finally a day that I get to be an hour late to the dock AND.. have cell signal enough to read....
I've not had a barrel extension/reciever loose enough to matter.. yet... but loctite and or a smidge of bedding compound could solve it. I'd prefer not to though personally. Locks the barrel to the receiver. and it may ruin the receiver getting it out. Surely don't use 640....
Barrel and its assembly is most important to me. Most of the rest is fluff. Even a float tube. But a tube prevents barrel tension if you sling up. There is a way around that though by proper use of the sling.
Most ARs will shoot MOA. With the right load. I've yet to see one that wouldn't shoot MOA with a 5 shot group at 100. That said we each define parameters as we wish. BSA has his 10 shot thing and thats his call. But typically it always was 5 shots into an inch or less, even if thats not exactly MOA is what I"m talking about. At 100 yards. And just because you can shoot 10 into MOA at 100 doesn't nearly mean you can at 600. But you have a start.
As to the time limits for rapid in NRA/CMP lets just say it can't be all that easy if most folks are not shooting 200s in those matches. Especially the CMP no sighter matches. I"ve shot sub MOA groups in 300 rapid and they be in the 9 ring. Due to lighting, or wind etc... or just me. RE irons. I've never shot a scoped match in my life. FWIW.
Once most people are shooting clean then NRA typically makes the target harder. Have not heard that mentioned yet. Heck I've not even heard that we have this whole slew of 500/800s shot now since going to optics. And since having guns capable of MOA are so common out there one would think everyone would be shooting them. But the whole issue is the loose nut behind the butt. They often think its easy and simple and find out its not quite that. I know I never thought it would be simple to shoot well. And it never was. And I certainly never was a top shooter either. But somehow I ended up after years with a high master in across the course and long range. Blind hog finding an acorn as it was.
Since BSA shoots what he wants, when he wants at their ranges, its hard for me to swallow the fact that rapids are simple to him. They may be. He may might could be a 200 shooter in rapids all the time. But there are lots of other things going on in a position match vs shooting 10 in 10 seconds off a bench with a bipod and scope. Each has its own issues.
Maybe its time we get BSA into shooting high-power ever weekend for a year and see what we get? LOL. Probably hand me my tail. Shooting is shooting. But its not. IF it was then I"d do ok at any match style I entered. That is far from the case. Usually not at the bottom, but not at the top. The more actually sanctioned matches you get in of all types though the better you get because of many things including stress. We shot silhouette of all kinds. Bullseye pistol. Smallbore 3-4 position. Palma(with a service rifle). Long range. Mid range. 3 gun. IDPA. IPSC. lots of local range thrown together stuff which I did usually win, since they were not really that challenging and almost never involved positions. Probably forgetting some. But shotguns prove shooting is not shooting. I rarely hit 50% with them...
And yes, praise the Lord, I probably will shoot a match on the 7th for the first time since 2004. I have zero gear up here. But this really good guy I know is loaning a gun and ammo so I can play. Not even sure my eyes will see 600 anymore. But the gun might even have optics on it. I really wish we were swamped with trips like a normal year. Going to be really hard to pay bills this year, but hey, we had a day off yesterday, got in a helo, flew up to a lake, and fished the stream back out to a river pickup. It was slow, but we missed more than we landed, as was 3 of us guides landed 60 rainbows in a 11 hour day. Lost well over 60 in the little creek. Nothing over 22ish inches but all topwater fly rod mousing mostly. A blast.
Fishing was slow to start. But pretty good now. Cannot get a 50 plus pound King to the net yet. Certainly would have by now if we had lots of clients. But we are only taking one trip a day right now and doing lots of maintenance work. Had one over 50 coming to the top the other day after about 25 minutes, needed about 5 minutes more but hook pulled. Only lures and a single hook allowed. Catch an release. 35s are the biggest I have netted so far. Happy clients though.
Lets cross our fingers on Tuesday. Have an early charter that morning and then haul tail to Wasilla for a ride.
BTW let me address the OP first post numbers
1 can't hurt.
2 no. It actually does, by a tiny bit but its not worth it. Only visible at 300 yards to my tests and then bedding upper to lower is better than a wedge one side only. Plus the wedge or orings flex... you don't want flex when you talk bedding
3 no
4 no
5 its important not to over torque
6 not my thing
7 Favorite barrel is usually what a smith suggests.... only exception is I"ll never use a Douglas ever again
8 they don't make a gun shoot better so to speak but they allow you to get the most accuracy you can. Generally simply due to vibration nodes
9no
10no
11no. But if you don't have a good mount or scope you won't know if the gun can shoot. But I've shot groups around 1.5 inches at 600, 5 shots testing, with the old mount in the handle of an A2.. and regularly got 3-4 inch groups at that range
12no, but again see 11
13 won't hurt, but then again we used to be limited to A2... so while they can't hurt, others can do well
14 No. But it helps as noted above on sling tension,. I":d think with a bipod too but I"ve never shot an AR off a bipod. Sling or bags.
Gotta run. Dock and boat await.
Jeff
