Long Range Shooting Rifle Options

I got my Optics Planet education ordering some Lapua Center-X. They had it in stock (no really) and shipped it to me. The twit that packed it just threw the 50 round boxes into a larger box. No paper, or bubble wrap or even tape on the individual boxes. They all opened up and spewed what used to be match ammo out to be free range. The inside of the big box was smeared with lead, the bullets were all jacked up and generally turned the ammo into garbage. Never got a reply from Optics Planet.

TLDR-Optics Planet and Rock Auto both need a case of the super clap and a painful death.

 

Good to know about both companies. I almost ordered some brake parts from RA a couple weeks ago, but decided to just pay a bit more and get them at my local NAPA.

 

The Ruger bolt slides in and out smooth enough, and is getting better with use. But takes quite a bit of force to lift and close. Are there any aftermarket parts available to help with that?
I thought the Magpul stock came with the medium cheek riser installed, but turns out it's the low. I ordered the high kit from Amazon. It includes both the medium and high risers. The high had the best eye alignment for me, but if I put an adhesive pad on I may go with the medium. It helps a lot. I have high cheekbones and with the low I had more of a jaw weld.
I'm about to go try to confirm holds and get some groups. Not the greatest day for it with 25 mph wind gusts, but the way the weather's been I have to take what I can get.

 

Just understand, with the higher cheek piece you wont be able to remove the bolt, for service, cleaning of bolt, barrel, without removing action from chassis, or removing the cheek riser. The stock magpul riser, barely allows the gen1 american bolt to come out. the more you use the bolt, the easier it will cycle. Ski

 

Oh yeah, all of that. But it's a 30 second job to take it off. It was a little loose and rattled a bit. I stuck a sock inside it to act as a compression shim. I shot prone today and I have neck trouble so I'm glad it wasn't any lower.
I had a total of 11 rounds through it before today. I adjusted eye relief since the last time and had to re zero. I don't think it was perfectly zeroed to begin with. I struggled with the aforementioned neck issues and the 35 lbs I've gained in the last three years. And I couldn't get either of the rear bags I had to work well for me, not enough height. Then I was like, you can adjust bipod height you fucktard. That made it better but I still stunk it up. I shot somewhere between 1.5-2" on my third five round mag. I moved on to 200 and put three inside of 1.5". Slightly better than I'd just done at 100. The holdover I got from the Hornady app was right on. Moving on to 300 I couldn't spot my hits. I walked to check after I sent five. Elevation was pretty good, but I had a lot of horizontal dispersion. I think some of it was definitely me, and the wind may have been a factor at that distance. I moved back to 100 to check how well my scope returned to zero. It was right on and I put four of my last five inside of an inch. I have a LOT of room for improvement, so I'm sure it's capable of quite a bit under MOA.
The one big negative was I brought a box of American Gunner along with the ELD-M. The match ammo fed beautifully, but the AG wouldn't feed at all. Guess I'll be calling Ruger about that.

 

Fiddled with the American Gunner feeding earlier. I got it to feed with what I would call an excessive amount of force. Then each additional round fed a bit easier until the last couple of rounds took very little effort to feed. That would seem to indicate the rifle doesn't like how much spring tension there is. But when I tried using a mag with only one yesterday it wouldn't feed right. I think the real solution is to just not use AG. As much as I'd like to be able to use cheaper ammo I don't know if I want to start cutting springs in mags that feed ELD-M just fine. Plus the one round of AG I fired after hand feeding yesterday was 4" high. I don't want to re-zero every time I want to shoot on the cheap.

 

Life's too short to shoot shitty ammo.

 

The stuff has a reputation for being very accurate. But I ordered 3 boxes of ELD-M this evening and it wound up being less than $0.20/round more than AG, so definitely a false economy to use lesser ammo that is being a pain in the ass.

 

Right up there with using crappy tires, don’t walk over dollars to get to Pennie’s.

 

Anyone shot a Seekins Havak Hit? In the Tac A1 price range. Folding chassis, integrated 20 MOA rail, dust cover for the ejection port, AICS mag compatible. Most intriguing feature is simple user changeable barrels and bolt heads. Much better warranty service (so I've heard) than Beretta USA.

 

Heard good things about them. Not sure how smooth the bolts is, or who even does the barrels for them. Seems like the majority of companies are switching to actions with guaranteed headspace so you don't have to send your action to a gunsmith, but you will still need a barrel vise and action wrench for torque.

 

My Ruger American won’t feed unless there are fewer rounds in the mag too. Tried a new Mag well from Ruger and it did nothing

 

I saw a factory tour on YouTube late last night. They do their own barrels, but their blanks are sourced from somewhere else. Bore, rifling, and chambering are done in house. The swaps are very similar to AI where you just screw them on, tighten a screw, and you're done. Bolt is field strippable. Hypothetically you could go from 6 Creedmoor to 6.5 PRC at the range. Mag wells are adjustable for 2 or 3 different types of magazines.

 

Funnily enough I tried messing with mine feeding American Gunner last night. I found that they would feed if I tipped the rear of the mag forward. ELD-M feeds perfectly. I don't know if it's because of the polymer tipor what.

 

I

I’m the opposite. I haven’t tried a HPBT and only the eld x and the polymer tip gets jacked up so maybe the cheaper ammo will work

 

It's pretty frustrating. The bad thing about plastic magazines is you can't just tweak the lips without permanent alterations. I think what I found last night indicates that I may be able to file a little bit off the front of the lips to get it to feed. The 140 grain ELD-M and 140 grain AG are the only two types I've tried, so I have no idea if the 143 grain ELD-X or 147 grain ELD-M will feed cleanly.

 

I agree .

The Rifle shoots great and I know it’s cheap but you’d think it’d at least sort of feed. Mine bricks up if you have a full mag

 

I'm gonna find a flat file and potentially sacrifice one of my magazines. I'll report back.

 

Ah i do see now where they have the true QC setup with the torx bolt locking it down. I love my AI's. I unscrewed my barrel and flew to utah, popped it back in and it was still dead nuts on. It is awesome. Truly holds zero no POI shift. Curious how the seekins does.

 

What's the LOA of the ammo? I'm thinking either shorter or longer would fix the issue. Doesn't help if that particular load and length are your favorites though.