I got my Stag Arms 2T 5.56 1/9 twist AR-15 out on Thursday morning to shoot at 100 yards using IMI 55gr FMJ ammo. I only shot 40 rounds on Thursday morning, and I spent most of that time fumbling around with eye relieve, cant correction, remembering how to lock the bolt back, and retrieving my chamber flag after slamming the bolt closed with the flag in place. In other words, I had forgotten how to operate and shoot a rifle.
The first 10 round groups were large, but I settled down some by the 4th target and went home somewhat humbled but not discouraged. Since the gun and shooter seemed to work together better after a few rounds, I decided to return to the range on Friday morning before it got too hot and humid and give it another go, without touching the bore for fear I might ruin it.
So I returned this morning, and fired off 20 rounds of the IMI 55 gr and initial results were ok. Next I tried 10 rounds of 62 gr box ammo to see how that would work with the 1/9 twist. Worked fine, but I had a few fliers. Next, I tried a Turkish brand 62 gr and had similar results so, after 20 rounds of 62, I returned to the IMI for two more 10 round targets. Back to good results again. No fliers on the last 10 rounds and a 1-3/4" ten shot group with seven in a 7/8" cluster.
A fellow showed up with an AR-10 with a muzzle brake and several boxes of ammo, so I packed up and left before he started blowing stuff off my shooting bench!
What did I learn? The rifle and ammo are good. The shooter needs to shoot this gun more often if he expects to have consistently good results. I need to become more comfortable behind the gun using a scope. I also need to check things like the bipod mount being tight and the cant being level for each shot. I'm also thinking that I don't really want to clean this barrel very thoroughly, maybe just get most of the carbon out and leave some copper.
There will be no rifle shooting videos until I can shoot 1" groups consistently with this gun. That may not happen, not sure yet.
