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Posted: 9/23/2008 7:39:42 PM EDT
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Hi All. So I finally got to take my new baby out to the range on a beautiful, cool day in Maine. I had decided on a TA11E ACOG (3.5x35 with red chevron) because I wanted a compact battle sight with BDC reticle and I wanted longer eye relief because of the increased recoil of the .308 round. All shooting was with Radway Green 168gr FMJ unless noted. So I started at 25 yards, and shot 10 rounds. A little low and left. All went into 1 inch, but I was less concerned about accuracy as I was getting onto paper and functioning. On the 3rd round of this part of the test, the bolt failed to strip a round off the top of the mag, and I dropped the hammer on an empty chamber. Mag problem? It's a new DPMS 19-round mag (loaded with 10 rounds), so maybe. I adjusted my ACOG, and continued. I then shot a few more 5 shot strings at 25 yards. All of them went into 1/2 an inch, as I was a little more careful, but again, my main focus was functioning. No malfunctions at all. Total rounds: 40. OK. So now, I'm thinking: Good. I at least have a functional rifle. I move over to the 100 yard range and load up some mags. I shot 10 shots at a moderate rate. All were on paper, with 8 of the 10 going into a 1.5-inch group. Not bad accuracy with mil-surp ammo. I continued to shoot another 50 rounds, with similar results. Perfect functioning. I loaded some Federal Gold Medal Match 168gr, and shot 2 5-shot strings sandbagged. My first group looked a bit strange. 3 shots went into a single hole. One shot landed 1 inch left of this group, and another was 1 inch left and 1 inch down from the first group. So all rounds went into about 1.5 inches. The second string with the Federal GM went into 1.5 inches, but a more even pattern. I'm happy the rifle functions very well. It's a very smooth shooter, with not much more recoil than a regular AR, but with a bigger boom. I was quite surprised the recoil was so low. One thing I did find was it was a bit tough to shoot for accuracy with the chevron reticle and low magnification. One other thing. Because of the predator rail, and that it mounts on top of the flat-top, raising it 0.5 inches, I found the ACOG was a tad high, so it was a little difficult for me to get a good cheek-weld on it. I guess I've got skinny cheeks, too. I am sure that was contributing to my groups not being as good as they could be. The rifle is a really beautiful piece of equipment. Really nicely fit and finish. Very smooth and easy to disassemble and reassemble. Fantastic trigger. Pretty clean receiver after 110 rounds, too. Clean up was super-quick and easy because of the nickel plated bolt/carrier/receiver. That ambidextrous bolt-release is just awesome, as you can drop the bolt with your trigger finger. I hope to work with her some more, and try her out with some other ammo and see if there's something she really likes. |
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I'll break out the camera then next time I get a chance! Mine is a 16.5 inch barrel. I read previously that someone had done chrono testing on a 16 and 20 inch barrel .308 semi-auto, and found only an average difference in 120 fps between the two. He also calculated that standard 150gr Federal AE would remain supersonic past 700 yards thru a 16in barrel. I also wanted something that I could carry around, so I got the 16.5 inch. |
Mine's 16.5. Seems that the one they are producing most. Haven't even seen a 20" model for sale yet. For anything short of 900 yards, I don't see a huge advantage to the extra 3.5" of bbl....but when I started looking I wanted a 20" version.....I just didn't want to wait (in light of a price increase brought on by inflation or panic of the newly elected president)....so I jumped on the 16.5" I found. My stock is the factory Vltor. I thought I wanted the PRS, but my optic (IOR) has a fairly short eye relief, so the Vltor fits better so far. Sean |
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