Before heading over the VA Arms to pick up my rifle, I stopped off at Galyan's to grab some ammo. True to form, they managed to yet again be out of whatever it is I go there for...this time, decent/match .308 ammo. Well, of course they had nothing but hunting/soft point kind of stuff....they guy even dug under the counter and pulled out a battle pack of SA surplus lol. I figured that VA Arms would have a better selection, so I just bagged it at Galyan's.
I checked the contents of the box, and my first impression of the rifle is "what a BEAST" hehehe. I mean, this thing is big. It dwarfs my 20" HBAR Armalite, both in barrel length (24"), and the size of the receiver, etc. I think this barrel is even bigger than the AR-15 bull barrels, and at 24", you know it's got some heft.
Anyway, the usual 45 callback delay for the NICS ensued, so I snagged two boxes of ammo...some Black Hills 168gr, and some Federal Gold Medal match 165gr. I was looking for the 175gr, but they didn't have any.
Once the callback was done, I boogeyed on down the road. The range was packed when I got there, but I managed to snag one of the last available shooting stations.
I was using the 3.8x12 Simmons Aetec scope from one of my ARs, since it was on a set of ARMS # 22 rings, hence very easy to mount. Plus, I was hoping it was reasonably dialed in, since I had is shooting dead on with the AR.
Once a cleaned everything up, I loaded 'er up, and fired the first round. VERY nice...sort of like an FAL, but with a gentler push. The fact that the rifle weighs 11 pounds or so tamed the recoil, I'm sure. The round landed about 6" below the dirt clod I was aiming at, so I went ahead and put a target out.
I fired 2 more shots for sighters and to get the feel of the rifle. I fired a 5 shot group into of the Federal into what looked to be right at 1". Not bad. I fired another 5 shot group with the Black Hills, which had an altogether differnt feel to it. This group was also right at 1", but looked be less spread out than the Federal group. The 3rd round of this group was fired after a fairly long cease fire, cool off, drink water break...the 4th round was back in where the 1st and 2nd were, but the 5th ended up right next to the third...otherwise, I was gonna call round 3 a flyer. What surprised me was the fact that the Black Hills shot about 3" high, and 2" right compared to the Federal.
I was cleaning after every shot, and it was fairly tedious...exacerbated by the absolutely crushing humidity we had around here today. I fired a total of 12 shots, and finally bagged it around 4:30. As I was putting my stuff away, a couple of guys showed up...being the lazy bastard that I am, I suggested they shoot at the station I was leaving...so I conned them into using my target stand...so I didn't have to wait 'til the next cease fire to go down and get my target hehehe. So no pictures, or precise measurements, although I was pretty sure of the group size because of the 1" squares on the target.
The rifle is a pleasure to shoot, and performed flawlessly for the short time I actually fired it. Overall impression is that it's a very well made, well engineered piece of equipment.
The fit and finish are first rate; it has a real nice, almost powder coated look to it....different from the Eagle and Rock River finish I'm used to. The buttstock is much grayer than I'm used to seeing, and not very smooth...but this might just be normal for a DPMS; can't tell, since I never owned one before.
All in all, I'm very happy with everything...I think I may take it out either tomorrow, or Wed night to the NRA range, just to put some more rounds through it. DPMS suggest cleaning after every round 'til 25, and then after every 5 until 200 rounds! It's gonna take me a while to get this thing fully broken in at this point, and it's too damn hot and humid for me to enjoy doing it outside lol. But the NRA is air conditioned! If it's not too crowded tomorrow, maybe I can shoot up the rest of this ammo.
I'll post some pics of this thing tomorrow, just to show what a honker it is compared to an AR-15. Too tired right now to mess with it.