I sure was wrong...

DAA

DAA

Administrator
Staff member
So, little confession... I've always been a bolt gun snob. For whatever reasons, some I could explain, others I might not be able to explain, some reasons real, some reasons probably not so real, I just never cared for ARs.

Shot just a very few, just a little bit, here and there over the years. Of those few times, I... Hated the triggers, hated the sprong, hated the stocks, hated how loud they were, hated the lousy accuracy (of the few I shot). Oh, and I hated the way they looked, too
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I, personally, NEVER saw ANYONE shoot worth a crap with an AR in the field. Not that I was ever around many of them. But I'd go out bunny blasting once in awhile with guys using ARs and they invariably used four times as much ammo to kill one fourth as many rabbits as I would with my bolt guns. I've taken a handful of guys calling over the years that brought ARs and couldn't seem to make a clean kill on a coyote to save their ever loving lives. More misses and leg hits and gut shots and spinning yipping running escaping coyotes from one guy in one trip using an AR than I was accustomed to seeing in an entire season.

ARs just felt alien and foreign in my hands and unpleasant to shoot and I couldn't really imagine myself ever shooting well with one. So, I never owned one. Or wanted to own one.

But then, just this past season...

I got to shoot a friends "nice" AR doing some night hunting this year and the trigger wasn't horrible and it didn't sprong and it was suppressed so it wasn't stupidly loud and I actually hit pretty much whatever I shot at and killed coyote cleanly with it.

Went hunting with another friend, Steve, that uses ARs and he had no trouble dispatching his fair share of an 8 coyote day with it, including a triple he collected by himself while I watched helplessly with a shotgun. And in fact the only coyotes hit and lost that day were by me (shotgun...).

Steve has been telling me for a long time that the ergos on the AR make it just super easy to shoot well with. I just couldn't see it. I believed it was true "for him". But I didn't believe it could be true "for me".

So then, some stuff happened and things just lined up to where I decided I wanted an AR. So, I bought one.

Have only had it about a month. Long enough to now know, I was just wrong, wrong, wrong about the AR. Have put almost 600 rounds through it so far, in about a month. About 250 from the bench testing loads. And another 350 in two days of jump shooting jackrabbits.

The AR is the bestest most funnest most awesome bunny blaster EVER!

And, what I'm really writing to say here, all that stuff I had in my head about not being able to shoot one well because of how funky they are, that was just a bunch of hooey. I can't hardly believe how well I'm shooting with this thing in the field. Off hand, or occasionally kneeling, on jack rabbits, both the running and sitting variety. In the two days of using it on jacks, I've killed somewhere between about 150 and 175 jacks with it. Lot's of those have been jumped up nearly at my feet, gun comes up, sight picture is there, gun goes bang (soft bang, suppressed) and rabbit goes splat. All in about 1.5 seconds. Not infrequently in mid air, mid leap.

Bunnies sitting at 75 yards off hand, bang, splat. Bunnies sitting at 150 yards, take a knee, bang, splat. Bunnies hauling ace doing 30 MPH over the snow let to right, bang-bang-bang-splat. Okay, took me four, some even five, six shots, but when it comes to a full speed bunny, if it ends up getting skidded across the snow, I don't take those misses personal
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Yesterday, on one walk, I just got into the zone with it. Jacks were hopping up all around me in the snow and I was just on FIRE with that rifle. I was running off strings of six and seven hits in a row before missing. Had to start back for the Jeep after only about 500 yards because I was already into my second 20 round mag. Ended up killing over 30 jacks with 40 shots in 20 minutes. Just couldn't hardly believe it. I've turned into a LOUSY shot in recent years. Haven't run off a string of death like that in a LONG time!

Anyway... Just wanted to get it off my chest. I was a bolt gun snob. And I was wrong! This thing is as easy to shoot well as my friend has been trying to tell me. I'm still surprised by it. But I'm sure having a lot of fun with it. And that, really, is the thing. This rifle is just plain FUN!

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- DAA


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This post is nominated for Hunter of the Month. Sorry, the nifty little .gif isn't rotating, so all you see is "Nominated" for now.
 
I hear ya! Years ago no one could convince me to use a semi-auto over a bolt, we used to have long discussions about this, LOL. But using a bolt has taught me the importance of my first shot counting, sometimes I think that gets a little lost with some people nowadays figuring they have plenty of bullets left.
Now my AR's are my go-to rifles...go figure :)
 
I like them and I switch back and forth from the AR to my bolt actions. They are a hoot. My favorite is the 6x6.8 with 18" bbl and suppressed.
 
I carried heavy 26" bolts guns around for years, then I screwed together an AR with a good trigger and barrel. Legos for adults that are .5 moa capable. They just make sense.
 
It does take time to prove what one doesn't want to be true.
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I started P-Dog shooting maybe 10 years ago now, on WY antelope trips. While the processor made antelope burger and steaks, we would go P-dog shooting. I started out with one AR-15, just because I had an A4 Varmint upper, that I had no other use for(too heavy to hunt coyotes with), and several bolt actions. While the bolt guns shot itty bitty groups, and I could kill P-Dogs at surprising distances, I did it with the AR, too. And I didn't have to run the bolt and get back on target, when the shots needed adjustments. So the next trip, I had two ARs, and a couple of bolt guns. The next trip, I had two ARs, and one bolt gun. On the last trip, I had three ARs, and no bolt guns. I still have the bolt guns, but they stay home, until I get tired of semi-auto fun with great triggers, tiny groups, and fast follow-ups. Really the only kick against them is picking precious wildcat brass from the cacti. I am too lazy to put on brass catchers.
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Also you're a lucky man to have that many rabbits around. I lived in UT during college and I just loved walking through the sage jump shootin' jack rabbits with my 10/22 or Winchester 94/22 lever gun. It's a blast!
 
