Haven't been able to get people to the range lately so I just loaded up and went by myself this morning.
Took a brand new AR15, the GII, the P09, P07 and TS (all .40 S&W, with the intent of doing some side by side group testing).
Had some issues with the new AR15 and GII and just didn't get around to shooting the pistols.
Still haven't taken pictures of the targets but I've got pictures of the rifles, from the range, and will get the all in here once I get the rifles cleaned, lubed and ready to go again.
I shot the AR15 first. Well, I tried to.
I'd cleaned it Monday, when I put the lower together and put the upper on it (lower receiver purchased last year, lower build kit - with a Gisselle SSA-E trigger and 16" barreled upper with a 13.5" keymod freefloat tube - the kit that comes with the magpul sights/bolt/chagrining handle). The barrel was pretty dirty and took 6 patches to get clean. Then it looked good to go.
Pulled a loaded Pmag out of the pouch, inserted it, smacked it and let the bolt go forward. Got down behind it, set the Aimpoint dot where I wanted it and squeezed. CLICK!!! Rolled the rifle over and the bolt hadn't gone completely forward. Had to take a piece of 2X4 and smack the charging handle a couple times to break it loose and I was pretty sure I could see mark on the bullet from (one of) the lands just up from the canelure on the bullet (55 grain Hornady FMJBT).
Laid that bullet down and tried to chamber another. Same thing. Spent several minutes going through the first 10 rounds in the magazine to see if any would chamber and none would. This is may regular everyday at the range ammo that I use in every single AR15 I have.
I'm sitting at the bench, thinking I've gotten my first bad stuff from PSA and preparing to put it away so I can shoot the GII when I just decided to grap another magazine from the pouch (this one was D&H aluminum magazine - really no reason for anything to be different, but I mentioned the first mag. was a Pmag.)
That round chambered fine. I proceeded to sight in the Aimpoint, then removed it and sighted in the back up sights, then put the Aimpoint back on to confirm no change in zero (there wasn't) and during this I emptied the aluminum magazine. Not a single failure.
Just for the heck of it I grabbed the Pmag and jammed into the lower and let the bolt fly forward (I'd loaded all the loose rounds back into the Pmag to get them off the bench while I was shooting). Rolled the rifle over and the round had chambered. I got down behind the rifle and squeezed the trigger and it went bang (did I say that Gisselle trigger was nice? I mean, nnnniiiicccceee). I proceeded to shoot 15 more rounds without a single malfunction.
I have no idea why none of the rounds I'd just fired would chamber at first. I have no idea why they chambered after I'd shot the rifle a bit. I had to beat the charging handle back on those first 10 rounds, with a piece of 2X4, to get the bolt to move to the rear.
Groups were okay. I really struggle with a "dot" sight, keeping it centered on the target. That's why I usually end up going to a scope, in the end.
Next up was the GII.
I inserted a 20 round Pmag and chambered the first round, got down behind the rifle and squeezed the trigger. It went bang. Squeezed the trigger the next time and got a click. Holy Cow!! This was my first GII failure in three battle packs of SA surplus. Rolled the rifle over and saw the bolt had ridden up over the second round. A short stroke. Cleared it, let the bolt go forward again and it went bang and then bang again for the first 3 shot group of the day from the GII. It ran 100% the rest of the session.
I got the scope sighted in (one of those 1X6 Primary Arms scopes with the busy reticle that also lights up red if you turn it on). Then I moved to the back up sights.
I had this idea, from somewhere (probably the red dots) that I could set the scope on "1" and use the back up sights through the scope - so I tried it. Let 3 shots go down range and grabbed the binoculars (usually I can see the bullet holes but sometimes, between bullet placement and the target and the light it can be tough. No holes seen. Since I had the 25 yd. range to myself I got up and walked to the target and couldn't find a single hole in that target or the one to the right.
I went back to the bench and aimed at the bottom center of the target paper and squeezed off one shot. No bullet holes visible. I found a piece of wood up on the berm behind the targets and squeezed off a shot. No wonder I wasn't putting holes in the target, that bullet his almost 2 ft. high and about 1.5 feet to the right of the aiming point.
I took the scope off and aimed at the same target I had used before and the three rounds were about 3" low and 2" left of point of aim. That opened up my eyes. I'd never have believed shooting through the scope would throw things off that much.
I finished sighting in the back up sights (no glasses worn, which made it tough to line that big fuzzy front sight up on the target) by aiming at the bottom of the target circle and just put POI on POA.
Then I put the scope back on it and shot three more shots and they hit about 1.5 inches below the iron sight group. Oh, I aimed at the bottom of the target circle with the scope, too, as I wanted to see the difference between scope and back up sights with the same POA.
By this time I'd been there just over 3 hours and had some other running around to do so I packed up, signed out of the range and drove to a local gun store to buy a county dog license for one of my dogs.
Just finished field stripping, wiping down and lubing all three pistols I never fired (been a good long while for the P09). Also cleaned the GII. Once again, I was amazed at how little crud there was in the GII vs. an AR15. The AR15's always have carbon burnt to the tail of the bolt. The GII never does. Just wipe it off, put it back in the bolt and go.
Gotta clean the AR15 and take pics of the targets.
