Interesting trip to the range....
Got a call yesterday afternoon, come shooting, the lights are all hooked up, new toys. It was already dark, pouring rain, and so foggy I drove half a mile past his road before a sign appeared out of the fog and I realized I'd gone too far. Wasn't the only one there to do it that night either.
New lights on the range good to 75yards, 100 if you're careful and the fog isn't too thick. New 3/8" thick 12" square gong and 8 & 10" round ones at 75 and 100 too. We hung the square at 75, strung between two trees from two lengths of 1" webbing through the 1/2" hole in one corner. Then we commenced to shoot at it with .22's, 9mm's, .45 pistol and carbine, SKS, and then two AR's (one of them a custom race gun). Steel core/steel cased Russian 7.62x39 rounds were striking sparks on it but only the paint showed it had been hit the steel of the target is so tough.
The race gun is a Windham Weapons custom build flat top AR in .223/5.56 with a 22" (IIRC) barrel and excellent peep style battle sights. I am not a big AR fan because of the way I shoot offhand, but that doesn't mean I'm not fascinated by any new rifle. Before I got too much drool on it they handed me two full new Magpul mags which they said it was sighted in for and asked me to shoot it any way I liked and give them my honest opinion. They didn't have to ask me twice. I adjusted the stock and then loaded it up and got as comfortable as I could and started with the most difficult target wondering to myself how many tries it would take before I could actually hit it. Every time when I could actually see it through the swirling fog I hit the orange painted 6" at 100, about a dozen shots in a row. I stopped to crow about it and got cocky. Then I shot a little high and took out the chain it was hanging from. Shit. I switched to the 12" square at 75 but it was no challenge and I went for the 4" round self healing hangers and various ranges - no misses. I have a hard time doing this with my own rifles that actually fit me, never mind me doing it with an AR. I came back to the square with the last round and with that shot hit dead on and through the hole both hanger straps were attached severing both of them at once and dropped the damned thing right there dead in the grass. Shit again. Like the rifle a lot, very impressed with its accuracy. The only shot I missed was the one that hit the chain. Like every other AR though I would much prefer to fit it with one of those angled fore-grips that go on the under rail right in front of the mag well. Because I grew up shooting bolt actions, when I shoot a rifle offhand, I put my left hand under the action at its point of balance, just in front of the trigger guard with my elbow and upper arm braced against my rib cage forming a solid platform. Basically where I like my hand is where the AR mag sticks out and my forearm is to short for it to work that way 3-4" farther forward, so I wasn't expecting to do all that well with it. And up until last night I had never shot an AR accurate enough to make shooting one from the bench interesting. Wow did I get a pleasant surprise. It's the first time I've ever shot an AR that was sub MOA. Honestly wouldn't have believed it possible without seeing it for myself and I did. I was afraid to ask what it cost, but I was more than happy for the chance to put such a tack driver through its paces at various targets and ranges. I told him to send me the specs and I would be willing to do a proper write-up on it for them after I'd a chance to shoot it in daylight and on paper with some different commercial and mil ammo to see what it could really do.
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