Tag: accuracy

Well, that’s interesting/unusual . . .

RI RedLeave a comment

So, the AR10 has had two overnight soaks, one in Wipe-Out and one in Hoppes’ version of the same thing – I’ll have to look later for the name. But I’m still getting views of carbon streaks between the lands:

I got out the CLP, brush and patches and this is what I got on the first pass after scrubbing:

Back to the scope. Better, but still carbon remaining:

Tried again, but still got filthy black fouling. Back to a Wipeout soak overnight. That fouling is really baked in. I assume that the barrel is getting hotter with a faster rate of fire than a bolt action. Probably means more frequent cleaning.

Speaking of cleaning, I had picked up some .308 range brass likely left over from a winter shoot and under the snow till I got there last week. A pic showed how nasty it was:

I let it run in the tumbler another time overnight. The results were better:

It’s all PMC, and when I ran it through my go/no go gauge, it was all fine. None needed trimming, so I suspect it is not once-fired brass. I’ll load up a few and see how it shoots. At least it’s cleaner than the rifle.

As long as we are going there . . .

RI Red2 Comments

Since the scope was still out and I’d never looked inside the AR-10 barrel:

Clearly some carbon fouling down next to the lands and a bit of copper on them.

Ramps to the lands are dirty but not much in the way of erosion.

Lots of carbon at the mouth and inside the chamber. Not surprising with a direct impingement gas system.

Gas port is clear, maybe a little wear or buildup on the left.

Time for some Wipe-Out!

Post-Rifleoscopy

RI RedLeave a comment

The “After” pictures. Remember, if you see blue, it means copper fouling.

Shiny clean lands:

End of chamber, ramping up to lands. Not much throat erosion.

And crown at end of barrel:

3,000 plus rounds. Wipeout for the win.

Scopes. Nope, not that kind.

RI RedLeave a comment

At a certain age the doc wants to check things under the hood. Well, more like via the tailpipe. Since I’m scheduled for one soon, it got me thinking about scopes. In this case, a borescope.
I hadn’t scoped the 6.5 in a while, so I fired up my Teslong bore scope. No, not Tesla, and if anyone keys any of my stuff . . .

Anyway, I did a quick bore clean so the scope could get a good look. First thing I noticed – lots of copper on the lands. A little copper smooths out imperfections in the rifling, but too much is counterproductive.

Next, check the throat for erosion. Not much at all. What you’re seeing is the end of the chamber, the leade, and the ramping up to the rifling.

Here’s the crown at the end of the barrel:

And the blowout hole in the chamber wall:

So, best tool for the job:

WIPEOUT!!! (The Surfaris?) With Wipeout, you spray the stuff down the barrel and up the breech. It immediately foams out everywhere, which explains the paper towels.

I’m going to let it soak overnight and then do another rifleoscopy. With before and after pix, of course.

Predator Precision Presently

RI RedLeave a comment

Yesterday at the range, shooting to compare from five years ago:

Center – fouling and sighters, plus one round with damaged meplat Still, .763”.

Upper left – Hornady 140 ELD Match. Cases sorted and bullets weighed. .459”.

Upper right – Nosler Competition 140 HPBT. .281”. Yes, that is three shots.

Lower left – Hornadys, again, but unsorted brass and loaded ages ago. The flyer puts it at 1.033”, but .226” without.

Lower right – My last two Hornady 140 SSTs from the bullet shortage during the Plandemic; they were all I could find at the time. .742”.

I think I’m going to write to Ruger to tell them that this 5 year old rifle, with over 3,000 rounds through it, still shoots well.

Predator Precision

RI RedLeave a comment

As I was falling asleep last night, I was trying to remember all of the upgrades I did to the rifle. Of course, I bedded it. Then, I

  1. Changed out the magazine from four to AICS and ten rounds.
  2. Adjusted the stock trigger down.
  3. Added a muzzle brake.
  4. Ordered a suppressor.
  5. Received the suppressor 14 months later.
  6. Swapped out the trigger.
  7. I forget.

Let’s see about photos during this process:

Then I went to Texas with some shooting buddies/budettes.

I was the only one to engage the 750 target out next to the big tree. First shot left edge. Adjust. 3 good ones. A buddy knew I could shoot ok, but didn’t know how much. He brought back this pic:

I went out today to see if my 5 year old rifle with over 3000 rounds through it was still functioning. I’ll show you tomorrow.

Predator Precision

RI RedLeave a comment

I remember seeing the first ads come out for the 6.5 Creedmoor round in about 2008. Usually second page on the right side of American Rifleman or other magazines – the best ad placement. I didn’t pay much attention as it did not seem to be anything I needed or wanted. It looked sort of funny with all that bullet exposed, compared to sensible rounds like 5.56.

But I kept noticing it over the years, and it gained in popularity. In the 20 teens I was reloading for 5.56, .243 Winchester and .223 Winchester Super Short Magnum (that was a real barn burner at over 4,000 fps muzzle velocity. Barrel burner, too.) When I decided to reach out very long distances, the 6.5 Creedmoor seemed like the way to go.

But pricing of those rifles was just out of reach. That is, until Ruger came along. The Predator was well under a grand, and it was getting great accuracy reviews. But it had a really crappy, flimsy plastic stock and a tiny 4-round magazine. Still, it had a rep for shooting straight.

When I took mine out of the box, the first thing I noticed was that the free-floated barrel wasn’t. The right side of the fore-end was right up against the barrel. Thus began the first of many fixes/improvements/upgrades. Sandpaper took care of the first.
So, how did she shoot. First shots:

Two sighters, then three vertically. OK! We can work with this. Then a dining room table picture to show 1 MOA:

And I shot Federal Premium until I had enough brass to start reloading.

