Today I took my newest acquisition, a Les Baer thunder ranch out for the first time. This rifle has a half moa guarantee from the factory, and two 1/4moa test targets to validate its chops. I didn't quite get there today, but feel confident with some new hand loads, I'll get into the 1/2 minute club eventually. The gun is temporarily wearing a primary arms 4-14, which isn't a bad scope, but not exactly what I had in mind for this rifle. Also used was a gg&g bipod and wotg sand sock.
The rifle itself worked great. It came out of the box with its carry handle perfectly zeroed, of course I took that off immediately. The included 20 round magazine was total garbage though, with the last round of every mag failing to feed, the bolt failing to lock open, and the last round dropping free with the mag when dropped. No problems were encountered with lancer or magpul mags.
Finally, because this is a new rifle, I wanted to see what it liked. I accordingly shot groups with three different hand loads utilizing the 77 grain nosler. The cfe223 loaded at 223 velocity was a clear winner, while my usual go to 556 pressure tac load was pretty disappointing. Although not pictured, it also shot some Norma match 77 smk into about .7 moa (2 5 shot groups). I could obviously post a much better score by repeating with only the favored load.
Ronnl001/Les Baer thunder ranch ar15/.596+.625+.965+1.023+1.168+1.392"/6=.9615" = .918 MOA AVERAGE.
Edited to add: I couldn't load my bipod at all on the bench I was shooting from. I think this also may have contribute to my groups opening up, as I have a lot harder time being consistent without some loading of the gun due to shooting fatigue.