My Career as a Varminter Begins
April 30th, 2010I Can Hit Very Fat Prairie Dogs up to 20 Feet Away
I feel like I have been oil-wrestling leopards all day.
My DPMS .308 rifle arrived yesterday. I was not all that excited when I ordered it, but when it arrived, I got a little spastic, and I could not wait to shoot it. Today I took it to the range, with a 6-14x40mm scope borrowed from my .17 HMR rifle. I used Radway Green .308 surplus ammo, which is British and supposedly very good. I have two cans of this stuff. Classic Arms sells it.
The hours at the range are always a matter of mystery and conjecture. They change them all the time, and you never know if the sign is correct. Today I got there 45 minutes before the place opened, thinking it had been open for three hours. To kill time I drove to a nearby truck stop to see if they sold towels.
It could happen.
I wanted a towel because I had left mine at home. Ford Prefect would sneer at my foolishness. When I shoot big-bore rifles, the recoil tears up my right elbow, so I wanted something to put under it. They did not have towels, but they did have really nice carpeted mats for ten bucks. For FOUR.
How can you turn that down? Everyone can use four carpeted mats. Even if you don’t know it, you have uses for them. I bought them. They also advertised smoked alligator, but I didn’t see any, so I didn’t buy any.
They had a whole bunch of dried alligator heads. That was comforting, in an odd way. It reminded me of traveling with my family when I was a kid. We used to stop at horrible tourist restaurant/gift shops called Horne’s and Stuckey’s. They always had lots of dried alligators for sale. They probably sold live ones, too. I can’t remember. This was back in the time when you could buy dynamite at 7-11.
Eventually, I got into the range. And I opened my ammo can of surplus .308, and I tried taking a round out of one of the little four-round clumps that were chained together…and I could not do it. I knew this ammunition came chained up, but I figured you could just slip the rounds out. Oh, no. You have to suffer. Luckily I had a Victorinox multi-tool in my shooting box. I had to remove every round from the others with pliers. And they were covered with some kind of lube. By the end of the day, my hands felt like they had been chewed on by angry pigs.
On the advice of a DPMS guy, I picked up some jags and a proper cleaning kit, but I could not get the jag to work at the range. You’re not allowed to point a gun upward or downward at the range, so it can be hard, cleaning one. I finally decided to do this: wire brush with Break-Free, followed by the Boresnake. That’s the best I could do. It nearly killed me, doing that about thirty times today. If the gun explodes from improper breaking in, so be it. There is a limit to what a human being can do.
I put some Hoppe’s in it from time to time, but I don’t know if I achieved anything by doing that.
Here are the results. The first target is funny, which is why I’m posting it. I shot the first 25 rounds at 25 yards. You know how it is when you’re zeroing a scope. You don’t want to start too far away. As you can see, the bullets crept inward as I adjusted the scope, and they finally settled in a nice satisfying hole southwest of the center of the target.
I enjoyed that.
I moved the scope forward, because I still do not understand eye relief very well, and I moved to 100 yards. Here is the first target. I had to do the zeroing stuff all over again. Part of the error is due to me moving the scope knobs in my typical fearless fashion.
The results are not great. I still have a hard time finding the right place to put my eye, and as soon as I start to squeeze the trigger, the image of the target disappears. I’m getting better, but I think the scope is still too far back. I also had problems with my elbow. It got sore after the first 25 rounds, and it was really annoying. I started to anticipate the pain, and that was not good for my concentration.
I started doing better when I remembered that this gun had a pistol grip. When pistol shooting, I get better results when I squeeze hard with my fourth and fifth fingers. I tried that with the LR-308, and things improved a lot. There is a hole in the target which, I suspect, is where all the bullets would go if I were consistent. Maybe I’m expecting too much of this surplus ammunition, but I think most of the error is me, not the gun or ammunition.
The gun grouped better in the second 100-yard target, but a high percentage of the rounds in this photo are in the center ring, and I think that reflects my increased confidence in my shooting, which was the result of improving my grip. Maybe I’m wrong. It’s impossible to count the rounds accurately now.
The gun’s trigger is a horror straight from hell. It felt okay at first, but later, I almost found myself yanking on it to make it fire. Exasperating. It’s just like the trigger on my Desert Eagle, and that is a tremendous insult. If anyone wants to recommend a drop-in, I am all ears. And credit card. I can’t put up with this.
