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Posted: 4/30/2026 10:27:40 PM EDT
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My sons and I went out to Palo Alto today to work with our rifles of choice. Beautiful day, light wind, couldn't have hoped for better results. Initial review of these rifles is here - https://www.ar15.com/forums/ar-15/SOLGW-Mk10-Gen-2-in-308-have-arrived---first-range-trip/121-791550/ We've since switched from the Sandman K's to some re-imagined AAC 762-SDN-6's - sent to AAC for the restoration program, we had them redone as Ranger 7's with 7 baffles instead of 9. I don't know if the Rangers are hearing safe per se, but the Sandman K's were definitely not. Further, the Ranger's are inconel and came home weighing 14.3 oz - we had been kicking around a high flow can, but I think the Rangers are the final solution based on results. Due to the higher pressure cans, we increased the buffers to 8.5 oz for the factory A5 length buffer and 9.3 oz for the modified rifle length gun. They're kicking out brass with authority at 1:30 - 2 o'clock. I'm tempted to put an EZ-tune tube on them to turn them down just a hair, but - there is a strong case to leave well enough alone as we're getting a bang every time and ~ 8' ejection. I've been curious to see how these rifles shoot with a higher power scope and match ammo, and today we found out. They're equipped with the 3 groove, 1:9.73 twist barrel precision barrel. One of the boys wanted to lighten up the tool belt so we swapped a US Optics SR6 1.5-6 for a Leupold VX-6 1-6 and the factory stock for a Smoke Composites. While the scopes were being moved about we put my reference scope, a 20X SWFA SS on top. This confirmed it is indeed a sub MOA rifle, shooting from the magazine, with 5 shot groups. My other son refused the opportunity to see how accurate his rifle might be as he is already shooting 1.016 MOA with a 3.5X ACOG, using Speer Gold Dot 150 gr soft points, from a tripod. He said to take off a perfectly zero'd optic would be an exercise in ballistic masturbation since it would obviously pick up something with more magnification, match ammo and from a rest - but to what effect in reality? I couldn't argue that point and it is generally against my religion to remove a zero'd optic so we did leave well enough alone there. With that said - the rifle with the 20X shot a .709 moa 4 shot group with Federal 168 OTM, the M1A specific ammo, no can - first shot was a sighter and we'd loaded five. It then proceeded to shoot 5 Federal 168 gr GMM with a can into a .81 MOA group. From there, they laid down a 1.01/1.2 MOA with the Speer 150 and an ACOG and VX-6 respectively, both suppressed. We then went to the 300, 400, and 500 yard lines. For anyone looking at a 16" 308 - the 150 Gr speer lines up *beautifully* with the ladder in the 3.5x ACOG with the "horseshoe" reticle calibrated for 308, I'm guessing they used a 147 gr rd to calibrate that because he has holding dead on out to 500 with great hits. The VX-6 is a little trickier as apparently it is a 556 calibration, we did the math but there's math vs just hold and press. Even with some wind, off a tripod, using 150 gr soft points we shot 1.6-2 MOA - and the old man with a Grendel outshot them both. There was some grumbling about a VX-6 3-18X scope vs an ACOG and 1-6, but it sounded like excuses from where I sat. Since we got these in September, they've been used on several trips to kill pigs and coyotes with great success. One wears an Athlon Cronus 35CL-640 and the other a Guide Pro 640, which are cousins and are both performing well in conjunction with the rifles and the ACOG/LPVO. Can't say enough good about these rifles. If you have the strength to carry them, I can't think of any improvements. The M89 rail has no detectable deflection with an ARCA, thermal mounted, bipod use. I suspect we could shoot more groups and get a .5ish MOA result, but the ones attached were first efforts of bags and tripods, not single loading in sleds etc etc. I chased reliability on some custom MEGA builds for years - ironically, they run fine now, I just had the opportunity to get these Mk10's about the time I learned a few more things about tuning and timing. Big hint to anyone running a suppressed AR-10 - heavy buffers, dual ejectors. Big thanks to SOLGW for building these to our specs - they have lived up to their billing. I can't post the target pics here, but they are up over at snipers hide. Tne gun shot .7 MOA without a can, .8 with, and held MOA with an ACOG using a tripod and Speer 150 gr soft tip. |
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