Now we are cooking.

Ooh! A quarter MOA.

And at 300 yards?

Yep, fairly accurate. Tomorrow, we’ll talk about upgrades. And then maybe some long distance shooting?

What the heck is an “Aspirin Shoot”?

RI Red2 Comments

Well, d’oh. You get up early in the morning and scout those little rascals and blast the heck out of them . .

Really, though, you have to get up pretty early in the morning to claim your favorite shooting table at the club. The rock solid one that gives you the best angle on those little devils.
Here is the course of fire: Aspirin at 50 yards. Tums at 100. Know Your Limits steel at 150. Same at 200. .22 caliber only, but any rifle you want. Bipod and rear bag only.

10 aspirin on your individual cardboard target. One fluorescent sighter target. You may take up to 10 sighter shots, but once on the aspirin, you cannot go back. One shot per aspirin. If the round touches any part of the aspirin it is a hit. Yes, black wax streak on the side is a hit. Max score of 10.

Same thing at 100 yards with Tums. Word to the wise – this is the hardest stage.

At 150, the 5 hanging KYL targets start at 8” diameter and go down to 2.5”. You must hit each target before going on to the next. Once you hit the smallest one, you keep shooting at it.

200 yards is the same. So max score possible is 40 points. On a great day the winning score is 32-34 points. On a cold winter day in blowing snow, low 20s will win.
So what rifle do you use? At least at our club, everyone started out with Ruger 10-22s, and shot CCI Standard. But is wasn’t long before ammo changed to Eley, SK, Wolf, and rifles changed to CZ, Ruger

Precision Rimfire, and the like. My own upgrades were the Christiansen Ranger and the Ruger Precision Rimfire.

Let’s take a look:

This is the best I’ve shot. 9/10. Pretty sure won that day with a 34.

Tums are tuff. At 100, wind really kicks in.

An 8 will keep you in the running.

This is what you are shooting at.

And it looks like this:

Some people say that .22 at 200 yards is similar to large caliber at 1000. I tend to agree. The .22 LR is an anemic round; it gets pushed around by the wind a lot. But it’s been around for a hundred and fifty years and is arguably the most popular caliber. It is hard to shoot well at distance.

But would you stand there and offer to be a target? I don’t think so.

Accurizing the Ruger 10-22, Part 5

RI RedLeave a comment

A quick recap to see how we got here:

  1. Barrel free-floated.
  2. Receiver bedded.
  3. Pillar and new escutcheon bedded in place.
  4. New trigger group installed.
  5. New action screw to receiver torque-tested.
  6. Receiver tune-up parts installed.

At this point I’ve put about $150.00 and many man-hours into the project. My initial conclusions were that I had increased accuracy somewhat, and that it was a fun project. But final testing after finding the proper torque on the pillar-bedded rifle showed a significant improvement – from over an inch at 50 yards to just over 1/2”. For a stock 20 year-old Walmart-purchased Ruger 10-22, I’ll take that.

However.

Before I had figured out the absolute criticality of torque on the action screw, I was getting such inconsistent results that I thought that I’d just order a new barrel. I also wanted to shoot suppressed; therefore it needed to be threaded. Off to Green Mountain.

Now, the original barrel is stainless, 21”. There is constant discussion about the perfect .22 barrel length – 16, 18, 22”? My Aspirin Shoot rifles are 16” and are under 1 MOA. I decided to try the Green Mountain stainless, threaded 16.25” bull barrel.

But to install it, we have to change our bedding.

Off to the range!

Sorry, the Dirty Bird targets don’t splash with .22. But unsuppressed we get groups of CCI Standard – .846, .544 1 F; Wolf – .457, .346 1 F; SK Rifle Match – .618, 1.00; and CCI Green Tag – .861, .744 1 F.

Suppressed is a little easier to see. We get CCI Standard at 1.126, 1.207 1 F (ouch!); Wolf – .343, .615 1F; SK – .658, .847; and CCI GT – .861, .645 1F.

Looks like my old standby, CCI Standard is out of the running, at least when suppressed? But all in all, the barrel seems to perform very well with some ammo and decently with other. My one regret is that the rifle no longer feeds Eley ammo. That stuff is superb in my Aspirin Shoot rifles. Unfortunately, it has a flat nose with a little cone in the center (patented!). The flat nose catches on the chamber edge and turtles.

And that’s the end of this story. 😇 Don’t worry. There’s more. Much more. Can you say “Aspirin Shoot”?

Accurizing the Ruger 10-22. Part 3.

RI RedLeave a comment

Yes, she’s shooting pretty well, but unintended consequences rears its ugly head: the pillar raises the barrel a bit more up off of the fore-end, so the scope zero has now gone much higher. I’ll need at least a 30 MOA ramp to bring it down.

Well, 30 MOA didn’t cut it. Turns out I needed much more. So I grabbed the old 20 MOA ramp and commenced to filing. Comes in at about 45-50 MOA.

Now that’s a ramp! However . . . The forward mounting screw now sticks down into the receiver and binds the bolt enough to keep it from going into battery. Hmmmm. That’s what dremels are made for.
But now I have the MOAs to shoot at 300 yards with no hold-over.

Looks like this rifle likes CCI Standards for regular chow (although I know she like some brands of match-grade ammo for dessert). More on that later.

She sprays most other kinds. Looking at past data, CCI Standard groups have gone from an average of 1.71” at 50 yards to 0.682”. That’s down 0.489”, almost a full half inch and 1 MOA! Accurizing successful, so far.

But from a low of 0.373” and a high of 1.03”, both with a flyer, I’m still not completely happy. Almost time for a Part 4.