Tactical Rifle

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Jimd
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Tactical Rifle

#1

Post by Jimd »

Thought I'd post a few pics of my newly set-up HBAR. The scope is a US Optics SN-4. Outstanding optics, the clarity is better than anything I've ever used.

The mount is a Larue SPR quick-detatchable. Absolutely first-rate mount, coupled with outstanding optics. I haven't gotten it to the range yet, but that's coming soon.
Attachments
Reduced - HBAR - 4.JPG
Reduced - HBAR - 4.JPG (61.46 KiB) Viewed 841 times
Reduced - HBAR - 2.JPG
Reduced - HBAR - 2.JPG (49 KiB) Viewed 842 times
Reduced - HBAR - 3.JPG
Reduced - HBAR - 3.JPG (55.24 KiB) Viewed 868 times
Reduced - HBAR - 1.JPG
Reduced - HBAR - 1.JPG (49.47 KiB) Viewed 934 times
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Blackhair
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#2

Post by Blackhair »

Looks like a pretty slick setup! :D

Any particular reason for making your own patent-pending Anti-Terrorist Device? Or did you just feel like tricking out your rifle?
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Jimd
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#3

Post by Jimd »

Blackhair wrote:Looks like a pretty slick setup! :D

Any particular reason for making your own patent-pending Anti-Terrorist Device? Or did you just feel like tricking out your rifle?
LOL! Actually, I used to be a sniper on a law enforcement tactical unit, and have always had an interest in high-quality weaponry. Despite not being an active sniper these days, I still like to stay current on my skills. We truly never really know what turns and twists society will take these days (Examples - LA Riots, New Orleans), and I consider it advantageous to be self-sufficient when it comes to self-defense. Not only can I use this rifle for self-defense (really hope I never have to), but it'll reach out to 600 yards easily, just in case any Al Qaeda vermin are ever sniping in my neighborhood.

A few months back, my buddy offered to trade me the HBAR barell and the scope in trade for a few knives that I had. Figuring it would be a cool project to undertake, I took him up on it. The good side: I didn't have to put out a dime to assemble a very efficient close to medium-range sniper system.

Here I am in an impromptu hide. I just threw the ghillie jacket on without attaching any natural vegetation. If I'd taken the time to attach veggies, I'd have been pretty well invisible.
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Reduced - Ghillie - AR-15 Scoped 2.JPG
Reduced - Ghillie - AR-15 Scoped 2.JPG (51.06 KiB) Viewed 942 times
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#4

Post by Blackhair »

Jimd wrote:Here I am in an impromptu hide. I just threw the ghillie jacket on without attaching any natural vegetation. If I'd taken the time to attach veggies, I'd have been pretty well invisible.
I still don't think that most people would even look twice if you were out there like that. Out in the country there are mounds of dried up grass that look just like that lying around all over the place. ;)
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#5

Post by Jimd »

Blackhair wrote:I still don't think that most people would even look twice if you were out there like that. Out in the country there are mounds of dried up grass that look just like that lying around all over the place. ;)
With my luck, my dog would come up and take a piss on me, thinking I was a lump of grass, lol! :D
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Rifle

#6

Post by KaliGman »

Jim,

Did you ever manage to pick up any target ammo or tactical ammo for that monster? As I recall, you were going to test various ammo and see what would work best. I shot quite a bit of 55, 62, and 69 grain ammo through various Armalite type systems, but haven't worked with anything heavier than that (like some of the newer loads above 70 grains).
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#7

Post by Jimd »

KaliGman wrote:Jim,

Did you ever manage to pick up any target ammo or tactical ammo for that monster? As I recall, you were going to test various ammo and see what would work best. I shot quite a bit of 55, 62, and 69 grain ammo through various Armalite type systems, but haven't worked with anything heavier than that (like some of the newer loads above 70 grains).
With this particular setup, I haven't gotten to the range yet; just mounted the scope last week. Speaking of that, the LaRue mount is friggin' fabulous!! This thing is so adjustable, and you can lock it on the rail so tightly, it's amazing. My buddy said that once you adjust the mount, you can remove & add it and not have to worry about the point of impact shifting, and I believe it.

