Ok folks .. here we go with this. This is the first time I have written one of these in depth focus reports on a rifle so bare with me. I received my Stag 10 several weeks ago. My initial impressions were already posted in the Stag 10 thread under the Arms East forum, but ill quickly sum them up here. The bulk of the pics are farther down in the post and are mainly of groups that this rifle shot (The media says that guns shoot themselves so why not!
).
- I was very impressed with the fit and finish of the rifle. I was fortunate enough that my rifle had no chipping or marring from the factory ( I do feel for those that dumped as much cash on these and did receive ones with damage).
- The rifle has some weight, but when shouldered I found it balanced very nicely with the weight favoring slightly to the rear.
- The action felt rough at first, but I figured that this would smooth out after a could hundred rounds down range.
- The hand guard felt very nice in the hand
- Pmags dropped free and locked in easily
- Needs a larger charging handle
- I put on a Vortex Viper PST 2.5-10x32 FFP in a Vortex precision cantilever set of rings
- Magpul SLS stock with a DIY cheek pad
- Magpul Slim grip ( icant remember the exact name)
- AAC Blackout Muzzle brake
- Thorough cleaning was done
About 3 days later I was able to get the rifle out with my bro in law who has the same rifle. He had stated that he already shot his, and the only issue he had was the mags weren't locking back.
We both put about 20 or so rounds of Hirtenberger 147gr surplus ammo through it with relatively no hiccups. That's when the things started to go south for both of us. Both rifles began to have no lock back on empty. Then stove pipes began to happen every 4-5 rnds. Then the rifle would FTF, but still eject spent casings. I had remembered seeing a thread on here with another member who had similar issues. So we checked both rifles and lo and behold both our gas blocks were loose and no effort was needed to loosen the allen screws in the gas block. The gas blocks were reset, screws were locktited and the screws hard hand torqued down. The rifles functioned 100% after that with every round. The next hour after was spent shooting a targets, but no real effort was given towards accuracy, just fun. Unfortunately I did not take any more photos during this shoot. I did test my first ladder that day as well. The ladder was as follows:
- 168gr Sierra Tipped Match Kings over various charges of IMR4895 ranging from 39.5gr - 44 gr. These initially looked promising and the tightest groups were approximately 1.5 - 2 inches. I figured the barrel still needed a break in so I spent the rest of the session shooting the surplus stuff after the ladder was finished.
Fast forward to today and 18OCT15. I was able to head to Genesee (first time there with a buddy of mine!), and sit down and really focus on shooting groups. I had developed several ladder tests to find a load that the rifle may like. They are as follows:
- 168 gr Sierra Tipped Match Kings over IMR 4895 from 42gr to 42.9 gr in .10 increments
- 168 gr Hornady ELD Match over IMR 4895 from 39.5 gr to 44 gr in .50 increments
- Both were in winchester 1x fired brass trimmed between 2.002 " - 2.004" (some were shorter due to some being shipped like that from the factory. I though an inital shooting would stretch them out, not the case so there are some with slightly shorter necks, which could explain some fliers)
- Both were seated to a depth between 2.798" - 2.802" (I only have basic seating dies)
- Both used CCI Magnum Large Rifle primers
- The rifle was shot out of a rest to eliminate as much human error as possible (My rest sucks, and the rifle still wandered a little bit)
- All rounds shot at 100 yards
How the rifle was setup at the range ( I didnt take any range pics so my work bench will have to do)
OK so I will start off with the STMK. Some of these shot not too badly, and some shot like absolute SH*T. The pics are as follows - I took a pic of each group with a measurement at its largest and a pic of each group at its smallest/cluster. These loads were derived from the initial ladder that I did when I was able to first shoot the rifle and found that between 42gr to 43 gr of IMR 4895 gave the best initial groups.
