wanderinwalker
Member
To start with, I recently purchased a new AR-15, like everybody and their brother and uncle are doing right now. Mine happens to be a Colt 6920, Magpul edition, black furniture. So far I've put 300 or so rounds through it, a mix of Federal factory 55gr FMJ (AR223 and a 100-round bulk pack), some reloaded Winchester 55gr FMJs with H335 and a few rounds of my stand-by Highpower match load, 69gr Nosler HPBTs over Varget.
Accuracy is slightly less than I anticipated, running around 3-minutes for 5-shot groups and 4-minutes for 10-shot groups. I'm not willing to declare this the best accuracy this carbine is capable of delivering, but 3 to 3.5-MOA is what I expected to see using run-of-the-mill 55gr FMJ pills. At this point I've only been using the Magpul BUIS that comes as standard issue. My bench rest technique is not great and the short sight radius is a challenge for my eyes. Leading to my next point:
I am planning to mount some kind of red dot or small scope, hopefully sooner rather than later, but eventually at any rate. I've gone back and forth on whether to go with something like an Aimpoint or EOTech, or a conventional 1-4x scope. The advantages and drawbacks I've been able to determine for each:
Red Dot -
Pros: quick to use, can be used in a head's up manner, has no parallax, can cowitness with the iron sights, all of the cool kids are using them, can be used with both eyes open more readily than a magnified scope
Cons: no magnification, requires batteries
Scope -
Pros: increased magnification improves accuracy at distance, light gathering increases shooting time at the edges of daylight, on low power can be used with both eyes open, not dependent on batteries
Cons: is less forgiving of eye position behind the sight (parallax), longer than a red dot requires more rail space, models with tactical turrets are overkill on a 250-yard carbine, ocular lens can interfere with access to the charging handle on an AR
I'm just looking for input and suggestions on which way people have gone and what you like and don't like about each system. Right now I'm leaning toward the red dot, specifically an Aimpoint PRO, but I'm not sold on it being exactly the way to go.
Oh, and lastly, as far as uses of this carbine, it's primarily going to turn money into noise at the range perforating cardboard silhouettes, paper zombies and ringing steel out to 200-yards (longest my range has). Secondary functions will be garden-raiding woodchucks, possibly a stray coyote and I will say it is a legal deer rifle in NH with a 5-round magazine and soft-point ammo.
Accuracy is slightly less than I anticipated, running around 3-minutes for 5-shot groups and 4-minutes for 10-shot groups. I'm not willing to declare this the best accuracy this carbine is capable of delivering, but 3 to 3.5-MOA is what I expected to see using run-of-the-mill 55gr FMJ pills. At this point I've only been using the Magpul BUIS that comes as standard issue. My bench rest technique is not great and the short sight radius is a challenge for my eyes. Leading to my next point:
I am planning to mount some kind of red dot or small scope, hopefully sooner rather than later, but eventually at any rate. I've gone back and forth on whether to go with something like an Aimpoint or EOTech, or a conventional 1-4x scope. The advantages and drawbacks I've been able to determine for each:
Red Dot -
Pros: quick to use, can be used in a head's up manner, has no parallax, can cowitness with the iron sights, all of the cool kids are using them, can be used with both eyes open more readily than a magnified scope
Cons: no magnification, requires batteries
Scope -
Pros: increased magnification improves accuracy at distance, light gathering increases shooting time at the edges of daylight, on low power can be used with both eyes open, not dependent on batteries
Cons: is less forgiving of eye position behind the sight (parallax), longer than a red dot requires more rail space, models with tactical turrets are overkill on a 250-yard carbine, ocular lens can interfere with access to the charging handle on an AR
I'm just looking for input and suggestions on which way people have gone and what you like and don't like about each system. Right now I'm leaning toward the red dot, specifically an Aimpoint PRO, but I'm not sold on it being exactly the way to go.
Oh, and lastly, as far as uses of this carbine, it's primarily going to turn money into noise at the range perforating cardboard silhouettes, paper zombies and ringing steel out to 200-yards (longest my range has). Secondary functions will be garden-raiding woodchucks, possibly a stray coyote and I will say it is a legal deer rifle in NH with a 5-round magazine and soft-point ammo.
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