Stag10 IBI Light Profile Review with Load Developments

For hunting, all you need is first shot cold bore repeatable accuracy. You are not dumping a mag in an animal if you want to eat it, so shooting 5 round strings one after the other is rather useless to be doing with a hunting rifle imo.

I can't argue with that.
 
For hunting, all you need is first shot cold bore repeatable accuracy. You are not dumping a mag in an animal if you want to eat it, so shooting 5 round strings one after the other is rather useless to be doing with a hunting rifle imo.

I agree with this.
battle rifle groups are generally 10 rounds but I would not expect a pencil barrel in .308 to perform as well as a .223 pencil barrel as I'm sure the .308 is gonna heat up way quicker and have more barrel whip.
I have self defense from predators in mind as the secondary use for my rifle as I have had too many close encounters with bears and wolves in my tree stand spot. I can't run due to my physical condition so a handy, easy to operate semi auto fits my needs.
The other rifle is in .338fed and went with a straight fluted barrel as I didn't think a pencil profile would suit a 210gr .338 for very many rounds LOL A buddy has that upper and is testing it out hunting this year before sending it to me.
I hear IBI has .338 federal slated for the near future too
 
I'd like to know more about the shooting conditions, rifle set up and your hand loading too, if you have the time to expand on your post.
As example, Have you played with crimping? Different primers? How much time and effort are you putting into brass prep? What dies are you using? are you trickling charges, individually weighing them or dumping from a powder measure?

Thanks for the interest in this post. I will try to answer the best I can.

The brass is first tumbled in Walnut media, then lubed and full length sized, over to the RCBS bench case trimmer, chamfered inside outside necks, primer pocket uniformed using a rcbs prep tool, hand primer using Fed 210M, then each powder charge is under charged using a rcbs rock chucker (I think its called) , then trickle charged up to weight on a rcbs beam scale, then seated using a RCBS bullet seater, then gets a medium (if thats what you want to call it) crimp.

I actually weigh each brass for +/- 1 grain and the powder +/- 0.1 grain for ammo testing, to make sure case capacity or powder measure dosent screw with results.

As for the shooting part. I am using a Cadwell "the rick" shooting rest, with sandbags for a rear support off of a table. I am shooting with a 12x magnification with fine cross hairs.

For ammo, I am letting the ammo sit outside and get to air temp while I set up, and walk down range with the targets and get comfortable. So around 30min before first round down range. Both the rifle and ammo are outside temp st this point.

I fired all 5 rounds from the magazine, and let the rifle sit about 15-20 seconds between shots, and about 5 minutes between groups. At the -5 temp I did the testing at, the barrel never got past luke warm.
 
I have to add that TSE has contacted me, and offered to switch out the barrel with another at no charged to me due to poor accuracy. Even offering to have me send them the complete upper to do the swap themselves, paying for shipping both ways.

Ryan at IBI barrels has contacted me, willing to work with me to make sure this project comes out right, and I find a barrel that is accurate.

I must say, this is by far the best customer service I have ever experienced, and amazed that they are taking the time to make sure I am getting a quality product.
 
My Sako 75 Finnlight in 300WSM shoots 1/2 MOA easily(will likely do close to 1/4 MOA if I further tune my hand loads. It has an extremely thin fluted barrel too. A well made pencil can shoot great if it is built and stress relieved properly. But yes, overheating and stringing could be a problem with certain uses. No issues shooting 3 shot sub MOA with this pencil even if I rush the shots with almost zero cooling time.

You are comparing an (decently) $$$ bolt gun to a semiautomatic tho...
 
I agree with this.
battle rifle groups are generally 10 rounds but I would not expect a pencil barrel in .308 to perform as well as a .223 pencil barrel as I'm sure the .308 is gonna heat up way quicker and have more barrel whip.
I have self defense from predators in mind as the secondary use for my rifle as I have had too many close encounters with bears and wolves in my tree stand spot. I can't run due to my physical condition so a handy, easy to operate semi auto fits my needs.
The other rifle is in .338fed and went with a straight fluted barrel as I didn't think a pencil profile would suit a 210gr .338 for very many rounds LOL A buddy has that upper and is testing it out hunting this year before sending it to me.
I hear IBI has .338 federal slated for the near future too

But you're probably only reaching way out with a cold barrel for the beastie you're hunting; if a bear or wolf gets close enough to be a threat to you, then minute-of-bear accuracy out of a warm barrel may not overtax that pencil profile, no?
 
I have to add that TSE has contacted me, and offered to switch out the barrel with another at no charged to me due to poor accuracy. Even offering to have me send them the complete upper to do the swap themselves, paying for shipping both ways.

Ryan at IBI barrels has contacted me, willing to work with me to make sure this project comes out right, and I find a barrel that is accurate.

I must say, this is by far the best customer service I have ever experienced, and amazed that they are taking the time to make sure I am getting a quality product.

Awsome! I can't wait to hear your result from the new barrel!
 
I have to add that TSE has contacted me, and offered to switch out the barrel with another at no charged to me due to poor accuracy. Even offering to have me send them the complete upper to do the swap themselves, paying for shipping both ways.

Ryan at IBI barrels has contacted me, willing to work with me to make sure this project comes out right, and I find a barrel that is accurate.

