LR 308 ugly bitch whore Frankengun

[nagantguy]

So the very franken lr308 that brought me to this place has entered the final phase of tinkering g and load development.
Adjustable gas block- heavy spring and buffer . Nice trigger , epsilon muzzle break .
Function in now 100%
Accuracy load development is coming along .
168 match monsters over 43 grains Varget .

after much reading here about shooting large frame gasser and trial and error . I’ve figured out how this pig likes to be driven .
The three shots on the right of above target is from bipod and rear bag- three into right at 1inch .

The three shots touching circled in blue on the right just under .5 inch were fired with bipod loaded with forward pressure- firm grip on handguard rifle pulled firmly back into shoulder and close attention paid to follow through- wait for recoil impulse to cease, allow trigger forward to reset .

Both groups fired with exactly the same ammo same magazine- shot one after the other at 100 yards with a gusting 12-16 mph westerly wind(blowing left to right )- . Driving a gasser is different than a bolt as we all know - now that I’ve got it running and think I’m done tinkering with it with the exception of playing with seating depth a little more learning how to drive a particular rifle especially this ugly bitch makes the difference between a MOA rifle and half MOA rifle

 

[nagantguy]

16 inch BA barrel
DPMS upper
bushmaster lower
RISE trigger
Epsilon muzzle break
MI handguard
Seekins gas block
Springco orange buffer spring
Odin 5.4 oz buffer .

 

[mettee]

We need pics of this UBWF

 

[nagantguy]

I’ll throw some up tomorrow.
I’ve been looking at other DMR type options - maybe jumping into 6arc or the waiting for Ruger to unfuckulate the SFAR or maybe wait until PSA defrags their M110is clone thing - Saber I think . Or maybe jump into the high dollar market
But I’ve got this piggy running now and still have a 6.5 Grendel build been on hold forever - so long that I forgot I had some brass but needed a bolt .

After this and the 6.5 thing being on hold for so long I hate to dump a bunch of time money and components into a new thing that might be a shit show all over again

 

[nagantguy]

One more random thought on the matter- I specifically went with the BA barrel over the factory DPMS barrel because of all the posts here about BA tending to underside gas ports and the DPMS barrel being so horribly over gassed, like worst I’ve ever seen or heard of - shit the BA barrel was as bad maybe worse .
And the last problem of random flyers that I’ve spent all winter pinning down was the gas block hitting the hand guard- not all the time just every now and then didn’t figure it out until I stripped it completely down and saw the matching marked on top of the gas block and matching marks on the inside of the handguard . I’d actually taken it down to make sure my barrel not was tight to spec and if my barrel maybe needed some shim stock to tighten everything up. Everything was tight as hell and but was fine . Random flyers have disappeared after filing a touch more clearance on the top left side of the hand guard . And I painted both spots with a white paint marker and 150 or so rounds in there’s no marks on the paint .
Not much a drunk pissed off Marine can’t fix with a file and some good sour mash.

 

[LRRPF52]

I’ll throw some up tomorrow.
I’ve been looking at other DMR type options - maybe jumping into 6arc or the waiting for Ruger to unfuckulate the SFAR or maybe wait until PSA defrags their M110is clone thing - Saber I think . Or maybe jump into the high dollar market
But I’ve got this piggy running now and still have a 6.5 Grendel build been on hold forever - so long that I forgot I had some brass but needed a bolt .

After this and the 6.5 thing being on hold for so long I hate to dump a bunch of time money and components into a new thing that might be a shit show all over again

I’ll just say that I spent many years chasing large frame .308s and 6.5s with mostly success in performance, reliability (minus anything factory from DPMS), but the penalties seemed to out-weigh the benefits for most of what I do, so I ended up shooting Grendels more and more.

I was mainly a .260 Rem guy in the 2000s and love how .260 Rem performs with 130gr VLDs out of a gasser, but the rifle is 14lb +, eats $1+ brass every 3 firings, requires lots of neck trimming, bent 3-4 firing pin retaining pins, and comes off target when trying to spot my own hits accurately enough to measure for informed follow-ups.

Whereas with the Grendel in guns that weigh half as much with optics, it’s more like a video game and I just watch my rounds fly into the target with minimal effort.

