First shots

[Bill257]

Good news. Followed the barrel break in procedure Precision Firearms included. 1st shot was at 25 yards, made scope adjustment to be on paper at 100yards. Fired 2 more cleaning between rounds. Then cut a single hole with the next 5 shots. Could not be happier.
Less good news - The five shot magazine I started with was misfeeding the first round when loaded with 5 rounds. Seems the cartridge was getting stuck half way out of the magazine- the mag spring did seem stout when loading. No dings on the jammed case...just seemed the buffer spring was not strong enough to push the first round out. Tossed it in the range bag and had no issues using the other mag on hand.
Additional reports to follow as I get some range time in with this rifle.
Any thought s on the magazine are appriciated.

[Mecharius]

I've had similar issues with higher cap magazines in other firearms. Usually putting one less round left it able to work. Kwould be terrible iñ a five round, but it may work.

You should Post up a picture of your build.

[jiml]

Congrats on the fine weapon and shooting too. You might check for burrs on the underside of the feed lips of the mag. You could remove the bottom plate and check the follower to see if the bottom of it has burrs. I have sanded the bottom of the follower off just a little to allow for the last round to fit right. Five round mags are ten round mags with a long follower sometimes and it is too long.

[VASCAR2]

My five round ASC mag only holds four rounds from the factory. I rarely use it as I normally use the 10 round or 14 round mags off the bench.

[Bill257]

Thanks All.
Checked the feed lip for burs and the right is sharper than I think it should be, but no burs - dremel should make that a quick fix. Although The real problem seems to be the spring; it is huge! Only the top 3 coils are stretched out and the 20 (apx) coils below that are fully compressed. Fix = cut off 3 of the compressed coils at the bottom. Didn't try in the rifle, but it requires a much more reasonable and normal amount of pressure to load the 5th round.
The follower could not come into play as the spring was limiting the capacity long before the follower bottomed out.
As mentioned the 5 rounders are in a ten round mag body. I thought about, and still may, cut the spring to match ten round mags increasing capacity to 10 or near that.

[Savage Shooter]

Wow, sweet group - tough to improve on that! Makes all the planning and hard work worth it. Now to work through the little distracting "bugs" like you are encountering.

[BigBC]

Factory ammo? Or re-loading? Great groups!

[COTNTOP]

What barrel did you buy?

[Bill257]

I will post a more detailed review and a pic when I have some time... the barrel is a BHW from Persision firearms. Ammo was factory Hornady with a 123 A max bullet. Great weather and quiet day at the range helped me do my part.

[Mecharius]

Good shooting

ill be reading your review when its up.

[BigBC]

. Ammo was factory Hornady with a 123 A max bullet. Great weather and quiet day at the range helped me do my part.

Thanks! Ill be reading the review as well

[Bill257]

Here are the details. Hope this helps future builders. As I learned so much here I wanted to share my experience.
Barrel – 18 Black Hole Weaponry from Precision Firearms. I previously posted the first group it shot during the break in process – looks like about half MOA to my eye without measuring. The second time out I had more wind and coffee, that opened groups up to about an inch – still spectacular. It has a nice finish inside and out. Cleaning it s a breeze, super smooth finish on the inside. It doesn’t hold carbon or collect much copper fouling. Still have less than 50 rounds through it to date. Right now I have a thread protector on the muzzle – if the Hearing protection act goes through I may be suppressor shopping. Otherwise not sure if I need anything other than the thread protector.
Scope -- Swarovski Z3 3-10x42 – BRH. Normally out of my price range, but I won this over at Camerland New York. Camerland treated me well in the past on some Vortex binoculars and a Votex scope so entered their contest when checking other Vortex scopes for this build. Never won anything like this before, must have been saving up the good luck for this! Can’t thank them enough.
Clear, the glass is great. Seem stronger than the 10 power it is listed as; it must be the clarity. Holds zero in my limited experience and adjustments track accurately with very solid clicks.
Mine has the “heavy” reticle. Initially concerned that it would be overpowering, but after having it out, find it suits my eyes fine. Used the Swarovski web based ballistic calculator to find where my bullet was out to 400yards. Since the reticle is not Grendel specific the distance values are not to the even yard i.e. for 400 yard shots I was using the point that they reported to be 411 yards. It worked great considering I went with the default parameters and didn’t enter specific atmospheric or elevation conditions. Still need to refine my zero and print out values for each of the hold-over lines / points.
Trigger - Geissele G2S Smooth and predictable. The two stage is nice for accurate shooting from the bench yet it’s not so light that would cause an concern in the woods. It may not be the best trigger for targets, but I think it is a great trigger for a gun that spends time at the range and in the woods.
Odds and ends: Spikes T2 buffer, feeds and ejects fine with this buffer. It does seem quieter. It is filled with a tungsten powder rather than the weights normally inside a buffer.
I also used a clamp on gas block thanks to the how to build and accurate AR article linked to here.
Anderson lower and an Aero upper (hardly a matched set, but they do start with the same letter)
Overall, It’s reliable and accurate. Convinced I could hand this to anyone and have them making repeated hits at 300 yards inside one magizine. It is what a rifle should be - It is easy to operate, makes solid hits, and doesn’t beat you up.
Only shot Hornady factory ammo. At 100 yards had similar results with A-max and SST. Did have some problems with one ACS mag taking a lot of force to load the 5th round (it is a 5 round mag) did some work and it now feeds fine but will not lock the bolt back after the last round. I am going to look at it again and will give it one more try before tossing it. Other magazines worked without a snag and the E-Landers are getting good reviews, so the magazine issue may be a thing of the past.

I am looking forward to a getting it in the woods while deer season is still open and the range this spring.

[danm]

Very nice, another great shooting BHW based gun... Can't be a fluke!

[leftyman]

Nice rig. I did the same thing with the mags. Cut off afew coils at the bottom. It loads the last round much better. I don't know why they make em so tight. I can't see any design or structural reasons for this. A five round should mean five round