Home Forums Hunting & Shooting AR and Tactical Rifles 24HC Black Rifle Challenge Thread

My bud had two of the 40's, unique is a good word for the product.

It may be "unique", but for those kind of sights he really didn't do too bad...

I'm not sure if this challenge is still going on, but I finally got a chance to shoot it yesterday and thought I'd submit my results.

Rifle used is a Smith and Wesson M+P 15 with a 16" barrel with a 1-9 twist. I bought this rifle a few years ago with the sole purpose of getting into a black rifle for the least money possible. The only thing I've changed on the gun is to get rid of the faux adjustable stock and put on a cheap DSA 6 position tube and a Magpul MOE stock. Other than that the rifle is completely stock.

The optics are a Burris FFII 2-7x35 scope mounted in Weaver rings on a Weaver riser block. It's not a pretty mounting system, but it's strong and works well.



Ammo was a bit of a problem. I scrounged around to find 20 or more of something that wasn't military or ball ammo and came up with 21 rounds of USA 45gr. JHP bulk varmint ammo that I bought in the early 90's. (Price tag on the box reads less than $12 for 40 rounds. Wish I had stocked up on it.) I used one round to make sure the point of impact would be on paper somewhere and was pleased to see that it happened to be pretty well zeroed.

The range is the usual meadow behind my reloading barn. I had just brush hogged, so the grass and weeds were not a problem. I shoot slightly downward from a second story window in my barn, which, combined with the rise in elevation of the land makes for a good backstop.



Per rost's suggestions here, I did a bit of dry firing to get used to the bags and bench arrangement.



I fired the 10 shot groups pretty quickly, actually surprising myself when the bolt locked back.

Target 1 - 2.4". When I started shooting, I could see the 2 high fliers, but couldn't see where the rest of the shots landed. It wasn't until I checked the target that I realized shots 1 and 2 screwed up a pretty nice group.



I waited several minutes before firing target 2. I had to reload my 10 round magazine and I was also keeping an eye on my son, who was playing up at the house, meaning that I had to get up and go to the window in the other end of the barn to make sure he was still there and safe.

Target 2 - 1.82". This one was shot with about the same speed as target 1. Maybe 2-3 seconds between shots. The trigger in this rifle is pretty heavy, so my system was to quickly re-align the crosshair with the blue tape on the target and smoothly squeeze off the shot.



Looks like my combined score is 2.11". I was hoping for better, but I haven't even shot this gun since last fall and that was just a single shot to confirm short range zero for the purpose of using it as a backup rifle while hunting with my son. (If he shot and simply winged his deer, I was going to open up on it so he wouldn't lose his first deer). This rifle usually throws 3 shots into nice little groups and it might do better with some ammo built for the gun - something that I've never done.

I was hoping for better, but this gives me a benchmark to work from. Maybe I'll take some time and craft some ammo just for this rifle and see what it'll do. One thing is certain, those 10 round groups will keep a guy honest.

Yes, challenge is still going on. Submissions have slowed down a bit but I will still update the leader board every few pages.

Good shooting. I have ammo loaded to shoot this again, just need the time.

This is impressive. I don't know who he is other than being affiliated with GA Precision but he seems very comfortable behind a gas gun.

https://youtu.be/DoH0IytAFXw

Just had a friend cut and crown a barrel for a friend... he is really particular, and a shooting partner of ours for years.

Just got his lathes etc... 10 months ago.

He is going to do all the BR treatment to an AR upper, and see if he gets any better accuracy than standard. Should be fun.

Tells me he'll show me how to set up barrels and i"m welcome to come barrel anything I have at any time in the future.

Heck of a deal. Maybe I'll get a super accurate AR for once...

Would be nice if you could take pictures and do a little comparison write-up.

Nez first test is a bolt action that has an AR barrel extension in it. His first go is to run a normal AR barrel setup, and shoot it.

Then go to all the extra trouble to really work a BR type setup to the most precise everything involved and shoot that.

Then take both barrels and put them on the same AR lower adn see what, if anything changes.

Unfortunately he is 2 hours from me, and I won't be there for most any of this, but if you want some pictures whenver I get time to barrel soemthing, will do that.

I know we indicated the bore, to within half of 1/1000th inch before we cut it and crowned it for my BILs rifle that was giving him fits, bolt gun though, not AR. Be interesting to see if it changes anything.

I did find by running in ground pins to find diameter that the first 1.5 inches or so of the barrel was oversize, cleaning rod issues with the previous owner? We clipped that section right off really quickly.

The thread is still interesting. I have a new barrel for the heavy .308, that I'll probably install this month, plus some of the new tipped 168 Matchkings.

I'm still trying to decide what to do with the Mk12

I got my Reardon steel barrel (it sure looks like coated SS) in and decided to try the new BCM hand guard, it's on it's way. Will try to get it running before vacation and I'll see how it does in the challenge.

I did order their high dollar gas block since they already drilled holes in the barrel for 3 set screws to line it up and the holes didn't match the standard 2 hole pattern. Funny to me though, they make such a big deal out of their light weight PredatAR but the gas block is huge. I think I'll cut the front half off and maybe even drill some lightening holes in it then parkerize it.

The barrel finish work does look good though.

Cool, will be cool to see how the reardon steel works.

I suspect like anyhting out of Marks shop, it'll shoot better than most shooters.

One thing that stands out is every cut looks like a mirror finish, bore and all.

Thats really good to hear, sounds like much more than a button tube, and likely hand lapped like the best bores always should be.

Bartlein is top of my lists for no question bores right now. A buddy has one about to go on an AR, and he aint' a shabby shot either, love to see how that turns out and how yours does.

Still can't argue with your pricing thats for sure.

Thanks for posting this video wareagle..

The fancy new light for my borescope showed up, so I started looking at barrels. Obviously, the borescope doesn't tell you dimensional accuracy, but it will show you gross issues - roughness, uneven appearance, other defects.

The best looking barrel on the inside was actually the Shilen/Rainier AR-10 barrel. The bull barreled 5.56 Armalite, which is currently in 2nd place, looks almost as good.

An AR-10 bull barrel that has proven so-so in the past has reamer marks in it; I have another one that looks better, so I think I'll swap them and try it this weekend.

One that was really interesting was the Daniel Mk12, which had disappointed me - It looks pretty good on the inside, but the muzzle has no chamfer at all. Nada. I'm thinking before I buy another barrel, I'm going to chamfer the muzzle and see if that helps.

CHamfer?

Crown?

the BR guys are going back to flat crowns from what I hear lately.

It would be nice to have a G.A. Precision in 6.5 creedmore if you had $5000 lying around somewhere.

Or you could go to a smith that didn't charge for their name, and just have a good barrel chambered for that creedmoor put on...

I have some rifles that shoot pretty well, not even close to 5000 for them..

It ain't no BR barrel. I'm thinking of chamfering it just to see if that helps. If not, it's likely to go away. Of course being a nitrided barrel it will probably eat up the cutter in the process!

... I'm not that picky. Give me one in 308...