Good news, bad news 8-20-16

[ditto1958]

Well, it was a tale of two guns today at the range. First the frustrating part. I got out my Ruger AR-556 today, a gun I'd been neglecting for a couple of months. I had a few boxes of $4.99 Wolf steel cased .223 with me today. The Ruger ate them all without a hiccup. But I couldn't shoot the thing worth a darn today. Not sure why, maybe I was just rusty with the AR-556 after not shooting it for awhile. On the bright side, I've had the rifle for a little more than a year now, and it has yet to malfunction on me. Not one bobble. I've fed it every brand of cheap 55 grain ammo I can find on sale and it never misses a beat. It's the only gun I have that I can say that about.

The good news is that I also brought my Henry H001 with me. I have really been shooting it well recently, and today was the same. I had been very frustrated and puzzled by my H001 for some time- maybe even a couple of years. I even tried using a scope on it, and even that didn't help. Recently, however, I resolved to master the thing. I decided to refuse to blame the gun,mother ammo, or anything but me, and just work on being a better shooter with the Henry. Thankfully, it has been working, and my H001 is no longer in the dog house.

[JEBar]

I've never owned a firearm that wasn't more accurate than I am .. .. if I was ever to come by one, it wouldn't stay around very long ..

[ditto1958]

Usually I can shoot pretty well with the AR-556. Not today, though.

[Steve51]

Anyone can have a bad day. You will do better next time!

At least you didn't try to wrap the rifle around a tree, like I have seen some golfers do when they were having a bad day.

[JCN]

What exactly where you trying to do with the AR? I find that 'shooting badly' means different things to different people.

With my AR, if I can crack clay pigeon targets on a bank at 100 yards I'm a happy man. 1 MOA groups is something entirely different though....

[bradf]

I have more than 1 AR. My favorite AR has a 18" White Oak Barrel, 1:8. It loves some ammo and hates others. Reloading for it I found nodes where it will hold under 1/2 MOA and then open up to over 1 1/2 MOA within 1gr powder change. With factory ammo it shoots 3 MOA with Wolf and Silver Bear. On the other hand, another AR shoots PPU 55gr 5.56 at 1 MOA where the WOA barrel won't get it under 2 MOA. All barrels have different harmonics. That's why I reload to find the sweet spot and load em up. Fed LC M-193 shoots about 3 MOA in all but one one AR. That one is closer to 5 MOA. I thought it was terrible when I built it and broke it in with Fed M-193. I found a load where it shoots Hornady 62 BTHP under 1 MOA. So that's what it gets now.

Sometimes you have to find the right load. Sometimes the particular ammo you are using just isn't right for your rifle.

[ditto1958]

What exactly where you trying to do with the AR? I find that 'shooting badly' means different things to different people.

With my AR, if I can crack clay pigeon targets on a bank at 100 yards I'm a happy man. 1 MOA groups is something entirely different though....

Mine is pretty much a plinker. I shoot at steel targets at 100 yards. Some are pretty large- 12" swingers- and some are smaller, down to about 3-4". My rifle is none stock, with the iron sights that came on it. On good days, I can hit the 12" targets almost every time, and the small ones I can hit pretty often. The other day, for whatever reason, I was having trouble with the biggest targets.