Bergara B14R questions

[dbltap45acp]

It's funny you mention handguns. On the cover of my USPSA magazine this month is a Canik SFX Rival. It has a flat trigger and that is a big part of their marketing of this gun. Look at most striker fires that have come out in the last year or so, flat triggers. S&W is late to the game with the terrible curved trigger in the M&P, I upgraded both of mine with a straighter Apex trigger. I predict they will make a design change in the future!

The forward Set Sear from Apex is one of the best aftermarket striker triggers available. Makes me miss my M&P honestly. In my Glocks I have a Flat Agency Arms trigger in one and an Overwatch Precision flat trigger in the other, a Timney in my comp gun for steel challenge. I need to order one for my Gen 5 G17, but I will be honest, haven’t been a huge fan of this gun yet. Can’t figure out why but I may move it or trade for a Gen 3 or 4, or might trade for a M&P again as I do miss my old one.

 

[sjmpcc022]

The forward Set Sear from Apex is one of the best aftermarket striker triggers available. Makes me miss my M&P honestly. In my Glocks I have a Flat Agency Arms trigger in one and an Overwatch Precision flat trigger in the other, a Timney in my comp gun for steel challenge. I need to order one for my Gen 5 G17, but I will be honest, haven’t been a huge fan of this gun yet. Can’t figure out why but I may move it or trade for a Gen 3 or 4, or might trade for a M&P again as I do miss my old one.

Every bunch of years or so I pull one out of my ass! I bet S&W dumps that POS trigger in the M&P in the next year!!! We shall see.

FYI.......we best knock this off, this has NOTHING to do with the Bergara B14R!!!!!

 

[dbltap45acp]

Finally got to take my new B14R to the range tonight. Shot CCI Blazer since I have like 7000 rounds rounds of it, my pistol likes that stuff. I ordered 200 rounds of CCI standard velocity, 100 rounds of Norma Tac, and 100 rounds of SK rifle match. At 25 yards all make a tiny little hole, at 50 yards the high velocity opened up a bit. Maybe 3/4 of an inch groups. I still need to really season the barrel, so I’m sure over the next 500 to 1000 rounds it will continue to tighten up. Loved the Timney HIT trigger, it’s set at 8oz. And I was happy that when running my Spectre II can the POI shift was repeatable, maybe 1/2” high from standard POI. Also brought my 6.5 CM which is running a Vortex PST Gen II and when looking back and forth from the Vortex and the Arken EP5 I can say that the Arken is a phenomenal optic and well worth the price for what you get. Makes a great optic especially for a 22. Haven’t gotten to look through it at max power at 1000 yards, but for what I have used it for I’m extremely happy with it so far.

 

[obx22]

Ordered the B14R last night, should have it in a week I went with the full rifle but may sell the stock later and drop it in a KRG Bravo like my custom 700 in 6.5CM.

Being that I’ve never been a precision rim fire guys, my thoughts so far are the B14R, steel barrel, 20 MOA EGW rail, and probably rings. Vortex Strike Eagle in 5x25 unless someone has a better choice in that price range. I ordered a couple flat Timney Elite Hunter triggers and planned on running them at 1.5#’s. I know everyone on here seems to prefer TT triggers, but as an instructor I get good deals from Timney and already use them in a Glock and a couple AR’s. So I figured I would give them a shot in a bolt gun too. Not sure if I will have to pull the bolt release off them and not sure how.

This will be more of a paper puncher for me, there is NRL22 local to me, and I may try it one day. But shooting 6.5CM while relaxing at the range can get pricey.

I do need to figure out a pic rail for my Harris/Larue bipod that will mount up front, a bore guide for cleaning, and hope the Timney works well and doesn’t slam fire when set to light. Otherwise I will have to stick with the factory trigger which I’m sure will be fine for what I plan to do. Any suggestions on things to buy, change, or needs to be upgraded in all ears. I appreciate any guidance on this build, thanks guys.

I’d recommend a rail with a lot more MOA tilt to fully exploit the available elevation travel of scope.
I went with a steel 40 because I couldn’t find a 50, now I think a 60 would be better.

 

[sjmpcc022]

Very nice!! Mine is in a pretty high 20 moa cantilever mount, so I gambled on a 0 moa rail. Rough basement bore sight had the scope all the way down, so I figure I'm pretty close? Gonna finally get to shoot this weekend, If I can go higher I can shim the mount a bit. Pretty sure a 20 moa mount is .011 higher in the back. The Arken mount I bought has three cross bolts and fits tight as shit. Thinking a .010 or .015 shim would b fine, especially with no recoil. I have nice plastic shims at work, no problem with corrosion!

