Never done any long range shooting till now

[antishot]

OK I have had this bug for some time now about learning how to long range shoot. I found a guy who just happened to be right over the hill from me you does this all the time (does the whole comp thing) any ways I bought a DPMS LR-308 and put a Nikon Monarch 3-12 scope on it. So the day came to get it sighted in and I was like one of my children on CHRISTMAS day could not wait and didn't want to end. Showed up to his house set all the good up and class began. He was great what a teacher. I never got the whole MOA thing until now( took like an hour of me asking questions). He keep saying trigger control trigger control. ANYWAYS! We sighted it in at 100yrds and I was laying down 1" groups. Now mind you I have shot 100 yrd before so this was no big deal When he said do you want to shoot the 550yrd target. DAMN right I do. So we talked about the MOA again. So be because of the distance and the wind that we had to deal with I had to go up 13 MOA and R MOA and was making a 12" group. The ammo was Rem 150gr core-lock. I relay don't know what more to say other than you never know what is just over the hill
Pic 1/ gun and range
Pic 2/ me taking a pic through the scope

[4Adam41]

Good deal, now get in as much practice as possible, finances permiting. If you can reload for it that will cut expenses.

[qrprat77]

Didn't realize they'd let you have that much fun up in Nu Yok.
How did you feel about the rifle overall?

[Matt In Oklahoma]

Awesome, i would try something besides the corelocks for tighter groups at longer ranges. That bullet designs not the best but .. 12inch at 550 and you know where it goes and what to do, that is worth a whole lot right there!!!!

[antishot]

Didn't realize they'd let you have that much fun up in Nu Yok.
How did you feel about the rifle overall?

Well where I am from we still can have some fun. About the LR-308 I tell you this it has less kick than my AR's maybe because it weighs 15lbs. Definitely not a walk in the woods rifle. The only real down side is that it does not have the forward assist and shield but it does has a 1-10 twist barrel so it should shoot about anything from what I have read so far. I need to get reading on reloads so I can get it tuned in. So any thoughts on reloads would be helpful

[boltgun308]

The 168 gr Sierra shoots really good groups out to 700 or so and then the 175 gr starts to shine at longer distances. Hornady has a new match bullet at 178 gr that has a pretty good BC (over .500).

The military 118LR uses the 175 Sierra and RL-15 powder in LC brass. Start reloading or you will go broke feeding a 308 match grade ammo. On the gas gun platform, follow-through is a must after the shot breaks.

[boltgun308]

You will be fine with the 10 twist unless you shoot any subsonic ammo.

[antishot]

You will be fine with the 10 twist unless you shoot any subsonic ammo.

What would the benefit be of shooting subsonic

[Matt In Oklahoma]

What would the benefit be of shooting subsonic

other than the obivous sound for sniper/counter sniper stuff if you are long hunting and are only carrying one gun you might need to make some low powered/subsonic rounds to hunt small game with so it reduces meat damage. The downside of that it is that for your setup is that it might not cycle an auto. In autos we usually just go FMJ for this issue and deal with the damage on them bunnyhoppers.

Definitely not a walk in the woods rifle.

At 15lbs you will most likely being be carrying only one rifle for sure, maybe a good 22 pistol to go with it.

I would test all the ammo you are going to use because even the twist is not the same in every gun. Boltgun308 is pointing you in the right direction for sure if your gonna go long. With one of those he mentions I know you can bring that 12" down a bunch over remington corelocks.

[boltgun308]

Matt makes a good point about meat damage using subsonic for hunting. The AR platform is hell to clean when shooting suppressed. The gas tube dumps a lot of garbage back in the chamber area unsuppressed but when you add the suppressor it gets a lot worse. The gun would work with subsonic as long as a suppressor is used, but there will not be enough gas pressure to cycle the action unsuppressed.

