My Ballistic Advantage build

[kcb38]

Great. I just got my first batch of components to reload for it. 123 SMKs and 107 TMKs.
If the 107s don't work out I'll go the other way and try some heavier bullets.

[SDW]

For what it's worth, I have the same 20" DMR barrel as you, though I don't think my port is as small as yours for whatever reason. My barrel must have broken in quickly. LOL I dunno. Here are some of my first shots. I don't think the barrel had 30 rounds through it before I was done with this target. BTW, this was all with 123gr Hornady Black.

So in the target below, ignore the random holes; those were for zeroing my scope. Group #1 was pretty weird. I can't explain those two very tight clusters. Group #2 was less weird but pretty spread out for some reason. For Group #3 I made some adjustments to my scope before shooting that nice sub-MOA group. Once I saw that one I said Boom! Done. I adjusted windage one MOA to the right and started lobbing rounds out at 1000 right away. Didn't bother taking any intermediate shots. This was because my friend was taking shots at the 1000 yd plate with his Creedmoor, so I figured what the heck. I'd been shooting through my Caldwell chrony and got some velocities on the Black, so I dialed up my elevation by what my ballistic app said was necessary. I don't know if it was dumb, beginner's luck, but I hit that friggin 18" plate dead center on the second shot.

So in summary, I think these guys make pretty decent barrels. I have not shot it enough with enough kinds of ammo to say more than that so far. BTW, I am not running any kind of brake on my barrel. Just a TP.


20badmrSightIn.jpg

[kcb38]

Man I just plain suck at shooting this rifle. I've gotten decent results using FGMM and not too bad with Black but not what I was hoping for. So far my handloads are giving me 1.25-1.5 MOA at best. That's with Sierra 123s. I shot their 107s today over 8208 and that gave me some groups that were downright embarrassing. Granted, I'm new at reloading so maybe that's not helping. Or maybe I have to try some Bergers like the FGMM uses. I don't know. A friend shot it for me and he did better, so I'm going to keep at it. I'll try some more loads and in that time I'll work on being consistent with the rifle. If I can't get .75 MOA out of this thing in the next couple months I'm going to seriously consider another barrel too. If all that doesn't work I may give up on shooting ARs for groups altogether. I'm going to have to take one of my bolt guns out next time just to make myself feel a little better.

[Popeye212]

Kcb the 8208 didn't do well with the 107's, ARcomp did. But I ran out of bullets and ARcomp. Maybe try again next month. No chrono on the 107's though.

[kcb38]

Thanks, I was going to try Comp next. Can't be any worse than 8208, lol.

[SDW]

Well I did okay with the Hornady Black. But I have yet to make and run any handloads through mine. I did buy a couple boxes of Hornady 123 ELDs and also some flavor or their 129s? to try. SSTs I think. I bought 8208 to try and also AA2520. But I have since been reading cautions about using 8208 at higher loads. Subsequently been reading promising posts about AR-comp and also LeverEvolution power. I might look into those as well some day.

[Popeye212]

Kcb I answered your PM here is what I got with ARcomp.

SMK107ARcompsized.jpg

[kcb38]

Ok, ready to give it another go. I loaded up some 107s with Comp and some 123 ELD's with 8208. I'm going to be ditching the bipod and shooting off bags this time. I'm making a front bag rider that will attach to my M-Lok hand guard. The rear is ok because the Gen 2 PRS rides the bags just fine as it is. Most importantly, I'll be trying out some new glasses. I've been having issues focusing even with a scope. Lastly, I'm going to switch from the little target spots I've been using to ones like Popeye posted and diamond shaped sight in targets. I want to use the crosshairs help me center on the target consistently rather than just relying on the little 1/4 MOA dot in the center of my SWFA's reticle. I'm going to get this thing to shoot sub MOA consistently if it's the last thing I do!

[Popeye212]

Ok, ready to give it another go. I loaded up some 107s with Comp and some 123 ELD's with 8208. I'm going to be ditching the bipod and shooting off bags this time. I'm making a front bag rider that will attach to my M-Lok hand guard. The rear is ok because the Gen 2 PRS rides the bags just fine as it is. Most importantly, I'll be trying out some new glasses. I've been having issues focusing even with a scope. Lastly, I'm going to switch from the little target spots I've been using to ones like Popeye posted and diamond shaped sight in targets. I want to use the crosshairs help me center on the target consistently rather than just relying on the little 1/4 MOA dot in the center of my SWFA's reticle. I'm going to get this thing to shoot sub MOA consistently if it's the last thing I do!

Here is the target I use. I like it because I can fill the data in for each load and print out the target. The diamond in the middle is .75 (yours may vary measure it) which I scan the target with ONTarget analyze it and enter chrono data, print the results and hole punch it and put it in a binder.


targetaccshooter(1).zip

Hope this works for you.

