12/20/2014 - Testing Hornady 223 Match 75 grain ammo

Today I went the the range before sunrise to shoot the Aero Precision AR15 and the LWRC IC-SPR AR15.  I also took the SIG P226 and Glock 19 for some practice with those too.  I was impressed with how accurate both the SIG and the Glock actually are.  I'm not going to be shooting either one of them 1000 yards any time soon, or for that matter even 100 yards, but they are quite accurate at short ranges if you aim carefully.  I should have taken a picture of my pistol target before I really sprayed shots all over it running around with the rifles, but I didn't.

Aside from just getting in some more general practice/training with these rifles with the PMC Bronze ammo, I wanted to test out the Hornady 75 grain Match 223 ammo in these guns to see if they can produce any tighter groups.  The Hornady ammo tested is fairly expensive at about $1 per shot as opposed to the PMC which I'm getting for around 34-39 cents currently.  While they certainly did produce better groups at 100 yards, I'm not overly impressed with how the Aero Precision shoots it.  While there are some 3 shot or even 4 shot groups that are really good, I was shooting 5 shot groups and each one of the groups had a "flier" or two depending on how you look at it bringing the groups to around 2 MOA overall.

The LWRC barrel seemed to like the ammo better than the Aero Precision as you can see from the groups.  The two on the left (upper and lower aim-points) are from the Aero, while the middle target and lower right are from the LWRC IC-SPR.  In review, I'm fairly satisfied with how the LWRC shoots this load given that this is a fighting rifle, rather than some long range target gun.

The scope Vortex scope on the LWRC also lends it self to a little better accuracy than the Bushnell optic currently on the Aero  because of a better reticle.

The first group with the Aero was the lower left and then I adjusted the scope to be better alignment for the upper right group.  As for the LWRC I shot 4 shots in the bottom right and then went directly into the center target without walking up to inspect the target.  Subsequently, I didn't make any adjustments in the scope to correct the groups from going left since I couldn't really identify the groups at distance.   I guess you could say that I just got tired of walking back and forth.  I should make about 3 clicks on the .2 mill per click turret and reset the zero on the cap.

2 groups with the Aero Precision and 2 groups with the LWRC IC-SPR.

LWRC IC-SPR

This post has been a long time coming for my first piston driven AR-15, but here it is. Behold the LWRC Individual Carbine Special Purpose Rifle.   The original owner put bought this one as a duty weapon (he's an officer in Provo) but never actually put it into service because his role switched and he now needs a SCAR 17 in 308 Win.  Before I got it, he upgraded the stock to a Magpul UBR stock.  While it definitely adds some weight (a little over a pound) over other stocks, and makes this AR fairly heavy all "kitted out" (9.8 lbs), it's a really nice gun.  I have added the angled fore grip, sling, Surefire light, and the Vortex scope.  The magazine is one of the 12 Lancer L5 AWMs in FDE that came with the rifle from the previous owner.  He told me (and I believe him looking at the internals) that he had shot less than a magazine thought it.

Here is a pic I snapped with my phone tonight to test the rifle out on a hike up some steep hills behind the neighborhood. You can see Utah Lake in the background there.  It's all Cerakoted in FDE.  I have upgraded the charging handle beyond the BCM Gunfighter it came with to a Rainier Arms Raptor charging handle.  I still need to replace the muzzle device, and I'm going to get a different pistol grip. After that it will be pretty much set for action.

I really love the lower since it's fully ambidextrous with both catch/release and the magazine drop on either size of the weapon.  The 300 Blackout upper I have will work great with this lower although I may have a guy that wants to buy that upper from me.  I sold the Spikes Tactical lower to him to "thin the safe" a bit, but he may also want the upper too.  If he calls back and gives me a good price on it, I'll let him have it an find another 300 BLK down the road.  I like the idea of having options in calibers. 

LWRC IC-SPR in 5.56mm with Vortex PST 1-4 scope

Back on the Chrony - 12/11/2014

With the results of the last powder charge test for this Savage 308 Winchester, I loaded up 30 rounds of 43 grain Varget powder with the Sierra 175 grain BTHP tips and headed to the range. I set up the chronograph and was surprised to see that my average muzzle velocity was still right around 2757 fps after shooting a 10 shot string.  The chrony reset before saving the results for further review, so I have to work from memory.  My extreme spread was about 36 fps, so I wasn't too happy with that, but the overall group wasn't terrible for this rifle.  Three of five were extremely close with one flier that brought the overall package to just about 1 MOA.  The three tight shots were .5 MOA or better.

Data for this load with a 10 shot group:

Avg - 2753 fps
Min - 2746 fps
Max - 2782 fsp
Ex Spread - 36 FPS
St. DEV - 12 fps

I was surprised that 43 grains pushed the 175 grain tips so fast because I got 2751 fps average out of 45 grains of Varget with 175 grain tips in this barrel 3.5 years ago.  Very interesting result to say the least.

A 5 shot group with 1 flier bringing the group to 1 inch.

Since I had a little extra time on my hands (an unusual thing), I walked my target over to the 1000 yard spot and set up a stick-on target on a closet door someone had over there.  It took about 11 minutes to walk the 1000 yards through the sage brush.  After getting the target ready and another 11 minute walk, I was back at the shooting position nearly 30 minutes later!

I used 90 clicks of elevation on the Vortex Razor HD scope and sent a few shots down range.  Although I was able to maintain the sight picture better than usual, I wasn't picking up any real slash in the dirt to identify my impacts. I assumed I was making good hits and the splash was being obscured by the door.  After 10 shots, I drove over to check it out.  Sadly, the 43 grain powder load didn't seem to have quite the elevation sustaining power as the 45 grains I've been shooting, so all my shots were about 18-20 inches low from what I could tell. It was hard to positivity identify my shot in the well shot up door.  Many of my shots got pushed off to the right of the door and with the ground being moist, there wasn't much dust being kicked up.

One of the cases had a hard time ejecting from the action even with the lower powder load of 43 grains.  Some of the cases seemed to be getting around the 2.015 length, so I've spent some time trimming them down to around 2.004-2.005 to see if that helps on the next round.