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OK everyone. The hard work has paid off.
I wrapped a piece of cellophane around an air tube on a can of compressed air and placed it in the chamber side end of the gas tube. Then I put an expanded/spent case in the chamber. I wanted to see if I could judge the degree of valving I was getting with the adjustable gas block. I tried this yesterday but I was trying to feel how much air us being released at the muzzle end. I just couldn't tell.
This morning I tried it again but this time by sound. I gave the air can a very short burst with the gas valve at what I believed to be nearly closed. It took about 3 seconds for the "bleeding off" sound to dissipate. I opened the valve a quarter turn and it took 1 second to dissipate. open another quarter turn and a shorter time to dissipate until It only took about an eighth of a second for the bleed off sound to dissipate. Fantastically, this sound test works very incrementally and I was very able to judge the degree of jetting the gas valve was doing. I then closed the valve until it took about 2 seconds to hear the air bleed down then I went to the desert. I took a different ammo with me than I used yesterday but I also took some of the same ammo. This morning I started by putting two of the same reloads in the rifle as yesterday. BANG, eject, feed, BANG and the bolt locked back. I repeated this a couple more times with 2 rounds. The bolt didn't lock down only one time. I closed down on the valve 1/8th more turn and the rifle ran perfectly on subsequent tests. They I loaded the magazine to 28/30 rounds and let it rip. Never a failure. It ran perfectly with the short hand loads and the rough honed feed ramps. Then I filled it up with the VMAX loads I developed for my Savage 223 bolt rifle. These are the finest bullets I have ever reloaded consistently making compound holes at 100 yards. The AR LOVED them and I was hitting a piece of typing paper off shoulder at 220 yards every time I pulled the trigger......with a red dot. What a fantastic workout.
I'm still going to but an H2 buffer. With a carbine buffer and the H2 I can configure any common buffer weight by mix matching parts from both buffers. I want to see if this will let me be able to make even more intricate adjustments at the gas block by leaving a little more of the port open. Other than this, I'm going to clean up the feed ramps then commence with some better optics and a few other toys to finish dressing it out. Again I thank you all so very much.
I want to add an un-related peice of information before I close. I had to buy a lower parks kit in order to build this rifle. Almost nothing was available and I certainly didn't want a bottom floor trigger in the rifle as I have always put aftermarket triggers in my guns. I was unhappy that I couldn't get a known trigger for the gun but I was happy to find something that called itself an improved trigger. I never heard of this before but out of necessity I bought a lowly 'Del-Ton Enhanced Lower Receiver Parts Kit with Two Stage Combat Trigger Assembly' for a modest $124 from Midway. I am here to tell you that this is the sleeper value trigger of the decade. It doesn't break like glass or drop the hammer at .25 pounds. What it does do is stop and a very discernible second stage at nearly the end of the trigger pull, drops at about 4 pounds then resets in the same place every time. I think this trigger is the new gotta have it trigger for the duty bump and crash rifle. If you ever what to make just a budget rifle I highly suggest you look at this trigger. I may not even replace it in this rifle when "better" triggers become more available.
Now, off to optics but that's another thread.
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