I am mostly a bolt action guy for long range stuff. Have a 16 inch Daniel Defense in 223/5.56. Wondering if buying high quality upper with bartlein barrel would yield the accuracy of buying high end complete rifle from someone like Compass Lake etc? Thinking of running a 224 Valkyrie in this since my custom bolt guns are 6.5 Creedmoor. Thanks and forgive me for asking simple questions to ar guys. Just not very knowledgeable about this but want to play with one for long range.
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AR 15 for long range precision
- Thread starter bbowles
- Start date
I’m in the same boat, I’ve been looking at Compass Lake, you can get their lower for $100 and add the exact pieces and parts you want. I’ve got a bunch of parts lying around so I’m considering that and just selling the DD.
Probably not. Sure a super rigid billet lower with a $300 trigger would be easier/better but it’s not necessary for accuracy. My brother has a DD that shoots .5-.7 groups. It does have a good trigger in it though.
I have a geissele ssa-e 2 stage that is very good. Wanting prs stock. I don't know much about what I have. Not sure what buffer is etc. Just need to know what to get to mate this up for my purpose for it.
None of that will matter in terms of accuracy. As long as you have a decent lower and a decent trigger the lower will not hold you back. All the business about flexing and fitiment and buffers causing accuracy issues is voodoo.
I decided to build an precision upper to do some long range shooting.
On an old ar lower.
Kreiger bull barrel
Seekins upper
Seekins handguard
JP bolt
Colt bolt carrier
Timney CE trigger
Magpul PRS stock
Rifle buffer tube and buffer
The rifle shoots bug holes when I am on and really magnifies my mistakes when I am off, it is much harder to shoot than a bolt rifle.
If you build one and it does not shoot to your expectations what do you do?
If you buy one complete you can request a reasonable accuracy requirement.
With that said I build my own, taking it apart four times to tweak it is part of the fun.
On an old ar lower.
Kreiger bull barrel
Seekins upper
Seekins handguard
JP bolt
Colt bolt carrier
Timney CE trigger
Magpul PRS stock
Rifle buffer tube and buffer
The rifle shoots bug holes when I am on and really magnifies my mistakes when I am off, it is much harder to shoot than a bolt rifle.
If you build one and it does not shoot to your expectations what do you do?
If you buy one complete you can request a reasonable accuracy requirement.
With that said I build my own, taking it apart four times to tweak it is part of the fun.
That would be the easiest thing to do to have 1/2 moa potential. 1/2 moa with a gas gun is very tricky to do even when your equipment is capable. Assuming you have a milspec trigger, you may want to upgrade that but it is not going to make the gun any more accurate. It will make it easier to shoot well. You don't have to go crazy, a RRA 2 stage for $100 is plenty good.
It’s well known that it’s harder technique-wise to shoot an AR than a bolt gun. Partly from a longer lock time and partly because bolt guns are just inherently more accurate because of the differences in how they are built. I fortunately started precision shooting on an AR so it forced me to be tedious and do everything right, or at least more right than I could have gotten away with on a bolt gun. Other than being set up correctly so the rifle reacts consistently to recoil, the difference in 1/2 MOA and 1.2 MOA is about 1/10 of a second. If you stay focused all of the way through the trigger pull to when the shot breaks, and through the recoil, a capable AR will shoot just as good as a bolt gun. Most people can’t/don’t stay focused that long and have no idea that they don’t. You can get away with loss of focus with a bolt gun because the amount of time from when the trigger is pulled to when the bullet leaves the barrel is shorter than with an AR. The tricky part is KNOWING your AR is capable and that the 1.2 groups are you and not the gun!
Excellent post JP. Makes perfect sense. I started on high end bolt guns so I will work on this with my current ar. Have been to 3 very good long range precision schools and shooting sub 1/2 moa is very doable with my customs. Appreciate ur time to explain!
My DD 16" 5.56 shot very tight groups at 100 yards. I was going to swap the barrel out to a 224 valk, but I decided to leave it alone and put the 224 barrel in another AR15 that I built that used to be a 6.5 Grendel. In my experience, it comes down to how well the barrel was made more than anything else. My Satern 6.5 Grendel barrel shot really well. Took that rifle out to 1,193 yards on steel. All of the parts came from different manufacturers. AR-10 platform is a little different because there is no real "standard" for specs other than the pattern type.
In other words, the AR15 is more forgiving when mixing up parts. If you were questioning an AR-10 build, I would say buy a complete rifle or at least the upper.
In other words, the AR15 is more forgiving when mixing up parts. If you were questioning an AR-10 build, I would say buy a complete rifle or at least the upper.
Be sure to let us all know when you get the <0.5 MOA rifle up & running so we can all know exactly what parts to use; also, be sure to report only multiple 10 shot groups as well...............none of this 1 or 2 group, 3 or 5 shot stuff.
MM
