What kind of accuracy do you get from your AR?

[jeff43]

I'd like to hear your experience when shooting your AR's. What size groups at 50 or 100 yards  you get with a scoped AR and what kind of ammo, factory or your favorite hand loads.

[Garufa]

It all depends.....on about 8 thousand or more variables.

[Grayfox54]

Honestly, I haven't been impressed by my S&W M&P Sport II. It only gets about 3-4"s at 100 yards. Its combat accurate, but ain't no tack driver. 

But in all fairness, I've only tried two brands of ammo. American Eagle 55gr and IMI 62 gr. I hope at some point I'll find something it really likes. 

[Danger Rane]

As Garufa suggested that's a pretty open ended question, especially considering the plethora of options when configuring an AR, choosing caliber, choosing ammo, optic etc...but to answer rather generally all my 5.56 and .223 ARs are shooting 1MOA or better, one shoots 3/4MOA easily and can do better when I do my part. I have a 300blk build I just finished and started testing and it's about 1.75MOA, but I'm going to tinker and try to make it better. I've built all my AR's but don't reload right now so it's all factory ammo.

Any particular reason you ask? Just generally curious or trying to figure out if yours is up to standard?

[mikegideon]

If you are testing for accuracy, you have to remove the variables. Last one I did, I used a 24X scope and hand loads with 77 grain Matchkings. Also used a decent rest and rear bag. If you are testing a sub moa gun, you need to be able to see sub moa on the target, and the bullets have to fly straight.

In my case, I built a PSA freedom midlength kits for my brother. He decided to upgrade it right away, so I stuck a BCM KMR handguard on it, lapped the upper receiver, and bedded the barrel extension. That gun shoots sub MOA.

Edited November 25, 2018 by mikegideon

[jeff43]

Just curious, I know it varies from each rifle and the ammo, weather conditions (humidity),scopes, etc.

[A.J. Holst]

Like Grayfox, I have a Sport II and have similar experiences.

If I was so inclined, I would buy 8-10 boxes of assorted brands and weights of .233/.556, borrow a sled, and spend the day finding the most accurate ammo.

Then I'd start spending money on practical parts and accessories to improve accuracy.

Or buy or build a purpose driven platform

[OLDNEWBIE]

13 hours ago, Grayfox54 said:

Honestly, I haven't been impressed by my S&W M&P Sport II. It only gets about 3-4"s at 100 yards. Its combat accurate, but ain't no tack driver. 

But in all fairness, I've only tried two brands of ammo. American Eagle 55gr and IMI 62 gr. I hope at some point I'll find something it really likes. 

My mini gets consistent 3" groups at 100 yds with American Eagle 55gr.

Because of what I hear on average accuracy of many basic ARs..... I've never felt a need to "upgrade" to one.

[mikegideon]

1 hour ago, Gotthegoods said:

Like Grayfox, I have a Sport II and have similar experiences.

If I was so inclined, I would buy 8-10 boxes of assorted brands and weights of .233/.556, borrow a sled, and spend the day finding the most accurate ammo.

Then I'd start spending money on practical parts and accessories to improve accuracy.

Or buy or build a purpose driven platform

Only so much you can do with a light weight gun. Free floated barrel and a good trigger is about it if your barrel shoots OK. That, and good ammo.

I won't subject my match barrels to Wolf steel ammo. I'm betting the accuracy would suffer.

[mikegideon]

4 minutes ago, OLDNEWBIE said:

My mini gets consistent 3" groups at 100 yds with American Eagle 55gr.

Because of what I hear on average accuracy of many basic ARs..... I've never felt a need to "upgrade" to one.

Is it an old one? Mine does quite a bit better. 

[OLDNEWBIE]

29 minutes ago, mikegideon said:

Is it an old one? Mine does quite a bit better. 

It's newer with the thicker barrel in stainless.

[Omega]

All my ARs shoot a pretty decent group if I do my part.  My 5.56 have only shot standard ball ammo, with a few green tips and tracers thrown into the mix.  With decent ammo or reloads I could probably keep them all MOA or darn close.  I've used a led sled for some time to zero my rifles, to take me out of the equation, it's translated real well when I've had to shoot off-hand.  I feel barrel harmonics play the better part of a decent rifle, most everything else is to get the shooter better.