 

[SpeedyR]

Didn't want to start a new thread but from my reading I've noticed almost everyone is getting the steel barrel version instead of the carbon.

Been looking at a B14R for my daughter to start to shoot a bit more and found a deal on a carbon locally, but if the steel is better for whatever reason, I'd prefer to have accuracy over lighter weight...

thoughts?

 

[Mina_]

@SpeedyR I am a female shooter who grabbed a b14 carbon close by (well it was a Cabelas ship to store but still, not much waiting) because it has a left hand bolt. I’m super happy with mine, just crossed over 2000 rounds since I picked her up in early July, two NRL 22 matches so far, and she is generally well under one moa with lapua center x. I wouldn’t pass up a carbon at all and if / when I buy a spare I may well do carbon again, but this is just one woman’s experience and I defer to those with more knowledge.

 

[Tortuga]

@SpeedyR I am a female shooter who grabbed a b14 carbon close by I’m super happy with mine, just crossed over 2000 rounds since I picked her up in early July,

Your situation fits right on with my carbon vs. steel philosophy. Those of smaller build will probably benefit from the weight and balance of the carbon barrels and larger folks will benefit from the extra weight (especially out front) of the steel. It is a matter of being relative to. I can drive my 16# B14r through a match with no problem, my wife would fatigue and her last few stages would fall apart. I could run her carbon barreled Summit, but not as steady (accurately) as my B14r.
Does that mean I will not build a RimX with a Proof carbon barrel? Of course I will! Why? Because shooting doesn't always have to be logical, it's supposed to be fun.

 

[SpeedyR]

I understand the weight thing. I finally built up a longer range rifle for myself (M24 contour, ACC chassis, Vortex optic, all heavy stuff) but had wondered why I saw everyone running the steel B14's.

I'll see if I can swing it in the next week or so, for her starting out maybe throw it in a lighter chassis and then go up as she gets used to it and wants something more "benchrest" style.

 

[Mina_]

I’m kinda tall and fairly strong. I think I was more saying my B14rC has been performing excellently and that if Speedy can get a good deal on a carbon that seems like a great idea based on my experience with the carbon. Bonus for a smaller of stature shooter. Plus as you say you can always change chassis later.

 

[sjmpcc022]

I finally got it out the last two days and I must say, I am pretty happy. I have just begun playing with a couple different ammo brands, but so far it looks promising!! I was REALLY happy with the Norma Tac, from what I have read here this rifle doesn't seem to like it?? I hope it keeps performing, I can find it local and the price is pretty decent.

Next Sunday I am going to my big range, this weekend was behind my shop. I have data figured to 400, I'm hoping to have time and success to make it to 175ish or so. Maybe the Norma Tac will shit the bed at 75 or 100, but I hope it doesn't. I have plenty of CCI SV, along with a couple boxes of different Ely ammo. If you look at the one pic, you will see a group of S&B . I only found two boxes of it, the price was cheap and I thought, why not?? It printed like a SOB at zero distance( 35yds) but it is supersonic, the crack was definitely there. There was no velocity on the box, does anyone have experience with this ammo? it is a blue box and says S&B Club.

And yes, my target backers are dividers out of Busch Lite 30 racks!!!!! It may be a bit redneck, but the math works out!! How far off of POA are u..................one can, two cans, half a can!!!

 

[Seakphotog]

I finally got it out the last two days and I must say, I am pretty happy. I have just begun playing with a couple different ammo brands, but so far it looks promising!! I was REALLY happy with the Norma Tac, from what I have read here this rifle doesn't seem to like it?? I hope it keeps performing, I can find it local and the price is pretty decent.

Next Sunday I am going to my big range, this weekend was behind my shop. I have data figured to 400, I'm hoping to have time and success to make it to 175ish or so. Maybe the Norma Tac will shit the bed at 75 or 100, but I hope it doesn't. I have plenty of CCI SV, along with a couple boxes of different Ely ammo. If you look at the one pic, you will see a group of S&B . I only found two boxes of it, the price was cheap and I thought, why not?? It printed like a SOB at zero distance( 35yds) but it is supersonic, the crack was definitely there. There was no velocity on the box, does anyone have experience with this ammo? it is a blue box and says S&B Club.

And yes, my target backers are dividers out of Busch Lite 30 racks!!!!! It may be a bit redneck, but the math works out!! How far off of POA are u..................one can, two cans, half a can!!!

