I recieved my upper back from lmt this week with a new 20" SS barrel. My first one was replaced due to some tooling marks in the barrel that were out of the ordinary. I must say I am extremely pleased with lmt's customer service.
On to the good stuff. I got out to zero my scope and test my handloads for further development tues.
Here is a pic of my groups from 100yds, I'll explain further down.
Pic of the rifle to show the setup:
I accidentally deleted the original pic so I only have the fgmm group now.
FGMM 175 gr- Shot very well. I got a velocity of 2573 fps which I am pleased with and thats where I want to get my handloads to. Excluding the two fliers to the right of the pic, the group is exactly 1".
Xm118lr pd- not sure what went on here. The horizantal spread of the main group is about 1.25" but then there are two fliers low.
Next are my handloads.
WCC brass
varget powder
175gr smk at 2.8-2.804"
Winchester primer
42gr- Turned out my first nice group with handloads of the day. I got these at 2502fps which actually is a hair slower than the group I shot with 41.5gr of powder, but I am pleased with the group minus the flier. The four rounds in the orange are exactly 3/4".
43gr- This is where I want to be. Velocity is 2566, which is very close to the fgmm and should be super sonic at 1k if I ever got to shoot that far. The 4 in the orange are just under an inch but the flier opens it up a good bit.
I feel like this barrel has potential, if the shooter can get practiced up to shoot that good.
However, does anyone have any advice for the fliers? On my handloads I am thinking of adding a slight crimp in case the first round is chambering differently than the rest and causing the issue. I don't understand the factory loads though, I'm guessing they were me.
ETA: I was shooting prone off the bipod up front and a rear sandbag. It was a little difficult because the sun was at 12 o clock and I needed a sunshade that I neglected to bring.
I know the five round groups are frowned upon, but I am using them as a test of my handloads. I'm going to the 300yd range tuesday to really test em out and see if I can eliminate the fliers.
Update:
I made it back to the range today to get some testing with more loads. Wasn't able to get to the 300yd line due to rennovations so I decided 100yd would be good enough.
First off, I didn't have an issue with my mws but rather my harris bipod. I use this bipod on both my precision rifles.
First group of the day was from my 5.56 sdm, exactly 1" for 10 rounds. Then I moved on to the lmt.
First group was my handloads at 43grs that grouped nicely. 7 shots went into about 3/4", but then a fliers were at 12, 2 and 5 o clock about an inch out. I thought that to be very odd. I fired a second group of my handloads that ended up being about 2" with the majority of the group being in a line about 1" to the right of aim about 2" tall, Getting wierder. Next up I decided to try ten rounds of fgmm 168's. The first 5 rounds ended up about 2" high in a line that was 2" horizantal. At this point I decide something is wrong, and quit firing.
I had set the zero stop in my NF after the first group, I thought that could be an issue so I backed it off. Then fired 10 rounds of xm118lr pd, which ended up having 7 shots being 2-4" and then the other three of the target (these were the top right target). Not the zero stop. At this point I thought something was loose and checked screws in the barrel, scope mount and removed and replaced the larue mount. Then fired 5 rounds of privi 175gr match. POI was close but the group was 2". During this group I found what I think was the issue.
My harris bipod basically fell apart on the fifth round. The screw that the left leg pivots around backed out and the nut fell off. I feel like this whole time my bipod was loose and caused these bad groups. I didn't have the tools to fix it so I packed up and headed home.
Does it sound plausible that the issue with my bipod could have caused these issues? I'm shooting off the bipod and a rear bag and loading the bipod pretty heavily. The shots felt really good, but then I'd see impacts way off poa. I feel the bipod was causing the fliers mentioned in the previous post.
I ended up wasting several rounds of good ammo, but I did get to chrono the loads, and was pleased with those results.
Pics:
Group one of the day with the sdm:
One of the groups with the mws when the issue showed up. I'm not sure which ammo this was, I was taping holes hoping I would fix the problem and get some nice groups so I don't have any more pics.