The ammo - I want to pick up some more 69-grain stuff, preferrably Federal Match. I do have some 62-grain M855 green tip, which I'll try out. The only match ammo to speak of that I have on hand is about 100 rounds of Black Hills 52-grain HPBT. It's a little lighter than I'd prefer, but it was available.

Re. the 70-plus grain ammo, I'll have to try it out. I'm told that anything above 70 or 75 grains gets a bit "iffy" in 1:9 twist barrels. I was hoping this barrel would be the 1:7 twist, but it wasn't. Still, I'm sure I'll find a tack-driving load for it.
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#8

Post by Lostification »

I think you need a gun ghillie as well. ^_^ You might try what I have tried. I thought it worked quite well. It works really well on both my M700 and M16A2 (airsoft replicas).

Buy a bunch of rubber bands and wrap them all around your gun and stuff natural vegetation in between em. You have to have the right colored rubber bands though. This is really important.

Other than that, the rubber bands work EXTREMELY well. You can have your gun setup in less than 5 minutes, though it takes about 10 minutes to do a really nice job. Choose your vegitation wisely and try not to make all the rubber bands perpendicular to the ground or parallel to other rubber bands even if you have good color matched rubber bands.

Play around with it for a while you can get really good at it. Using mud, water, overlapping vegitation to cover the rubber bands, etc... ;)

Good luck! :o
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#9

Post by WinstonWolf »

Jim,

for what its worth in a similar setup I have the barrel is a 1 in 7 twist and found that it LOVES Federal Match 69 grain shooting froma bench (for the sake of showing what the rifle can do as opposed to what the shooter can't) I have been able to get .26 minute groups @ 100, 200, 300 and 400 yards (that is all my range goes) consistently. I found that Georgia Arms Canned Heat 68grain comes as a very close second in accuracy showing .32 minute groups at the same ranges. Considering the difference in price and that I can't get any better than .55 minute when not shot from a bench (the shooter always screws it up) I opted to use the Georgia Arms stuff.

All my ammo testing was done in 10 shot groups giving the barrel two minutes to cool off every 2nd shot. The barrel was cleaned between ammo changes to make sure that everyone got a fair shake and the process of cleaning it gave it ample time to cool off to a cold shot for the 1st shot of every ammo tried.

Tried the following:

Black Hills (Red) 68 GR (shoots just as good as Georgia Arms but much more expensive)
Black Hills (Blue) 69 GR (problems w/ feeding reliably)
Black Hills (Red) 75 GR (shot better than the GA @ .29 minute but found it difficult to get a reliable supply and at the time could not buy more than 100 rounds from any given lot)
Black Hills (Blue) 75 GR (some problems w/ feeding reliability but not as many as the 69GR not that the bullet should make any difference in this aspect)
Federal Gold Medal Match 69GR (the winner, loved it but too expensive to feed on a daily basis
Federal Gold Medal Match 77GR (limited testing because I could only get 60 rounds, but it did not show any improvement in accuracy over the 69GR)
Hornady Custom 75GR (very comparable to Federal 69 and much cheaper, groups are .27 minutes and felt smoother in operation (I know that this is a subjective measure but ****, I am just going from my notes))
Georgia Arms Canned Heat 68GR (accurate and no problems w/ feeding unlike the other re manufactured ammo I tried)

All that said - I think that the Georgia Arms stuff is well worth the money and since I can source it in quantity (I bought 3000 rounds in one hit and I could not source that much of anything on this list other than the Federal 69GR) I can zero my riffle for a LONG time without having to worry about lot to lot performance.

