A co-worker bought a S&W optics ready carbine last summer. The dealer put some cheap back up sights on it and sent the buyer out the door.
All excited my co-worker came to the range with me. While I made nice groups with my 03 at 100 yards his rifle was all over the place. Getting it on paper was a chore. Nothing on paper at 100 yards could be termed a group. At 25 yards the "Group" was 6-8 inches plus. Three different people shot the rifle with little produced to call a group.
The BUIS were really cheap. He bought a Burris .223 scope and PEPR mount. Not S&B but should be capable at 100 yards. Again no good. Getting on paper was a thing of luck.
Today we tried again. It was a mess. I took off the scope and put a set of LMT BUIS on the rifle. No groups, impacts in the berm or sporadic on paper. Another shooter broke out a Vortex and mounted the known good scope on the S&W rifle. Out of 5 shots on a target perhaps 25" wide x 36" tall maybe three would be on paper with a greater than 10" dispersion. The shooter that provided the Vortex shot the rifle with the same results. I shot my LMT using KAC 200-600 BUIS with similar ammo and held a respectable group on a 6" shoot and see. We tried two brands of 55 grain we brought with us and the shooter that provided the Vortex had us try some M855 to see if it would work better in the 1/9 barrel. I should have put the Burris scope on my rifle to rule out a scope issue but I didn't think of that while at the range.
I'm still of the mind set that with a brand new rifle from a capable gun manufacturer this is operator error after all how can anyone in this day and age screw up building an AR?
The good thing is that I am confident S&W will stand by the rifle if it is a rifle issue. In the hopes of not wasting their time is their anything to check on the build to determine if something could be a problem? The only issue I can think of is the barrel to receiver connection. What to look for?
We wont investigate too far expecting S&W will know what to look for.
All excited my co-worker came to the range with me. While I made nice groups with my 03 at 100 yards his rifle was all over the place. Getting it on paper was a chore. Nothing on paper at 100 yards could be termed a group. At 25 yards the "Group" was 6-8 inches plus. Three different people shot the rifle with little produced to call a group.
The BUIS were really cheap. He bought a Burris .223 scope and PEPR mount. Not S&B but should be capable at 100 yards. Again no good. Getting on paper was a thing of luck.
Today we tried again. It was a mess. I took off the scope and put a set of LMT BUIS on the rifle. No groups, impacts in the berm or sporadic on paper. Another shooter broke out a Vortex and mounted the known good scope on the S&W rifle. Out of 5 shots on a target perhaps 25" wide x 36" tall maybe three would be on paper with a greater than 10" dispersion. The shooter that provided the Vortex shot the rifle with the same results. I shot my LMT using KAC 200-600 BUIS with similar ammo and held a respectable group on a 6" shoot and see. We tried two brands of 55 grain we brought with us and the shooter that provided the Vortex had us try some M855 to see if it would work better in the 1/9 barrel. I should have put the Burris scope on my rifle to rule out a scope issue but I didn't think of that while at the range.
I'm still of the mind set that with a brand new rifle from a capable gun manufacturer this is operator error after all how can anyone in this day and age screw up building an AR?
The good thing is that I am confident S&W will stand by the rifle if it is a rifle issue. In the hopes of not wasting their time is their anything to check on the build to determine if something could be a problem? The only issue I can think of is the barrel to receiver connection. What to look for?
We wont investigate too far expecting S&W will know what to look for.
