Recoil spring accuracy improvements

[Mtndudeleather]

Shot a team match last year and had to use a gasser.
Added a few things and accuracy was terrible.
Bhw carbon barrel
Adj gas block
Cmc 2.5 lbs
And put my xtr2 on it.

Tried 8 brands of ammo and nothing was shooting worth a lick. Then my flat wire recoil spring arrived late and the gun went from 1.5" with everything to a 1 holer at sight in the next morning. I was floored. Shot an extra box worth and got good speed readings and threw some dope together and had a blast.

The dang recoil spring still baffles me though. Anyone have something like this happen?

 

[bfoosh006]

IMO, while the spring may have contributed to the improvement... ( maybe helping you maintain better / consistent "control".

If you wanted to try and repeat it... put the old spring back in and see if it "really" could be the issue.

There are so many other possibilities, that you may never know for sure.

Maybe you were just having a crappy day at the bench.... I've had days like that... couldn't seem to be consistent at all.

To much coffee and cigs may have contributed.

Maybe the chamber and bore needed the first days rounds to settle in and smooth out.

Also... I have seen the various factory loads / rounds seem to prefer a "season in the bore" effect.... IE many, but not all rounds produce the best precision after the specific round has fouled the bore with about 5 fouler shots.

I typically fire 10 rd groups from my various sized AR's... that is how I "noticed" the first 5 rds of the 10 loaded rd mag... would slowly develop / move into a more refined and centered true group... the next 5 rds ( same mag ) group would be repeatedly more settled in.

It has happened to many times over theprocess of 8 hrs + at the bench.. for it to be a "me" or a "rifle settling" in thing.

I have at home a list of what powders "not" to shot after another... unless you can foul the bore.

It is not gospel , but rather a CMP accumulated " yeah, I have seen that" from years ago.

 

[Mtndudeleather]

I thought the same. Maybe i just sucked... but jerry ogden showed up with his new gunwerks rifle in a jv xlr chassis and we played with it for a while and he was laughing cause i shot better with it then he did... couple .1 groups. back to the gasser averaging 2" swap out the spring that night, head to the match anticipating to just have fun and it flat prints. Like 1/3".

I dunno. Sometimes gassers just don't make sense. Im happy with it now though. Super fun dmr style gun.

 

[Billiam1211]

The most important factor that I've found in shooting a gas-gun accurately is recoil management, and more specifically follow through because of the elongated recoil impulse. A buffer system will certainly affect the recoil impulse, which most likely helped you manage the recoil better and thus the better groups.

When I put together my first large frame AR precision build, it took me about 400 rounds to really understand how to manage the recoil and print .75 or .5 MOA groups. It's completely different than my bolt gun too, I definitely have to increase grip strength and forward load pressure as well as over-extend how long I hold the trigger back on follow through.

Both groups below were at 200 yards on the same day. With my gas gun, I'm happy with 3/4 MOA