Nice! Norma TAC works really well in my B14r as well, at least to 50. As well as anything else I've tried, included the more spendy stuff. Starts opening up a bit at 100 but my step son and I can still regularly (but not always) hit a 1 inch steel plate. At 200 it's pretty much a no go tho.

 

[MarkCZ]

I shoot steel knockdown out to 400yds. Both Norma TAC and Rifle match shoots great at 50yds. But, you start seeing vertical as you move out. You still can make hits, but at 400 yds it is around 24". You see vertical, with any ammo.

I find something small on the berm and fire 10 to 20 rounds ,to see what the vertical spread is for that ammo. Don't worry about the high"s and low's, you will have a group in the middle. Tac will shoot ok out to 300yds.

When shooting longer ranges, just know you are going the see vertical, just know what your ammo is going to do. We shoot cheaper ammo for practice, we know, we will have lower hit %. When you have wind to deal with. That is another story.
good luck
Mark

 

[Trigger Monkey]

Weekend before last I shot some Norma Tac at 130, 160, and 400 from my B14R.

It did ok at 130 and 160, consistently hitting the body of a skinny sammi and the head of a pepper popper respectively. It was less consistent at 400 yards shooting a 12X24 BC target, basically dancing around the target. I did manage to get several hits on the plate though, 4-5 out of 10 I think.

In short, in my experience from my B14R Norma Tac hangs with SK LR in so far as accuracy goes at 50 yards and does a decent job out to 150-ish. For me, this makes it a good, inexpensive round for positional shooting or general shooting practice. I would not however trust it for a match.

 

[sjmpcc022]

Appreciate all the feed back on Norma Tac!!!!

If I can get that ammo to perform decently to 100-125ish I would be stoked!! As I said up above, I can get it and the price isn't too bad. That one along with the CCI sv would be two readily available and cheap-er brands for 85% of my shooting!! My goal with this rifle is 400yds, so I will have to up the ante ammo wise to get there. But truthfully, most shooting will be 150and in. I have little targets that will be a blast at 100ish or so! I have 2 different Ely and am looking for some SK. The first test will be Sunday, the goal is get to 125-150. If the two I have get me close to that........WIN! I have dope figured from my 35yd zero to 400, so I'm ready!!!

There is a place local to me that is selling CCI sv for 3.99$ a box!! I had a bunch earlier, I was able to pick up another brick and a half plus!

 

[Working Man Tactical]

I just recently got mine. I verified it’s accurate before doing any mods. I added texture and paint to the stock and did a trigger job yesterday (from another thread here). It’s down to 18oz. I want to do mods on the cheap!

 

[308pirate]

I was REALLY happy with the Norma Tac, from what I have read here this rifle doesn't seem to like it??

I ignore others who say their rifle doesn't like this, that, or the other ammo. Why? Because their rifle isn't my rifle. What their rifles like or hate is irrelevant to me.

PS mine's like yours and loves Tac-22

 

[dbltap45acp]

Love how you did that up brother. Need a step by step post on it if you are willing.

 

[Working Man Tactical]

Love how you did that up brother. Need a step by step post on it if you are willing.

Thanks! I'll work something up.

 

[Working Man Tactical]

I went to the range today to see how my rifle performed after taking it apart to do the texturing and paint. I cleaned per vudoo’s directions I learned from another thread on this site. I shot cci sv, and when the goups tightened up I shot some different ammo. I can’t believe how hard Eley is to close the bolt on. Huge difference from cci, sk, lapua, and rws. Sk+ and rws did the best. at 50 yards, the cci sv did well too. I’m really happy with this rifle. We’ll see how it does at the local NRL22 match tomorrow.

 

[sjmpcc022]

I got it out for some serious work today, I would say it was a good day!! I made it out to 140 yards without very many misses, up until 125 yds. The CCI sv and the Norma Tac were very similar side by side! My ballistic calculator data was pretty close, and I found a table someone here made years ago last night. It was for CCI sv out to I think 360 yds in 10yd steps. There was quite a bit of more elevation in his table than my data. At about 100 I was pretty much splitting the difference, so finding that helped out a lot!! So far I see no reason both of the ammo choices I made won't keep going? The Norma Tac seems to be just a tad better so far, but they are very close.

As far as the misses at 125, the wind picked up and I had been shooting and walking back and forth for 2.5hrs, I was done! Plus I forgot my mat so that didn't help. Next time out I start at 140 and continue on!

