papachaz
Senior Member
Just adding my recent experience. I just got my Windham Weaponry AR last week, took a few days to find a scope and mounts. Bought a 50 count box of Hornady 55 GR SP for my original ammo purchase.
Sunday afternoon, I got finally got the chance to get out and get zeroed in, and was grouping 5 shots at a time in the circle. It got dark on me, and I loaded everything up and headed home. with zeroing in and then just shooting, I put 30 rounds through.
Today, my son in law called me when he got off work. I knew what he wanted, LOL so I told him head on over, I'd found and bought 6 boxes of tulammo at Walmart. I've done some reading and studying on it, at AR15.com and other places as well, and figured for the chance to just get out and shoot and get a little more used to it, I'd buy what I could. They'd only sell me 6 boxes, so with my 120 rounds, I checked out. This is what we shot today.
To start with, not knowing how this was gonna shoot, we started off at 25 yards. The "Spot ON' program at Nikon Hunting says for my scope to be on at 100, to make it hit 3/4 of an inch low at 25, so I figured we'd be better off starting there. I grouped 3 shots right where I thought they should be. First shot ejected, but failed to feed the second round. Knowing I've only put 30 rounds through, I'm not even close to 'broke in" yet, so I figured no big deal. He shot from 25, and didn't get what we expected at all, but then the scope is set up for me. We've realized before our eye relief is WAY different, so we were ok with where he was hitting. grouping was decent, but higher than my group. Oh yeah, we didn't have any more problems with FTF after that first shot.
We backed up to around 60 yards, and I have to say, I was NOT impressed with the targets at all. High, low, left , right..... we're only shooting 3 shots at a time. walking down to see where we hit, then walking back to swap shooters. Saying that so y'all will know, we weren't shooting round after round and getting the barrel hot. We each took our turns again, and again was NOT impressed at all. And if that wasn't bad enough, when we backed up to 100 yards, wow, it was awful. His were a little better than mine. By then I'd started getting tired, for those who don't know I have a permanent disability with back problems, lower back and low neck, and nerve damage in my legs. The longer I tried to shoot, the worse my shots became. His weren't as bad, but not getting any kind of group at 100 yards at all.
So we decided to move back up. I had a box of clays, we walked up 25 -30 yards and set up some of them against a log on the ground shooting into the hillside. again we swapped out after 3 rounds, one great thing about shooting clays is you KNOW you hit, although his first shot we thought was a miss, there was actually a .223 sized hole in the clay! I couldn't believe that one didn't bust.....I was worn out, but even shooting freehand I busted my half of the targets (6) in 8 shots. I let him set up some more and finish out the magazine just for playing. Needless to say he's sold and wants one now, LOL.
A couple of things. I'm satisfied that I had it zeroed with the Hornady ammo. I have a site vise, that I've used for years with my bolt action rifles. But it just flat doesn't work at all with this AR. I was shooting leaning on the hood of my dodge truck, and the fixed 3x scope may wind up not being enough for these old eyes at much over 50 yards, for targets anyway. I guess I need to pick up a couple of sand bags and see if my groups improve at longer range. I was flat worn out by the time we got to shooting 100 yards, maybe I need to start there next time. I don't know if the problem was the ammo or us. maybe it's just not going to shoot the same, after all it is the cheap stuff.
I didn't take any of the Hornady ammo with me to try, so maybe it's the tulammo, maybe my AR just isn't going to like it, but it was plenty cheap enough to break up some clay! and we had a blast.
I haven't cleaned it yet, By the time we got home, I was just worn out. In the morning, I plan on loading up the youtube break it down video, and completely breaking it down and cleaning and oiling her up.
Academy had some Monarch ammo for $4.99 a box, I picked it up and put it back 3 times before I went over to the walmart that had the tulammo....maybe for some cheap shooting, I need to go back and pick some of that up and see if it's different/better. We wound up putting a total of 60 rounds through it today, so that makes 90 all total so far. Not what some of y'all do in a day I know, but for me, that's about my limit for one sitting.
