Accuracy Test!
Well I got out to the bush Tuesday as i planned and now have time to post my results!
To start, i decided to just bast off 60 rounds on gas setting 7 to break it in. In this time (did not take long!) i tried it side by side with my SKS, with the XCR muzzle brake on and off and did some chrono testing too.
With the brake off, i feel the XCR kicks more than the SKS. I think thats the 1 lbs difference in weight coming through, but with the muzzle brake on...the XCR is waaaay more comfortable to shoot. Not that x39 has much of a kick, but id say the brake takes away around 40% of the felt recoil and after being use to shooting both, the XCR is far more pleasant. And i can't say i heard the muzzle brake made the report annoyingly or harmfully louder. It did add a new sound to it, which i think is pretty neat (that "buwoooosh" sound), but not noticeably louder.
Because im kind of anal about sighting in, i decided to do some chrono testing to find the exact speed of this current batch of ammo to best set my zero and iv never done this on my SKS before. I thought you all might find these numbers interesting so ill quickly post them for fun. The ammo is chinese copper wash 123gr corrosive surplus i just bought from a CanTire. I took a 9 shot string with the SKS (one didnt pick up because the chrono wasnt on
) and 20 shot string with the XCR. Measuring in fps.
SKS: 2380, 2385, 2403, 2397, 2409, 2406, 2404, 2396, 2430
XCR: 2335, 2361, 2343, 2404, 2402, 2380, 2397,
804, 855, 2461, 2361, 2390, 2375, 2369, 2400, 2397, 2373, 2380, 2383, 2349 (
bold = WTF!)
So what happened with the two 800 numbers?! i have no idea. Either my chrono failed or that ammo, but i cant imagine the ammo failing that hard, so i just left those anomalies out when calculating the average velocity. I wanted to see if the extra 1.5" barrel length the SKS had would make much of a velocity difference.
SKS = 2401 fps
XCR = 2376 fps
A little difference.
So with that, i was 60 rounds in on gas setting 7, so i took it down to 1. First shot, FTE. Totally stuck in the chamber. I pry it out with another round. Setting 2. First shot, totally stuck in the chamber. Pry it out again. Setting 3. Two shot clear then third shot, totally stuck in the chamber. Setting 4, flawless. So number 4 it is! I was hoping to be able to have a lower setting, but i think the ammo might be at fault here. My SKS has been flawless for the entirety of owning it. It has shot the czech ammo, chinese copper wash and the green cased russian?? stuff. Never has it had a problem with ammo and FTE. But man, this ammo, IT HATES! I might get 2 rounds off successfully before a guaranteed stove pipe or totally stuck in the chamber. Very annoying. I have no idea why. I think this batch of ammo just sucks. Ill just have to get my XCR to shoot it all quickly so i can get something else
oh well. I will say that this is a real win for the XCR tho. If i have bought this ammo expecting my SKS to shoot it, id be pissed. But with the gas settings on the XCR, its no worries! A very positive pro for buying an XCR that i didn't see coming.
Now for the main event! ACCURACY TESTING!! LETS GET READY TO...aiiiiiim wellllll!
So i first started to sight in the XCR irons at 22 yards. Here's a pick of my setup, just for fun.
Once i was comfortable with the zero, i shot for groups at the same yardage with each rifle. I was prone and did my best to keep the rifles fully rested with my shooting case and bag. I shot 10 shot groups. At least, i wanted too. I only did 5 with the SKS, because the rifle was sooo un-fun to shoot. The dam* FTE were sooooo annoying especially when prone. So with over half the shots of every group i would have to stand up and kick open the action then get comfy again and take a shot. Not fun. But since i was still getting use to the XCR, i did two 10 shot groups. Here's the results.
SKS Target #5, 5 shot group
XCR Target #1 and 4, 10 shot groups. Everything else was just me sighting in. Sorry if its messy or hard to see.
Not bad? Apparently i have a tendency to shoot down to the left. Ill have to work on that. I dont have much experience shooting irons for groups. Trying to find the target and a fixed aiming spot is quite difficult. I think that's where my problem laid. All those groups were a little over an inch. Wish i could have done more with the SKS, but it just sucked too much. So i'd say the XCR and SKS performed around the same based on this data. So with 1"-1.12" groups at 22 yards, if my shooting stays consistent i should expect 5"ish groups at 100 yards right? we'll see.