The other day I was amazed to see how nice the trigger on my Vz 58 was. It’s a dream come true. Even though I didn’t shoot the gun all that well, and I did not apply myself, the target shows that the bullet hits are related to each other. I sort of wandered around in a four-inch circle. I didn’t shoot random flyers I could not explain. Maybe the sweet trigger is the reason. I never have to vary the pull, and the gun always goes off exactly when I expect it to. With the LR-308, I can’t tell when I’m going to fire, and the pull is extremely inconsistent.
Things got better on the last target. By that time, I was fed up with separating surplus from sheet metal chain link things, and I was ready to leave.
April 30th, 2010 at 10:55 PM
Steve,
Check out this discussion on The Firing Line forum regarding the DPMS LR 308
http://thefiringline.com/forums/showthread.php?t=275410
April 30th, 2010 at 11:50 PM
If you like two stage triggers, and don’t mind spending the money,
1. JARD
2. Geissele
3.Rock River
Good economy in the Rock River but you need to replace the hammer spring with a chrome silicone service hammer spring for reliable hammer strike and this will kick the pull weights from an average 3 pound. first stage, 1.5 pound second stage to an average four pound first stage, 2 pound second stage.
This trigger assembly runs half the price of the Jard and Geissele with another $4 for the CS hammer spring.
May 1st, 2010 at 7:57 AM
get a geissle trigger. and a shooting jacket- the kind with elbow pads and recoil pads. and stop whining. truck stop towels- help me, Lord!
May 1st, 2010 at 7:58 AM
Never had much luck with machine gun bullets. Your targets are what I would expect from that ammo and a first time out with new rifle and barrel break in session. Scope mounting is always a pain for me, seems that what works for others never works for me and I end up buying at least two mounting set ups before getting something that works for me. Here is one of my AR mounts with a cheap scope.
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http://i26.photobucket.com/albums/c140/blindshooter/Arscope005.jpg
May 1st, 2010 at 9:56 AM
I have two DPMS LR-308 rifles… Both had HORRIBLE triggers from the factory. After my first outing, I took them straight to my local gunsmith. Can you believe 12 pounds pull? Aurghhhhh!
All is now right with the world. They are tack drivers!
May 1st, 2010 at 10:12 AM
Steve, you’re getting a great big Clew and not recognizing it. Part of the reason you’re not recognizing it is that you seem to have confused “exit pupil” with “eye relief”.
There’s a zone, existing in a straight line coming back from the axis (center) of the eyepiece lens, where the pupil of your eye has to be in order for light from the scope to enter where you can see it. It’s very narrow and cone shaped, with the point toward the back. At some distance from the eyepiece, that zone contains an image which your eye’s lens can re-form on the retina. The place where there’s an image is the exit pupil, and the distance from the eyepiece to it is the eye relief. The better the scope, the bigger the exit pupil is and the longer the eye relief is.
The only function of eye relief is to keep the scope from banging into your eye when the gun recoils. If the objective, the front lens, is properly adjusted the crosshairs don’t move relative to the target as you move around in the exit pupil. You still have to keep the pupil of your eye in the exit pupil of the scope to see the image.
You have to be still between the time you acquire the target and get it under the crosshairs, and the time the gun goes off. If you’re losing the image, it means you’re moving. When you move, the gun moves, maybe not much, but it doesn’t take much movement to shift the point of impact an inch at a hundred yards.
Now it maybe heretical, but I don’t believe really good shooters do that. What they do is learn through long practice to not move very much, have the movement be consistent, and compensate for it by selecting the right point of aim. But if your eye pupil is getting off the scope’s optical axis far enough to lose the image, you’re moving too much, and that’s where your scatter comes from.
Regards,
Ric
May 1st, 2010 at 10:40 AM
“stop whining. truck stop towels- help me, Lord!”
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Yet another reader who misapplies the term “whining.” They’re everywhere! I blame liberalized education.
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“Can you believe 12 pounds pull?”
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It must be a safety feature. No one can get hurt if the gun can’t be fired by a human index finger.
May 1st, 2010 at 1:59 PM
There are some tricks to help a factory single stage trigger, I can do them myself on my guns and have not had any problems yet. That said, the match guns all have 2 stage triggers even the match bolt rifles. I grew up on the M14 and good two stage triggers. Back when I coached new Highpower shooters I kept some moly grease in the truck for the guy or girl that showed up with a new AR. Just smear some on the sear engagement and it seemed to cut the pull weight in half. I made some “trigger goop” with dry moly and just enough STP to make a paste.
