Range Report

I took the new .308 to the 50 yard indoor range at the NRA headquarters in Fairfax. Their range includes an automated target positioning system letting the user select a range for their target via a keypad. A button press places the target, recalls the target, and then replaces it at the last entered range. This is useful because you can devote your attention to other things while the target is headed out like loading the next magazine or cleaning. This also facilitates close inspections of each group before the next is fired. Without feedback and an honest assessment of achieved performance, it's rather difficult to improve.

I ran a dry patch through the bore between every two rounds for the first 20 to perform barrel "break-in." No solvents were permitted on the range.

The weapon was fairly easy to zero requiring only windage adjustments. My two- and three- shot groups landed within 4cm circles which is encouraging. I surely need to practice with this trigger a bit. There is in fact some slack that needs to be taken up that I didn't really notice earlier. Things to eventually buy: a bipod I can mount to the rails, optics.

I fired several rounds from a standing position with the sling. It's fairly natural, though the ribbed quad-rail handguard can be rough on hands. Operators wear gloves, and I probably should too. In 35 rounds, the bore never got particularly dirty. There were no failures to speak of by the rifle system, though presumably reliability problems by direct-impingement gas systems aren't likely to surface in fewer than several hundred dirty rounds fired on the field of battle. Recoil is what you would expect from a .308: neither punishing nor ignorable.

I didn't do any 1911 work though probably should have. Though I spent the whole hour on the rifle, they didn't seem too concerned with time on the range.

Post shooting, I bought some CLP and deposited the rifle in the vehicle. The NRA has a museum featuring a variety of arms from the last three hundred years or so. I paid particular attention to the M14s, Garands, and M1903s on display. I discovered a 1911 with a scope [mounted to a riser bolted to the left side of the recevier; couldn't see how that interfered with the safety or mag release]. Charles Manson's shotgun was on display as well as a "zip gun manufactured in a prison cell."

Some gentlemen were walking and talking. Their discussion was the M14/M16 debate, so naturally I piped up. With regard to calibers, I commented that the 6.5 Grendel has the potential to answer the intermediate rifle cartridge question if only the obstacles were strictly engineering.

Other notable arms on display:
* M24 SWS
* M40A1
* SVD Dragunov
* MG42 mock-up
* M82 Barret .50

No crew-fed weapons were apparently on display, so I didn't see any M2s. They did a decent job covering the relationship between firearms and the defense of liberty, though presumably any mention of that topic is preaching to an attentive choir.

And now, I nap. It's been a good day.