kenn1320 wrote:Hoot wrote:Nice compact rig and great 100yd group to boot!
Unless I'm misunderstanding what I see, check the clamping torque on your scope rings. The recoil may be causing the scope to drift.
Hoot
Hoot, are you implying this gun can shoot better than what is shown? I couldn't imagine shooting this good, nothing I own currently can do that. The twist is a little faster than the 1:24, is that helping or hurting with the factory ammo?
I was not referring to the target.
The consummate analyst in me noticed scratch marks on the scope body making it look like it has slid forward under recoil. Ive seen that in lightweight, recoiling calibers, when the rings are not clamped tight enough around the scope body. Most rings come with recommended torque specs. A fellow I used to hunt with 30years ago got a Winchester Model 70 featherweight in 7mm Magnum for deer hunting. Not because it was a good matchup for Northern Minnesota woods hunting, but because the guy he got it from owed him money and my friend did not have a deer rifle otherwise. Had a devil of a time getting the scope to stay in one place due to really wicked recoil, with off the shelf, ma and pa sporting goods store rings. Solved it by getting a higher quality (more expensive) set of rings. The 450b, in an AR platform is a pussy cat by comparison, but still gets your attention.
That target speaks volumes about the shooter's ability. (IE don't change a thing) Better 100yd groups than that are few and far between, with the majority that we
don't see pictures of, not being nearly so nice. That's about as good as factory loads get based upon other member's reports. Now if that target is indicative of every group of factory ammo ever shot from that gun, then it is a great matchup. From the get-go and for about the first 4 years, I never shot a factory cartridge through my rifle, preferring to reload to my own quality standards. I actually had the dies and reloading components purchased about a month before the rifle actually arrived from Bushmaster.
WRT twist rate and factory 250's, again the target tells the tale. Most of the reports we have are based off of either 1:24 or 1:16 barrels. Also the only two twist rates that I've ever tried in this caliber. Load to Rifle results vary a lot, especially with so many barrel manufacturers offering this caliber now. Back when it was just the Bushmaster product line, load results could be safely assumed to apply to all the 450b rifles out there. Now its more a matter of experimentation to see what your particular brand and specification of barrel prefers.
My own experience with my original Bushmaster 20" 1:24 was that it really excelled with Hornady 225gr FTX bullets. They just got along real well. Not so with the 230FMJ (go figure), nor just about anything in 300gr, but that was just indicative of what my particular rig liked or not. Just to qualify "excelled" I'm talking reliable sub-MOA 5-shot groups at 100yds like this:
The times when I've loaded 250gr FTX bullets to simulate factory ammo, my results were more along the lines of what the OP got, with an occasional "easter egg" great group, but mostly nibbling around the edge of 1 MOA for 5 shots. I sincerely believe that the forgiving nature of this caliber, makes a lot of us look good on paper. I'm not a highly accomplished AR platform shooter by any stretch of the imagination.
Another AR platform caliber that makes the shooter really shine is the 6.5 Grendel pushing 123gr Hornady Amax bullets.
Hoot