Comments, advise and suggestions always welcome!
Sunday afternoon, I got finally got the chance to get out and get zeroed in, and was grouping 5 shots at a time in the circle. It got dark on me, and I loaded everything up and headed home. with zeroing in and then just shooting, I put 30 rounds through.
Today, my son in law called me when he got off work. I knew what he wanted, LOL so I told him head on over, I'd found and bought 6 boxes of tulammo at Walmart. I've done some reading and studying on it, at AR15.com and other places as well, and figured for the chance to just get out and shoot and get a little more used to it, I'd buy what I could. They'd only sell me 6 boxes, so with my 120 rounds, I checked out. This is what we shot today.
To start with, not knowing how this was gonna shoot, we started off at 25 yards. The "Spot ON' program at Nikon Hunting says for my scope to be on at 100, to make it hit 3/4 of an inch low at 25, so I figured we'd be better off starting there. I grouped 3 shots right where I thought they should be. First shot ejected, but failed to feed the second round. Knowing I've only put 30 rounds through, I'm not even close to 'broke in" yet, so I figured no big deal. He shot from 25, and didn't get what we expected at all, but then the scope is set up for me. We've realized before our eye relief is WAY different, so we were ok with where he was hitting. grouping was decent, but higher than my group. Oh yeah, we didn't have any more problems with FTF after that first shot.
We backed up to around 60 yards, and I have to say, I was NOT impressed with the targets at all. High, low, left , right..... we're only shooting 3 shots at a time. walking down to see where we hit, then walking back to swap shooters. Saying that so y'all will know, we weren't shooting round after round and getting the barrel hot. We each took our turns again, and again was NOT impressed at all. And if that wasn't bad enough, when we backed up to 100 yards, wow, it was awful. His were a little better than mine. By then I'd started getting tired, for those who don't know I have a permanent disability with back problems, lower back and low neck, and nerve damage in my legs. The longer I tried to shoot, the worse my shots became. His weren't as bad, but not getting any kind of group at 100 yards at all.
So we decided to move back up. I had a box of clays, we walked up 25 -30 yards and set up some of them against a log on the ground shooting into the hillside. again we swapped out after 3 rounds, one great thing about shooting clays is you KNOW you hit, although his first shot we thought was a miss, there was actually a .223 sized hole in the clay! I couldn't believe that one didn't bust.....I was worn out, but even shooting freehand I busted my half of the targets (6) in 8 shots. I let him set up some more and finish out the magazine just for playing. Needless to say he's sold and wants one now, LOL.
A couple of things. I'm satisfied that I had it zeroed with the Hornady ammo. I have a site vise, that I've used for years with my bolt action rifles. But it just flat doesn't work at all with this AR. I was shooting leaning on the hood of my dodge truck, and the fixed 3x scope may wind up not being enough for these old eyes at much over 50 yards, for targets anyway. I guess I need to pick up a couple of sand bags and see if my groups improve at longer range. I was flat worn out by the time we got to shooting 100 yards, maybe I need to start there next time. I don't know if the problem was the ammo or us. maybe it's just not going to shoot the same, after all it is the cheap stuff.
I didn't take any of the Hornady ammo with me to try, so maybe it's the tulammo, maybe my AR just isn't going to like it, but it was plenty cheap enough to break up some clay! and we had a blast.
I haven't cleaned it yet, By the time we got home, I was just worn out. In the morning, I plan on loading up the youtube break it down video, and completely breaking it down and cleaning and oiling her up.
Academy had some Monarch ammo for $4.99 a box, I picked it up and put it back 3 times before I went over to the walmart that had the tulammo....maybe for some cheap shooting, I need to go back and pick some of that up and see if it's different/better. We wound up putting a total of 60 rounds through it today, so that makes 90 all total so far. Not what some of y'all do in a day I know, but for me, that's about my limit for one sitting.
Comments, advise and suggestions always welcome!
