11-27-2019, 12:16 AM
Flight Medic Wrote:The AR-31 (.308) was never meant for PRS. In fact, I didn't even know what "PRS" was at that time, I bought it on a whim because I thought it would be cool to have a "sniper" rifle for the Zombie-pocalypse. LOL
This AR started off as just a hobby project with no dedicated purpose. I had the upper and lower sitting in their factory boxes for quite a while, not sure what form the rifle was going to take. The original idea was to do another 5.56 "on the cheap" simply to have the build experience. After vacillating back and fourth between SBR, carbine or a retro-style A1 platforms a friend suggested I make a long-range target AR. Since the only "long-range" rifle I had was a bolt gun I thought a PRS AR would be a great addition to the stable and avoid redundancy with my other ARs. I had heard that Creedmoor was the darling caliber for PRS, but since I didn't want to have to buy a new lower to accommodate the larger cartridge (the whole point was to use what I already had) I asked for suggestions. Valkyrie and Grendel were consistently mentioned, and my FFL-guy said Grendel was the better choice. When I asked what kind of distances I could expect he told me that, with a 24" barrel, it would consistently be able to hit 1000 yards.
I came here for more advice on the Grendel cartridge and quickly discovered the quality of barrel will be the most important part in accuracy. After dropping $500 on a precision Lilja I decided not to scrimp on the rest of the parts for the rifle, and my "on the cheap" project turned into a $4000 build (granted, half of that was the optic...so actually only $2K). I really like how it turned out, but I am disappointed about getting bad advice regarding the effective range of Grendel. If I had known it was not going to consistently get me out to 1000 yards (as I was told), I most likely would have gone with a cheaper/smaller optic.
Oh well, it is what it is. Still should be a nice shooter...despite its limitations.
FM:
It depends on what you consider to be 'consistent' at any range.
Since you are only out there to see what you can do, you have not made any bad decisions at all. You will enjoy any sort of distance shooting with a quality rifle, optic, and ammo than a no name parts gun using a barrel whose origin is unknown to the buyer.
Look at it like this too. My 6 X 47 Lapua is a much better choice than a Grendel for distances where doping the wind becomes difficult. It is not a better choice than a Grendel in terms of barrel life. And it is not a rifle or cartridge I would waste a barrel on shooting at anything closer than 500 yards. You will get way more barrel life out of your Grendel and the brass is way cheaper. Needless to say, I don't shoot the 6 X 47 that much.
Another thing is that most ranges do not go past 200 yards. You are lucky that the range you use does have longer distances. That said, without a spotter or a reactive target I would probably not know if I hit something past 500 with a 6mm cartridge unless a bunch of conditions were pretty much ideal. Like no mirage and the sun behind me and a platform from which I could attain a solid position. Much higher chance of seeing splash and hearing a hit with a 6.5 or 7.62.
So, you made a good choice and now it is up to you to learn how to dope winds.
LR55