For those that want to know what it was.
I emailed Mark @ SAC back in March, a few hours after coming back from that last range session and discussing things with Andrew McCourt, and about 2 hours before this cluster-fudge of a thread got started. It took him a few days to respond, but when he did he said this:
So I decided to pull the brake off and really check it for any indications at all that the bullet was striking it. I had some initial issues getting the brake off without tools (didn't want to scratch it to hell), but I eventually got it removed and I pulled out a magnifying glass and a good light and went over every bit of the inside of that brake. I even used a toothpick to try to push away some carbon to see if the carbon was hiding copper marks or any kind of scratches. Nothing. I emailed my findings to Mark. He wrote back:
Okay, so we at least had a plan, but we had other problems. Covid took my father in-law very suddenly a few days later. No one even knew he was sick. He was in a rehab facility in Manhattan recovering from hip surgery and my wife got a call at 2AM one morning that he had passed. As we were making funeral arrangements, my wife's brother mentions that he likely won't attend since he has a high fever and thinks he might have Covid too. He did, so did his wife, and at least one of his two daughters (my nieces). The wife was in bad shape for 3 weeks or so, the daughter dealt with it like it wasn't much of a thing, but my brother-in-law ended up on life-support for a while and is still now recovering. He had a 104+ fever for over a month, had severe pneumonia, and for a while was coughing blood regularly. He lost somewhere around 50 pounds in 7 weeks. He's 5'11" and went from 190lbs to 140lbs. He's lucky to be alive.
The ranges within 2 hours of me closed. As far as I could tell ... all of them. Life got weird. By mid-March I was already working from home. But I thought that was going to be a 4 week thing at most. Looks like I'm going to be here through the end of 2020 at the very least. Since then, NY made gun shops 'essential' so I've been shooting handgun over at a gun shop with an indoor range about 20 minutes from me, but nothing outdoors was open. Got an email two days ago that my regular range was opening today, so I took the morning off of work, grabbed the rifle, and got there at 8:30 this morning when they opened.
Spent a few rounds getting on paper again since I had taken everything off of the rifle after that last range visit. Then settled in and ripped off 5 rounds. This is Georgia Arms remanufactured .308 with a 168gr BTHP bullet in once-fired brass. This is NOT their match ammo (I blew through all of the match I had and when Covid hit, it wasn't a priority to pick up more).
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That was shot at 200 yards and measures 1.421" for a 0.678 MOA group. This was one of the better groups I've had with this rifle. I wasn't happy with it by any means, but it wasn't completely abysmal. Brake was on by the way. So I unscrewed the brake and shot this. Same load, same distance:
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I measured it on the target stand, but forgot to bring my camera to the target with me so I had to re-create the two pieces of paper later. That flyer in the upper left was shot #4. Knew I pulled it before the pin hit the primer. If you include the flyer, that's a 0.874" 5-shot group measuring 0.417 MOA. If you exclude the flyer, that's a 0.562" 4-shot group measuring 0.268 MOA. Remember, this isn't match ammo.
Unfortunately, my day was over at this point. My range has some new rules in place and I (as well as a few others) got screwed by them. You get 1 hour and 1 hour only at your selected range (they have 5 distinct areas/ranges at this facility). No more than 10 ports per range (by comparison, the 200 yard line has 28 target slots regularly).
I got there around 8:20AM (facility says they open at 8:30), and when I got to the 200 yard line I realized that I was late. Everyone had targets up and were down behind their rifles already. I set up my gear and waited. Next target change was at 9AM. By the time everyone got back from putting up new targets and whatnot, it was 9:10ish. I spent a few minutes getting my zero back, then took my time and tried not to heat up the barrel shooting both groups. When I finished that second group, it was 9:30 which was both time for a new target change, and for me to leave (my hour was up).
So anyway .... the f'n brake. I've never heard of that before, but the evidence was clear. I'm rather surprised that Mark pinned it as quickly as he did. And happy as all hell. Both for the fact that the rifle is what I originally hoped it would be, and that the ass-hats in this thread were both rude AND wrong. Wins all the way around.
Sent an email to Mark as soon as I got home asking what next steps are, I'm sure he'll take care of things. Thanks again to all who tried to help. I hope the rest of you get afflicted with a disease that makes you lose control of your bowel movements.
