Friday, May 02, 2014

Virgin no more. The SBR shoots. And scores

Off to the range today with the new short-barreled rifle (SBR).


I fired one box of factory Remington 220gr. loads to check function and dial in the back-up sights. It's now "minute of paper plate" at 50 yards, which I chose because the heavy bullet loaded to low velocity to stay suppressed really starts to drop when it gets out near 100. I also WILL need to go with a longer stock, both to get a proper cheek weld and because as a lefty, my face is too close to the ejection port with this short stock and I kept getting popped in the face by debris (and a casing or two).

But it functioned flawlessly, both with the suppressed loads and without the suppressor when I tested some higher-velocity 147gr. stuff that I loaded for my other .300 Blackout rifle. That stuff has a lot more kick to it and shoots noticeably higher at 50 yards but I kept them all on the same plate with the Mag-Pul sights and that too-short stock, so overall I'm quite pleased. No failures to feed or function with either round and it stacks my brass nicely behind me (subsonic loads) or whips them at the shooter directly to my right if shooting the higher-velocity stuff.

The range was really too busy for me to be able to just sit down and run the tests that I wanted to run, but I'm satisfied for now and it's nice to have the choice of options between suppressed strikes and AK-like power from the more traditional rounds. I do like the 5.56mm cartridge and the AR platform, but at 0-300 yards, give me a 150gr. FMJ moving at 2,000fps+/- most any day.
Baby's first brass marks on the case deflector.

Quite happy with this one. Now we wait on a more appropriate stock and a quality optic.

I also got some practice in with my SIGnificant other, the Sig P229 in .40S&W.
It's an older version but a truly sweet shooter that I picked up a couple of years ago, intending to convert it to shoot up all of the .357 Sig brass that I've collected. I need to get out with this pistol more but sadly, I keep forgetting that I own it. The other day I was actually surprised for a second to find it in a back corner of the gun safe. You know that feeling when you reach into the pocket of a jacket or fresh-washed pair of pants and find a twenty dollar bill? Yeah, it's like that. I really need to do more inventories of the gun room.

6 comments:

  1. Nice!!! And glad to hear it worked as well as you thought it would!!! :-)

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  2. Sweet - I have to get back out to the range tomorrow if I can. Been WAY to long.

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  3. Very nice ML! I need to get back up there for some long gun range time myself.

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    1. Pick a week-end, and we'll grab Old NFO and spend a day on the 400-yard range.

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  4. I've got a P226 in 40 S&W. I also bought a 357 SIG barrel for it when I found out the magazines are the same, and a simple barrel swap would let me use up the 1000 rounds of 357 SIG I bought by mistake.

    I don't care for the SA/DA trigger on it after you decock it, but it's really sweet in SA.

    Made like a watch, beautifully finished, accurate, fits my hand perfectly, and other than the trigger, I'd give it 5/5 stars.

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  5. Great Looking Rifle!

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