168 STMK IMR4985 42gr
168 STMK IMR 4895 42.1gr
168 STMK IMR 4895 42.2gr
168 STMK IMR 4895 42.3gr
168 STMK IMR 4895 42.4gr
168 STMK IMR 4895 42.5gr - this group was consistent all around so only one measurement was taken
168 STMK IMR 4895 42.6gr
168 STMK IMR 4895 42.7gr - The best one for this load -
168 STMK IMR 4895 42.8gr
168 STMK IMR 4895 42.9gr
Sad to say, but I was disappointed by the STMK, and expected more. Maybe in the future I will work up a load with them over a different powder and hopefully yield better results. The recoil however was very nice, and very controllable. The rifle ate these loads very nicely and no malfunctions occurred. There were also no signs of any over pressure on the cases.
Next up were the 168 Hornady ELD Match loads. These I felt group far more nicely than the STMK's and it seem the rifle likes them.
168 ELD Match IMR 4895 39.5gr
168 ELD Match IMR 4895 40gr
168 ELD Match IMR 4895 40.5gr
168 ELD Match IMR 4895 41gr
168 ELD Match IMR 4895 41.5gr
168 ELD Match IMR 4895 42gr
168 ELD Match IMR 4895 42.5gr
168 ELD Match IMR 4895 43gr
168 ELD Match IMR 4895 43.5gr
168 ELD Match IMR 4895 44gr - This one was a weird one.
This load (ELD Match over 42 gr of 4895) seems to be one my rifle really likes and I will be doing further testing to refine the load as much as possible. The rifle had zero hiccups during firing these loads as well. I noted that the loads seemed manageable and soft for the most part, but as is obvious, the round began to kick more as the loads went up. When I fired these loads I was actually running out of daylight and Genesee was shutting down, so I was pumping this ladder out faster than I would have liked. The barrel didnt get much time to cool between loads - maybe 30 seconds to 1 minute of cooling. I was pretty impressed with this barrel after seeing the groups I got with minimal cool down time.
As an honorable mention, the rifle also seems to not mind the Winchester 150gr Power Point ammo that you can get from Walmart
I know it was a long winded and picture heavy thread, but I figured there would be many out there that wanted to hand load for this rifle, and too much information never hurt anyone
. I am so far impressed with this rifle. I saw today that it is able to print groups far better than I ever would be able to. I again used the rest so I could get the most information from the groups produced by my handloads. As a side note any feedback to help me improve anything I have done here is more than welcome. Hopefully someone can find this info I posted useful! alright back to rifle cleaning with a nice cold one!
).- I was very impressed with the fit and finish of the rifle. I was fortunate enough that my rifle had no chipping or marring from the factory ( I do feel for those that dumped as much cash on these and did receive ones with damage).
- The rifle has some weight, but when shouldered I found it balanced very nicely with the weight favoring slightly to the rear.
- The action felt rough at first, but I figured that this would smooth out after a could hundred rounds down range.
- The hand guard felt very nice in the hand
- Pmags dropped free and locked in easily
- Needs a larger charging handle
- I put on a Vortex Viper PST 2.5-10x32 FFP in a Vortex precision cantilever set of rings
- Magpul SLS stock with a DIY cheek pad
- Magpul Slim grip ( icant remember the exact name)
- AAC Blackout Muzzle brake
- Thorough cleaning was done
About 3 days later I was able to get the rifle out with my bro in law who has the same rifle. He had stated that he already shot his, and the only issue he had was the mags weren't locking back.
We both put about 20 or so rounds of Hirtenberger 147gr surplus ammo through it with relatively no hiccups. That's when the things started to go south for both of us. Both rifles began to have no lock back on empty. Then stove pipes began to happen every 4-5 rnds. Then the rifle would FTF, but still eject spent casings. I had remembered seeing a thread on here with another member who had similar issues. So we checked both rifles and lo and behold both our gas blocks were loose and no effort was needed to loosen the allen screws in the gas block. The gas blocks were reset, screws were locktited and the screws hard hand torqued down. The rifles functioned 100% after that with every round. The next hour after was spent shooting a targets, but no real effort was given towards accuracy, just fun. Unfortunately I did not take any more photos during this shoot. I did test my first ladder that day as well. The ladder was as follows:
- 168gr Sierra Tipped Match Kings over various charges of IMR4895 ranging from 39.5gr - 44 gr. These initially looked promising and the tightest groups were approximately 1.5 - 2 inches. I figured the barrel still needed a break in so I spent the rest of the session shooting the surplus stuff after the ladder was finished.