I’ve had 7 different large frame gas guns and just don’t shoot them anymore. I need to give the Savage MSR-10 a fair shake, but it looks like they’re not even on their site anymore/discontinued maybe? I think they really nailed the design with the MSR-10, but you don’t hear anything about them.

 

[nagantguy]

I’ll just say that I spent many years chasing large frame .308s and 6.5s with mostly success in performance, reliability (minus anything factory from DPMS), but the penalties seemed to out-weigh the benefits for most of what I do, so I ended up shooting Grendels more and more.

I was mainly a .260 Rem guy in the 2000s and love how .260 Rem performs with 130gr VLDs out of a gasser, but the rifle is 14lb +, eats $1+ brass every 3 firings, requires lots of neck trimming, bent 3-4 firing pin retaining pins, and comes off target when trying to spot my own hits accurately enough to measure for informed follow-ups.

Whereas with the Grendel in guns that weigh half as much with optics, it’s more like a video game and I just watch my rounds fly into the target with minimal effort.

I’ve had 7 different large frame gas guns and just don’t shoot them anymore. I need to give the Savage MSR-10 a fair shake, but it looks like they’re not even on their site anymore/discontinued maybe? I think they really nailed the design with the MSR-10, but you don’t hear anything about them.

Looks like I’m finding the same benefits /penalties package as you . Maybe the juice isn’t worth all the squeeze.
I have high hopes for this 6.5 Grendel build .
And yes anyone that wants to can laugh at jumping into 6.5 G in 2024 . But sometimes I’m slow to the party .
6arc or similar would scratch the same itch but I see one company loading for it and no reliable source for brass .
All the 6.5 G brass I have is from range pick ups and I’ve 3-4 boxes of factory.

And seems to be easier to get to shoot out of a gasser then the .308.

 

[LRRPF52]

One of the comparisons I did was with 2 rifles I actually own and load for with the same bullets:

.260 Rem 22” Bartlein shooting 130gr VLD at 2800fps
6.5 Grendel 22” Lilja shooting 130gr VLD at 2500fps

I saw that the .260 Rem hit the muzzle velocity of the 22” Grendel at somewhere between 175-225yds. Both are supersonic to 1200yds for me, with the .260 Rem obviously shooting flatter. At that point, I looked at all the effort I had to put into loading for the .260 Rem and losing expensive brass, vs not really losing my Lapua brass in Grendel and the Grendels found themselves being taken out more and more.

I initially thought of the Grendel as more of an experiment I was barely willing to test out just for fun. I didn’t expect it to take over most of the future projects I did and dominate my collection of AR-15s.

I still love AR-10s now more for nostalgia I guess, since I’ve put so much effort into learning everything I could about them since the 1980s. I originally thought there was never going to be the possibility of buying an AR-10, other than a rare Dutch import or pre-86 transferable. When KAC did what they did in the late 1980s-early 1990s, I was more than excited.

 

[Pappasniper]

Learning to drive a large frame gasser is definitely different than bolt guns. But they are cool as fuck and once your load and gear get figured out, nothing like loading a 20 round mag and going to work. Gas block banging on the hand guard was a good catch, that could have made you crazy for a quite a while. I chased my ass more than once on a loose base, last time a 338winmag hunting gun. Thought I was never going to figure out my handholds ....

Good luck.

PB

 

[nagantguy]

Learning to drive a large frame gasser is definitely different than bolt guns. But they are cool as fuck and once your load and gear get figured out, nothing like loading a 20 round mag and going to work. Gas block banging on the hand guard was a good catch, that could have made you crazy for a quite a while. I chased my ass more than once on a loose base, last time a 338winmag hunting gun. Thought I was never going to figure out my handholds ....

Good luck.

PB

Things can have you chasing the tail for sure - had a loose action screw - not fall out lose but about 10 pounds under spec on an inherited rifle that had a family history of being a nail driver of a rifle .

And just this last season had a bad section of rail on a crossbow - let the scope move ever so slightly between shots . Drove me absolutely nuts .

And yes now that this big gasser is running I remember why having one has always been on bucket list .
As soon as we have a day above zero I’ll take it back out and see how she does at 400 and 500.