If there is varmint splattering that needs to be done, I pull out my accurized AR15. Even if it means lugging around the beast of burden, 24 inch barreled rifle that is 48 inches long from butt to tip and heavy as hell.
Built it with the sole intent of sitting on a hillside and splattering Ca. ground squirrels all day long but it is used in all positions.
I built it up before I had years of experience with the AR15 and based upon my experiences if I had it to do over again, some things would change but not everything.
But here's the thing, back then there were NOT as many custom builders out there as there are today.
For accurized upper assemblies from big names it fell into a few groups. Olympic Arms, DPMS, JP Enterprises, or one of the ABC makers who basically gave you a milspec barrel with a freefloated handguard.
I went with JP Enterprises, used a stainless steel lower receiver for additional weight. Thing shoots very well. Back then I didn't think I had what it took to build an upper so I went with a Grade 1 upper, lower was tinker toy easy.
Pictures of the gun early on.
Gun as it sits now is in this picture to show scale. After 7+ years it is largely unmolested. The 3 way adjustable buttplate was neccesary for proper eye relief behind the Leupold LR scope, plus the stock fits my 6ft 3in frame better now.
No, the muzzle brake likely isn't worth the trouble. However I wanted a rifle that was essentially as recoiless as possible. The rifle jiggles off target by maybe 1/2 inch at 100 yards due to a slight bit of jiggle from the action cycling, it's not "recoil" that causes the rifle to shift off target.
Cleaning the muzzle crown is a bitch so I actually broke the JP brake loose so that I could get at the muzzle brake to clean it. There is a bit of a noticable difference when shooting with and without the brake, even on a rifle that weighs 15 pounds unloaded.
Weight, that's the one drawback of the gun and hence the reason it tends to be a sit on the hillside gun. 300-400 yard shots are possible and the gun has racked up more than a couple of them. Been able to shoot at a few 500 yard distant fleabags but they were at the local range and I couldn't walk down to confirm if they were infact KIA or just WIA.
Around 3-4 years ago I had started to consider the building of a "walking gun" but I haven't gotten around to it yet.
For out to 200 yards, it will probably be a 16-18 inch barrel. Medium contour barrel preferred.
Fiberglass handguard like a PRI so as to not have to put up with aluminum cold/hot issues.
Stock likely to be an M93A, really like the stocks now after using it on my 20in AR10 and being able to adjust the stock for a variety of shooting positions.
Optics will probably be a 4.5-14x Leupold LR.
Sounds familiar, much like the SPRs and RECCE stuff that has been popular over the past 2-3 years. Not really surprising though, it's an idea born out of neccesity so it's only natural that they will pop up in such configurations.
I've got two Stags that I'm hoping won't have to conform to the latest bullshit opinion of the Ca. DOJ and one of them will be built into something truely interesting if they get a chance to be built into their full potential.