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I had been responding to the “end of my rope” thread. It’s time to start my own.
I have been tinkering with a couple uppers that just haven’t been performing. This morning I took one of them apart. While it was apart, I cleaned everything. I used JB Paste until patches came out white. The barrel is a really heavy 24” Lilja. I reassembled the barrel into an older Alexander Arms side charging upper. These uppers are tremendously oversized and difficult to mate with a handguard if you want anti-rotation. The upper to barrel fit was so tight that it took time and a rubber mallet to get them together.
I keep what my gf calls a “scrapbook” with my ladder test data and sample groups. I found a load that had previously worked well. I loaded 50 of those. After work, I headed for the range in a race against dusk.
I got velocities for 20 of the 30 rounds using my Andiscan. The load was a 123 ELD and 27.7 AR Comp. The average velocity was 2,500 fps with an SD of 6.1 for the 20 shot string.
The groups weren’t tight yet and the zero was shifting, but things are much improved vs groups from the prior few days. I was rushing to get done before dusk. In my haste, I was shooting through mirage by the end. I also realized the muzzle brake/suppressor was loosening.
There’s still a lot to clean up, but the barrel seating is clearly critical. What I learned today should help me to properly evaluate the Odin Works barrel. Thanks to everybody for the helpful suggestions. I’ll add to the thread as I get more data.
I have been tinkering with a couple uppers that just haven’t been performing. This morning I took one of them apart. While it was apart, I cleaned everything. I used JB Paste until patches came out white. The barrel is a really heavy 24” Lilja. I reassembled the barrel into an older Alexander Arms side charging upper. These uppers are tremendously oversized and difficult to mate with a handguard if you want anti-rotation. The upper to barrel fit was so tight that it took time and a rubber mallet to get them together.
I keep what my gf calls a “scrapbook” with my ladder test data and sample groups. I found a load that had previously worked well. I loaded 50 of those. After work, I headed for the range in a race against dusk.
I got velocities for 20 of the 30 rounds using my Andiscan. The load was a 123 ELD and 27.7 AR Comp. The average velocity was 2,500 fps with an SD of 6.1 for the 20 shot string.
The groups weren’t tight yet and the zero was shifting, but things are much improved vs groups from the prior few days. I was rushing to get done before dusk. In my haste, I was shooting through mirage by the end. I also realized the muzzle brake/suppressor was loosening.
There’s still a lot to clean up, but the barrel seating is clearly critical. What I learned today should help me to properly evaluate the Odin Works barrel. Thanks to everybody for the helpful suggestions. I’ll add to the thread as I get more data.
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