Bipod:
http://i405.photobucket.com/albums/pp133/m1ajunkie/100_1947.jpg
On to the good stuff. I got out to zero my scope and test my handloads for further development tues.
Here is a pic of my groups from 100yds, I'll explain further down.
Pic of the rifle to show the setup:
I accidentally deleted the original pic so I only have the fgmm group now.
FGMM 175 gr- Shot very well. I got a velocity of 2573 fps which I am pleased with and thats where I want to get my handloads to. Excluding the two fliers to the right of the pic, the group is exactly 1".
Xm118lr pd- not sure what went on here. The horizantal spread of the main group is about 1.25" but then there are two fliers low.
Next are my handloads.
WCC brass
varget powder
175gr smk at 2.8-2.804"
Winchester primer
42gr- Turned out my first nice group with handloads of the day. I got these at 2502fps which actually is a hair slower than the group I shot with 41.5gr of powder, but I am pleased with the group minus the flier. The four rounds in the orange are exactly 3/4".
43gr- This is where I want to be. Velocity is 2566, which is very close to the fgmm and should be super sonic at 1k if I ever got to shoot that far. The 4 in the orange are just under an inch but the flier opens it up a good bit.
I feel like this barrel has potential, if the shooter can get practiced up to shoot that good.
However, does anyone have any advice for the fliers? On my handloads I am thinking of adding a slight crimp in case the first round is chambering differently than the rest and causing the issue. I don't understand the factory loads though, I'm guessing they were me.
ETA: I was shooting prone off the bipod up front and a rear sandbag. It was a little difficult because the sun was at 12 o clock and I needed a sunshade that I neglected to bring.
I know the five round groups are frowned upon, but I am using them as a test of my handloads. I'm going to the 300yd range tuesday to really test em out and see if I can eliminate the fliers.
Update:
I made it back to the range today to get some testing with more loads. Wasn't able to get to the 300yd line due to rennovations so I decided 100yd would be good enough.
First off, I didn't have an issue with my mws but rather my harris bipod. I use this bipod on both my precision rifles.
First group of the day was from my 5.56 sdm, exactly 1" for 10 rounds. Then I moved on to the lmt.
First group was my handloads at 43grs that grouped nicely. 7 shots went into about 3/4", but then a fliers were at 12, 2 and 5 o clock about an inch out. I thought that to be very odd. I fired a second group of my handloads that ended up being about 2" with the majority of the group being in a line about 1" to the right of aim about 2" tall, Getting wierder. Next up I decided to try ten rounds of fgmm 168's. The first 5 rounds ended up about 2" high in a line that was 2" horizantal. At this point I decide something is wrong, and quit firing.
I had set the zero stop in my NF after the first group, I thought that could be an issue so I backed it off. Then fired 10 rounds of xm118lr pd, which ended up having 7 shots being 2-4" and then the other three of the target (these were the top right target). Not the zero stop. At this point I thought something was loose and checked screws in the barrel, scope mount and removed and replaced the larue mount. Then fired 5 rounds of privi 175gr match. POI was close but the group was 2". During this group I found what I think was the issue.
My harris bipod basically fell apart on the fifth round. The screw that the left leg pivots around backed out and the nut fell off. I feel like this whole time my bipod was loose and caused these bad groups. I didn't have the tools to fix it so I packed up and headed home.
Does it sound plausible that the issue with my bipod could have caused these issues? I'm shooting off the bipod and a rear bag and loading the bipod pretty heavily. The shots felt really good, but then I'd see impacts way off poa. I feel the bipod was causing the fliers mentioned in the previous post.
I ended up wasting several rounds of good ammo, but I did get to chrono the loads, and was pleased with those results.
Pics:
Group one of the day with the sdm:
One of the groups with the mws when the issue showed up. I'm not sure which ammo this was, I was taping holes hoping I would fix the problem and get some nice groups so I don't have any more pics.
Bipod:
http://i405.photobucket.com/albums/pp133/m1ajunkie/100_1947.jpg
