First ar and first grendel complete

[Bigs28]

After a year of collecting parts and going about $500 over budget my 6.5g ar is complete minus the optic.

A few of the parts:
From Alexander arms directly:
16" barrel, bolt, stripped lower, compensator, and magazine.
Other parts:
Midwest industries suppressor compatible handguard because i want to add an over the barrel supressor
Syrac ordnance adjustable gas block
Psa lower parts kit

2016-11-02 15.00.47.jpg2016-11-02 15.00.11.jpg2016-11-02 14.58.42.jpg2016-11-02 14.55.23.jpg

So i have not ordered my actual optics yet but wanted to go shoot. I grabbed a nikon p223 3x32 i had laying around and put it on the rifle. The rings are a little bit low but i managed. I'm ordering a 1 piece Mount when i order my actual optics. So i head to the range with 40 rounds of ppu 6.5 grendel fmj. Cheaper stuff just to zero and then 40 round of hornady 123g sst. I zeroed at 50 and shot all 40 rounds of the fmj and then did 4 five round groups with the Hornady. This was my best group. Hrmmm won't let me add it. Will put it in a reply thread.

To be honest I was really disappointed. I was hoping for much better groups. I'm hoping as the barrel gets seasoned the groups get tighter. I'm going to order and try some amax to see if that's any better. If you see anything wrong let me know.

[Bigs28]

2016-11-02 15.01.19.jpg

[Rickc]

After a year of collecting parts and going about $500 over budget my 6.5g ar is complete minus the optic.

A few of the parts:
From Alexander arms directly:
16" barrel, bolt, stripped lower, compensator, and magazine.
Other parts:
Midwest industries suppressor compatible handguard because i want to add an over the barrel supressor
Syrac ordnance adjustable gas block
Psa lower parts kit

[ATTACH=CONFIG]8263[/ATTACH][ATTACH=CONFIG]8264[/ATTACH][ATTACH=CONFIG]8265[/ATTACH][ATTACH=CONFIG]8266[/ATTACH]

So i have not ordered my actual optics yet but wanted to go shoot. I grabbed a nikon p223 3x32 i had laying around and put it on the rifle. The rings are a little bit low but i managed. I'm ordering a 1 piece Mount when i order my actual optics. So i head to the range with 40 rounds of ppu 6.5 grendel fmj. Cheaper stuff just to zero and then 40 round of hornady 123g sst. I zeroed at 50 and shot all 40 rounds of the fmj and then did 4 five round groups with the Hornady. This was my best group. Hrmmm won't let me add it. Will put it in a reply thread.

To be honest I was really disappointed. I was hoping for much better groups. I'm hoping as the barrel gets seasoned the groups get tighter. I'm going to order and try some amax to see if that's any better. If you see anything wrong let me know.

Was it you or the gun?

What was the distance?

What barrel? Lightweight? Medium weight? Hbar?

You did a.lot.of.shooting. did you clean anywhere in there

How hot was the barrel on that.group? lightweight barrels start to go away when they get hot

[Bigs28]

Shots were 50 yards off sandbags. I'm not saying I'm perfect but i shoot my savage 270 bolt action sub moa at 200 yard zero. All 60 rounds were shot over about 90 minute time frame. Pretty slow imo. Allot of single shots dialing in the gas block etc... public range goes cold about every 20 minutes etc.. i did not clean the barrel at the range but have since i got home. Most of the reading i found was that copper fouling would increase accuracy.
Alexander arms 16"light weight barrel

[VASCAR2]

You said you used the PSA lower parts kit. Did this kit have the Mil Spec single stage trigger? If this is a single stage trigger and a 2-7 scope I'd say the difference in trigger pull on your new 6.5 Grendel and 270 bolt action could be pretty significant. You really don't have a small object to aim at with the target shown, with a 2-7 scope. Could you easily center the cross hair consistently on the green dot. Notice how threre are 2 shots next to each other low and two next to each other higher center.


