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

Good shooting either way.

Thanks wareagle. This is a great thread and the ten shot group does present a heck of a challenge. I'm use to shooting five shot groups as the norm....May have to switch up to the ten shot as it really does tell the tale of what the rifle, loads, and shooter can do.

IMHO it often tests the shooter more so than the components. Assuming good components to start with.

But learning to shoot great 10 or even up to 22 plus shot groups repetitively sure helped my overall shooting for years..

Not that I"m anything great at shooting actually, but consistency never hurts.

Can we use a home built 308 from parts which were put together?

I'm sure you'll do just fine with bags. I've noticed that my shooting isn't improved much by going with a good front rest vs. a front and rear bag. Damn nice shooting though buddy...

Thanks BSA.

I hope you're right....I think you are. I bought this rest years back thinking it would be an improvement over the leather front bags I used before....It's not. I've tried out and actually prefer the larger bags that Caldwell makes. They just seem to conform to the rifle better. Saw others on this thread use em with good success. One will find its way onto a future order....I can sense it.

Absolutely. Can be any semi auto rifle.

I've since assembled a Noveske barreled faux-SPR. Might see what I could run in it this weekend.

Tex.. this is one of the more real world, eye-opening threads in a while. No need to let it die

OK gentlemen, I was able to get a few minutes at the range this evening - this time with bags

Two sequential ten shot groups with 50gr AMax and 23.8gr of 3031 in Fioochi cases. I did make one slight change to these loads vs my last go. Rather than running them on the progressive, I did em on the single stage and weighed each charge. Also went from a CCI400 to a REM 6 1/2.



Rifle:
RR Predator Pursuit upper
SSA-E
Standard A2 stock and grip
16X SS on a SSALT







First group was 0.808"
Second group was 0.621"
Average of the two is 0.715"

Thanks again to wareagle for putting this challenge out there. It really is a great test of the rifle, load, and the person behind both.

Great shooting!

That RRA would be making a lot of flies land in some mouths around here.

Thank you gentleman for the kind words. I feel I got lucky whith this upper.

It shot well with factory Fiocchi and I attempted to replicate those loads with my own.

Awesome man. I knew you could do it. Great shooting!! Looks like about a .6829 moa average... Judges will have to confirm that, but that will probably place you in the top 10 I believe... Maybe even top 3-5...

Wareagle-, I really enjoyed this thread and all the participants and want to thank you for that.

With better weather I might get out and give it a go myself.

Again, one of the better 'Fire threads. Great idea!

I agree George. A lot of members joined in and participated. Pretty damn positive posts without the chit flinging you see in the other forums. Pretty much a put up or shut up. I like that... Even GFY deflave joined in... I still haven't bought an AR, but this thread reminds me I need to get one here shortly...

I know the judging is over for this challenge. Are you guys going to have another similar event soon? I just bought my first AR!!!!!! Worked up some loads using 69gr. sierra's and going to the range today. We'll see how it goes.. Great thread guys..

I finally got around to shooting my PSA KS-47, i.e. an AR in 7.62x39, that takes AK mags. Despite a basic mil-spec trigger and gusting winds it was no problem keeping 5 in 1-1.25" at 100. Need to load some more handloads and seriously sit down with it.

Damn that sounds good. Tex, were those handloads or military/commercial?

Regarding the RRA Varmint, my uncle and a cousin both own them and theirs shoot great, too.

I also found this thread very interesting when I found it shortly after it started. I also found it VERY frustrating! I have a 16 inch lightweight Syrac upper that shoots 77 MK and 8208 well. I have shot many 5 shot groups in the .5s. So when the challenge started and I saw some of the targets, I thought I would do well in the rankings. By the time I was done, I felt humbled!

After seeing the thread I headed to the range and shot two 10 round groups. They both had nice clusters, but a "flier" or two opened them up to a little over an inch. I knuckled down and tried again with the same results. I "knew" I had a half inch set-up, so I thought it must have been the little breeze and gave up for the day. Latter, I tried again with the same results. So I got really anal with my loads. Neck-turned, weighed, uniformed, de-burred, bullets seated less than .001 run out, etc. Still no difference.

So I started load work up over. 50 and 60 Vmax, 50 Sierra, 69 MK, 75 Hornady BTSP and Amax and 73 ELD M and 77 CC.8208, tac, Varget, and H4895, CCI 400, 450, and my usual Rem 7.5. All sorts of seating depths and I did OCW and ladder testing. I was at the range shooting on a cement bench with wind flags out. Just to check the loads I shot over a heavy rest instead of my usual bipod. I tried pads under the bipod. I tried free recoil and different rear bags. I switched scopes. I finally thought it must be the light weight barrel. So I bought a new gun.

This one had 170 rounds on it when I got it and a Rock Creek 18 inch medium weight (SPR?) barrel on it. It had the SSA-E trigger. (First rifle had SSA). Both have the Wylde chamber. I spent A LOT of time at the range. It is a good thing the saying "die trying" isn't literal in this case. I can shoot my heavy Krieger barrelled 308 10 under an inch, so I thought if I just kept working at it, I'd find a load that would do it consistently in one of the ARs.

To summarize, I never did. I get CLOSE, but I can't do it "all day long". And I never got around to taking pictures and posting them because I was waiting for the two ten round groups under an inch. My guns shoot great clusters, but somewhere in there, I mess it up.! I stopped short of getting a heavy barrel. That way I don't need to lug it around for gophers, and I can still blame this on the guns!