Cranky Pants
CGN Ultra frequent flyer
I managed to get some time in at the range with the rifle. Primary objective was to sight in the bushnell AR 223 4.5x 18 scope for it. Not particularly happy with the scope, eye relief is the worst of any scope I have ever seen, there's about 1/4 " I can move forward and back between focus.
It took a little while to get things dialed in, I was primarily using PMC x-tac 62 grain green tips.
A couple more, these were at 100 yds
If memory serves me correct, many of the shots here were after I got the back up sights lined up. For a few groups I was getting better results with the MBUS sights than the scope and the front post pretty much covers the 12" target. I can't decide whether that's impressive for the sights or damning on the part of the scope.
I stretched it out to 200 yds with the scope back on, there was no appreciable change in zero with the Burris PEPR mount. Also the holdover for the AR 223 for 200 yds seems to be too much, I resorted to using the 100 yd cross hair for 200 yds with better results, perhaps where I had this at 18 power it negates the reticle? ( best on lower magnification?)
Rem 55 grain fmj
Again at 200 with the rounds marked
It didn't seem to prefer any particular round although the white box Winchester 45 gr HP did seem to be more consistent. My other .223 rifles seem to preform decent with this too.
I tried the supplied Hera mags, Pmags in 30 and 20 length, no issues.
Pistol mag by MFT worked fine but I did get 1 FTE with it, not sure why. Steel pistol mag by Rock river was a no go, rounds hang up on the front of the mag but it happens with my other ar's as well, need to file the front down a bit. I fired about 100 rounds, mostly from the MFT 10 round mags.
Things got weird in a hurry when I let another shooter try it out, he had a tricked out AR and I let him use his mags and ammo ( I believe they were Pmags). 2nd round did not fire for him, waited for a bit, bolt was closed and hammer had released. Bolt was stuck with a round in it, took a bit of effort to open and the round had separated, leaving the bullet stuck in the lands powder in the chamber but no strike on the primer. Cleaned things up and continued on. After another shot or 2 it happened again, exactly the same but with a very light strike on the primer but not enough to set it off. We stopped using the ammo and mags after that. I am thinking for some reason the bolt was not fully closed but the hammer was able to fall but not hit the pin sufficiently but the hit dislodged the bullet. They were not reloads but Federal Independence 55 gr fmj. I should have taken closer note of the mags he used but the mags and ammo were working fine in his AR.
Conclusions: This is not a tack driver, never was designed to be. With some playing and the right ammo 2-3 MOA should be average. The wind was coming up good when I was shooting 200 yds so another day may yield better results. Happy with the performance from the open sights, not so happy with the scopes performance. It went bang 99% of the time and seemed to be smoothing out toward the end. It was a hot day but there was no odd effects from the barrel heating up from quick firing v.s. slow with cooling off.
Trigger... I don't think any amount of polishing will help this one, i'm guessing 8-10 lbs with lots of creep, I could see my scope moving all over the target as I drug the heavy thing rearward. I have another trigger on the way and I am certain it will help a lot. If you get one of these and you have another trigger around, ANY trigger, put it in!
It took a little while to get things dialed in, I was primarily using PMC x-tac 62 grain green tips.
A couple more, these were at 100 yds
If memory serves me correct, many of the shots here were after I got the back up sights lined up. For a few groups I was getting better results with the MBUS sights than the scope and the front post pretty much covers the 12" target. I can't decide whether that's impressive for the sights or damning on the part of the scope.
I stretched it out to 200 yds with the scope back on, there was no appreciable change in zero with the Burris PEPR mount. Also the holdover for the AR 223 for 200 yds seems to be too much, I resorted to using the 100 yd cross hair for 200 yds with better results, perhaps where I had this at 18 power it negates the reticle? ( best on lower magnification?)
Rem 55 grain fmj
Again at 200 with the rounds marked
It didn't seem to prefer any particular round although the white box Winchester 45 gr HP did seem to be more consistent. My other .223 rifles seem to preform decent with this too.
I tried the supplied Hera mags, Pmags in 30 and 20 length, no issues.
Pistol mag by MFT worked fine but I did get 1 FTE with it, not sure why. Steel pistol mag by Rock river was a no go, rounds hang up on the front of the mag but it happens with my other ar's as well, need to file the front down a bit. I fired about 100 rounds, mostly from the MFT 10 round mags.
Things got weird in a hurry when I let another shooter try it out, he had a tricked out AR and I let him use his mags and ammo ( I believe they were Pmags). 2nd round did not fire for him, waited for a bit, bolt was closed and hammer had released. Bolt was stuck with a round in it, took a bit of effort to open and the round had separated, leaving the bullet stuck in the lands powder in the chamber but no strike on the primer. Cleaned things up and continued on. After another shot or 2 it happened again, exactly the same but with a very light strike on the primer but not enough to set it off. We stopped using the ammo and mags after that. I am thinking for some reason the bolt was not fully closed but the hammer was able to fall but not hit the pin sufficiently but the hit dislodged the bullet. They were not reloads but Federal Independence 55 gr fmj. I should have taken closer note of the mags he used but the mags and ammo were working fine in his AR.
Conclusions: This is not a tack driver, never was designed to be. With some playing and the right ammo 2-3 MOA should be average. The wind was coming up good when I was shooting 200 yds so another day may yield better results. Happy with the performance from the open sights, not so happy with the scopes performance. It went bang 99% of the time and seemed to be smoothing out toward the end. It was a hot day but there was no odd effects from the barrel heating up from quick firing v.s. slow with cooling off.
Trigger... I don't think any amount of polishing will help this one, i'm guessing 8-10 lbs with lots of creep, I could see my scope moving all over the target as I drug the heavy thing rearward. I have another trigger on the way and I am certain it will help a lot. If you get one of these and you have another trigger around, ANY trigger, put it in!
