Finally shot a group at 475 yards. Wind was running right to left, but gusting a bit. It's rarely perfectly calm at our range, but it wasn't crazy today, either.
Ammo is the IMI 661 gr that Canada Ammo sells.
First 2 shots were fairly close to each other, ok, good. Then I messed up the third shot
Then the fourth shot went back into the group.
The 3 shots together form a 4.5" group. I'm reasonably sure that if I changed a few things, there wouldn't have been a flyer.
First, the orange dot I painted was too small. As you can see in the pic, it's just a 3-9 Leupold scope. The crosshairs completely obscured the orange dot at that range, so I had to hold on where I thought it was, but no way was it precise. So, bigger aiming point and/or bigger scope would have helped. This is not my first rodeo, and paint is cheap, so I should have known better.
The bipod works pretty good, but I'm waiting for Mystic Precision to have the M-Pods ready again. They look very sturdy and would provide a rock solid platform.
On the plus side, the hammer/trigger spring provided with the upper is pretty darn good. I should actually measure it's poundage on my pull scale, but it's nice and light. It makes shooting much easier.
I am keenly aware that one group (especially one with a flyer) is not definitive of anything. However, the group at 200 and this three shot grop at 475 were both slightly under MOA, so I would say that this rifle will shoot. Slightly bigger scope, beefier bipod and better target would be easy improvements. I assume the ATR non restricted lower could have an even better trigger, so that may improve things, too. And if someone wanted to handload for this rifle, that could make it even better. This ammo seems accurate enough though, so I'm going to stick with it.
It's funny, I never really wanted a 50, but now I couldn't imagine not having one. Especially the DA50, that offers this performance at a fraction of the price of many other 50's. After shooting the group, I cracked the gong a few times and finished off the 10 round box, and giggled that I just spent $60.