Quick background: I've been in LE for 15 years, SWAT sniper team for 12 and the team leader for six. I'm familiar with shooting long range and consider myself competent out to 1K yards with my .308 bolt gun (competent meaning I know my abilities and limitations as well as those of my equipment, not that I can get a 1st round head shot at any distance in any conditions). I've been shooting the M16/M4/AR15 platform for 25 years but never really used it as or considered it for a precision platform.
I'm now working on a project and attempting to keep my expectations realistic with the AR15 platform. My hunting partner and I have a 1000 acre deer lease and we've got entirely too many coyotes on it. We pulled trail camera cards a month ago and had coyotes on all seven cameras on every area of the farm. We archery hunt/film as a team and I cleared it with our DNR that it would be lawful to carry a rifle to the stand and deal with any coyotes that pop up (could have had two last year had we had a rifle). I decided to put together an upper which would fit the bill and just got it together last week.
I went with a Rainier Arms Ultramatch barrel in 14.5" to keep the OAL short for convenience. I see 300 yards as a rare maximum distance while we're in the stands or moving around the farm and figured a 1-4X Vortex would work well for the typically very short/fast opportunities when a coyote pops up. I'm using it on my work SBR lower with a CMC 3.5lb trigger.
I took it to the range yesterday for ammo testing and found it to be a bit more challenging to shoot accurately at 100yds with a 4X scope than with the USO 3.2-17X I'm used to. My target choice could have probably been better as I was using .5" orange dots which disappeared behind the reticle. I shot a couple of groups with Black Hills 77gr OTM, Fed GM 69gr BTHP and some 55gr RUAG a friend of mine has had great luck with. I had the orange dots on paper which I then removed from the cardboard backer to measure the groups beneath.
Black Hills I got .774" & .798"
Federal I got 1.017" & 1.101"
RUAG I got 2.047 & 1.148"
At this point I'm confident the Black Hills will work for me on a coyote out to 300 and the Federal likely would also. I'm trying to figure out if I should get my hands on some other varieties of ammo to test but my biggest curiosity is if the 4X at 100 yards is preventing me from squeezing the best accuracy out of the upper and if the limitations of the setup are putting me into the realm where it's me more than the ammo at this point.
I guess in an extremely long winded way what I'm asking is, for those of you who have both higher magnification systems as well as low mags like my 1-4x, do you see a decrease in your ability to shoot accurately with the lower magnifications? I intend to do a better job of target selection next time out but wanted to see what others have experienced as well. I have a tendency to chase perfection until my frustration kills the enjoyment and I don't want to do that here. I simply have little experience here and if I know what is reasonable I can keep my expectations in check.
I'm now working on a project and attempting to keep my expectations realistic with the AR15 platform. My hunting partner and I have a 1000 acre deer lease and we've got entirely too many coyotes on it. We pulled trail camera cards a month ago and had coyotes on all seven cameras on every area of the farm. We archery hunt/film as a team and I cleared it with our DNR that it would be lawful to carry a rifle to the stand and deal with any coyotes that pop up (could have had two last year had we had a rifle). I decided to put together an upper which would fit the bill and just got it together last week.
I went with a Rainier Arms Ultramatch barrel in 14.5" to keep the OAL short for convenience. I see 300 yards as a rare maximum distance while we're in the stands or moving around the farm and figured a 1-4X Vortex would work well for the typically very short/fast opportunities when a coyote pops up. I'm using it on my work SBR lower with a CMC 3.5lb trigger.
I took it to the range yesterday for ammo testing and found it to be a bit more challenging to shoot accurately at 100yds with a 4X scope than with the USO 3.2-17X I'm used to. My target choice could have probably been better as I was using .5" orange dots which disappeared behind the reticle. I shot a couple of groups with Black Hills 77gr OTM, Fed GM 69gr BTHP and some 55gr RUAG a friend of mine has had great luck with. I had the orange dots on paper which I then removed from the cardboard backer to measure the groups beneath.
Black Hills I got .774" & .798"
Federal I got 1.017" & 1.101"
RUAG I got 2.047 & 1.148"
At this point I'm confident the Black Hills will work for me on a coyote out to 300 and the Federal likely would also. I'm trying to figure out if I should get my hands on some other varieties of ammo to test but my biggest curiosity is if the 4X at 100 yards is preventing me from squeezing the best accuracy out of the upper and if the limitations of the setup are putting me into the realm where it's me more than the ammo at this point.
I guess in an extremely long winded way what I'm asking is, for those of you who have both higher magnification systems as well as low mags like my 1-4x, do you see a decrease in your ability to shoot accurately with the lower magnifications? I intend to do a better job of target selection next time out but wanted to see what others have experienced as well. I have a tendency to chase perfection until my frustration kills the enjoyment and I don't want to do that here. I simply have little experience here and if I know what is reasonable I can keep my expectations in check.
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