02-11-2020, 04:53 PM
LE- I too will add compliments to your post. I've been here six times, re-read it that many times, and still find details in my head from memories you've sparked.
I have been chasing the bi-pod devil. I've discovered something that may or may not help. If it's not windy, the bench is steady, and I can get in position (Grayfox and I have backs that don't like prone), then I go for the popular PRS free-recoil method. That is to say, I use a light trigger, and don't touch the gun with my shoulder or cheek. I look through the scope, and squeeze the trigger between the thumb and index finger only. I've shot two groups with my Benchmark 120Sierra loads that I can't tell you how many rounds made the single 1/2' hole (I think that day I had 40 ish rounds left, and did a quick 4 mag test with the methodA/methodB/A/B strings of fire at 1/2" dots at 100). It was this test that told me it was me, not the load or equipment. If I put my shoulder on the gun and loaded the bipod (method B) as is suggested to be best, the group (on the same day, with the same load), grew to over an inch. And I was trying. There was no doubt that the results were astonishingly good with the free recoil method. Sadly, I have been unable to properly re-create these results and thusly have never made a report post. The weather was indeed perfect, I think that had more to do with anything than I did. Perfectly calm days in KS are exceedingly rare, especially when it's not 0 or 100 degrees outside...
I've since then bought a much higher quality Atlas bipod. I will say, It's much higher quality than my Harris. The results however, have been absolutely the same.
Somewhere along the lines, I figured out that I was chasing ghosts so to speak. Ghosts that for me, didn't mean anything. I'm sure they can be caught, and some men better than I prove it. But for me, who has no access to a range or club shooting the style of match to support it, chasing these Caspers was silly.
I'd love to bring my rifle to that range some day. I'd love to see what my LaRue is truly capable of, when the stars align and the weather/circumstances/shooter cooperate perfectly. I think it'd astonish me.
Good luck with your chase.
BTW, I don't think that 150 dollar barrel is anything to sneeze at. Good shooting. Especially considering the various (I'm guessing un-developed) loadings with less than ideal-for-caliber bullets - which I think that 80.5 Berger is pretty close to in 5.56.
Here's something else: If one was to take the form factor of the bullet you're shooting, and scale it up to the .264 bore, what would it weigh? What would it's dimensions look like? Anything similar to what is available for 6.5?
The reason I've asked is because there's a minute thought that goes through my head: 5.56 has been surgically analyzed, superfluously tested, and every gremlin that resides there is known and has long since been mapped. The same can't yet be said for the Grendel. Similar lessons while applicable, haven't been tested, guaranteed, and the issues haven't been overcome in the same way. A 6.5 Grendel barrel with similar proportioned dimensions to the 5.56 barrel would be longer, have thicker walls, and be much heavier than the 5.56 barrels, right?
Comparing calibers apples to apples then is a function of scale in my mind. Which sparks a thought: Is a 16" naval cannon just an extremely thin-walled large scale pistol barrel floating around on an armored barge at sea?
I have been chasing the bi-pod devil. I've discovered something that may or may not help. If it's not windy, the bench is steady, and I can get in position (Grayfox and I have backs that don't like prone), then I go for the popular PRS free-recoil method. That is to say, I use a light trigger, and don't touch the gun with my shoulder or cheek. I look through the scope, and squeeze the trigger between the thumb and index finger only. I've shot two groups with my Benchmark 120Sierra loads that I can't tell you how many rounds made the single 1/2' hole (I think that day I had 40 ish rounds left, and did a quick 4 mag test with the methodA/methodB/A/B strings of fire at 1/2" dots at 100). It was this test that told me it was me, not the load or equipment. If I put my shoulder on the gun and loaded the bipod (method B) as is suggested to be best, the group (on the same day, with the same load), grew to over an inch. And I was trying. There was no doubt that the results were astonishingly good with the free recoil method. Sadly, I have been unable to properly re-create these results and thusly have never made a report post. The weather was indeed perfect, I think that had more to do with anything than I did. Perfectly calm days in KS are exceedingly rare, especially when it's not 0 or 100 degrees outside...
I've since then bought a much higher quality Atlas bipod. I will say, It's much higher quality than my Harris. The results however, have been absolutely the same.
Somewhere along the lines, I figured out that I was chasing ghosts so to speak. Ghosts that for me, didn't mean anything. I'm sure they can be caught, and some men better than I prove it. But for me, who has no access to a range or club shooting the style of match to support it, chasing these Caspers was silly.
I'd love to bring my rifle to that range some day. I'd love to see what my LaRue is truly capable of, when the stars align and the weather/circumstances/shooter cooperate perfectly. I think it'd astonish me.
Good luck with your chase.
BTW, I don't think that 150 dollar barrel is anything to sneeze at. Good shooting. Especially considering the various (I'm guessing un-developed) loadings with less than ideal-for-caliber bullets - which I think that 80.5 Berger is pretty close to in 5.56.
Here's something else: If one was to take the form factor of the bullet you're shooting, and scale it up to the .264 bore, what would it weigh? What would it's dimensions look like? Anything similar to what is available for 6.5?
The reason I've asked is because there's a minute thought that goes through my head: 5.56 has been surgically analyzed, superfluously tested, and every gremlin that resides there is known and has long since been mapped. The same can't yet be said for the Grendel. Similar lessons while applicable, haven't been tested, guaranteed, and the issues haven't been overcome in the same way. A 6.5 Grendel barrel with similar proportioned dimensions to the 5.56 barrel would be longer, have thicker walls, and be much heavier than the 5.56 barrels, right?
Comparing calibers apples to apples then is a function of scale in my mind. Which sparks a thought: Is a 16" naval cannon just an extremely thin-walled large scale pistol barrel floating around on an armored barge at sea?
Nothing kills the incentive of men faster than a healthy sense of entitlement. Nothing kills entitlement faster than a healthy sense of achievement.