[Ehunt]

Using Iron Sights at 25 meters on an M-16, 300 Meter Zero Target I was getting around 1.0" to 0.30" groupings from my 1:8 SS .223 Wylde 18" barrel. Widest group was with 55 grain ammo Norma Tac Ammo, and the tightest group was with 69 grain PPU Match ammo. 75 grain seemed to be less accurate, but that is probably my bad eyes. It was an indoor range and poor lighting with my astigmatism eye balls... so this convinced me that I most likely need some kind of optic to shoot more consistently.

[Wingshooter]

I’ve built all of mine. Most are moa-ish or better at 100yds with an optic. One is a little more loose on the target as are my 300bo’s and the pistol. I do have one 5.56 that I built from a collection of cheap parts and an Alpa Shooting Sports barrel that is sub-moa at 200 with cheap Herters HP . It’ll print a tight little group at 200 with my Vortex. I love that rifle.

 

 

Edited December 11, 2018 by Wingshooter

[McroidTN]

8" at 100

[Navy Chief]

Jeff, my old Bushmaster would shoot 2 MOA all day with good factory loads but that just wasn't good enough so I changed the barrel. Got better but still ... so I changed the trigger ... er, the handguard, grip, and stock too ... uumm, the BCG, buffer and spring went by the wayside ... Oh wait, I need to lap the receiver and bed the barrel extension ... uh, how about a new scope ... long story short, you CAN get sub MOA out of an AR but get ready to play PIMP MY RIFLE! If your bone stock AR shoots 2 MOA, it is about as good as it is going to get without spending a bunch of time and money. Have fun and go burn some ammo!

[jeff43]

Loaded some 55 grain Hornady soft point boat tails last week with 2230 powder, and tried in one of mine and shot about a 5/8" at 100

[TN Song Dog]

3/4" groups. Easiest accuracy upgrade is a trigger. Gissele SSA-E or something similar. 

[ReeferMac]

Testing on a variety of Ammo is important. I played around with about 20 different kinds, and found my rifle seems to like the Wolf Steel-cased stuff in .223. 6" groups at 200 yds on a bench and bags w/ 12x scope.

 

- K

[ken_mays]

Most of my ARs will do around 1.5 MOA with halfway decent (M193) ammo, provided a good trigger, good scope and a bench. 

My 6.5 Grendel will do that with Wolf steel cased ammo, and well under 1 MOA with decent (e.g. Hornady) loads.  

That's good enough for me, since I no longer bother to load 5.56 for maximum accuracy.    Most of my ARs are kind of like AKs, I tend to shoot the cheapest crap I can get away with.  

 

[PoofNoEyeBrows]

Depends on the build. I have a Rock River that is mil spec that shoots 2 moa and then I have a PRI mk12 mod 0 that shoots sub .5 moa. It just depends on the build. I find it more important to first have a solid idea about what the platform is for and how it will be utilized, and then fit the tool to the need.

[chances R]

RRA with match trigger, 2x7 3200 Bushnell scope, shooting 55 gr. factory Hornady SP, from a rest, sub 1" groups routinely at 100 yds.

 

Edited January 13, 2019 by chances R

[jeff43]

Anybody tied one of the Bear Creek Arsenal 223  uppers? How are they as far as accuracy and function?

[Magiccarpetrides]

20 hours ago, jeff43 said:

Anybody tied one of the Bear Creek Arsenal 223  uppers? How are they as far as accuracy and function?

I would like to know this as well as they are so cheap my AR snobbery has kicked in where I haven't bought one yet because I just assume anything that cheap wouldn't shoot very well.  I will say my PSA KS47 with a 7" nitride barrel will ring steel at ORSA on the centerfire range at 100yds with no problem whatsoever using my cheap TRS25 bushnell red dot (since upgraded to a C-more I had laying around).  I have always had really good luck with PSA barrels I don't know who makes the 7.62 barrels but I know FN makes most of their others.