The gun is a post-ban Bushmaster XM15-E2S with a JP trigger and thousands of rounds down the 16.5" 1:9 H-Bar barrel. The bore gets cleaned every trip to the range. The action gets cleaned every so often.



At 100 yards The American Eagle ball ammo is good but not great:



Yesterday I tried 7 different factory loads that were accumulated over the years. The gun wore a modern 1.5-4x20mm scope (Leupold VX-Freedom) . Best results were with the moderately priced American Eagle 50 gr.:





Next trip to the range will be with a higher power scope (Leupold VX-3i 4.5-14x40mm AO) and the goal will be to maximize accuracy:

Use appropriate target
Take my time
Control breathing
Shoot when the adjacent shooters are not shooting
Let barrel cool between shots
Adjust bipod to be steady and comfortable
Rear bag to adjust vertical aim
Consistent cheek weld and eye relief
Concentrate on smooth trigger pull

That looks pretty good.

Looking forward to next report.

I have a Vari-X III 4.5-14x40 AO on one of mine. Don't shoot that one much, though.

I can't remember but I think the HBAR barrels were chrome lined, I know I had a pencil barrel that was chrome lined and it shot well too.

I know the V Match barrels they offered were not chrome lined and shot very well and their Varminters shot exceptionally well.

Some opined that because they couldn't cover up the crown with a flash hider, they had to do it right. But I know the ban era models shot better than most do now.

I like your rifle bushmaster. I thought you put a higher power scope on it to really wring it out, a while back. You should check into the swfa ss 12x or 16x.

You are going to wear the barrel out by cleaning it...

FWIW don't be too surprised unless you shoot additional ammo, that the extra power of the scope or taking time between shots and letting cool etc... doesn't get your groups a lot smaller.

That's assuming you have the shooting fundamentals down correctly already.

Why do people still refer to these as "pre-ban" or "post ban?"

Because in certain states a pre- ban gun will get you three hots and a cot

Good luck bushmaster. Since you will be going for ultimate accuracy, print up some black rifle challenge targets and shoot that. 2 10 shot groups side by side, on the same piece of paper tells you a lot about the accuracy you are getting from said rifle.

Ordered 10 boxes of the AE223G for two reasons
1) Federal could discontinue
2) New Jersey could restrict online sales to going through an FFL. LGS will not want the bother