I'm glad you now have some positive feedback under your belt. As to killing and target hits it is more the guy at the operating surfaces than the platform..LOL

Greg
 
welcome to the darkside.


i too was misinformed as to what ar's were capable of - even based off limited personal experience of military-ish (iron sights, cheap handguards, etc) with el-cheapo milsurp ammo.

got my first one in the early early early Obummer years, and then started handloading and shot the best group of my life in that first test ladder. Wait, what? a 223 ar-15 isnt supposed to be able to have bullets touching at 100 yds.... needless to say, that ended my love of my 26" heavy barrel 700SPS real freaking quick.

like i tell everyone - modern AR's are not your uncle's m16 from the 60's back in 'nam that couldnt hit a barn from the inside.

we've had 50 year to improve on them and when you feed a modern one good ammo that it likes - well you still cant make a crappy shooter shoot better - but in the hands of a capable shooter, they can tell you a completely different story than what you might have thought or heard about them.


 
I learned the same lesson over 20 years ago. I couldn't believe any semi could shoot with a bolt gun, especially one that looked like these do. So I sprung for my first during the Clinton era. It killed it's share of pdogs even with the standard trigger and handguard. It's printed some impressive groups for a chrome lined Colt barrel. Then after the "ban" lifted in 04, and innovation kind of went nuts things kind of snow balled. My first with a custom barrel was a 26" bull barreled 204 and it shot many many many 5 shot groups in the .4"s and sent countless pdogs to eternal rest before it lost it's edge.

Of course with all the good groups and other info on the internet these days I didn't know it was a secret how well they shot.
 
welcome to the dark side officially. I was the same way. the problem for me was I really didn't fit into the crowd that even shot these guns typically. I would show up at the range and someone who was typically an inexperienced shooter would start wailing away with their short barreled Ar, that had a muzzle doohicky on it that would send gas waves and sound across all the shooting benches. this all the while I am trying to shoot as tight of groups as I could get. It would really irritate me. I still think most of the people shooting these guns are THOSE type guys. If it wasn't for all the banning threats after sandy hook I dunno if I would have ever got one. I relented and ordered one when the guns were tuffer to get, probably waited longer than you did, LOL. first trip to the desert wacking rocks and within the first 20 rounds I was like ummm holy crap I can hit with this thing.

I then setup some steel gongs and was banging them with ease. my calling rifle at the time, a BAT machine custom 243 AI, that I have probably 5 grand into, has only been out a couple times and not carried on a stand in 4 years. Sometimes its backup, but even that has quit happening lately. I still remember the first calling trip I did with the AR, EVERYTHING died. in fact the entire calling season that first year I did not miss a single coyote that I reasonably should have hit.

you did right by getting an RRA as your first gun. I wager no matter how all this shakes out for you its a gun you will not end up replacing. just like my first, its one of the least finicky barrels I have messed with. everything else gets horse traded and changed out but that original upper isn't going anywhere. I did put a low pro gas block on it and changed the plastic plain clam shell handguards to a midwest industries gen 2 SS handguard but other than that, its as it was.

if the disease starts to spread, the next phase I call........little six,
 
I've had my share of ARs from basic to full customs over the years. Had some fun , but never had a true love affair with any of them. P-dog hunting with them was prob the most fun , but to easy to burn way more ammo. Don't have any of ARs anymore, don't plan on it either. Not against , just not my thing.

Sorry you got bit, Dave.
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Originally Posted By: barkDAA, what trigger did you decide on?

Went with the TriggerTech Adaptable. Have it as low as it will go, which is 2.5 lbs on my rifle. Heavier than I'm used to, but nice and crisp.

Tried a Giessele High Speed National Match too, busted quite a few jacks and shot some groups with it. Tough call between the two. I think I liked it more off the bench. But I like the TT more for field shooting - it's a lot more like what I'm used to.

- DAA
 
They can be made very accurate now days. I use a 20" 8 twist in 223 Wylde and last weekend put 10 rounds in a 3.4" group at 600 yards, Next 10 rounds were 5.9" group, Next 10 were 6.5". Majority was wind calls and such but to be able to do that with a $175 barrel, i was happy.
This weekend we were busting spray paint cans at 600 yards practicing our wind calls.
Even the 18" 308 AR10 put together last year, 1.5-2" groups at 300 yards and 7.5" groups at 800 yards.

Now i have helped friends with theirs and some were shotgun patterns at 100 yards. Some were horrible at 12" groups some were decent. Its all in the setup [beeep]. Some expect 1/4" groups with a $50 pencil barrel. Some buy a really high quality barrel and feed it 62gr HP Wolf and cant figure out why they cant hit a piece of paper twice at 100 yards.

This is my all time favorite.
Buddy brings me his rifle saying he cant get it to zero.
Put a scope of mine on it that i know is good with a good mount. Get it on paper and back out to 100 yards. Shot 25 rounds Wolf 62gr HP slow and this is what happend..
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Cleaned the barrel really good and loaded some 53gr Vmax with Benchmark.
3 shots after fouling it with 5 shots.
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He was kinda happy but still had 950 rounds of the junk ammo..
 
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I hope one day the platform is further developed for accuracy. I think the next step would be heated specially fitted upper that is tightly fitted to the barrel. basically the upper has to be heated to 300 degrees, the barrel extension cooled with liguid nitrogen. then both are fitted. I mean really why not an upper is like 40 bucks now days. why not sell these as fitted to the barrel? maybe a tad more metal in the receiver to barrel extension fit.

lastly I would like to see cartridges developed that have around the 6.5 br case compacity size. That also can be ran at full pressures in the platform. this might require a hybrid length setup. a case that holds 40 grains and operates at 65kpsi, with plug and play parts.
 
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