Fast forward to today and 18OCT15. I was able to head to Genesee (first time there with a buddy of mine!), and sit down and really focus on shooting groups. I had developed several ladder tests to find a load that the rifle may like. They are as follows:
- 168 gr Sierra Tipped Match Kings over IMR 4895 from 42gr to 42.9 gr in .10 increments
- 168 gr Hornady ELD Match over IMR 4895 from 39.5 gr to 44 gr in .50 increments
- Both were in winchester 1x fired brass trimmed between 2.002 " - 2.004" (some were shorter due to some being shipped like that from the factory. I though an inital shooting would stretch them out, not the case so there are some with slightly shorter necks, which could explain some fliers)
- Both were seated to a depth between 2.798" - 2.802" (I only have basic seating dies)
- Both used CCI Magnum Large Rifle primers
- The rifle was shot out of a rest to eliminate as much human error as possible (My rest sucks, and the rifle still wandered a little bit)
- All rounds shot at 100 yards
How the rifle was setup at the range ( I didnt take any range pics so my work bench will have to do)
OK so I will start off with the STMK. Some of these shot not too badly, and some shot like absolute SH*T. The pics are as follows - I took a pic of each group with a measurement at its largest and a pic of each group at its smallest/cluster. These loads were derived from the initial ladder that I did when I was able to first shoot the rifle and found that between 42gr to 43 gr of IMR 4895 gave the best initial groups.
168 STMK IMR4985 42gr
168 STMK IMR 4895 42.1gr
168 STMK IMR 4895 42.2gr
168 STMK IMR 4895 42.3gr
168 STMK IMR 4895 42.4gr
168 STMK IMR 4895 42.5gr - this group was consistent all around so only one measurement was taken
168 STMK IMR 4895 42.6gr
168 STMK IMR 4895 42.7gr - The best one for this load -
168 STMK IMR 4895 42.8gr
168 STMK IMR 4895 42.9gr
Sad to say, but I was disappointed by the STMK, and expected more. Maybe in the future I will work up a load with them over a different powder and hopefully yield better results. The recoil however was very nice, and very controllable. The rifle ate these loads very nicely and no malfunctions occurred. There were also no signs of any over pressure on the cases.
Next up were the 168 Hornady ELD Match loads. These I felt group far more nicely than the STMK's and it seem the rifle likes them.
168 ELD Match IMR 4895 39.5gr
168 ELD Match IMR 4895 40gr
168 ELD Match IMR 4895 40.5gr
168 ELD Match IMR 4895 41gr
168 ELD Match IMR 4895 41.5gr
168 ELD Match IMR 4895 42gr
168 ELD Match IMR 4895 42.5gr
168 ELD Match IMR 4895 43gr
168 ELD Match IMR 4895 43.5gr
168 ELD Match IMR 4895 44gr - This one was a weird one.
This load (ELD Match over 42 gr of 4895) seems to be one my rifle really likes and I will be doing further testing to refine the load as much as possible. The rifle had zero hiccups during firing these loads as well. I noted that the loads seemed manageable and soft for the most part, but as is obvious, the round began to kick more as the loads went up. When I fired these loads I was actually running out of daylight and Genesee was shutting down, so I was pumping this ladder out faster than I would have liked. The barrel didnt get much time to cool between loads - maybe 30 seconds to 1 minute of cooling. I was pretty impressed with this barrel after seeing the groups I got with minimal cool down time.
As an honorable mention, the rifle also seems to not mind the Winchester 150gr Power Point ammo that you can get from Walmart
I know it was a long winded and picture heavy thread, but I figured there would be many out there that wanted to hand load for this rifle, and too much information never hurt anyone
. I am so far impressed with this rifle. I saw today that it is able to print groups far better than I ever would be able to. I again used the rest so I could get the most information from the groups produced by my handloads. As a side note any feedback to help me improve anything I have done here is more than welcome. Hopefully someone can find this info I posted useful! alright back to rifle cleaning with a nice cold one!
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