 

[sjmpcc022]

Update on the last part of my post.....................It wasn't fatigue or sloppy trigger work. I painted my targets florescent green last night ( the Birchwood Casey orange target stickers disappear pretty quick) and saw hits above the round part of the target, on the stem, which is 1" wide. When I was seeing splash off of those hits, I thought it was dirt just under the target. I was pretty much right on, just dialed a little too much elevation! Being as I hit them so high up, they didn't move, so I thought miss. I adjusted my data starting at that point, we shall see next time out!

 

[ruger35]

Probably dumb question on my part, opened the new toy after work and saw this in the chamber just sliding around. Any thoughts?

 

[Working Man Tactical]

Looks like part of the trigger pack! Does anything happen when you pull the trigger?

 

[ruger35]

Looks like part of the trigger pack!

Figured but couldn’t find where. I did replace it with an extra TT special I had lying around.

 

[Trigger Monkey]

It's the sear to the OEM trigger.

 

[Working Man Tactical]

Euro optic Bergara b14r magazines
euro optic has magazines in stock.

 

[J_D]

Figured but couldn’t find where. I did replace it with an extra TT special I had lying around.

TT comes with that.....leave it with the old trigger.

 

[sawman556]

I just recently got mine. I verified it’s accurate before doing any mods. I added texture and paint to the stock and did a trigger job yesterday (from another thread here). It’s down to 18oz. I want to do mods on the cheap!

What did you use for texture? Marine-Tex? Looks good, BTW!

 

[Working Man Tactical]

What did you use for texture? Marine-Tex? Looks good, BTW!

Yes I used “gray” marinetex. I’m making a simple YouTube tutorial on how I did it. It’s very easy. Prep and tape are the keys to success.

 

[sjmpcc022]

Well, my journey continued today! I started back at 125yds, that is where things got a little hinky the last time out, really hinky at 140yds.

For an explanation of my method, I built 6 small targets,( there is a pic of them in a post above) 1.5" to 3.5" diameter. two of each. Since I ended at 140yds last time, I made two 4"X6" plates to go on my hangers, they replaced one of the 1.5" and one of the 2.5" targets. I am leaving the other 1.5" target at 100yds to verify things if I start having trouble. I started at my zero distance, 35yds, and have been moving in 5yd increments. Shoot, hit, record data then move targets back. Last time I ended at 140yds with some problems hitting consistently. I was getting shot out and had a little too much elevation dialed. Today I picked up at 125 and got to 140 no probbo. I also am using both CCI sv and Norma Tac22. I made my moves back today and got to 185yds. It was pretty windy, maybe 8-10 mph and took a bit to figure the wind out, at 100yds I just dialed .5 left and hit! The wind was consistent the whole time so dialing was a good call. I ended up getting to 185 yds, took 2.5hrs again, and I was done. By that time I had almost a mil of wind, think it was .9. This is STILL with the CCI and the Norma Tac, they aren't giving up yet!

I am including a pic of the plate I had up at 185yds. It is one of my AR500 plates on a stake, it is 6X6. I wasn't sure how this would go that far out so I put that one up in case I couldn't hit the little ones. That was not an issue!! The group on the plate is both brands of ammo, and I'm pretty sure I didn't have a miss. That plate didn't move hardly at all, but I could see splash!

I also shot a bit on paper at 100yds, and with the white background I had no problem seeing the bullets fly!!!!

 

[Working Man Tactical]

I went shooting yesterday and wanted to see how the cci grouped at 200 yards. I think it shot pretty well. Vertical dispersion from the velocity spread, but there’s a decent little group going on.

 

[Mina_]

The weird thing about CCI SV in my b14r is that it produces a documented and severe cold bore shift that I simply don’t see with SK, Lapua, or Eley. It otherwise produces good Chrono numbers and decent accuracy even past 150 yards. My speculation is that it seems to create a carbon ring much more quickly than other ammo but I don’t know for sure. It’s a shame because I’ve got a lot of SV but it makes practice sessions of over about 50 rounds, which is basically every positional / NRL22 practice session, really difficult.

 

[Russ D]

OP did you find a direct fit pic rail for mounting the bipod to the factory stock?

 

[Working Man Tactical]

OP did you find a direct fit pic rail for mounting the bipod to the factory stock?

It’s pretty easy to drill and tap the factory stock, it’s aluminum inside. Area 419 makes a slick universe pic rail if you don’t want to drill. Area 419 pic rail link

 

[sjmpcc022]

If you take the two sling swivel pieces out, there are threaded inserts in the stock. I think they are 10-32, piece of cake.