After getting the itch to build a custom rifle I decided that rather than building a bolt action rifle, I would add a completely unique semi-auto weapon to my arsenal. I am a stickler for accurate rifles so of course I had my doubts about a semi-auto. I assumed there was no way you could maintain accuracy with so many moving parts and a gun held together by pins, to my surprise that thought would be squashed.
This is the list of features I wanted this gun to have:
• Accurate Fast Barrel
• Stiff Upper and Lower Receivers
• Great Trigger
• Low Light Capable Scope
• Adjustable Stock (both cheek height and length-of-pull)
Barrel
No surprise here, having a high quality barrel is huge in determining the accuracy of a gun and, in my opinion, no one does it better then Krieger Barrels. Krieger Barrels manufactures precision single-point cut-rifled barrels that not only shoot well but also look amazing. Because I have grown accustomed to predator hunting with a 22-250, I wanted to try and keep the ballistics of my 223 as close as possible to that of the 22-250, and that meant speeding up my 223 round.
With that in mind, I came to the conclusion that a 26” stainless steel barrel in a 1-12 twist rate with a .920 muzzle diameter would be perfect for my 50 grain Nosler Combined Technology Ballistic Silvertips. Although this combination will be heavy, weighing in at around 5.25lbs, it gives me the ability to target a small predator, steady the reticle on the target and use the heavy setup to make small calculated adjustments to aim. To polish it all off I added 10 flutes to cool it down in case things get crazy.
Upper and Lower Receiver
Unlike a bolt action rifle that has a solid tough action that can be bedded to a fiberglass stock with a full-length aluminum bedding block for a consistent point of contact of action to stock, an AR-15 relies on an upper receiver mounted to a lower receiver by two pins. Unfortunately, this is the design of the AR-15 and, combined with all the moving parts, creates hurdles when it comes to accuracy. To counteract this downfall I went with the MUR (Modular Upper Receiver) by Vltor. This upper receiver has thicker walls making the MUR a stronger platform while still keeping the MilSpec requirements.
Because all AR-15 parts are built to specific specs, finding a lower that is built more solidly is hard to come by. However, the best I could do was a lower by Saber Tactical that has a solid trigger guard, which is unlike most lowers that require a drop in guard. Every bit will help in terms of a rigid platform.
Trigger
When it comes to triggers, I won’t add a gun in my arsenal unless it has a Jewell trigger, and this AR is no different. Luckily, Jewell makes a fantastic two stage trigger the feels and breaks like the model for the bolt action rifles. With a little bit of adjustment I was able to take away the first stage and lower the second to around a 1lb pull. The trigger now functions somewhat like that of the Savage AccuTrigger where the first stage acts as a mechanism to allow the disengagement of the sear during the second stage pull. All in all it has a very crisp and clean pull that only Jewell can provide.
Scope
Based on our experiences from hunting the northeast for predators, I rarely get a shot that isn’t a low light situation. So like our cameras, I needed a scope that has great light gathering capabilities to work in both low light and night situations. For big light one needs a big scope which is a Nightforce specialty and is clearly illustrated in their model 5.5-22x56mm NXS. This scope looks and feels bullet proof providing a sense of comfort in the knowledge that, no matter how many times you transfer it from the truck to the shoulder, the reticle will always shoot where it is supposed to.
Along with its durability, Nightforce offers several different styles of reticles depending on a hunters’ need. The NP-1 is a free floating three-plex design that utilizes all the functional elements of a duplex without unnecessary obstructions of your field of view at the 12 o’clock and 6 o’clock positions. Along with its illumination feature this reticle will be perfect for any predator situation I throw at it.
Stock
As we all know, every hunting situation is different which is even more true in the predator hunting world. It seems you never have the perfect position on a predator stand, whether it is an awkward seat position or your bipod/ shooting stick just isn’t long enough, which can make for a difficult sight picture and a skewed eye relief. Further, with the 56mm objective of the Nightforce, this calls for a very high mount position. For these reasons, I needed this gun to have both an adjustable cheek piece and length of pull and the Magpul PRS (Precision Rifle/Sniper) stock has those exact traits. This stock allows adjustment on the fly to give you the perfect eye relief no matter what awkward position you are in.
Overall, this gun was a fun build with the perfect load, and the accuracy characteristics talked about above will surely make this gun a “fur dropping machine.”
Results
Load testing started out all bad when I started seating the bullet off the lands in increments of .010” but we all know an AR has a magazine and, you guessed it, none of the rounds fitted in the mag….idiot. After a wasted trip to the range I went back to the drawing board and started seating the bullet in increments of .010” from the MAGAZINE and all was fixed. I ended up with a round that produced fantastic results with a muzzle velocity of 3,500fps.
Bullet: Nosler 50gr Combined Technology Ballistic Tip
Case: Winchester
Primer: Federal AR Match
Powder: 26.5gr Benchmark
Neck Thickness: .0120”
O.A.L: 2.2680”
Case Length: 1.7330”
This three shot group was at 100yards after a 50 shot barrel break-in process.
Parts List
Upper Receiver: Vltor MUR
Lower Reciever: Saber Tactical
Bolt: FailZero
Charging Handle: Vltor BCM Gunfighter Mod 3 Large
Barrel: Krieger AR-15 Varmatch 26” with a 1-12 twist
Gas Block: PRI Low Profile .936”
Stock: MagPul PRS
Grip: MagPul MIAD
Trigger: Jewell
Scope: Nightforce 5.5-22 x 56mm NX with a NP-1 Reticle
Scope Mount: Nightforce Unimount 1.375”
Handguard: Daniel Defense Lite Rail 14.0”
Bolt Catch: DPMS with MagPul BAD Lever Extender
Magazine Release: DPMS
Bipod Adapter: DoubleStar Picatinny
Here are some videos the gun was used in....
