I've had poor luck with an x95 and an RDB not in that they didn't work, but that they were just wildly inaccurate. I know excuses are made for the x95 that it's a 'combat rifle' and is fine for that, but 4+ MOA isn't something I want to own (especially after trying a dozen different ammo types and weights and just knowing the rifle was inaccurate and nothing could be done).
I decided to give a wonky bullpup one last try with a 20" Hellion which I picked up from @Fuquay Gun last week. Why 20"? I mean the 16" makes sense since short is the name of the game, but the 20" gets you a bayonet mount. Who doesn't want that? Who's willing to pay more for that? Me apparently.
Now normally I do a better job of doing write-ups, collect more data and present charts and stuff. This time, I'm just winging it. I was dreading finding out I had another clunker on my hands, so with just a few ammo types and a 1-8x strike eagle I braved the cold to see what I could learn.
First we zeroed it at 25 using some old Tula with the zinc plated 55gr bullets. That was pretty easy, and each little 2 shot 'group' was under 1/2", so I figured at 100 that would be good for 2"... right? Not bad!
Moving out to 100 yards, the Tula started printing 5"+ groups. Another Tavor??? Then it was obvious the bipod was loose. It's a cheapo I just clip on to rails for cleaning, but actually tried to use it at the range today. Mistake. I pulled the cadwell bag out and used that for the rest of the day. The next Tula group was... also disappointing. Uh oh. It did let me get it setup with a 100 yard zero for 55gr 223.
Next up was some Hornady TAP. It was 2.5" for a 5 shot group, so an improvement but nothing exciting. The center dot in the scope was larger than the orange circle on the target so I was not really getting things centered, and my eyes were watering from the cold wind blowing in my face so I was going to just have to be happy with that.
Or so I thought. I have one box of 77gr Hornady Black I got in a trade, stuffed five rounds of that into the rifle and:
I even managed to call the left most round as being out when I fired it (more on that later). Given the glass, I was now happy. Also happy that the 77gr shot just slightly different POI from the 55gr (at least at 100 yards)
Last was some Frontier 55gr M193. I knew it would shoot to a different POI being actual 556 and not 223, but I was more concerned with the group than the placement. I didn't have the chrono but I could tell the M193 was spicier than the 77gr 223 or TAP loading, and my spotter said the muzzle blast was noticibly louder.
Wee! That's plenty good for a non-precision rifle, and M193 is cheaper and easier to source than 77gr match. At this point it was even colder so I gave up on groups and just loaded up the rest of my Tula and blasted steel at 100, 150 and 200. I was wondering how the crazy height over bore would effect the apparent drop but I just put the dot on the center of the steel and got hits at all ranges. It's been so long since I've done any rifle work I can't even remember if that's normal for 223.
Some takeaways:
- trigger is long and mushy before it gets to a psuedo wall, then gets mush again and brakes at 7.5# according to my trigger scale. it's... different. not good, not horrible, just strange. LOUD reset.
- ergos are odd, as all bullpups are. the safety is easy to work with the firing thumb and I really did the charging handle being out front. bolt release is fine, no bolt catch (without sticking your finger into the magwell) is annoying
- the bipod mounted on the reail is 'too tall' for bench work, even at the shortest setting and I think that's the shortest bipod style out there
- fed from a 20 round GI aluminum mag and a 30 round magpul, no issues but also very few rounds fired
- recoil is very very light. very easy to spot my own hits, and see when I was shooting over steel off hand because the dot didn't move when the shot broke. makes calling the fliers easy.
- no AR *sproing* noise
- the vintage bayonete that was brought out did not lock on correctly. sigh.
- it slings up really nicely, easier to carry and then shoot without adjusting the sling first like I do on my AR (MS4 sling)
So that's it. Obviously I need more trigger time and rounds down range but at least I know it's accurate enough. The glass has to get swapped out, want to switch to a regular dot with a 3x flip to the side magnifier which is the combo I've been running on my AR and am reasonably happy with. Knowing the rifle is more accurate than I'll be able to use with that setup is the goal, any misses are my fault, not the rifle, which is how I want it.
