New Rifle Break-in / Shooting Tips

[warrantchief]

Hello, I just received a custom rifle I had ordered many moons ago. It's a defiance tactical in .308 with an 18" carbon bartlein barrel. It's all housed in an XLR element 4.0 Mg. It is intended to be my <=500y hunting / modern scout rifle (CGS Helios DT).

To zero the scope (Leupold 3-18x44 FFP) I decided to shoot some cheaper PMC X Tac 7.62 147gr. I really struggled to do any better then 2.5-3 moa over the course of 50 rounds. Velocity was actually fairly consistent at 2676 fps with a 12.4 SD, but I could not put together good groups.

It's my first carbon barrel. I tried to shoot 5 round groups and give it rest in between but maybe I got it too hot?
It's also my first lightweight chassis rifle and I'm used to being pretty light on the gun when I shoot. Should I potentially be pushing the rifle harder into my shoulder pocket?

It was a little disappointing, tbh. Usually I'm more like a 1-1.5moa shooter with the occasional sub-moa. I have some M118LR that shoots great out of my scar 20s and some Federal Berger Hunter Hybrid 168gr that I will try next, but I wanted to see if anyone had any feedback before I went back out.

Thank you

 

[Rob01]

Garbage ammo. Clean it really well and then go shoot some good ammo and see how it does before you start worrying about anything.

 

[Supersubes]

Hello, I just received a custom rifle I had ordered many moons ago. It's a defiance tactical in .308 with an 18" carbon bartlein barrel. It's all housed in an XLR element 4.0 Mg. It is intended to be my <=500y hunting / modern scout rifle (CGS Helios DT).

To zero the scope (Leupold 3-18x44 FFP) I decided to shoot some cheaper PMC X Tac 7.62 147gr. I really struggled to do any better then 2.5-3 moa over the course of 50 rounds. Velocity was actually fairly consistent at 2676 fps with a 12.4 SD, but I could not put together good groups.

It's my first carbon barrel. I tried to shoot 5 round groups and give it rest in between but maybe I got it too hot?
It's also my first lightweight chassis rifle and I'm used to being pretty light on the gun when I shoot. Should I potentially be pushing the rifle harder into my shoulder pocket?

It was a little disappointing, tbh. Usually I'm more like a 1-1.5moa shooter with the occasional sub-moa. I have some M118LR that shoots great out of my scar 20s and some Federal Berger Hunter Hybrid 168gr that I will try next, but I wanted to see if anyone had any feedback before I went back out.

Thank you

No reason whatsoever to put mediocre ammo through a high end rifle. Someone will chime in and say it shot great in theirs, but the other 99% will say you should have shot the good ammo.

Yes, light guns are a little harder to shoot bugholes with. Just figure out what it likes.

 

[nn8734]

Hello, I just received a custom rifle I had ordered many moons ago. It's a defiance tactical in .308 with an 18" carbon bartlein barrel. It's all housed in an XLR element 4.0 Mg. It is intended to be my <=500y hunting / modern scout rifle (CGS Helios DT).

To zero the scope (Leupold 3-18x44 FFP) I decided to shoot some cheaper PMC X Tac 7.62 147gr. I really struggled to do any better then 2.5-3 moa over the course of 50 rounds. Velocity was actually fairly consistent at 2676 fps with a 12.4 SD, but I could not put together good groups.

It's my first carbon barrel. I tried to shoot 5 round groups and give it rest in between but maybe I got it too hot?
It's also my first lightweight chassis rifle and I'm used to being pretty light on the gun when I shoot. Should I potentially be pushing the rifle harder into my shoulder pocket?

It was a little disappointing, tbh. Usually I'm more like a 1-1.5moa shooter with the occasional sub-moa. I have some M118LR that shoots great out of my scar 20s and some Federal Berger Hunter Hybrid 168gr that I will try next, but I wanted to see if anyone had any feedback before I went back out.

Thank you

Why did you not use your M118LR?

Garbage ammo is for blasting with rifles where precision isnt important (if it has a place at all in your inventory).

Do you reload?

 

[warrantchief]

I guess I figured at 100y it wouldn't make that much of a difference so I didn't want to waste the better stuff getting the rifle in vicinity of zeroed and adjusting the ergos, etc.

I don't yet reload. i don't have the space right now to setup a proper work bench so I've been holding off. I mostly shoot 5.56 and 7.62 for that reason. I can get OK stuff for reasonable prices and it's good enough for me to improve my shooting.

 

[nn8734]

I guess I figured at 100y it wouldn't make that much of a difference so I didn't want to waste the better stuff getting the rifle in vicinity of zeroed and adjusting the ergos, etc.

I don't yet reload. i don't have the space right now to setup a proper work bench so I've been holding off. I mostly shoot 5.56 and 7.62 for that reason. I can get OK stuff for reasonable prices and it's good enough for me to improve my shooting.

You need to remove the ammo as a variable impacting your results. You do that by running good ammo. That said, if you wanted to cycle that garbage through the rifle just to "break it in" and have no expectations for performance, that's fine. Just do not use how it prints as an indicator/reflection of the weapon system's capabilities. All three components (shooter, platform, ammo) have to be performing well to get desired results.

 

[warrantchief]

So I guess no one is surprised if my cheap ammo is shooting 3 moa?

 

[nn8734]

Im surprised you're on paper at all, haha. J/k, 3 moa is what ive seen out of that and similar shit.

If you're still 3 moa or similer with m118lr or fgmm then id investigate the shooter or platform (or both) as the cause.

 

[warrantchief]

Thanks everyone. Guns looks amazing, btw.

 

[leclairk]

Anytime I buy a new rifle and plan to shoot factory ammo I will 5 or 6 different quality ammo’s to see what the gun likes.

 

[notacos4u]

Thanks everyone. Guns looks amazing, btw.

View attachment 8174500

I think I see what the problem is, has nothing to do with the ammo, the bolts on the wrong side… sorry couldn’t resist.

 

[warrantchief]

It appears y'all were correct. My first two 5 round groups with the Federal 168g hybrid were back to my normal shooting expectations. SD was pretty impressive at 8.8 over 20 rounds.

I also tried the winchester m118lr and that went poorly, but for a different reason. I was getting light primer strikes about half of the time. I tried two different boxes but maybe this stuff is just not very compatible with the defiance action? I've shot hundreds of rounds of it through my scar 20s without a single light strike.