I've now had two rounds at the range with the Revolution DI and the Burris 1-8x24 FFP. First round was a nightmare trying to figure out which way to go with the scope to dial it in. Wasted a lot of ammo. I purchased a laser bore sighter (Site Lite Mag) which had me on paper immediately, first shot, on my second visit to the range.
The first time out with the gun/scope, I noticed strange marks on the bottom of the casings which I learned was "smear" and it'll apparently disappear as I use the rifle more. I did not make any adjustments to the gas on my initial outing. Some suggested it was due to hot rounds and I was over gassed but these are "factory" rounds and not what I'd consider hot. Ambient temps were in the 90 degree range that day but I was in the shade. I've reached out to POF but haven't received a reply yet. Going by the experience of others, it appears this is normal and will go away as the gun breaks in. Here's a photo, can see the marks at approximately the 3 and 9 o'clock positions on the right and middle casing. Sometimes there's a physical burr that you can feel where I think the extractor has dug in. It's a little less pronounced now and most it's just a superficial mark, can't feel it with my finger.
Anyway...first thing I did was go through the process of dialing in the adjustable gas block which I did not do the first time out. One round in the mag, firing, closing the gas block one notch per round until the bolt locked open. I added one more click and watched for ejection which was at 4 o'clock. Left it there for now.
Dialed her in at 50 yards and could practically put the rounds on top of one and other once I dialed in elevation and windage. Moved out to 100 yards, a bit more of a challenge but could still produce small groupings with PMC Bronze 147gr ammo. The PMC was the least expensive "decent" ammo I could find and I think, with shipping, it was around .50 cents a round.
One thing I've noticed is the eye box gets very small at 8x on the Burris. It's really a learning process to get into the right position quickly. I like the reticle and as much as I "think" I'd like (and wanted) the Primary Arms ACSS reticle, I'm pretty darn happy with the Burris and it has a lifetime warranty on both the electronics and the mechanicals. Plus it's reticle is very similar to the Bushnell 1-4x FFP on my AR15. I'd convinced myself to move up to the PA PLx 1-8x24 but being out of stock for the foreseeable future, the Burris was a no-brainer with Japanese glass (I consider high end Japanese glass/coatings better than German, controversy!) at a less expensive price to boot. But I wonder if I'm under-scoped for deer hunting out to 300 yards? Probably just need more practice with the 1-8x. I did notice the glass was susceptible to flaring but this is almost unavoidable without a shade. I lost a it of contrast but everything was still perfectly legible. Oh and I did try the illumination and both the Burris and the Bushnell were daylight bright.
This was literally, my fourth time at the range with any rifle so pretty happy. I know I still have a lot to learn and while I was able to knock off six to eight rounds quickly and on target (within 4 inches) I know I'll get better with more range time. The POF was consistent the entire time. I went through 60 rounds pretty quickly after dialing everything in and it didn't seem to change as the barrel heated up. Shoots like butter and easily more on target than my AR15 shooting rapidly. Recoil feels almost identical between the two. Using a 1-4x FFP Bushnell on the AR and it's a bit more nebulous at 100 yards with the lower magnification. Again, probably comes down to practice, practice practice.
One thing I realized this time out is I now HATE the AR15's trigger. I don't know if it's become spongy with use or what but it was far less predictable where the POF's trigger was telepathic, maybe even touch too light given my experience level. Will most likely swap in a POF trigger on the AR to keep them consistent rifle to rifle.
Load development. Looking for pointers. I'll continue to build my skills with the PMC but thinking I should try a few different types of factory rounds to see what the gun prefers. Specifically looking for hunting rounds, axis deer. According to my neighbor, most shots are between 100 and 300 yards but skewed towards 100 yards. Once I try a few different makes and weights, I'll be doing my own load development and dialing the gun in with those. If I should approach that with a different methodology I'm all ears.
And apologies for the long post, I type 60-words-a-minute. In person, I'm a man of few words. Go figure.
This is with the rifle on a cheap bipod, no rear stabilization other than myself. No bean bag, just the stock sitting in my shoulder pocket.
@50 yards
@100 yards
