blasting away

[Shadow9mm]

So I'm not trying to shame this guy, he was a nice guy really, I talked with him for probably 20min before I had to leave the range. He also let me keep his 5.56 brass he shot that day, over 140 casings, so a very nice guy in my opinion.

In any case he was testing ammo in his AR platform rifle to see what his rifle liked. He said his gun loved 62g stuff but would not shoot 55g well. He said 1:8 twist and it looked like a 16in barrel.

His testing method was as follows. He had mags with the front of the box taped to the side of the mag, I believe a 20rnd box per mag. Not the worst idea. He then proceeded to shoot each mag and a very brisk pace, and on a couple went full mag dump.

I didn't get a change to talk to him about his testing theory, he got snagged by someone else, but I'm trying to understand how you test for accuracy, or what your gun likes when firing fast and really heating the gun up. It also makes me wonder how well the 62g that he said his gun liked actually shot if he used the same method. he got that gun quite warm.

My other question is, it did think about this... would it be better to test a hot gun, since this is the condition it will be in most of the time when you are shooting it? it will only really be cool for the first few rounds and unless all you do is slow fire target. Wouldn't the accuracy when the gun was hot be what counted?

[Onward Allusion]

Wouldn't be my method, but maybe he was just testing for function rather than accuracy?

[TX Nimrod]

How will you use the rifle? If you expect to be in an extended firefight then measuring hot barrel accuracy may have some value. But really - who will ever do that? Most shooters who will really care about accuracy (hunters and formal target shooters) probably won’t rapid fire mag after mag.


.

[9x19]

I'm also thinking he was testing function instead of accuracy.

It's nice to have that load that shoots itty-bitty groups, but ONLY IF it also runs reliably. Wonderful when you can have both.

With combat arms: Function first, accuracy second.

[jetinteriorguy]

I think from a practical shooting for self defense aspect it’s not a bad way to test how accurately your system works for you as a whole. So in a way you’re testing for accuracy and reliability.

[10-96]

Or... it could simply boil down to the gentleman not knowing any better. Could be a life long lever, bolt gun, or pistol shooter recently converted to the AR and semi autos. We don't know what we don't know until somebody shows us what we don't know sometimes. I kind of liked his idea of labeling his magazines though, that was kind of cool on his part.

[PatientWolf]

I reread your OP a couple times and couldn’t see anywhere in the discussion where he seems to have alluded to accuracy. He said his AR “likes” 62gr. He may have been referring to function.

You may have left out any discussion about accuracy, but as 9 x 19 pointed out, he may have been looking for more of a functional test.

[Shadow9mm]

Originally Posted by PatientWolf

I reread your OP a couple times and couldn’t see anywhere in the discussion where he seems to have alluded to accuracy. He said his AR “likes” 62gr. He may have been referring to function.

You may have left out any discussion about accuracy, but as 9 x 19 pointed out, he may have been looking for more of a functional test.

I was not completely clear, I apologize. I definitely believe he was accuracy testing. He stated that he could not find a 55g that would shoot well in his gun and was trying to find one. He said his gun liked 62g green tip. Seeing as he had no malfunctions that I saw that rules out function testing. Also from our conversation and talking about his twist he seemed to think it was causing some sort of stabilization issue.

On a side note he was running a red dot. I don't know if he was running the same optic when he tested his 62g stuff. Like i said somone else inserted themselves into the conversation and I couldn't get much farther. He was also at 50yds.

[Shadow9mm]

Originally Posted by 10-96

Or... it could simply boil down to the gentleman not knowing any better. Could be a life long lever, bolt gun, or pistol shooter recently converted to the AR and semi autos. We don't know what we don't know until somebody shows us what we don't know sometimes. I kind of liked his idea of labeling his magazines though, that was kind of cool on his part.

yeah, I though the labeling was a interesting idea. he ripped the entire front of the box off and just scotch taped it to the side of the mag.

[Willie Lowman]

Some people's idea of accuracy is different

[ballisticxlr]

He wasn't testing the performance of the bullet at all. He was just having fun blasting despite his protestations to the contrary.

[kymasabe]

I've done something similar and was purely function testing.

[stagpanther]

Probably a militia/prepper type getting ready for the next apocalypse--they typically want the best combination of mass crowd engagement reliability and cartridge lethality. The ball penetrator is a very common bulk discount ammo--as is the federal 55 gr.