On our ride down to Ft Jackson, I was telling him about this A3 [flattop] stripped upper that’s been lying in my safe for nearly 20 years and I was thinking about making a varmint rig out of it. He said he had a spare barrel that he couldn’t hit a bull in the butt with a base fiddle [that would be a cello] with it. He didn’t know the twist but he thought it was a 1-8 and IIRC, it was made by EGW. So after we hymned & hawed we decided I’d send my stripped upper with what few parts I had for it to him and he would put it together. After Jacob graduated we drove back to Bragg where I visited again for a few days and then headed back to Washington where I gathered my parts and sent them off.
Look folks, the AR’s have changed a lot since I shot them in service rifle competition. I have to A2’s just for that purpose but just never bothered with getting into any more of them. My varmint LOT was growing and that was taking a mite bit of my spare change.
Anyway, over the next several weeks he helped me decide which options I wanted primarily the rail. The barrel is 20”, unthreaded and fluted. I didn’t know “crap from Rice Krispies” about some of these things; heck they all look the same to me. The only thing I wanted was to have an extended Picatinny Rail for pushing the scope FWD for eye relief purposes.
In April I went back to NC for a vacation. We got together again, and we decided on that rail with key-hole mounting system on the sides and bottom that was 15” long and a low profile gas block. We were going to leave the muzzle unthreaded.
Meanwhile I went looking for the lower items. I decided on a Mag-Pul PSR stock and since I had handled one and really liked the adjustable features of it. I went over to RAINER ARMS on one Saturday, picked up a lower parts kit, a stripped receiver and one of those EBRv2 bolt releases. For the trigger, I just happen to have two of the GEN-1 Armalite adjustable two-stage triggers. They were made for a short while in the mid-90’s before they had to change their design because they infringed in the Krieger-Milazzo design [which by the way are back in production for those who are interested]. I had bought a couple of them but couldn’t use them for high-power competition because to get the right feel they wouldn’t pick up the required 4.5 lbs. In that endeavor the only good replacement at that time were Jewell’s which work fantastic for me, never a problem [and for the $$$ they shouldn’t be].
After I picked the items up I took them home where I assembled the lower. When the upper arrived I pulled it out of the box but them together and they fit just like a glove. I have an extra Leupold 6.5-20x40 EFR VX3 scope sitting on the shelf so I mounted her up using Burris Tactical Signature Rings and inserts, got it zeroe’d pretty close on the bench and took off for the range. The trigger is set at 3 lbs and it breaks as crisp as any icicle I’ve ever broken.
It has been my experience that 1-9 twist barrels do-not shoot the Sierra Match King (SMK) 77 grain bullet to my liking in 1-9 twist barrels and because the barrel twist was unknown I decided to try some through the tube at 200 yards. So, I checked the barrel clean and did the ole’ cleaning-rod barrel twist check. Using that method it came out to 1-7.5 to 1-8.5; so I figured it’s a 1-8.
I loaded up rounds using 20-year old LC-97 many times fired, un-prepped cases that were primed with Remington 7 ½ primers and headed for the range. I used the data from the online Hodgdon reload data and it shot several sub 1/2-inch groups at 200 yards. So, the barrel is good and it will handle the heavy pills if I need to eve use them. The loads were mag length, using H4895 powder.
As far as lowers, there are several outfits around here; Precision Aero, Rainer Arms and Olympic Arms and a few others. I never could reach Aero Precision; Rainer Arms is much closer than Olympic Arms and besides, Mag-Puls and others including the soldier who put it together highly recommended them so to me it was a no-brainer to just go see them and get one. I could have gotten a Rock River lower for $100 more from a local dealer but I couldn’t see where it would be $100 better, IMO.
So in the end, I guess one could say I gathered all the spare parts lying about, put it together and it just happens to shoot pretty darn good thus far. I'll try and post a picture later because I need to resize it to do so but I need to run out for some errands.
Next up is to go out and load test some 55-grain pills and test for the varmint trips.
Jim
