I'm pretty much a bolt gun guy, for obvious reasons. About 15 years ago, I built up a Colt large pin HBAR with a small pin upper, Krieger HBAR 20" 1-7 barrel with a DCM floater tube and Jewell trigger. The rifle shot great, and made regular trips to the range when doing bolt gun testing at the time. I eventually got rid of the rifle when I found myself not doing much shooting due to different changes in life.
I ended up purchasing some land and building a house and having a 100 yard range on my property. I'm friends with the farmer whose land surrounds me, and he gave me access to his gravel pit and surrounding land to be able to shoot out to 1K.
At work I'd seen the usual procession of SL8's, T97's and other semi autos the guys were playing with. Then one day one of the guys assembled an MDI SLR using an IBI barrel. He came back after a weekend and had some nice looking groups to show off and that got me interested. I'm not interested in inaccurate rifles since I'm spoiled with the stuff we produce.
I managed to scare up a receiver set (high 400's) , and started to hit up site sponsors for parts to complete the build. At the heart of the build of course is an IBI HBAR 20" 1-8 5R barrel. Another important piece of the puzzle is a Trigger Tech trigger, if it is anything like their bolt gun trigger, it will be amazing.
The rifle went together without any drama. The barrel extension took a bit of oil and a light tap to seat, it was perfect. I've only put my bolt catch in for the time being with a cotter pin to make it easier to take apart when we Cerakote the black parts. I put two holes in the MDI trigger hanger to allow the slack take up via the screws in the TT trigger.
I see a lot of people complaining about the MDI's use of the take down bolt. I love it. I don't need the ability to take my rifle apart in seconds with a bullet. The way the upper and lower mate like a pistol slide and lock up with a screw makes it very solid, which will contribute to accuracy. I do recommend oiling the slots that the upper rides in.
It seems like most people mention the trigger hanger causing the safety to bind when the screw is tightened. I've seen mentioned that there is no need for the screw once the safety is in place, this makes sense. I wanted zero false movement in the trigger, so to me, the screw needed to stay. I tightened it up, then pulled a chucking reamer through the receiver which provided a natural guiding via the reamer shank so no oblong holes.
I bought some different magazines, the CPD LAR mags seat perfect, and drop free. The IMI LAR mags seat properly and require minimal help to extract. Some CPD 7.62x39 mags for a future 6.5 Grendel build have a bit of drag in and out.
Here is the rifle with a 1.1-4 SB Short Dot from my old Colt HBAR build
I shot some AE M193 as well as AE and FC M855. I had various match loads as well, FGMM 73 OTM, HDY 75 BTHP and a reloading set up....
The first day's shooting was in brutal conditions, -10C with a 60kph wind from 7:30. Sometimes I'd lose visibility of the target due to blowing snow.
I shot a lot of groups, and these stood out, another group with the 73 OTM was .84"
I then slapped together some handloads with 8208 XBR and a couple different Sierra Tipped Match Kings.
The last target with handloads were on the second day with only 20kph winds but colder temps. I had also installed a 6-24 scope for this round of groups, the previous targets were with the SB SD.
I've now got about 150 rounds through the build with no stoppages other than failing to properly seat the mag on a closed bolt. I've got many more excellent groups I didn't post, some 9/10 shot groups under an inch with M855.
I'm looking forward to refining things even more, this rifle is an absolute joy to shoot, from the reliability, the crisp trigger and the excellent IBI match barrel. I like it so much, I've ordered an IBI in 6.5 Grendel and have started to gather parts for build number two.
I ended up purchasing some land and building a house and having a 100 yard range on my property. I'm friends with the farmer whose land surrounds me, and he gave me access to his gravel pit and surrounding land to be able to shoot out to 1K.
At work I'd seen the usual procession of SL8's, T97's and other semi autos the guys were playing with. Then one day one of the guys assembled an MDI SLR using an IBI barrel. He came back after a weekend and had some nice looking groups to show off and that got me interested. I'm not interested in inaccurate rifles since I'm spoiled with the stuff we produce.
I managed to scare up a receiver set (high 400's) , and started to hit up site sponsors for parts to complete the build. At the heart of the build of course is an IBI HBAR 20" 1-8 5R barrel. Another important piece of the puzzle is a Trigger Tech trigger, if it is anything like their bolt gun trigger, it will be amazing.
The rifle went together without any drama. The barrel extension took a bit of oil and a light tap to seat, it was perfect. I've only put my bolt catch in for the time being with a cotter pin to make it easier to take apart when we Cerakote the black parts. I put two holes in the MDI trigger hanger to allow the slack take up via the screws in the TT trigger.
I see a lot of people complaining about the MDI's use of the take down bolt. I love it. I don't need the ability to take my rifle apart in seconds with a bullet. The way the upper and lower mate like a pistol slide and lock up with a screw makes it very solid, which will contribute to accuracy. I do recommend oiling the slots that the upper rides in.
It seems like most people mention the trigger hanger causing the safety to bind when the screw is tightened. I've seen mentioned that there is no need for the screw once the safety is in place, this makes sense. I wanted zero false movement in the trigger, so to me, the screw needed to stay. I tightened it up, then pulled a chucking reamer through the receiver which provided a natural guiding via the reamer shank so no oblong holes.
I bought some different magazines, the CPD LAR mags seat perfect, and drop free. The IMI LAR mags seat properly and require minimal help to extract. Some CPD 7.62x39 mags for a future 6.5 Grendel build have a bit of drag in and out.
Here is the rifle with a 1.1-4 SB Short Dot from my old Colt HBAR build
I shot some AE M193 as well as AE and FC M855. I had various match loads as well, FGMM 73 OTM, HDY 75 BTHP and a reloading set up....
The first day's shooting was in brutal conditions, -10C with a 60kph wind from 7:30. Sometimes I'd lose visibility of the target due to blowing snow.
I shot a lot of groups, and these stood out, another group with the 73 OTM was .84"
I then slapped together some handloads with 8208 XBR and a couple different Sierra Tipped Match Kings.
The last target with handloads were on the second day with only 20kph winds but colder temps. I had also installed a 6-24 scope for this round of groups, the previous targets were with the SB SD.
I've now got about 150 rounds through the build with no stoppages other than failing to properly seat the mag on a closed bolt. I've got many more excellent groups I didn't post, some 9/10 shot groups under an inch with M855.
I'm looking forward to refining things even more, this rifle is an absolute joy to shoot, from the reliability, the crisp trigger and the excellent IBI match barrel. I like it so much, I've ordered an IBI in 6.5 Grendel and have started to gather parts for build number two.
