12" Faxon SBR

[Bigs28]

I ordered one of the 12" Faxon barrels A LONG time ago. Finally got my tax stamp back at the end of March. Over the last month I have been gathering the rest of the parts and assembled the rifle to where I could go shoot it taking my BCG and Charging handle from my 16" Grendel.

Current build pieces
Tax stamped Alexander Arms 6.5grendel lower
Larue Trigger
Smoke Composites short pull closed with buttpad stock
2A Armament Gen 1 balios lite upper receiver
12" Faxon Barrel
Superlative Arms adjustable / bleed off gas block
Brigand Arms 9" Handguard
Tbac Ultra 7 6.5mm can


Still to come
Cryptic Coatings liteweight BCG in Mystic Bronze without serrations (I have no forward assist). They estimate it being done end of May
JP SCS H2

I shot 123g SMK, CCI 450, COAL 2.265, XBR 8208
26.0 Average 2081.5 FPS
26.3 Average 2099 FPS
26.6 Did not chrono
26.9 Average 2168 FPS
27.2 Average 2205 FPS
27.5 Average 2226 FPS
27.8 Average 2249 FPS
28.1 Average 2273 FPS
No pressure signs noted. Primers looked perfect. Did not see a spike in velocities. I did not measure groups. This was mostly brake in, zeroing, and tuning the bleed off gas block.

110g Controlled Chaos, CCI 450, 2.230 COAL, CFE223
30.1 Average 2240 FPS
30.4 Average 2271 FPS
30.7 Average 2283 FPS
31.0 Average 2307 FPS
31.3 Average 2333 FPS
31.6 Average 2337 FPS
31.9 Average 2364 FPS
32.2 Average 2390 FPS
32.5 Average 2411 fps
32.8 Average 2441 FPS
Again no pressure signs. Primers looked great and I did not see any spikes in velocities. 30.1, 30.4, and 31.6 all shot right at or just under an inch. Since there were no pressure signs im going to try 33.1 unless you guys advise against.

A couple observations. This was my first time shooting suppressed with my grendel. First shot of every group had the highest velocity. Not sure if this was a coincidence or common with suppressors. I shot 4 shot groups of SMK and 3 shot groups of Controlled Chaos. 1st shot locked the bolt open almost everytime for some reason with additional rounds in the magazine. Second shot didnt and the 3rd round loaded fine.

Optic is just for load development. Most likely going with a red dot and bring a QD Magnifier in my bag.

[BluntForceTrauma]

Looking good, but maybe try swapping the powders? CFE with a 123 and XBR with a 110? Just for fun. . . .

[Bigs28]

I can do that. I just thought that cfe would give higher velocity which i would need for the 110 lfp for hunting. But shooting is fun so i will happily try it.

[BluntForceTrauma]

I'm thinking that CFE is more suited to the 123 class of bullets, and XBR more suited to the 107-110 class, is all. That's typically been the case, but you never know. . . .

[StoneHendge]

Sweet - where's she tipping the scale and what's your first impression of the Smoke stock?

[Bigs28]

Gonna do some reloading tomorrow and go shoot again Friday. I really like the smoke stock. It's very comfortable to put my cheek on. I have not weighed it but it's very lite without that huge optic on it.

[Lastrites]

1st shot locked the bolt open almost everytime for some reason with additional rounds in the magazine. Second shot didnt and the 3rd round loaded fine.

That's not an everyday malfunction, possibly the mag catch is a bit long and is getting nudged up on the initial cycling or maybe a bit of minor binding going on and the the bolt catch isn't dropping into the down position?

[Bigs28]

Per your request BFT, I went shooting yesterday with some of the 110g controlled chaos in front of some xbr 8208. I had some issues with the chronograph on my lighter loads so no data their.

110g Controlled Chaos, 8208, CCI 450, COAL 2.240

28.0 no data
28.3 no data
28.6 no data
28.9 Average FPS 2323
29.2 Average FPS 2340
29.5 Average FPS 2363
29.8 Average FPS 2376
30.0 Average FPS 2411, 1 of my 3 shots did not register. 2 shots that did register were 2380 and 2443. The third shot hit within a half inch of the 2380. The 2443 shot hit about 4 inches away. Brass and primers looked great.

The CFE had a little more velocity but in my barrel the XBR was much more accurate. It seemed almost every load had a nice grouping.

[Bigs28]

That's not an everyday malfunction, possibly the mag catch is a bit long and is getting nudged up on the initial cycling or maybe a bit of minor binding going on and the the bolt catch isn't dropping into the down position?

Yeah Im not sure what is going on. It happed again yesterday. The bolt was locking back quite a bit while rounds were still in the magazine. I never had this issue with my 16inch upper. Im not going to mess with it at the moment since I have a new BCG and JP SCS H2 coming in before I go shooting again so if it continues after those are put in then I will have to work on it.

[Bigs28]

BFT 1st thing is I love you, 2nd thing is I hate you. Your $165 group buy faxon 12" barrel has turned into this......

My wife is a teacher and therefor I dont really get to shoot much during the summer since we are busy doing things as a family. Before the summer I was having allot of issues with what appeared to all be coming from being way over gassed. My bolt would randomly lock back with rounds still in the magazine and I was having allot of bolt over failure to feeds. I upgraded to a JPSCS H2 over the summer now that seems to have fixed those problems.

I also upgraded the scope and went with the Nightforce NX8. The thing is overall just amazing. I have 2 complaints about it that I wish were different but its not. I wish the adjustments were 0.25 moa instead of 0.5. Not to big a deal for an optic on an SBR that really has a effective hunting range of about 300 yards but still its something I wish was different. I also dont like the size of the center dot being 1.25 MOA. I wish it was about 0.5. The large center dot is larger then the bullseye on my target making it very difficult to get tight groups but again I just have to know that this optic is not for precision shooting. The 1x with illumination turned on is flat out sexy being that its FFP it basically turns it into an almost red dot site. I like it allot.

So today I went shooting some American Gunner again to get some more brass to do some more reloading and Ive attached a 100yard target. I pulled the last shot which made me very angry. I really dont see myself being able to do much better then this with the large center dot on the reticle. I dont know if each magazine was a different horizonal string or if all those were just completely random ending up like that.

The rifle weighs 5.2 pounds without suppressor, optic, or magazine and 7.8lbs with optic, suppressor, and unloaded magazine.

[BluntForceTrauma]

Dang good shootin' for having to guess where the bullseye is!

[Kswhitetails]

That'll do, pig!

[biodsl]

Congrats. Your choice in scope mounts is excellent. Since you were at the Nightforce website anyway...; )

[Bigs28]

Congrats. Your choice in scope mounts is excellent. Since you were at the Nightforce website anyway...; )

Thanks. I ordered the 1.5" height first and it was too high so then i ordered the 1.375" and it's perfect.

[LRRPF52]

Thanks for that. I'll be doing some load development with 110gr Controlled Chaos as well with the 12" Faxon.