I just bought this rifle and I figure I'll try making a blog of one owner's experience.
Note the 20MOA marked pic rail, I don't think any websites mention what incline the base has. I think 20MOA is a pretty good choice, though 30MOA would be better.
A little background. I normally shoot IPSC and 3gun, and to a lesser extent rimfire precison rifle. I have spent a fair amount of time dabbling in PPC pistol and the shotgun clay target sports. But this year's competition schedule is all ruined by a combination of Canada and Covid-19 so I'm left looking for ways to have fun with guns that is different than my normal schedule. I signed up for a SAPRL match coming up in about 5 weeks.
I really like the ACC chassis, I have one on my T1x for rimfire precision shooting.
I received the gun new from a CGN vendor yesterday, as well as the scope and rings.
I put a Athlon Ares BTR Gen2 4.5-27x50 APRS5 FFP IR MIL scope on it and the rings are Vortex Pro Series Ring 30mm High (1.26"). The scope is clearing the barrel by a little more than I intended, causing me to run the cheek riser at almost its maximum height (#9 on the markings). I mounted it as far forward as I could go, and put the buttstock at minimum length because I like having the back ends of my rifles as short as possible and I find the front-back balance often prefers that. I might end up moving the scope back a centimetre or so because the eye relief might be a bit too much, we'll see once I shoot in prone and in a few positions.
My intention is to run the 80gr ELDM bullet in range floor brass, specifically the lighter ones (< 93.5 grains). So it is a mixture of head stamps and number of times fired. It is processed in a progressive press, trimmed, chamfered, and charged by a Chargemaster. So I'm not using high end precision brass. I also have some 75gr Hornady bthp and 69gr SMK bullets. I have Varget and H4895 for powder to choose from.
Placing a few test loaded rounds with the 80gr into the gun and checking freebore, my 2.390" round doesn't hit lands, while my 2.540" round does. I was using 2.390" for my Ruger Precison Rifle so I'll start with that, and in fact start with my RPR ammo for break in and zeroing and baseline gathering.
While setting it up I figured I should clean it barrel, clean any storage grease, oil it, set the trigger, and re-mount in chassis with torque set to a value I know. I did those things and made some observations.
The parts of a rifle that show wear from shooting, are showing what I think is more than a normal amount of wear for a new gun. I imagine they test fire these a bit, but it either wore very fast, or it was shot an awful lot. Wear on the boltface, wear on the feedramp:
Running patches through on a jag with Hoppes 9, I ended up running 11 patches, twice per patch, and they were still coming out dirty to my eye. Though I'm not a barrel cleaning expert so I might be misinterpreting the data or using bad technique.
I was able to get the trigger down to what my plastic fish scale-type trigger gauge says is about 1.2 lb. I tweaked it slightly higher as it felt pretty light, but the gauge still showed that same 1.2 lb. I don't think it is very accurate, especially at these light weights. It shows my minimum-adjusted T1x trigger as about 1.3 lb.
So all in all, not great first impressions. Not sure I received a new gun. Not loving the machining quality, and the caliber and vendor markings on the barrel look like someone used a hot knife to do artwork on wood. Some of the letters are not resolvable. But personally I care most about how it shoots.
First range session I'll get it zeroed on paper at shorter distances, and move out to hopefully get some groups with my RPR's 80gr ELDM ammo at 300m as well as check pressure and speed with the Labradar.
Note the 20MOA marked pic rail, I don't think any websites mention what incline the base has. I think 20MOA is a pretty good choice, though 30MOA would be better.
A little background. I normally shoot IPSC and 3gun, and to a lesser extent rimfire precison rifle. I have spent a fair amount of time dabbling in PPC pistol and the shotgun clay target sports. But this year's competition schedule is all ruined by a combination of Canada and Covid-19 so I'm left looking for ways to have fun with guns that is different than my normal schedule. I signed up for a SAPRL match coming up in about 5 weeks.
I really like the ACC chassis, I have one on my T1x for rimfire precision shooting.
I received the gun new from a CGN vendor yesterday, as well as the scope and rings.
I put a Athlon Ares BTR Gen2 4.5-27x50 APRS5 FFP IR MIL scope on it and the rings are Vortex Pro Series Ring 30mm High (1.26"). The scope is clearing the barrel by a little more than I intended, causing me to run the cheek riser at almost its maximum height (#9 on the markings). I mounted it as far forward as I could go, and put the buttstock at minimum length because I like having the back ends of my rifles as short as possible and I find the front-back balance often prefers that. I might end up moving the scope back a centimetre or so because the eye relief might be a bit too much, we'll see once I shoot in prone and in a few positions.
My intention is to run the 80gr ELDM bullet in range floor brass, specifically the lighter ones (< 93.5 grains). So it is a mixture of head stamps and number of times fired. It is processed in a progressive press, trimmed, chamfered, and charged by a Chargemaster. So I'm not using high end precision brass. I also have some 75gr Hornady bthp and 69gr SMK bullets. I have Varget and H4895 for powder to choose from.
Placing a few test loaded rounds with the 80gr into the gun and checking freebore, my 2.390" round doesn't hit lands, while my 2.540" round does. I was using 2.390" for my Ruger Precison Rifle so I'll start with that, and in fact start with my RPR ammo for break in and zeroing and baseline gathering.
While setting it up I figured I should clean it barrel, clean any storage grease, oil it, set the trigger, and re-mount in chassis with torque set to a value I know. I did those things and made some observations.
The parts of a rifle that show wear from shooting, are showing what I think is more than a normal amount of wear for a new gun. I imagine they test fire these a bit, but it either wore very fast, or it was shot an awful lot. Wear on the boltface, wear on the feedramp:
Running patches through on a jag with Hoppes 9, I ended up running 11 patches, twice per patch, and they were still coming out dirty to my eye. Though I'm not a barrel cleaning expert so I might be misinterpreting the data or using bad technique.
I was able to get the trigger down to what my plastic fish scale-type trigger gauge says is about 1.2 lb. I tweaked it slightly higher as it felt pretty light, but the gauge still showed that same 1.2 lb. I don't think it is very accurate, especially at these light weights. It shows my minimum-adjusted T1x trigger as about 1.3 lb.
So all in all, not great first impressions. Not sure I received a new gun. Not loving the machining quality, and the caliber and vendor markings on the barrel look like someone used a hot knife to do artwork on wood. Some of the letters are not resolvable. But personally I care most about how it shoots.
First range session I'll get it zeroed on paper at shorter distances, and move out to hopefully get some groups with my RPR's 80gr ELDM ammo at 300m as well as check pressure and speed with the Labradar.
