What Accuracy Can be Expected from an AR-15?

[Nhsport]

Your basic off the shelf standard grade Ar will usually do 2 to 4 MOA with ball and it is generally easy to do an upgrade to the trigger ($100 to $300) and get down to 1 to 1.5 MOA. with better ammo.
The higher grade varmint rigs ($1000 to $1200 lower end without glass)
will generally be 1MOA or better.
I don't hunt but it seems to me a coyote at 250 isn't going to know the difference between 1 MOA and 2 MOA .
I would presume shooter skill is going to be the big factor here but AR's are about the easiest gun to shoot.
I would lean towards the 1/9 over the 1/7, The 20" guns are usually easier to shoot ,go with the flatop as they are the way to go for optic mounting and consider a trigger upgrade , I like the simple Rock River National Match trigger .

 

[FlyinBryan]

very accurate.

the only rifles ive seen that shoot 4moa that start with "a" end with "k47" not "r15"

ive never owned an ar15 that wouldnt shoot 1"-1 1/4" right out of the box.

my current ar15 is a 16" bushmaster. it shoots better than the colr rifles ive owned, including a 20" match target rifle. and it weighs less than 7lbs.

heres a little thread i did on it here while back with target pics.

http://www.thehighroad.org/showthread.php?p=4907092#post4907092

 

[jad0110]

I've only shot my AR twice (Del-Ton mid-length, 1x9 twist, RRA 2-stage trigger), but it is capable of stellar accuracy.

Yesterday I was zeroing the iron sights. It was only at 25 yards, but fired I managed a 5 shot group from the bench that measured between 1/4" and 1/2".

4 of the 5 made one ragged hole, so call it slightly over 1/4" at 25 yards, excluding the one round that was a hair off.

And that was using milsurp M193 ball, which is not known for stellar accuracy, though admittidly at 25 yards it probably doesn't make a huge difference.

Take out the stock (crappy) triggger and replace with a quality 2 stage trigger and it'll shrink the groups.

Agree 100%. Stock AR triggers are nothing to write home about; even in my limited AR experience I've managed to figure that one out . Though my 2-stage Rock River Arms trigger is most certainly not the best, it is an excellent value and a significant improvement over ARs with stock triggers I've tried. I ordered my rifle as a kit, and the RRA trigger was something like $50 extra - a real no brainer.

 

[Bartholomew Roberts]

Actually, I wonder how much accuracy would improve if I just installed a FF handguard and kept the factory barrel?

Based on what I've seen, free-floating a barrel will reduce your groups by about 0.5" at 100yds from a nice, stable position like bench or prone.

At least that is the result I got when I free-floated my 16" Bushmaster HBAR and the same author of the thread I linked above added a free-float to his rifle and did a much more detailed analysis than I did that had the same result.

 

[Kestrel]

Bartholomew,

Thanks - good to know.