[kcb38]

Thanks. I found that target on 6mmBR and printed a bunch. Tried it this weekend and it was better than the target spots I was using. I had swapped out my Grendel upper for a BA barreled 5.56 I built a while back. I was getting .75 to 1 inch groups at 100. Now I need to put the 6.5 upper back on and see if my hand loads will do any better.

[kcb38]

Shameless dad pic of my 13 year old banging steel with the 6.5G
57568371_2267557066641397_4975355107131523072_n.jpg

[Popeye212]

Thanks. I found that target on 6mmBR and printed a bunch. Tried it this weekend and it was better than the target spots I was using. I had swapped out my Grendel upper for a BA barreled 5.56 I built a while back. I was getting .75 to 1 inch groups at 100. Now I need to put the 6.5 upper back on and see if my hand loads will do any better.

Get some 120 SMK's or 12ELDm's and put them over the 8208 and you can probably put the barrel issue to rest. Mine didn't settle down until after 150 rds. YMMV

[SDW]

Oh man, I was out in our local desert last weekend, shooting my Grendel with the 20" BA barrel. I'm the guy who posted that green and white target above. Man, I thought I broke something. I was shooting the same 123gr Black ammo as above, and I could not get it to group better than about 4 MOA this time. But I think that ammo is just really heat sensitive! Last weekend was a lot warmer than it was the first time I shot the Black. High 80s, and my ammo was sitting in the sun. The cartridges that were laying out in the open waiting for their turn in the magazine were getting pretty hot to the touch.

But I switched to my other factory ammo, the Federal 90gr stuff. Shot much better. About 1-1.5 MOA. Wasn't great conditions though, overall. Really warm, starting to get breezy, view to the target through a scope was very ripply while shooting prone. We cashed it in by noon that last day.

[A5BLASTER]

Oh man, I was out in our local desert last weekend, shooting my Grendel with the 20" BA barrel. I'm the guy who posted that green and white target above. Man, I thought I broke something. I was shooting the same 123gr Black ammo as above, and I could not get it to group better than about 4 MOA this time. But I think that ammo is just really heat sensitive! Last weekend was a lot warmer than it was the first time I shot the Black. High 80s, and my ammo was sitting in the sun. The cartridges that were laying out in the open waiting for their turn in the magazine were getting pretty hot to the touch.

But I switched to my other factory ammo, the Federal 90gr stuff. Shot much better. About 1-1.5 MOA. Wasn't great conditions though, overall. Really warm, starting to get breezy, view to the target through a scope was very ripply while shooting prone. We cashed it in by noon that last day.

What you did bye letting it sit in the sun was heat the powder chemicals to a point where you were probably getting overpressure.

It's not so much the air temp itself it's the fact the rounds them self were starting to cook.

As they get hotter they will build higher pressure. A sure fire sign of this is if you run them over a chronagrah. They will be much faster then the same ammo leavt in the shade.

Retry that ammo but this time don't let it sit in the sun and get cooked.

[SDW]

What you did bye letting it sit in the sun was heat the powder chemicals to a point where you were probably getting overpressure.

It's not so much the air temp itself it's the fact the rounds them self were starting to cook.

As they get hotter they will build higher pressure. A sure fire sign of this is if you run them over a chronagrah. They will be much faster then the same ammo leavt in the shade.

Retry that ammo but this time don't let it sit in the sun and get cooked.

No doubt. It was the combo of the warm air and sitting directly in the sun that made them so friggin' hot. I need to look at my brass more closely. The cases where certainly being tossed a noticeabe ways further than before.

And I'm kicking myself now for being too lazy to pull my Caldwell Chrono off the roof rack and set it up. It was hot and I had a lot of stuff spread around by that time, and it would have been one more thing to put away before heading home. Very short sighted of me. Would have been smart to set it up and at least obtained a little hard data from it all.

Edit: Looked at the Hornady brass from last weekend. Definitely some ejector smears, plus smooshed flat primers on some of the brass; probably the ones I fired toward the end of the session. I won't be making this mistake again.

Another observation from last weekend, in case it's of interest to anyone: That 90-gr Federal ammo that shot better had a point of impact 2.5-3" higher than the 123 Black ammo. Probably not surprising, but at least it's a piece data to add to the wealth of knowledge here, and kcb38 might find it of interest.

Also, while that 90-gr Federal ammo would not cycle through the rifle when I was using my standard rifle lower (needed to feed them one at a time), when I swapped lowers to my carbine settup, which is using an H1 buffer and standard carbine spring, the 90gr stuff ran great. I pumped two 6-rnd mag loads through it without a problem. Again, might be of interest to kcb38 since he has the same barrel.