If I had shot that group with a mil spec single stage trigger I'd figure it was me. It makes a lot of difference in my shooting if I'm using a 5-6 pound single stage trigger and a 2.5 pound trigger.

[Bigs28]

I was thinking that could be a cause. My savage has the accu trigger dialed as light as it goes and it's very nice. This trigger is much heavier single stage.

[Rickc]

Shots were 50 yards off sandbags. I'm not saying I'm perfect but i shoot my savage 270 bolt action sub moa at 200 yard zero. All 60 rounds were shot over about 90 minute time frame. Pretty slow imo. Allot of single shots dialing in the gas block etc... public range goes cold about every 20 minutes etc.. i did not clean the barrel at the range but have since i got home. Most of the reading i found was that copper fouling would increase accuracy.
Alexander arms 16"light weight barrel

I wouldn't be happy with that group at 50 yrds either

Doesn't sound like the shooter

Check the torque on all your scope rings and bases

I know my lightweight JP starts to go away somewhere between 5 and 10 rounds of.shooting groups. Not that bad though.

As for copper fouling increasing accuracy. Opinions Vary. Sure are a lot of products sold to remove said.fouling. A new barrel will copper the.most as the.throat is broken in. Vaporized copper from the throat is plating the barrel. It.needs to be removed.

When you cleaned what did you Use? Did you notice blue on your patches?

Next time at.the range try that 5 shot group with a cold clean barrel. If you get the.same results then you have.a.problem.

[Bigs28]

I don't use patches. Not sure what the general consensus is on bore snakes but i like them. Pulled the bolt and sent the snake through several times. And cleaned the bolt and carrier. I might go shoot the rest of the Hornady sst tomorrow.

[Rickc]

Good luck

[LRRPF52]

Bore snakes drag carbon through the rifling, without removing it since it is now embedded in the snake.

They're fine for military-grade chrome-lined barrels in the field.

Did you follow any kind of accuracy build tips when assembling the upper?

When I have built uppers with those barrels, we're getting 1/2 MOA groups with 5rds sometimes, hover around 1 MOA right out of the box.

[Bigs28]

I've not seen any accuracy build tips. Basically i collected all the parts and then took them to an ar manufacturer and they assembled.

[Bigs28]

Ok, so i went out for round 2. Still not impressed. Since my last trip to the range i went and bought a 6.5 cleaning kit instead of the bore snake. I completely cleaned and lubed the gun. I Went to the range, fired one shot, broke down the gun and cleaned the barrel, fired second shot and repeated the process over and over for 5 shots. Was about 10-15 minutes in between shots allowing the barrel to cool.

Here is the 50 yard group

2016-11-10 14.46.30.jpg

i adjusted the scope to compensate for the low right and shot 2 more groups only cleaning after the 5 rounds and had the same results. I Guess i have to go back to the drawing board on figuring out why I'm not even close to as accurate as i want to be. Im going to shop black Friday sales for trigger and 1 piece scope mount.

[Rickc]

Are you still using a 3 power scope

Were you shooting off front.and rear bags?

When shooting for groups you need the rifle steady

Buy a box of hornady amax ammo, buy or borrow a higher power scope and buy or borrow some good shooting bags.

You can't really evaluate that rifle until you do.

[Bigs28]

I shoot off a sled. Very accurate. Last time i shot my bolt action at 100 yards on 6x since it doesn't dial down to 3x and i was sub moa with it. There is a huge trigger difference between the two guns though.

[Rickc]

I shoot off a sled. Very accurate. Last time i shot my bolt action at 100 yards on 6x since it doesn't dial down to 3x and i was sub moa with it. There is a huge trigger difference between the two guns though.

Well that eliminates that.one. don't think even a bad.trigger would result.with those.groups off.a sled.a.50 yards.

When you assembled the barrel and.reciever was it tight or.loose?

What did you torque the barrel nut to?

Are you seeing a.POI shift?

I suspect either the scope or.barrel.is.moving