I Hate Having A Bad Day At The Range

[Qball]

Went to the range today to zero two uppers. The first one was my 6.5 Grendel with a new thermal optic. My thermal targets weren’t very visible because it got cloudy. I couldn’t even hit the paper at 50 yards after three shots.

The second one was a new .50 Beowulf upper with a muzzle brake. I got it zeroed after two shots but both shots had malfunctions.

The first malfunction happened when I released the bolt to chamber the first round. It didn’t chamber. I had to manually chamber that round.

When I fired the first shot, it ejected the spent cartridge but tried to load two rounds at the same time.

Then, I decided to manually load a round and insert an empty magazine. After shooting that round I noticed that the bolt partially locked open.

After making some adjustments to the optic, the second shot was dead on.

However, I’m at a loss to understand why I was having malfunctions.

Brand new magazine. The only thing I can think of is maybe an ammunition issue or a problem with the buffer.

 

[Qball]

I’m leaning towards an ammunition issue. I have always fired Alexander Arms ammunition over the last 15 years or so. Never had a malfunction.

Today I was shooting Underwood 420 grain Penetrator ammunition. Because I had a problem chambering a round on the first shot, I think there’s an issue with the ammunition.

 

[Friday]

Next time you decide to have a bad range day try to use ammo that doesn't require a home equity loan. 🍺

 

[Qball]

Next time you decide to have a bad range day try to use ammo that doesn't require a home equity loan. 🍺

That’s cheap stuff. 🤣

 

[B00ger]

Ol'Qball be in a whole other'pay scale than ol'Boog here.

But, to the point at hand...I cant agree more. A bad day at the range totally sucks. It's watching the things we enjoy fail, even after throwing tons of money at it. Kinda like being a parent.

 

[noway2]

Next time you decide to have a bad range day try to use ammo that doesn't require a home equity loan. 🍺

That’s cheap stuff. 🤣

For some reason, the thought of that scene in the Harry Potter book / movie Goblet of Fire popped into my head where the guest headmistress asked about her horses being tended to and saying, “they only drink the finest single malt whiskey”. Maybe your rifles are French?

 

[Dale Gribble]

I Hate Having A Bad Day At The Range​

Dave,

Been there and it’s frustrating, but look at it from a different angle…

You made an effort, took them to the range and found out what works, or what doesn’t. That gives you a jumping off point to start troubleshooting and attempt to find what the issue is…at the range.

Being in a spot where you really need something to work and work immediately is a bad time to discover issues. I’m afraid that may happen to a lot of folks who buy firearms and put them in a drawer/safe, without taking the time to honestly “run” them to see if there may be any issues with function/reliability/accuracy/etc.

👍

 

[Rockchucker]

Add some hot hands to your range bag.

 

[USMC6094]

In my experience, a bad range day is better than good work day

 

[Jp8819]

Look on the bright side you might of had a bad range day but you now have reached the stage where you can tinker on it and go back to the range and test without having to deal with a work schedule getting in the way. 😁

 

[Qball]

I’m going to use one of the lowers with a 5.56 buffer I built for my son along with my older Beowulf upper and this new upper to see if it is an ammunition issue or a buffer issue.

My regular Alexander Arms lower has a Magpul PRS stock attached with a .308 buffer. I’ve been using that lower with that stock and buffer for 15 years now.

Never had a problem until I started shooting this Underwood ammunition. But the two variables is the new ammunition and the new upper. So mixing things up a bit should make it easy to diagnose what’s going on.

 

[USMC6094]

Have you tried it NOT using Underwood ammo?

 

[Qball]

Have you tried it NOT using Underwood ammo?

Not yet. Not with this new upper. That’s the first step I’ll take next time I go out to the range. Run the exact same setup with Alexander Arms ammunition.

We’ll see how it goes from there.