I decided to give a wonky bullpup one last try with a 20" Hellion which I picked up from @Fuquay Gun last week. Why 20"? I mean the 16" makes sense since short is the name of the game, but the 20" gets you a bayonet mount. Who doesn't want that? Who's willing to pay more for that? Me apparently.
Now normally I do a better job of doing write-ups, collect more data and present charts and stuff. This time, I'm just winging it. I was dreading finding out I had another clunker on my hands, so with just a few ammo types and a 1-8x strike eagle I braved the cold to see what I could learn.
First we zeroed it at 25 using some old Tula with the zinc plated 55gr bullets. That was pretty easy, and each little 2 shot 'group' was under 1/2", so I figured at 100 that would be good for 2"... right? Not bad!
Moving out to 100 yards, the Tula started printing 5"+ groups. Another Tavor??? Then it was obvious the bipod was loose. It's a cheapo I just clip on to rails for cleaning, but actually tried to use it at the range today. Mistake. I pulled the cadwell bag out and used that for the rest of the day. The next Tula group was... also disappointing. Uh oh. It did let me get it setup with a 100 yard zero for 55gr 223.
Next up was some Hornady TAP. It was 2.5" for a 5 shot group, so an improvement but nothing exciting. The center dot in the scope was larger than the orange circle on the target so I was not really getting things centered, and my eyes were watering from the cold wind blowing in my face so I was going to just have to be happy with that.
Or so I thought. I have one box of 77gr Hornady Black I got in a trade, stuffed five rounds of that into the rifle and:
I even managed to call the left most round as being out when I fired it (more on that later). Given the glass, I was now happy. Also happy that the 77gr shot just slightly different POI from the 55gr (at least at 100 yards)
Last was some Frontier 55gr M193. I knew it would shoot to a different POI being actual 556 and not 223, but I was more concerned with the group than the placement. I didn't have the chrono but I could tell the M193 was spicier than the 77gr 223 or TAP loading, and my spotter said the muzzle blast was noticibly louder.
Wee! That's plenty good for a non-precision rifle, and M193 is cheaper and easier to source than 77gr match. At this point it was even colder so I gave up on groups and just loaded up the rest of my Tula and blasted steel at 100, 150 and 200. I was wondering how the crazy height over bore would effect the apparent drop but I just put the dot on the center of the steel and got hits at all ranges. It's been so long since I've done any rifle work I can't even remember if that's normal for 223.
Some takeaways:
- trigger is long and mushy before it gets to a psuedo wall, then gets mush again and brakes at 7.5# according to my trigger scale. it's... different. not good, not horrible, just strange. LOUD reset.
- ergos are odd, as all bullpups are. the safety is easy to work with the firing thumb and I really did the charging handle being out front. bolt release is fine, no bolt catch (without sticking your finger into the magwell) is annoying
- the bipod mounted on the reail is 'too tall' for bench work, even at the shortest setting and I think that's the shortest bipod style out there
- fed from a 20 round GI aluminum mag and a 30 round magpul, no issues but also very few rounds fired
- recoil is very very light. very easy to spot my own hits, and see when I was shooting over steel off hand because the dot didn't move when the shot broke. makes calling the fliers easy.
- no AR *sproing* noise
- the vintage bayonete that was brought out did not lock on correctly. sigh.
- it slings up really nicely, easier to carry and then shoot without adjusting the sling first like I do on my AR (MS4 sling)
So that's it. Obviously I need more trigger time and rounds down range but at least I know it's accurate enough. The glass has to get swapped out, want to switch to a regular dot with a 3x flip to the side magnifier which is the combo I've been running on my AR and am reasonably happy with. Knowing the rifle is more accurate than I'll be able to use with that setup is the goal, any misses are my fault, not the rifle, which is how I want it.