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WW
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#10

Post by Fred Sanford »

Jim,

Excellent pictures. That rifle is just bad*ss. I always love your threads. Sometimes I may not type a reply but I read everyone. Your posts are interesting.

Thanks for sharing with us man.

If I may ask, what does a rifle like that go for? They look pretty expensive to me but then again I don't know much about guns at all.

God Bless! :)
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#11

Post by Jimd »

Lostification: Thanks for the tip on the gun camo. I've actually used that in the past. Occasionally, I'll fashion one from netting and burlap, kind of a "gun ghillie". I didn't use one in the photo because I was just snapping a quick photo, impromptu.

When I make my ghillie suits, I've been making them with a hood and a veil that stretches out in front of the ghillie, enough to cover much of the rifle. This serves two purposes:
1. Camouflages the rifle.
2. Somewhat conceals the brass that's ejected. Often, a sniper can be spotted by the reflection of his ejected brass into the air, and the ghillie usually catches the ejected cases.

Winstonwolf: Thanks for the plethora of ammo information! Do you have a source or website for the Georgia Arms ammo? And how much do they usuall charge? Thanks, bro'!

David Lowry: Thanks for the kind words! Sometimes, when I don't get any replies to a thread, I think to myself that it must be a dud. Good to know that people read them anyway!

The price of a rifle like this - the rifle itself goes for around $800.

Scopes can vary. The US Optics scope that I have is one of the best in the world because of it's optical clarity (it's the best I've ever used), it's durability (this thing is BUILT!), and the accuracy/durability of its adjustments. Often, scopes are made with cheap internal adjustments that are crap. Either they don't work right from the start (99% of them) or they degrade quickly because the gears are made from brass, which is soft.

This particular scope goes for around $1,200, but I was fortunate enough to get it on a trade for some other goodies, and didn't have to put out a cent for it. Otherwise, I'd never have this fine piece of precision machinery. My buddy also included the mounts (from Larue), which cost a few hundred bucks by themselves.

To reduce the gun's profile, I was considering spraying it down with some Krylon, to tone it down. I just haven't been able to bring myself to do it yet, though, lol!
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#12

Post by 224477 »

Jim, thats not a rifle, thats a decent long distance communication tool :cool:
Enjoy, its awesome :)
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#13

Post by Jimd »

224477 wrote:Jim, thats not a rifle, thats a decent long distance communication tool :cool:
Enjoy, its awesome :)
Thank you, sir! I like to adhere to the quote:
"US Snipers - America's Long Distance Service Providers!" :D
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#14

Post by WinstonWolf »

Jim,

http://www.georgia-arms.com/ is the place for GA ammo.

WW
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#15

Post by Jimd »

WinstonWolf wrote:Jim,

http://www.georgia-arms.com/ is the place for GA ammo.

WW
Thanks, I appreciate the link!
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no brass, no ammo?

#16

Post by AllenETreat »

check out this link -

http://www.sportsmansguide.com/net/brow ... ndex.aspx?

Gary Olen also has some good prices. He's a bit of a stickler on the
diiferent states to ship to, but worth a try.

also -

http://cheaperthandirt.com/ammo.asp


AET
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#17

Post by Rex G »

Sweet! I will really try to get out and shoot my AR this week. The base rifle is a Knight Armament SR15 "M4-gery" my wife bought me to use as a patrol rifle, though I ended up actually carrying a skinny-barrel Colt Govt Carbine for a couple of years. I then lost the ability to focus on the carbine's front sight, so I sold the Colt and wasted about three years thinking about what to do next; buy, sell, trade, modify, before I finally bought an HBAR upper recently to install on the Knight lower. I can still see the front sight of a 20" AR, for now. My chief won't let us use optics at the present time. In a few years, it won't matter; I will be retired, and can configure a rifle the way I like. :)
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#18

Post by DFD04 »

Nice set up with the US Optics. They make excellent glass and I'm sure it will serve you for a long time. God Bless.
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