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1,040 Yards w/ 16" Barrel AR15

rybe390

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Minuteman
Dec 13, 2017
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Just posted in ELR, thought you all might want to discuss as well.

3 months ago I tried to take my AR 15 out to 1,035 yards and got super close, we couldn’t spot our misses so we thought we were hitting

I took Friday off of work with the goal of hitting 1,000 yards. Today, I popped my 1k cherry, at 1,040 yards with a 5.56, in 40mph winds. I think the only people who could truly appreciate how stoked I am today are you nerds.

Video of hits: https://youtu.be/OLSFsC6_vFk

Footage at end of shot strings so you can confirm I did indeed miss =).

I also popped my 800 yard cherry, so that’s cool too. Never hit past 550 with this rifle(or any rifle) until today.

I connected at 840 on my 2nd shot. I connected at 1,040 on my 5th shot. We warmed up at 640 yards but that was well within my comfort zone even though it was a new PR distance.

Conditions today were INCREDIBLY windy. We were ranging from 20-40 MPH all day long. I can deal with high winds, the challenge was that it was either a 12 O’Clock wind, or slightly off at 11 or 10. It hit 9 a few times but we weren’t firing then. On a calm day I wouldn’t mind too much, but today it made things interesting. My wind holds at 1,040 were 4 mils at times when it was gusting…

Overall, hit 8/20 at 840 yards, and 9/20 at 1,040 yards. 840 was exclusively a 95% IPSC A/C Zone, and 1,040 was 10 shots at a gong and 10 at the IPSC. I’ll take 45% accuracy with a 75 gr bullet past 1k yards on a super windy day.

Rifle: 16” Daniel Defense M4v5
Vortex Viper PST 1-4 Mrad
Geissele SSA-E
75 Gr Hornady Handloads
 
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Load data? Altitude? I ask because I have two 16" AR Uppers with better than average barrels. They have 1:9" twist, and I haven't tried my 75gr HDY HPBT Match bullet load in them yet. Since I live and shoot in SE Arizona, above 4,000ft ASL, really longer distance with the shorter barrels is becoming tempting. The HDY 75's work beautifully in my 1:9" twist, 24" barrels, and I'm becoming less and less hesitant to try them in the 16's.

Big congrats on your evolution to the Big K; you will never look at a long stretch of real estate the same way again. I have a pair of Stag Model 6 Super Varminters (24" stainless bull, 1:8" twist) that handle the 75 HPBT-M very effectively, and have competed with them out to 600yd down in the Valley (Ben Avery Range, Phoenix, 1600ft ASL). Recently discontinued, it is superceded by the Stag 15 Varminter, which is being sold at a great introductory discount.

Greg
 
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Sure, you can get hits at 1000-1100 with a 16" AR but they will be far from consistent due to velocity. Ive done this many times. With the 77smk and 75 BTHP using a pretty hot 8208XBR load of 24.4g with a velocity of 2665 out of my 16" WOA 1:7. The bullet goes transonic in the 800-850yd range and after that the bullet is unpredictable.
 
Here we got hits at 1125 yards with a 556 rifle

<iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/qJVcma1av30" frameborder="0" gesture="media" allow="encrypted-media" allowfullscreen></iframe>
 
What kind of stopping power is it going to have at that distance?

It will kill a steel plate right where it hangs! [IMG2=JSON]{"data-align":"none","data-size":"full","src":"https:\/\/photos.smugmug.com\/photos\/i-42pvxxT\/0\/fd7f525c\/O\/i-42pvxxT.gif"}[/IMG2]
 
Load data? Altitude? I ask because I have two 16" AR Uppers with better than average barrels. They have 1:9" twist, and I haven't tried my 75gr HDY HPBT Match bullet load in them yet. Since I live and shoot in SE Arizona, above 4,000ft ASL, really longer distance with the shorter barrels is becoming tempting. The HDY 75's work beautifully in my 1:9" twist, 24" barrels, and I'm becoming less and less hesitant to try them in the 16's.

Big congrats on your evolution to the Big K; you will never look at a long stretch of real estate the same way again.

Greg

23.6 grains imr 8208xbr
cci 450
federal case
2.25 oal
75 gr hornady bthp match

You really should go and try them out. 900 should at ta minimum be very doable!

Thank you. Quite excited about it.

 
Sure, you can get hits at 1000-1100 with a 16" AR but they will be far from consistent due to velocity. Ive done this many times. With the 77smk and 75 BTHP using a pretty hot 8208XBR load of 24.4g with a velocity of 2665 out of my 16" WOA 1:7. The bullet goes transonic in the 800-850yd range and after that the bullet is unpredictable.

Your load seems awfully slow out of a 16”? I am using 23.6 grains and am getting 2652 fps out of my barrel!

Also, I live up in colorado. I am supersonic to 1k with this load. If I used a TMK I’d be supersonic past 1100. So, yes the wind drift is huge, but stability isn’t an issue for these shots.

Where do you live that you’re going sub at 850?
 
Here we got hits at 1125 yards with a 556 rifle

<iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/qJVcma1av30" frameborder="0" gesture="media" allow="encrypted-media" allowfullscreen></iframe>

But, but, vertically split rings!!!!
 
I've been using 24.4gr of Varget with the HDY 75gr HPBT Match, and it recently disappointed me.

My own fault, I had simply plucked the load off the Internet and never really got around to accuracy testing it until recently.

I have a medley of Varget loads made up ranging from 23.4gr to 24.4gr for ladder testing on my next outing.

Right now, I have also loaded up some Nosler 50gr Ballistic Tip loads at 26.6gr of Varget that shot very nicely once, and now needs load confirmation. But I also seriously doubt it could turn out to be an effective LR load.

Greg
 
I use 24.4gr of Varget with the Hornady 75gr BTHP and LC Brass/Wolf LR primer and it's shot decently out of most of my AR barrels, ranging from (all 5-shot groups) 1/2 MOA in a couple WOA/RRA 20" service rifle barrels to .8 MOA in a Larue Stealth, 1.2 MOA in Centurion/DD barrels. I did load development on the RRA with a lot of Varget I had a few kegs of and just shot that load with decent results in the rest of the barrels.
 
To the OP: congratulations. Getting out to 1K is a memorable feat. Now that will be your benchmark. It gets much easier the longer you’re at it. I’m fortunate to have my Range at work where I have steel out to 1250. Congratulations, you have accomplished what few have.
 
We got hits, and we made a cold bore hit, the scope tracked perfectly and RTZ was on, are two different things.

I was being somewhat facetious.
This thread is interesting to me though. I recently took an AR that had been performing well out to 850 yards out to 1010 yards in mild but fluctuating crosswinds. I thought the extra 160 yards would only add roughly 20% difficulty in a linear relationship to the added range. I was wrong. It's a whole different ball game.
 
Even with my Stag 6, I consider 600yd to be a reasonable effective range limit for the .223. In my personal and admittedly limited opinion, I'd want the bullet to be running at a reliable 1300fps+ at the target distance, and that's clearly possible at 600yd, and probably further, but I don't especially care about that, because I'm just not going there.

IMHO it boils down to the adage about bringing enough gun. For dependable hits (not discussing kills...) I'd want more gun than the .223 beyond 600yd. That's what my .260 Rem is for; at 1000yd it's clearly in its comfort zone.

Greg