I've always wondered how accurate my rifles were. I think a lot of times they shot better than I did. For this reason I finally decided to buy a machine rest. I also took the extra time to build a servo controlled trigger. I wanted to completely eliminate the human element. I have to say the rest worked great. All I had to do was press buttons to pull the trigger.
Specs of this rifle are as follows:
LRB M25
USGI Parts, except for the bolt, which is LRB.
McMillan M2A stock, bedded.
Trigger NM job.
Gas cylinder is screw and glue unitized.
Kreiger heavy barrel 1:11 twist
Nightforce ATACR 5-25 on top.
I tried several hand loads based on lake city brass, CCI br2 primers, Sierra 168gr Matchkings and H4895 powder. Powder charges were 40.5gr, 41gr, 41.5gr, & 42gr. I also tried some Federal Gold Match, both 168gr and 175gr SMK bullets.
A few times while experimenting with this setup, it did double fire on me. So some of the groups are only 4 shots but was able to figure out how to prevent it. But a few bullets got away on me.
Shooting was done at 100M.
So how accurate is a fully decked out M14? I would say around 1-1.5 moa based on these results. The rifle seems to like lower powder charges. Next time I'm going to try a 40.0 gr and possibly a 39.5 gr charge. But right now I think 40.5 or 41gr charges gave the best results. Once I do figure out my load, I've got about 900 cases needing to be filled
Then the real fun will begin
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UPDATE 11/13/2018: New Trigger Mechanism
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
So the old trigger mechanism used a 1/5 scale RC servo with a linkage to actuate the trigger. I never really like this system and always thought a stepper motor driven system would be better. I decided to build the new trigger system and it turned out really great. A stepper motor is a motor that turns in finite increments which allows for precise movement. I implemented this system and it really moves the trigger at a very small pace, inducing almost no vibration or movement as the trigger is pulled. You can see this if you look through the scope as the trigger mechanism pulls the trigger.
I tested this system with my M24, and got a 0.6 moa group with FGM 168gr. I was very ecstatic over this, as the rest was doing what I wanted it to do: Shoot better than I every can. Today I took out the DMR as it need it's new scope sighted in as well. Shout out to CGNer kp345 for the fantastic deal on a new scope. For test purposes, I only fire one round at time, so the magazine is empty each shot. This is done to ensure no accidental bump fire occurs. Groups were at a 100m. Now, for the results:
The yellow groups were shot from the rest. This gun is officially sub moa!!! I am glowing at the moment. There it is, an M14 shooting sub moa. Furthermore I actually had a decent group. Few notes:
1) On the top right group, that shot between the two vertical right targets was fired just before a cease fire. The four shots were the rest of the group. I didn't count that first shot as the barrel had cooled down during the cease fire.
2) On the bottom left target, the 3 tight shots in the right bulls eye, were the first 3 shots. The shot to the bottom left of the group was the 4th one, and the farthest shot at the 6 o'clock position was the last shot. The last shot was the magazine empty shot. From what I understand, when the magazine is empty, it's no longer pushing up against the bolt and this causes a point of impact change. For this reason I calculated both the 4 shot and 5 shot grouping moa's. 5 shots at 1.13 moa is still fantastic. I couldn't believe those first 3 shots.
I'm just absolutely ecstatic with this. Now that the rest is working very well, I'm going to start with the hand load development. We'll see if I can shrink the groups even more. Very fun day.
Specs of this rifle are as follows:
LRB M25
USGI Parts, except for the bolt, which is LRB.
McMillan M2A stock, bedded.
Trigger NM job.
Gas cylinder is screw and glue unitized.
Kreiger heavy barrel 1:11 twist
Nightforce ATACR 5-25 on top.
I tried several hand loads based on lake city brass, CCI br2 primers, Sierra 168gr Matchkings and H4895 powder. Powder charges were 40.5gr, 41gr, 41.5gr, & 42gr. I also tried some Federal Gold Match, both 168gr and 175gr SMK bullets.
A few times while experimenting with this setup, it did double fire on me. So some of the groups are only 4 shots but was able to figure out how to prevent it. But a few bullets got away on me.
Shooting was done at 100M.
So how accurate is a fully decked out M14? I would say around 1-1.5 moa based on these results. The rifle seems to like lower powder charges. Next time I'm going to try a 40.0 gr and possibly a 39.5 gr charge. But right now I think 40.5 or 41gr charges gave the best results. Once I do figure out my load, I've got about 900 cases needing to be filled
Then the real fun will begin
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
UPDATE 11/13/2018: New Trigger Mechanism
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
So the old trigger mechanism used a 1/5 scale RC servo with a linkage to actuate the trigger. I never really like this system and always thought a stepper motor driven system would be better. I decided to build the new trigger system and it turned out really great. A stepper motor is a motor that turns in finite increments which allows for precise movement. I implemented this system and it really moves the trigger at a very small pace, inducing almost no vibration or movement as the trigger is pulled. You can see this if you look through the scope as the trigger mechanism pulls the trigger.
I tested this system with my M24, and got a 0.6 moa group with FGM 168gr. I was very ecstatic over this, as the rest was doing what I wanted it to do: Shoot better than I every can. Today I took out the DMR as it need it's new scope sighted in as well. Shout out to CGNer kp345 for the fantastic deal on a new scope. For test purposes, I only fire one round at time, so the magazine is empty each shot. This is done to ensure no accidental bump fire occurs. Groups were at a 100m. Now, for the results:
The yellow groups were shot from the rest. This gun is officially sub moa!!! I am glowing at the moment. There it is, an M14 shooting sub moa. Furthermore I actually had a decent group. Few notes:
1) On the top right group, that shot between the two vertical right targets was fired just before a cease fire. The four shots were the rest of the group. I didn't count that first shot as the barrel had cooled down during the cease fire.
2) On the bottom left target, the 3 tight shots in the right bulls eye, were the first 3 shots. The shot to the bottom left of the group was the 4th one, and the farthest shot at the 6 o'clock position was the last shot. The last shot was the magazine empty shot. From what I understand, when the magazine is empty, it's no longer pushing up against the bolt and this causes a point of impact change. For this reason I calculated both the 4 shot and 5 shot grouping moa's. 5 shots at 1.13 moa is still fantastic. I couldn't believe those first 3 shots.
I'm just absolutely ecstatic with this. Now that the rest is working very well, I'm going to start with the hand load development. We'll see if I can shrink the groups even more. Very fun day.
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