My 308 suppressed gun runs a 6 or 7 twist Pac-Nor barrel, I can't remember for sure as I type this. There are better options if you want to run a suppressed 30 caliber weapon. The 300 whisper, 300 AAC are much better choices and use the standard AR-15 platform. Both use the 221 fireball cartridge as the parent case. The 240 Sierra does a good job out to a 100 or so, but drops like a rock past that. It does keep a lot of retained energy but there will be no expansion even on bone from what I have seen and all shots are pass throughs. The 45 makes a better suppressed anti-personnel round due to the fact of a larger hole and the bullet will expand somewhat at close range. The 30 allows less error where as the 45 drops'em like a rock. The bone splinters act as secondary projectiles. I have had some pass throughs with the 45 but they are rare. The 230 has too much surface area to go completely through in meat, much less bone. I am talking about hollow points, not FMJ.

[antishot]

Having a suppressed firearm would be nicefor but here in the loving NY they kinda frown on them. Lots of good info thanks.

I will ne using this LR-308 just for fun realy but I would like to be a tack driver, don't know how close I will get it to that bit as close as I can would be nice. For hunting around here I use ether the Rem 700 in a 25-06 or the trusted 870 12ga.

[boltgun308]

The DPMS is a solid 1 to 1.25 MOA performer, but you HAVE to have good follow through after the hammer strike. If you are staying under 700 yards the 168 is your baby for small groups. I have never had a gun like anything better for small groups. Powders vary, definitely try RL-15 or Varget. I personally like WW 748 or VV 150 or 550. A lot of the M1A guys love H 4895. They use it to keep from bending the op rod, but you do not have to worry about that for the AR. You can change the trigger and recrown the barrel. This will usually help the performance of the rifle itself on the ones I am familiar with.

I like 40mm scopes with some type of ranging reticle. The military uses mil-dot but the MOA reticle is much more user friendly. It will allow you to shoot without moving the elevation turret. I do drills of going from 100 to 500 yards (in 100 yard increments) and back without touching the scope for a total of 9 shots. Practice accuracy first then work on your speed. Then start changing your positions. Sitting for me is nearly as good as prone, and it gets you above a lot of obstructions. Build you some shooting sticks for kneeling or standing. I have used a strap on tree step (preferring it to a screw in) and a 1" wide strap supported by some solid object as a forearm support. The weight is an issue. The Army M24 is 12 lbs or so, and the Marine M40A3 is 15 lbs. The M40 is a clunky POS with the McMillan A5 stock. The original A1 or HTG stock was a lot better and it kept the weight to 12 lbs or so. Night vision rails have been added to both weapons that increases the weight. They can be removed for day operations. I would work on reducing the weight of the gun if the weight is an issue, it would be to me. The barrel can be cut down to 20" which will help greatly with the balance of the gun. You can also flute the barrel at the same time or simply replace the barrel with a match grade in a lighter contour. Krieger and Bartlein both make really good barrels. That gun weighing 10 lbs or so would be a 800 yard monster.

[antishot]

Thanks again Boltgun308. Any shots around here pass 700 is very hard to many rolling hills and home between them even 500 is hard to do safely sometimes. So is there a certain bullet i should be looking at make model.

[antishot]

When you say the DPMS is a solid 1 to 1.25 MOA performer are you talking at 100yrd because if you are I was getting that with the corelocks.

[boltgun308]

I would concentrate on the Sierra matchking 168 grain. Yes at 100 yards, but you should also be seeing that at 500 yards, and 8" would be a maximum at that range on a fairly calm day.

If you are shooting to less than 600, a 18" barrel would get you there with ease and really make that gun more pleasureable to carry. I am assuming it has a 24" from memory. I've shot a 18" and a 20" gun to 1000 yards and a 16" to 700 yards so the 18" would be fine. The 18" barrel also seems to be one of the sweet spots for the 308 cartridge, along with the 25" that the Marines use.

Watch over heating the barrel on an auto, a good rule of thumb is 1 rd per minute average or close to it. The 308 is pretty forgiving but they can cook the throat if you are not careful.