MPBR Zero and the Civilian AR

[TWR]

I’ve had Krieger SPR, Noveske SPR and a Noveske SS “light weight” barrels and they all shot just under MOA For 10 shots but proved to be heavier than I wanted. Just changed the dynamics of the gun.

Right now I have a LaRue PredatAR barrel that is plenty light and just over MOA for 10 shots. I have a fixed 10x scope in an ADM mount that I can throw on there for groups or load work but the difference in handling is much better with the EOTech on there instead.

But my Colt and Sionics pencil barrels do everything I can ask of the 5.56 with LPVO’s and red dots, they see more use than any match gun I’ve ever had. Well I do have a 6.5 CM in a bolt gun and a 1000 yard plate that has my current attention...

[NH Shooter]

I have a fixed 10x scope in an ADM mount that I can throw on there for groups or load work but the difference in handling is much better with the EOTech on there instead.

I concur - weight on top of the receiver over the bore axis really does change the handling and feel of the rifle. Thus my infinity for the Leupold FX-II Ultralight 2.5x20mm.

[TWR]

I have a Kimber Montana with a 3-9 SWFA HD scope on it and at 19 oz. it really doesn't feel out of place, still sub 7 lbs. but the 20 oz. 10x SWFA and the ADM mount are a whole nuther thing on an AR.

A buddy has the Leupold 1-4 on his light AR and it feels like it weighs 2 lbs less than my light guns with Trijicon 1-4's. I like your setup.

[NH Shooter]

In my experience with rifles/carbines, if you are going to do the 50/200 thing, you need to verify the 200 and not just presume that if you are on at 50 that you will be on at 200.

Watched the video and agree 100% - a 50-yard zero is way to coarse for any longer range precision work. Zeroing at 200 of the "50/200" is a far better way to get a "usable" zero.

So far what I'm seeing with my rifle and the 75 GD round is that with a 200 yard zero, I'm within a MOA (the precision limits of the rifle/ammo) at 50 yards, about 2-inches high at 100, dead-on at 200 and about 9-inches low at 300. On the target below shot at 300, I held at the shoulders to account for the drop. Once I get the new barrel installed I'll get the windage dialed-in better too.

BTW, I'm also happy to see I'm not the only one with those errant hits outside of the group. :-)

[NH Shooter]

Completed the re-barrel today, swapped out the 16-inch BFH ELH 1:7 for a 16-inch SS410 1:8. I had an upper with this SS410 before and was very pleased with its performance.

I had most of the tools already but invested in a MI upper receiver rod which made the task a whole lot easier. With the excpetion of having to cut off the tight-as-hell BCM low profile gas block (which I was hoping to save), it all went smoothly. The barrel escaped unscathed from the gas block surgery and I will be placing that in the classifieds as soon as I snap some photos of it.

I'll be hitting the range on Sunday with an assortment of ammo to see how the new barrel performs.

[UNK]

Red dots look like clusters of grapes to my eyes....

Just discovered a fix for that for me. YMMV. Trijicon has the MRO Patrol out. It comes with the honeycomb reflection hider. Dot was perfect with rx eyeglasses and without. The best sight picture i get with rx is the 6 dot cluster and thats with Aimpoint. Everything else including MRO is like a zig zag scribble. Totally unusable. Once I found that i started checking around and I found the same info in other places. I meant to go today and if they still had it I was going to ask if I can look through it with and without the filter. Im pretty sure what the results will be but I do know the first MRO I looked through was an older blue tint slight magnification model and that has all been changed. Ill go tomorrow and see if they will let me look at it. Ill report back to you on the results.
I assume this is similar to looking through the rear peep to clear up the dot. I ASSUME this will work on any red dot and there are companies that make honeycomb reflection hiders.

[Dan_S]

Just discovered a fix for that for me. YMMV. Trijicon has the MRO Patrol out. It comes with the honeycomb reflection hider. Dot was perfect with rx eyeglasses and without. The best sight picture i get with rx is the 6 dot cluster and thats with Aimpoint. Everything else including MRO is like a zig zag scribble. Totally unusable. Once I found that i started checking around and I found the same info in other places. I meant to go today and if they still had it I was going to ask if I can look through it with and without the filter. Im pretty sure what the results will be but I do know the first MRO I looked through was an older blue tint slight magnification model and that has all been changed. Ill go tomorrow and see if they will let me look at it. Ill report back to you on the results.
I assume this is similar to looking through the rear peep to clear up the dot. I ASSUME this will work on any red dot and there are companies that make honeycomb reflection hiders.

It isn’t a guarantee. Didn’t work with an Aimpoint and kill flash.

[UNK]

It isn’t a guarantee. Didn’t work with an Aimpoint and kill flash.

I wonder if it is the particular kill flash Trijicon uses.

[NH Shooter]

Viewing the dot through a peep sight helped me quite a bit, making the dot much better defined - but it still was not perfect.

I tried at least 1x prism sight (the old Leupold Prismatic) and as expected, the etched reticle was rendered perfectly sharp. But with the specific eye relief and eye box of a magnified optic, I always felt the Prismatic would have been better as a 1.5 - 2x sight.

My journey to find an AR optic that best fits my general-purpose needs has been a long one. I've tried three LPVOs: a SWFA SS 1-4x HD, some mid-range 1-4x Bushnell that I forget the exact model, and most recently the Leupold VR-X Patrol 1.25 - 4x. I liked the Leupold the best overall, but could not get myself the love the reticle nor the easily-bumped non-covered turrets.

I have also tried two variations of the compact ACOG, but the lack of an adjustable eyepiece/diopter left the reticle not as sharp as it should have been, which limited the level of precision I could get with them.

A pair of Aimpoints were also on the journey, the last one being a PRO. If only my eyes could have rendered the dot as a dot...

So here I am now with a Leupold FX-II Ultralight 2.5x20mm and finding myself quite happy with it: lightweight, relatively compact (eight inches long), lockable eyepiece to render the reticle razor-sharp, nearly five inches of eye relief that makes two-eyes-open use very easy (and leaves the CH 100% accessible without having to reach around a scope) and decent optical quality. If it had an illuminated center dot like the Primsatic it would be damned near perfect, but would obviously lose it's svelteness in the process.

I am currently considering upgrading but have yet to feel compelled by scopes that are two to three inches longer, have less eye relief, weight at least three time as much and cost four to six times as much. Sure I'd love a milled reticle and some form of illumination, but the cost of acquiring those attributes via a change of scope don't add up for me. Instead I am now considering an something like a RMR or Leupold DP-Pro in an offset mount to compliment the 2.5x Leupold. This would only add about four ounces, and really no weight at all if I ditch the offset BUIS in the process.

Finally, I have begun exploring the longer range potential of the scope, specifically when it comes to ranging. It turns out the the distance between the pointed posts of the duplex reticle measure about 72 MOA, or about six feet at 100 yards (how convenient is that for ranging purposes?). This makes the distance between the cross hair center and the tip of any of the four duplex posts about 36 MOA . So with a MPBR zero, I hold center out to about 230 yards, hold nine inches high at 300 and 30 inches high at 400 based on target size. For longer distances I hold 1/3 the distance down from cross hair center to the tip of the post for 500 and halfway for 600. A true ranging reticle it is not, but not entirely unusable either.

After my never-ending journey for a general-purpose AR optic, I never imagined that a fixed low power Fudd scope would fit the bill so well, and that I'd be so reluctant to ditch it for something else.

[entropy]

A great example of not only using what you have, but becoming a master of it. Make the skill fit the gizmo, and not the gizmo the skill.