On to the 100 yard groups!
Feeling pleased the the rifles and my performance i back it up to 100 yards and got my shooting position settled. I did a 10 shot group with both rifles. Technically, the SKS target was 91 yards away. I couldn't fit 2 targets on the 100 yard stump i found and figured i would DEFINITELY need 2 different targets!
so i used a stump 9 yards closer for the SKS. Figured the SKS could use the help. Boy was i right.
This is where i say that the SKS irons suck ace compared to the standard Troy AR sights on the XCR. The troy sights are way more open and finding a small target to aim at easier. I will also say that by this point there were a few things affecting my performance; one, the irons, hard to find a consistent POA; two, the constant FTE causing me to have to get out of position after almost every shot (i did try really hard to get comfortable and keep a consistent position); thee, the recoil! Weird right? I feel like a total meow meow saying this, but by now the recoil was really starting to hurt. The rifles were much lower to the ground than my bolt actions bipods, so the rifle butts were resting at a different angle than im use to and really started to hurt my bones. I even used the scarf i was wearing (i know, even more reason im a big meow meow) to block the sun as a pad for my shoulder. Its that dam* SKS! at the end of the day you could feel a HUGE difference in recoil between the braked XCR and the SKS. Call me a big fat meow meow, my shoulder hurt and it probably affected my accuracy OK! To be honest, around 8" groups is the best iv ever been able to do at 100 yards with my SKS. Ive read that the SKS is a 4 moa gun at best, but iv never come close to that.
Now for the XCR, 10 shot group with Iron sights and 100 yards!
hay hay whadaya think!! Not bad right! My biggest challenge was finding a consistent spot to aim. But since the target was around the same width as my front post is was MUCH easier. I just had to guess the elevation every time. Besides those two fliers, which very well were me, that's not too shabby at all!
Including every shot on the paper, the group was still less than 4"! i dunno, i think thats pretty good for irons and surplus ammo.
If you take away the fliers, which again is still probably me not the ammo, then the group is 2"! I would have shot some more, but i was running out of ammo and targets, so ill just have to do that in the future.
Next was sighting in the red dot and seeing if it makes aiming easier and more accurate. I bought a Holosun 515c off the EE and mounted it. I must say i am impressed with this little guy. The solar power works great and the reticle is much better than the Bushy TRS-25. Defs worth the price difference.
After sighting in, at 22 yards, here's a 10 shot group
Interesting how it turned into two 5 shot groups. I dont remember taking a break or moving positions. Again though, im learning that without magnification, the name of the game is trying to find what to aim at and do that consistently. It looks like i had 2 POAs i liked, but I only had 15 rounds left and wanted to get out to 100 yards so i didnt shoot any more.
I decided to shoot the same target as the SKS 100 yard target, since it was barely used. Im not sure if it was easier or not to aim with the red dot. Still took lots of effort. So i slowly squeezed off each of the 10 rounds. Here's what i got.
YA EXACT SAME TARGET. I didnt hit SH*T! So apparently i didn't zero it as well as i thought, I found 5 more rounds and shot off my knee at 50 yards and it looks like i was high and to the right a bunch. So that's a bummer. Out of ammo and time, ill have to zero the red dot some other time
Final notes. I ran the barrel hot! The whole time. It was a really sunny and hot day and i was never in the shade. The barrel would sting to the touch at the coolest. The first ten rounds made the barrel too hot to touch (i was very excited, they came out quickly
). So the barrel was hot the whole time. Hot as in, to hot to touch and melt paracord hot. I didn't see any stringing in my groups, though like i said, the barrel was always hot.
Cleaning it at home was not bad at all. i just took the guts out and scrubbed them then poured hot soapy water down the barrel and gas tube a few times then patched the barrel dry. Should i do anything differently?
The rifle performed great as far as i am concerned. I shot over 200 rounds through it and only had 3 FTE. And that's due to testing the gas settings. Not the Mags or the rifle ever gave any reliability issues. One thing i noticed was the omni brass deflector became a little wiggly at the end of the day. Just tightened the screw and was back to normal. No other screws were affected.
So, what do ya think? any helpful pointers or explanations to my results?