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Off to the hospital to see my Dad, we are getting a little discouraged at the length of time he has been there. I think the longer you have to be hospitalized the higher your chances are of getting a new problem to go along with your original troubles.
May 2nd, 2010 at 5:14 AM
forgive me. perhaps “whining” was too strong a term for a man of your sensitivity. but get a shooting jacket anyway- and moly will help with the trigger, but you still won`t like to shoot it if it hurts when you pull the trigger.
May 2nd, 2010 at 10:04 AM
“It must be a safety feature. No one can get hurt if the gun can’t be fired by a human index finger.”
Yes, you nailed that one! Apparently there have been liability issues with rifles sold with light trigger pulls. A number of years back I took a rifle to my local gun smith to get the trigger pull lightened… It was the first time I had visited him and he was reluctant to work on the rifle until he got to know me. Now that the knows me, no issues, but he sure was spooky that first time around!
I suppose paranoia thrives everywhere these days, and for good reason!
May 2nd, 2010 at 12:09 PM
Steve,
Quit messin’ about, and get a McCormick drop-in AR trigger assembly. Punch-drift out the two trigger pins in the receiver, escvericate the bits and pieces, insert the modular McCormick assembly, re-insert the drift pins.
Yes, it’s that easy. You can opt for single stage or double stage triggers, as well as curved or straight trigger blade.
$125 list.
The Radway is good practice and SHTF ammo. Very reliable, good quality stuff. IF it’s from machine gun belts though, it’s a bit different from everyday rifle fodder.
Dunno who makes it, but there’s some over the counter factory ammo loaded to match specs, with Sierra Match King 168 gr HPBT rounds. That, sir, will reveal your rifle’s accuracy potential.
That is, after you’ve dealt with the trigger.
Jim
Sunk New Dawn
Galveston, TX
May 2nd, 2010 at 2:48 PM
Like I said before, elbow pads. Just some inexpensive skating ones will do very well. And when I’m shooting kneeling or prone I use the knee pads, too.
May 2nd, 2010 at 4:25 PM
And as Blindshooter says, linked machinegun ammo isn’t going to give the best accuracy, even though Radway Green stuff is good quality. Get or load some higher-grade stuff and see how it does.
If you’re willing to spend the money, something like Federal match ammo is amazing stuff.
May 5th, 2010 at 9:56 PM
I was reluctant to re-load until it became apparent that the cost of shooting ran twice as high using factory loads as using re-loads. Made it easy to invest a little time when that concept struck home.
Getting into re-loading can be relatively inexpensive. Here’s a list of everything one would need to be off and running.
From Midway U.S.A.
Lee Challenger Breech Lock Single Stage Press Kit $104.99
Lee Reloader Single Stage Press 24.99
Lee RGB 2-Die Set 308 Winchester 14.99
Lee “Modern Reloading 2nd Edition” Reloading Manual 13.99
Total $158.96
Mount the two presses and the powder drop onto a 24″ long 2×8.
Clamp the 2×8 on steady bench when ready for use.
Insert the sizing die into the Challenger press. Insert the bullet seating die into the Reloader press.
Read the manual It almost reads like a long advertisement for Lee Precision, but after using it, one can understand what the whole reloading process actually is.
Buy some Winchester brass. Recommended because it is a fairly soft brass which is good for being resized after being fired and not splitting at the neck. (50 for $20.99)
CCI or Winchester Primers are always good. (1000 for $30.99)
Pick a bullet such as a 150 gr. soft point because you don’t want or need to spend the extra money on competition type brands.For what you want to do, any decent bullet will work beautifully. (100 Remington Core-loct for 23.49)
Select a powder such as Winchester 748 that is recommended for the .308. A caveat here… the powder drop in the kit has a tendency to leak ball powders and makes an unsightly mess. Extruded powders work well in it. Win 748 is a ball powder and would be more easily, meaning cleanly used, by simple dipping and pouring. The Lee Improved Powder Measure Kit is $8.29 and consists of little scoops of various sizes. They work well for ball powders. (Win 748 1 lb for $21.49)
So for less than $175, you have all of the equipment needed. Then for another $100 you’ll have the components for your first 100 rounds. It’s sort of hard to factor exactly what to place as a final cost per round because the brass can easily go for six to eight reloads minimum. But you can rest assured that it won’t be sneaking up on a buck a round like off the shelf ammo runs.
I used Midway here for everything. The reloading equipment from Lee works as well as anything else and is much less expensive than its competition. Midway sells Lee products for less than anyone else that I’ve found. Components run about average there.
Hope that this helps,
Woody