This is the list of features I wanted this gun to have:
• Accurate Fast Barrel
• Stiff Upper and Lower Receivers
• Great Trigger
• Low Light Capable Scope
• Adjustable Stock (both cheek height and length-of-pull)
Barrel
No surprise here, having a high quality barrel is huge in determining the accuracy of a gun and, in my opinion, no one does it better then Krieger Barrels. Krieger Barrels manufactures precision single-point cut-rifled barrels that not only shoot well but also look amazing. Because I have grown accustomed to predator hunting with a 22-250, I wanted to try and keep the ballistics of my 223 as close as possible to that of the 22-250, and that meant speeding up my 223 round.
With that in mind, I came to the conclusion that a 26” stainless steel barrel in a 1-12 twist rate with a .920 muzzle diameter would be perfect for my 50 grain Nosler Combined Technology Ballistic Silvertips. Although this combination will be heavy, weighing in at around 5.25lbs, it gives me the ability to target a small predator, steady the reticle on the target and use the heavy setup to make small calculated adjustments to aim. To polish it all off I added 10 flutes to cool it down in case things get crazy.
Upper and Lower Receiver
Unlike a bolt action rifle that has a solid tough action that can be bedded to a fiberglass stock with a full-length aluminum bedding block for a consistent point of contact of action to stock, an AR-15 relies on an upper receiver mounted to a lower receiver by two pins. Unfortunately, this is the design of the AR-15 and, combined with all the moving parts, creates hurdles when it comes to accuracy. To counteract this downfall I went with the MUR (Modular Upper Receiver) by Vltor. This upper receiver has thicker walls making the MUR a stronger platform while still keeping the MilSpec requirements.
Because all AR-15 parts are built to specific specs, finding a lower that is built more solidly is hard to come by. However, the best I could do was a lower by Saber Tactical that has a solid trigger guard, which is unlike most lowers that require a drop in guard. Every bit will help in terms of a rigid platform.
Trigger
When it comes to triggers, I won’t add a gun in my arsenal unless it has a Jewell trigger, and this AR is no different. Luckily, Jewell makes a fantastic two stage trigger the feels and breaks like the model for the bolt action rifles. With a little bit of adjustment I was able to take away the first stage and lower the second to around a 1lb pull. The trigger now functions somewhat like that of the Savage AccuTrigger where the first stage acts as a mechanism to allow the disengagement of the sear during the second stage pull. All in all it has a very crisp and clean pull that only Jewell can provide.
Scope
Based on our experiences from hunting the northeast for predators, I rarely get a shot that isn’t a low light situation. So like our cameras, I needed a scope that has great light gathering capabilities to work in both low light and night situations. For big light one needs a big scope which is a Nightforce specialty and is clearly illustrated in their model 5.5-22x56mm NXS. This scope looks and feels bullet proof providing a sense of comfort in the knowledge that, no matter how many times you transfer it from the truck to the shoulder, the reticle will always shoot where it is supposed to.
Along with its durability, Nightforce offers several different styles of reticles depending on a hunters’ need. The NP-1 is a free floating three-plex design that utilizes all the functional elements of a duplex without unnecessary obstructions of your field of view at the 12 o’clock and 6 o’clock positions. Along with its illumination feature this reticle will be perfect for any predator situation I throw at it.
Stock
As we all know, every hunting situation is different which is even more true in the predator hunting world. It seems you never have the perfect position on a predator stand, whether it is an awkward seat position or your bipod/ shooting stick just isn’t long enough, which can make for a difficult sight picture and a skewed eye relief. Further, with the 56mm objective of the Nightforce, this calls for a very high mount position. For these reasons, I needed this gun to have both an adjustable cheek piece and length of pull and the Magpul PRS (Precision Rifle/Sniper) stock has those exact traits. This stock allows adjustment on the fly to give you the perfect eye relief no matter what awkward position you are in.
Overall, this gun was a fun build with the perfect load, and the accuracy characteristics talked about above will surely make this gun a “fur dropping machine.”
Results
Load testing started out all bad when I started seating the bullet off the lands in increments of .010” but we all know an AR has a magazine and, you guessed it, none of the rounds fitted in the mag….idiot. After a wasted trip to the range I went back to the drawing board and started seating the bullet in increments of .010” from the MAGAZINE and all was fixed. I ended up with a round that produced fantastic results with a muzzle velocity of 3,500fps.
Bullet: Nosler 50gr Combined Technology Ballistic Tip
Case: Winchester
Primer: Federal AR Match
Powder: 26.5gr Benchmark
Neck Thickness: .0120”
O.A.L: 2.2680”
Case Length: 1.7330”
This three shot group was at 100yards after a 50 shot barrel break-in process.
Parts List
Upper Receiver: Vltor MUR
Lower Reciever: Saber Tactical
Bolt: FailZero
Charging Handle: Vltor BCM Gunfighter Mod 3 Large
Barrel: Krieger AR-15 Varmatch 26” with a 1-12 twist
Gas Block: PRI Low Profile .936”
Stock: MagPul PRS
Grip: MagPul MIAD
Trigger: Jewell
Scope: Nightforce 5.5-22 x 56mm NX with a NP-1 Reticle
Scope Mount: Nightforce Unimount 1.375”
Handguard: Daniel Defense Lite Rail 14.0”
Bolt Catch: DPMS with MagPul BAD Lever Extender
Magazine Release: DPMS
Bipod Adapter: DoubleStar Picatinny
Here are some videos the gun was used in....
