsive when I get into something new. I'm just all over the place. Instead of four different bullets with two different powders, I should have been running one bullet loaded with different powders at different velocities and taking note of where THAT bullet performs the best and then do the same for the next projectile.

I need to calm down and be more methodical. At least I now have a goto load in the 168 A-Max with the 42gr of Varget. I know that shoots at least well. Having a goto load gives me an odd sense of piece of mind. I think I can do better, but those near 1/2 MOA groups make me think that the A-Max load will serve as a goto. If my new stock gets here, I'll have to see if that makes a difference.