FINALLY got a chance to go to the range with my AR. Since I'm going to my first tactical rifle match this Saturday I thought I better get in a little practice. Especially since I'm borrowing an optic! That's right I don't have an optic yet.
Job one was to sight in the optic and then practice as much as time allowed. While sighting in I was shooting groups of five. They all had the same charateristic shape: a horizontal oval 4-5" wide by 1-2" tall. I figured this must be related to the fact that I was using a bipod instead of a proper sandbag or rest on the bench (not to mention inexperience). The rifle would bounce around after each shot on the concrete bench. After sighting in I had a few minutes left. At 100yrds standing off hand no sling I shot one 3 shot group that measured ~12". That's fairly typical for me since I don't get much practice. The spread was mostly vertical, one shot near the center bottom, one shot in the black a couple of inches to the right and one shot left of center near the top. I had enough time to do one more string so I put up a new target and fired three shots from the prone position in the grass in front of the bench. Here's what I came up with:
What a difference the earth made! Center to center is 11/16". The red dot hardly wiggled after each shot. I was fairly pleased. Here's what I was using:
RRA lower with RRA two stage trigger
Olympic Arms bolt and carrier (don't ask)
LMT 16" 1:7 twist upper
Bushnell Holosight (borrowed)
GripPod bipod/VG mounted on a DD M47.0 HG
American Eagle 62gr FMJ
Any suggestions or comments to make my offhand groups smaller?