Right before the new year a new shop opened locally. The owner is someone I've bought guns from before, and a nice person. He started carrying Aero precision products, and had some FDE sets on order. I'd wanted an evil brown rifle for a while, so when a set came in I bought it. I decided the new rifle was going to be a "no holds barred" 3-gun build with some tendencies for general use. I have a 3 gun rifle I built a few years ago around a 18" Nordic barrel. It's been a great rifle, but it's pretty front-heavy. So I wanted a 16" rifle that would be faster on transitions but still accurate and smooth shooting.
Without further ado, here's what I came up with:
Build list:
Aero Precision matched upper/lower set, FDE
Stretch 16 fluted melonited barrel
Dynamic Resistance compensator
Midwest Industries 15" MLOK G3 handguard
BCM low-profile gas block
BCM BCG
BCM Gunfighter 4 charging handle
Magpul Fixed Rifle stock
DPMS rifle tube
JP ground buffer spring
Bravo Company rifle buffer
AR15.com LPK
Magpul MOE trigger guard
Magpul MIAD 1.1 grip
Giessele SD-3G trigger
Battle Arms Development safety selector
Magpul MOE M2 magazines
Vortex Razor II HD 1-6 scope
Vortex/Bobro extended QR mount
Magpul offset MBUS Pro
This rifle required some work to get it running. The mag well wouldn't drop my preferred magazines (Magpul M2 MOE windowed) freely, so I opened the magwell up with some blackboard chalk and careful filing. The BCM gas block didn't fit the barrel quite properly, so I used a brake hone in a drill to open up the gas block just a bit. So this one took a bit of work but came together well.
I zeroed the rifle today and then went to the plate range to compare with my old 3 gun rifle. How does it shoot? Very, very fast. With my "bulk" reloads I was pretty close to 1.5 MOA, with some more precision rounds it was tighter. If I were to really work on the accuracy with a sled it would likely be sub-MOA, but it's close enough for 3 gun. On the plate range it was a more solid feeling gun than my old rifle, and transitioned between plates much faster. The Razor is incredibly clear, and being able to flip the rifle for the irons sights makes up-close shots very fast as well.