Home Forums Hunting & Shooting AR and Tactical Rifles Mid range prone AR tactical

Well couple yrs back NRA came out with a new provisional class called AR tactical for mid range prone shooting. Anyhow this past week the locak Rifle club in Anchorage held their first shoot of the season. Mid range prone shoot, F class guys were there along with me and my buddy to shoot the AR tactical class. The AR tactical class you can use a scope up to 15X have to use bipods and you can use shooting bags to support the the stock.We had a block time of 25 minutes, unlimited sighters and within the 25 minutes you had to shoot your required 20rds for record. I used my AR 15 in a 223 wylde 10X swfa MQ, my load was 26.2 gr of leverevolution, 75gr Hornady BTHP, cci 450 in LC brass. I managed to shoot a 184 not bad I guess for my first 600 yard shoot ever. I will say I was pretty nervous about my dope/calculation being off and missing the target, but I dialed it to 4.7 mils no wind and fired my first sighter. Well some of the guys in the pit were new to this (along with me ) so they had to call down to the pits to have them pull target 12. Talk about relief I was actually higher than I needed to be So adjusted to 4.5 second sighter I was just low of the x and to the right. So I adjusted up to 4.6 and kept it there the whole time. I had a great time and can wait for the across the course shoot coming up will be shooting 300, 500, 600 yds 60 rds total with 2 sighters per match. I highly recommend you all find a club doing these shoots they are pretty damn fun.

Pictures of the range it took place on Ft Richardson/JBER



Here I am giving it hell.

Very cool John. Thanks for sharing with us!!

Some of the guys asked what I was shooting said 5.56 with 75gr bullets. They looked at me kind weird. Then out came the f class rifles wow! 6.5 CM, 284 Winchester, 308, 300 rum, nice rifles and a lot of money sitting on that range that day.

The guy next to me was shooting a 6.5 Grendel in a AR using a sling no bipod.

Very cool. Other than your own, did you have a favorite rifle on that shooting line?

That PSA 6.5 creedmoor, that you were talking about in a diferent thread, would be the chit. Sounds like you did well with your 556 though. Speaking of that 6.5 creedmoor, theres a guy selling a brand new one with 20" tube here locally, for $600. Dont know how much they are going for, but seems like a pretty good deal for an ar10...

Just to add to the PSA 6.5 CM band wagon. I had my family out today with my 224 Valkyrie and 6.5 CM 20”Er. My young cousin shot a Walnut sized group of 5 at 200 and put 5 into about the size of my fist at 500. Nothing special about the load, 40 grains of 17, CCIBR2’s, 139 Scenars at 2760’ish and a 6X SS on top. Pretty amazing for a first time AR shooter just after shooting a few groups at 100 to get the form down. 224 continues to be a hammer.

Sounds pretty damn good Scotty.... I may look into this PSA here locally...

is that the mag length bthp 75 or whatever the new 75 amax is called that you used? If you were using the mag length thats not bad at all.

But you give up to the single load 75 amax or ELD X probably these days, IF loading single rounds is allowed.

Looks like a blast. I'd love to start shooting again, but other things have priority.

Did you plot shots to find out where you lost the most points? Wind elevation or combo.

And FWIW the first time I shot Arne Brennans 6.5 PPC before it went to AA and became a grendel, at 600 on an XC target(not F class target) I never touched the wind knobs on purpose and they all stayed in the 10/X ring easily. The wind was not bad that day but with a 223 and even my 90s I'd have been clicking. I'm almost thinking had I clicked, I might have kept almost all the shots in the X ring.

I was using hornady 75gr bthp seated to 2.290. It was a several us first time at this. My buddy didn’t plot my shots on the scorecard. He was new to it just like all learning experience. But i did take a picture of the target cause 1st relay ended up in the pits for relay 2 and 3. I lost points do to windage, but I was fighting my bipod, it was too tall I need a 6-9 inch one.

I was going to ask about your bipod. Looked too tall and uncomfortable to me as well. I shoot my AR10 prone and it has a swivel Harris that is the 6-9" model, I belive:



Looks like fun though. Now I want to take my AR10 out tomorrow... Maybe I'll go and ring some steel at 500 yards with it...

Lawrence will say a new 6.5 upper from psa are going for $449 lowers are $249. So $700 too get setup in the CM.

And if you can get a bipod with slick front feet instead of rubber feet it can help.

That said, if possible, I'd use a much better choice of bullets. I'm guessing you have the twist to shoot 80s. Before I went to 90s I shot 75 amax to 300, if reduced prone matches, and at one time used them mag length and managed a nice 100=8x at 300 rapid at Perry once.. They shoot good, but even then, there are much better bullets at 600. 80 JLK would be my choice by far but I'm not up on all the choices, IF limited to 7 twist or faster barrels.

Plots of shots tell you a lot. Or can.

I loved shooting when I did. Loved XC matches, though LR was fun. Irons only when I was still shooting, but it was finally getting easy to shoot 200s at 600. I"d love to mess with a scope.

And quit posting pictures... you might make me try to do something stupid like shoot a match over there again eventually. NICE range. With the backdrop and depending on wind conditions, could make for some tricky shooting. I see flags, but not nearly enough, and any wind over about 12 mph or so mirage is really hard to understand.

The lucky thing the only AR I brought is a cheapy 7 or 8 twist wilson tube but it has some cheap scope on it, pentax maybe. But it MIGHT work. Funniest thing I brought along some "work" ammo that I've loaded thousands off, but its not prone mid range ammo for sure... being its RL15/75 bthp... lol

Thankfully the summer job will probably have me so busy I won't be able to play. Ugh.

Thanks man. So $600.00 sounds like a good deal then.

I will say pit duty is intersting, our targets you have stand and look at the target for hits. Let me tell you your neck starts hurting after awhile. Other ranges in the lower 48 you look at the bank behind the target for the bullets hitting the bank. Also the fella who was pulling my target was putting black in black to mark my shot. He would forget to score it. Again all new stuff for us, but now I know what to do well kind of. I was lucky the guys I was with have done it before and showed me the way..

If I wan into a deal like that I would snag it up. Also psa changed their shipping takes 10-14 days for them to ship. Reason why is due to high volume of sales.

Unfortunately I was in the pits for the 2nd and 3rd relays. So didn’t get to talk to the guys about their rifles..

Well funny you say that. Those ASC stainless mags allow to seat bullets outside the normal 2.260. Today I loaded up some 80gr eld m at 2.315 they have a bc of .485. I was getting 2656 with 23.0gr of AR comp. no signs of pressure. I’m going to mess with that load try different primers. I was using cci 400. So if you get asc stainless steel mags you can shoot those 75gr eld m or 80gr eld m in ar and not have to single shot them.

That's all good info right there.. Thanks..

AR comp making good speed as well. 23.5gr with 73gr eld m I’m getting a avg of 2816. Good accuracy as well. I might use that combo next Saturday. I’m running them at 2.270 in the ASC mags.