New rifle for NSCC.

Longshot

Longshot

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So I finally got my NSCC build out to put a few rds through. In the past I have shot only with a C7 and issue ammo.I've done quite well like that but always were there a couple of guys ahead of me. Keith C and Mark S usually. They both shoot nice rifles with handloads etc. So I figure this year instead of shooting military class i'm going to bring this badboy and some handloads and see what kind of damage I can do.
Specs are as follows.
Armalite lower with Geiselle 2 stage service rifle trigger supplied by Walter at Armseast.
Armalite upper.
22' Kreiger barrel with a .223 Wylde chamber cut by Kreiger and supplied by Mystic precision.
Low profile steel gas block.
Barrel was originally 26 inches long so my good buddy Grensvegter trimmed it down and turned the bit in front of the gas block to .75.
He also machined from scratch the 3 gill muzzle break I've nicknamed "the cylon". Both barrel and break are stainless.

Optic thats on it in the pic is a Leupold Mk4 6.5-20. NOT the optic i'll be running.I put it on to test accuracy and break the rifle in.

End product looks like this.
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The "Cylon" looks like this.

IMAG0168_zps32a94b9f.jpg

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So today I got it out albeit in some pretty nasty conditions. Sleet is about the worst type of weather and thats what we had today.
None the less it shot well.
I was shooting 77gr matchkings over 24.5 gr of varget. No idea on speed yet.

It shot a bunch of these at 200m.
IMAG0159_zps6d001301.jpg


First high shot was all me.
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So needless to say I'm pretty stoked.
There is zero muzzle jump with that break on there.Its a kitty cat in rapid fire and so tame I can see my own hits. Grensvegter has outdone himself again!
77 grainers with 24.5 is a relatively stout load and I was expecting a little jump but I could easily compare the recoil to my .22 anschutz target rifle. It just doesnt move! Awesome!
Hope you all enjoy. ;)
 
It would be nice to put together a "Team Army" for NSCC.
Team of 4 shooting their own personal rifles that would make a clean sweep of all awards.

PS: Nice rifle. How does it balance?
 
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I played with a 26" Krieger 1:7.7 barrel and a muzzle break for a while after "retiring." I figured I didn't have to use a C7 with an Elcan anymore - so why not see how good ARs can really be? And I found out much as you did - that they can be pretty darn good. I had a 3-9 on it.

I played with 77s. And everything else under the sun for it. The "go to" load was pretty much what you found. 24.2 varget. But it liked 69 Sierra and 68 Hornady just fine. I played with moly and gave up on it. It seemed to me that after 100 rds or so the velocities picked up and bullets started blowing on me. Perhaps build up in the throat. Didn't matter WHY - it was definitely doing SOMETHING, so I packed it in.

I found that it liked IVI just fine, too. So whenever I could get my hands on IVI, I shot it. Less hassle than reloading.

I started looking over scores. The "new" fancy gun definitely shot better groups -- but my scores weren't any better. I wasn't training as much - and training made more of a difference than the gun. And quite frankly - the extra barrel length meant more weight which, if I was going to build it over again, I would avoid. I see you've trimmed your barrel profile down a bit, that's probably good. The extra couple feet per second that the long barrel gave was good - but overall not much help.

Keith C and I built our "Big" ARs together (1998?) and sort of followed the same path of learning. We started with big barrels and heavy bullets. After a couple years, we were both shooting IVI instead of heavy handloads. He thinned up his barrel on the lathe and I stopped shooting mine in favour of a 20 inch gun. I think he's back to a shorter barrel, too, now.

I won an the civve NSCC thing with it twice around 10 years ago, but with scores a bit lower than what I was doing in the army 5 years before that with my junky throat-erosion C7 and POS Elcan. And most noteably - I won an ORA Service match at Connaught with it a few years ago, and I bring this up because a CGN member (I think) with a lightweight 10.5 inch carbine and an ACOG was number 2 that weekend. I think we were both shootign IVI we bummed off of the Army guys. I had a only a tiny lead at 300 and I suspect my big barrel and a few extra years of experience made up some points at 500m ... but it was a close run, and definitely proof that drivers win races - not cars.

Not trying to put you off the new gun. It shoots great, it seems - but it's still up to you to shoot it, so hopefully you have the time to do lots of that, too.

There will be some who poo-poo the "space gun" because it's not a true "Service Rifle" and I suggest that it is no more cumbersome or unweildy than an FNC1 was in the old days. The Optic on it now might be a bit out of the spirit of the thing - but it is no less operationally sound than the first Elcans that went on our C7s. If it can keep a zero longer than 1000 rds, I figure it's a winner compared to them. And as always - I refer to what I said earlier - Drivers win races, not cars.
 
HeadDamage said:
I think Longshot can drive ;)
Click to expand...

Exactly -- Nobody doubts that. If he is who I think he is, there's plenty of testament to that.

While on the topic of "Drivers..." I'd suggest that there might be a point where a gun is so bad that a good shooter won't win with it. But no gun is so good that a bad shooter can win with it... These space-guns are just tweaking a few points at the top end. Yeah - they're better than a C7 off the rack - but not really much better in the context of Service Matches, with 3 MOA bullseyes, etc.

I only said the driver bit to remind people that if Longshot wins NSCC with that gun -- LONGSHOT will have won it because he's a good driver, not because he has a slick rifle.
 
shortandlong said:
haters are gonna hate
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ack.

I've carried a few Queen's Medalists on chairs off that range. Generally nice folks, and gracious winners to a man. Some more than others. Almost all sharing and helpful and supportive with new shooters. I've never known a "hater" to be on the chair, or particularly close to the top of the list.

Haters can hate all they want. Doesn't help them, or particularly hurt anyone else that refuses to let it.
 
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