Home Forums Hunting & Shooting AR and Tactical Rifles Colts new 308 Ar15 The 901

I, like an idiot decided to get the 1000 yard test started today. adn I paid for it. I am burned and my hands are shaking so hard i can barely type from the heat, even setting in my undiees in front of a fan and the AC I am light headed


I shot at 1000 and 1200 and circled each holes with different colors to make more sense of it


the pictures dont show the entire story, but I will got into more detail later







A few points.,

a lot of people think the 168 grain load is the standard, but its is really not, its fine out to 800 but it goes subsonic before it hits 1000 or right at 1K depending on factors I will not go into.


I used a leupold 18x target scope with a 1inch tube. normally I can get to 1000 with it when using a 26 inch barreled LR bolt gun and a badger canted base. but a 16 inch barrel flat top is a different story.

I was unable to get on target with 168s which I expected with the combo.

Nornally I shoot at a steel man sized gong out to 1K so I had to come up with a solution to keep me from not knowing if I was on target adn to save myself from dring down range every shot to see how I was doing.


i set up a gong off to the side and shot at it until zeroed and had the wind. then tried a target. that was frustrating to say the lest. So i ended up putting a gong a few feet behind the paper target so I could tell if I was on target, that way, if I hit the man, I could hear the gong ring as it passed through and then hit the gong behind,

I ran out of elevation before I could get zeroed POA/POI so I had to use hold over, I had to usea few mils down to act as a aiming point, I tell you these so you can see why the groups are not maybe what you hoped it would be. bare in mind its still a great group considering what I was using and maybe would not have been a lot better had it been a M40A1. Shooting past 900 yards with a 308 is a whole other world then just 500 or even really 800

of course when i got confident to move back another 200 yards,, my hold off increased in a way that would require me to be a PHD with a math degree to have a word to describe it, But I was amazed to see how well it did do.

conditions were damn close to perfect for this time of year. no wind. not enough magnification to really have a lot of mirage. and hot enough to give my ammo a little more heat and shoot a hair flatter. sometimes that happens, but its not really something you can count on obviously.

I spent about 40 rounds getting on target and figuring my hold before I shot so I had limited ammo for the official "groups" adn I wanted to save enough ammo for 1200 yards, even though i didnt expect to do well.

I will get back to it this weekend or next not I kjnow what I need to do to get on faster.

load I used was federal gold medal cases, 44.5 grains of varget, and a BR primer with berger 175 grain VLD bullets. its a hand load. but if you want to hit that far, you pretty much need handloads. so above is the 1st 1000 yard test in all its raw form. I will have more to come to see if it can be repeated.





ETA the un marked holes way off on the left side of the target backer are from 1200 yards as well, I forgot to mark them, but since they were ranging shots I didnt feel they mattered. Not for record I guess you could s

I'm fairly sure you kilt the bad guy, maybe even neutered him

Good report, I have been meaning to try some 175's in my AR10. Sure do think I like 20" barrels, however...

looking foward to the release date, suspect tho' it may take awhile for me to get my hands on one but hey, I waited this long for my first "black" rifle. Can imagine the first will be grabbed up quickly.

Looks cool, but the SCAR-17 is still a pound and a half lighter, and only requires scope rings, not a heavier/taller AR optic mount, so more weight savings. If and when the price drops on the SCAR and mags become available (RSR is currently bulk shipping them to dealers) THAT is the gas-op 308 to beat.

Im not sure I agree take a Knee


the magas for the SCAR H go almost 100 buck s each, while the colt Pmag is about 17 bucks

The colt only needs rings to mount scope as well. the T-1 aimpoint is a special case. rings are rings regardless of what you mount them on and high or low there is little difference
the SCARH has had reports of a few problems and ergonomics on it are not as great as hyped. The reciprocating Charging handle on either side with optics will tear skin off your knuckles if not careful. also if anything touches it will firing it has a failure to feed/fire every time. the light barrel of the SCAR heats up and has massive POI shifts/ this is why the sniper support version of the scar has tried to address these problems.


further SOCOM has stopped placing orders for the SCAR. The Rangers started a deployment with them adn ended it with something else because they did not like the SCAR as much as everyone told them they would. To add to that the stock of the SCAR has plenty of problems. AR10 type ARs have modularity and so many after market parts and support the FN cant compare. Add to that the ease of working on the AR type rifles at home then the scar is less and less the great rifle it is made out to be and more of the "oh socom uses it!! I want one too"

I feel the SCAR is no where the rifle as the 901 is. I would take the LMT MWS or the SIg 716 before the SCARH. but that is my worthless two cents

Dang...I see SCAR 17 mags for $40-$50 all the time...maybe I should be buying them up.

$33 is the wholesale price and RSR is shipping them to dealers now. As the SCAR-17's ergs, I think they are bad to the bone. Haven't shot one yet but I will before I buy anything else.

Pretty is as pretty does. I want one and a 5.56 upper.

Expat

this rifle is making me rethink a 30 caliber AR....again..

I may have to sell a few others to buy it but that guy with a Leup 3.5 x 10 on it would be for me anyway would be a lot of fun to own and shoot. I already reload 308 so gosh I am halfway there!

the 901 is truly awesome

but remember it is meant as a battle rifle. not a sniper rifle. It is accurate but its still not a M110 or a M40A5

think of it as a DM rifle. I think that is a better description for its accuracy level. Obviously it will do some good work though. But I hope no one gets the impression its a long range sniper.

some more accuracy testing today

Colts don't shoot, everyone knows that.

I finally had a chance to read this thread and look forward to getting my hands on a sample to try first hand.

I have used some M110s/SR25s that had a hard time producing groups as good as those posted in the pics above. That being said, shooting a gas gun (vs a bolt gun) really well is an acquired skill and usually requires a good bit of continual practice.

I have to agree with the comments about the 168 grain ammo. I really don't know hardly anyone who uses it these days though.

yeah you are dead right

some of those groups took me 10 minutes or longer to shoot. It is work to do so with a semi auto with a milspec trigger


its funny how the 168 is thought of as the best or standard when it is far from it these days. I do not know why any series long range shooter would insist on sticking with them.

The 168 isn't the best bullet past 300, but it is still a darn fine bullet for under 500. It is still a standard by which to compare everything else, even if it's only because everybody knows about it.

I agree Barry

but I stated it is not the standard for long range shooting that a lot of people think it is. I was speaking only toward Long range. Mainly 700-1000 yards,I suppose was not clear what I meant
it is a damn fine round for under 500 and it will do some good work to 800 but is far from ideal.

The 168 is always a solid performer in the 308 when you want to shoot groups at 100 yards for a baseline idea of the guns ability

here is my more detailed accuracy review if you guys want to read it

http://looserounds.com/2012/07/15/testing-the-colt-le901-16s-part-ii-accuracy-testing/

Part 3 if you want to read some more

http://looserounds.com/2012/07/25/the-colt-le901-part-iii-shooting-and-handling/

I'd like to see how it shoots from slung positions - Standing slow fire, sitting rapid, and prone slow & rapid. Not necessarily expecting you to shoot HM scores with it, but your impression on it's comfort and controlability from position would be interesting.