TACTICAL RIFLE: PART THREE CLEVER COMBINATIONS

Created on 14th May 2009

NIGEL GREENAWAY looks at scopes and loads in part three of his money-saving series

Last month I examined the benefits of using a common AR15 lower (lower receiver/trigger and butt) with two different uppers (upper receiver and barrel) for Civilian Service Rifle (CSR) and Practical Rifle (PR) shooting. The benefits are considerable cost savings and user familiarity - depending on which competition you are entering, just swap uppers and have no worries about changing zero or getting used to a different trigger pull.

The photograph shows both types of upper. The assembled rifle is my new Southern Gun Company CSR rifle having a flat top with a Nightforce 2.5-10x24 scope. The smaller scope in the picture is a military surplus four-power Hensoldt. The other upper is my PR rig with a Leupold Long Range Tactical 4.5-14x50. This scope has been a popular choice on the PR circuit for many years so I imagine is familiar to many readers. The other two scopes are not so familiar so warrant a more in-depth analysis of their capabilities.

Scopes

When I started out on this project I knew I would need a lighter and more compact scope for my CSR rifle. The four-power Hensoldt Ferro-Z 24 ticks both of these boxes. About a year ago the Germans were selling these as military surplus and they were often seen on eBay, selling for about £300 (the current strength of the Euro would push this figure closer to £400). Hensoldt is the military brand of the Zeiss group so the quality is great (visit www.mg-42.net/G3_hensoldt.htm for more information).

Optical clarity is excellent and you can buy an accessory that attaches to the side of the scope and acts as a reticle illuminator. The see-through reticle is a post with interrupted cross hair - not to everyone's taste but I like post reticles for fast shooting, having used them on an Enfield Enforcer, No.4(T), L42A1 and Swedish Mauser M41B sniper rifles. The elevation and windage drums give very positive clicks of 1cm per 100m. 1" is 2.54cm so these clicks are not quite half a minute of angle (MOA) which is a bit awkward if you are used to imperial measurements! The elevation drums are bullet drop compensated from 100-600m (available in either 7.62mm or 5.56mm). Generally I felt this scope might prove ideal for CSR, where the vast majority of shooting is at 300 yards or below, and it put up some ½MOA groups at 100m. However, the metric clicks would take some getting used to and swapping back to my Leupold with its ¼MOA clicks would inevitably lead to mistakes. I decided I would need to find another compact scope and, in order to match up to my Leupold, it should have a mil-dot reticle and ¼MOA clicks.

Luckily such a scope exists - the relatively new Nightforce NXS 2.5-10x24. The UK wholesale importer is RUAG Ammotec UK Ltd. Nightforce has a great reputation and this scope shaves 5oz off the weight of my Leupold, and has a 30mm tube plus an illuminated Mil-Dot reticle. Other reticle patterns are available but I wanted the consistency of using one reticle pattern on both rifles. An additional factor was that one of the CSR stages is the running man target at 100m. This target runs at two different speeds - the slow pace requires you to aim at the leading edge (the fist of the figure) while the fast target needs an aiming point in front (which happens to be in line with the forward knee of the figure). It is possible to adjust the magnification of the scope so that a Mil-Dot can be used to hold the necessary forward lead at the knee and thus gain the correct lead and height for the fast mover). The more I thought about this scope's features and magnification range the more I concluded what a great CSR and PR scope this would be, four-power for the former and up to 10-power for the latter. Nightforce also supplies its own Unimount with a built in 20MOA taper to help you regain precious clicks for long range shooting. These mounts fit Picatinny and Weaver rails and are touted as being good enough to maintain zero when taken off and replaced on the rifle. In theory you could swap this scope between two different AR15 uppers, particularly where the same calibre, barrel length and rifling twist are used. I'm sure there would be a minor zero change between uppers but this could be allowed for by slipping the scale on the drums, so long as any differences are noted. I have not put this to the test but it certainly would save at least another £800-£1,000 by sharing one scope between two rifles. I like the Nightforce scope - the only criticism being that the Mil-Dot reticle is very fine for short range rapid-style shooting but I believe that the illuminated reticle will overcome this. The results speak for themselves with a 3/8" or 11mm five-shot group, shot prone at 100m with hand-loaded ammunition from the new CSR rifle.

Ammunition

What reloading components do you need to achieve these sorts of groups? As usual when reloading all the normal caveats and cautions apply. I have found these loads to be safe in my rifle using the components listed but I make no claim that they will be safe in your rifle. All readers should ALWAYS start at least 10% below this powder load, especially so if using different brass, powder, primers or bullets.

Before I start on the subject of reloading .223 it is important to show how the CSR and PR rifles perform with bog-standard military surplus 5.56mm x45. The reason for this is that using reloaded ammunition at the 100-200-300yd stages is overkill. In fact, ammunition that groups too tightly is a positive disadvantage as I have often had to challenge for a hit when the score has come back as ‘nine wash' (nine bulls and a miss). Upon closer inspection the butt officer found two bullets in one slightly enlarged hole and a maximum ‘10 wash' was awarded! I have found that the 62gn bullets found in British L2A2 ammunition shoot well enough in a 1 in 8 twist barrel. Rapid fire, five-shot groups of 50mm are common at 100m and 30mm groups are possible, which is more than adequate for the targetry used at 100 to 300yd. However, if the wind is gusting then hand-loaded ammunition will come in to its own at 300yd and above.

Many of my fellow shooters favour the use of 69gn Sierra MatchKing bullets but compare their ballistic coefficient (BC) of .317 to the 77gn MatchKing's BC of .362. Both these bullets are designed to be loaded to magazine length (about 2.25"). My favourite load uses Winchester brass (one of the lightest cases with maximum powder capacity), Remington No.7 1/2 Small Rifle Bench Rest primers, 24.4gn Reloder 15 and 77gn Sierra MatchKing heads which reach 2,600fps. This is a top-end load so I suggest starting at a tad under 24gn of Reloder 15. Other popular powders are Vit140 and Varget which are similar to Reloder 15.

The introduction of the new 77gn .223 Lapua Scenar bullet, designed for 1 in 8 twist barrels, is causing much excitement both with American and UK Hi-Power shooters. There have been very good reports about its long range ability, no doubt helped by a BC of .402 and also its longer length. The Lapua may replace the Sierra as the most popular bullet for reloading magazine length rounds for the longer ranges. Tim Hannam is importing them.

Like all Lapua reloading components the quality is very high but that comes at a price - in this case £27.12 per 100.

My thanks to the Southern Gun Company for making match-winning combinations of AR15 Speedmasters and to RUAG Ammotec UK Ltd for the loan of the Nightforce. The real test will be how well I shoot my new CSR rifle and Nightforce scope in this year's competitions. However, I'll still be shooting a few PR events where a quick change of upper to the thicker barrel and a bipod will no doubt help gain a few extra points.

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