I must say, this is by far the best customer service I have ever experienced, and amazed that they are taking the time to make sure I am getting a quality product.

Funny what posting publicly will do for you.
 
Funny what posting publicly will do for you.

I have had nothing but amazing customer service from Ryan at IBI. Stand up dude. I would guess it's more because he truely cares and stands behind his product. That's why I am and will continue to be a repeat customer as well as the fact my IBI barrels have been fantastic.
 
But you're probably only reaching way out with a cold barrel for the beastie you're hunting; if a bear or wolf gets close enough to be a threat to you, then minute-of-bear accuracy out of a warm barrel may not overtax that pencil profile, no?

I would think that the build will perform for whatever I need.
Needs to be light so I can hike in with it and not be too cumbersome in the drag out. It's a steep place to access and exit and the hunt itself is in a small draw with limited visibility beyond 50 yards in any direction. If the predators appear, they are already well within the kill zone.
Usually I don't sweat the bears too much and manage to sneak away or on one occasion I just stood up and starting getting big and loud and the bear moved off. But the wolves, when they come in numbers.... if that ever happens again.... the stag will look after them. :)
 
The original Stag barrel is awesome! Shoots like a bastard. If you want to reduce the weight on the front end reconsider you forearm choices. I swapped out the original Stag M-lok for a 15" PRI Delta carbon fiber forearm. Problem solved. Front end is light and I still can shoot the piss out of it with minimal POI shifts.
 
The original Stag barrel is awesome! Shoots like a bastard. If you want to reduce the weight on the front end reconsider you forearm choices. I swapped out the original Stag M-lok for a 15" PRI Delta carbon fiber forearm. Problem solved. Front end is light and I still can shoot the piss out of it with minimal POI shifts.

My handguard is the MRA X1 15". it is extremely light compared to my JP signature 15.5" on the .338fed
The .308 pencil build with full mass bcg (lantac ebcg) and the x1 handguard weighs in at 7lbs 4 ounces with no mag or optic and all the felt weight is at the receiver.
I gotta get out and shoot this thing so will add the MRA pencil 18.5" to the comparison if the OP does not mind. I was led to believe it is an IBI blank anyways.
 
The new IBI barrel arrived last week, and installed it today. I upgraded to a 24x scope I purchased specifically for ammo testing. The rifle new barrel will be tested with 3 shot groups, and for now will be tested using factory ammo only.

I figured I would test both match ammo, and some typical hunting ammo you can find anywhere. Here is my ammo test list

168g Federal GMM
185g Federal GMM
180 Federal blue box
150g fed non-typical white box

All my targets are ready, and I'm heading out tomorrow morning even tho it's going to be -25. Pictures too follow.


YVL8CCx.jpg
 
The new IBI barrel arrived last week, and installed it today. I upgraded to a 24x scope I purchased specifically for ammo testing. The rifle new barrel will be tested with 3 shot groups, and for now will be tested using factory ammo only.

I figured I would test both match ammo, and some typical hunting ammo you can find anywhere. Here is my ammo test list

168g Federal GMM
185g Federal GMM
180 Federal blue box
150g fed non-typical white box

All my targets are ready, and I'm heading out tomorrow morning even tho it's going to be -25. Pictures too follow.


YVL8CCx.jpg

Awesome! Let see those result tomorrow!
 
The results for the new barrel are in,


First testing was done at exactly 100m or 109y

Federal 180f SP (non-typical white box)
2.09" or 1.83 MOA

3M4xLWa.jpg



Federal 150g SP (power shock blue box)
1.59" or 1.39 MOA

0X8HbiB.jpg



Federal GMM 185g (juggernaut match)
0.94" or 0.82 MOA

Be6DXbU.jpg


Federal GMM 168g (Sierra match king)
1.95" or 1.71 MOA
**I must have thrown a shot, more on thos below**

2qFCids.jpg




Next up was testing at 195m or 213yards to confirm group size, and to conduct the cold/hot barrel test.

Up first was the Fed 168g GMM, which gave me a better group at 200m then at 100m? Be the judge, I think I must've thrown a shot.

1.91" or 0.85 MOA

OFq8Lr3.jpg



Federal 180g SP ( non typical white box)
3.92" or 1.75MOA

0cMs197.jpg



Federal 150g ( powershock blue box)
3.42" or 1.53MOA

V7Voxti.jpg



Federal 185g GMM ( juggernaut match)
2.39" or 1.07MOA

z84Dn5e.jpg



Then I jumped right into the cold/hot barrel test as I had zerod the scope for this ammo. I loaded up 20 rounds in 2 x ten round mags, and another 3 rounds for the hot group. Dumped 20 rounds quick as possible, quickly loaded up the new mag and shot another group.this is what it gave me.

3.27" or 1.46MOA
POI shift of 2.75" or 1.25MOA high and right

7B4d4HN.jpg




TL;DR

Fed 180
@100 - 1.83MOA
@200 - 1.75MOA

Fed 150g
@100 - 1.39MOA
@200 - 1.53MOA

Fed 168g GMM
@100 - 1.71MOA
@200 - 0.85MOA

Fed 185g GMM
@100- 0.82MOA
@200 cold - 1.07MOA
Hot- 1.46MOA
Shift of 1.25MOA high and right


I am happy, very cold, also out over $100 in ammo.

Enjoy.

Chris
 
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