Adams Arms Piston AR-Update W/Range Report & Pics

[Darrell]

I put a 1-4x Burris 30mm scope on the gun, then took it to the range tonight, got it on paper and then shot for groups with Fiocchi 55 gr FMJ and Prvi 62 gr, also FMJ. Hardly match ammo, but good enough for 25 yards. The gun ran great, zero problems of any sort. The recoil impulse is a bit sharper than the Daniels Defense midlength carbine's. The trigger actually seems a bit crisper and lighter than the DD's. Using the same ammo as I'd used in testing the DD, the gun shot closer groups. It certainly seems to like 55 gr better; the 62 gr shot much the same. I am very happy with it! I may put a conventional (higher power) scope on it and see what it's really capable of. Here's a couple of pics:

IMG_0069sm.jpg

IMG_0070sm.jpg

First time I've used the scope, I picked it up on sale with the mount a few months ago. It has Burris's donut with T reticle, with some ballistic drop dots below the cross. The reticle is illuminated, but shows as black w/o power. I like it more than I thought I would.

One thing--the gun does not have a forward sling mount. I'll probably Barbie up the gun anyway, so no big deal.

[Darrell]

BTW, I took a look at Bud's website, they do still list a couple of the blems for sale:

http://www.budsgunshop.com/catalog/adva ... a1&x=9&y=8

[rightisright]

BTW, I took a look at Bud's website, they do still list a couple of the blems for sale:

http://www.budsgunshop.com/catalog/adva ... a1&x=9&y=8

Argh! I am already WAY over my shooty goodness budget for the month...

[Erik]

First time I've used the scope, I picked it up on sale with the mount a few months ago. It has Burris's donut with T reticle, with some ballistic drop dots below the cross. The reticle is illuminated, but shows as black w/o power. I like it more than I thought I would.

That's the Burris MTAC? I've been looking at that scope myself, to replace the one I have now. It seems to be a good compromise between fast target aquisition at close range and still good at long range? How does it work for precision shooting? I've been to competitions where you have to hit 2-3 inch target area at 100 yards, or hit plates at 350 yards. The sight I have now isnt good enough for it.

If I got it right, the center dot would be about the size of a fist at 100m, and if zeroed at 50m, it should impact at the top of the dot at 100m. So it should be possible to hit a very small target there. At 200m the dot would be about 4 inches and POI would be right in the middle. So you could place it in the middle of a plate and it wouldnt cover all of it.

Any opinion on how it works for shooting at longer range?

[Darrell]

First time I've used the scope, I picked it up on sale with the mount a few months ago. It has Burris's donut with T reticle, with some ballistic drop dots below the cross. The reticle is illuminated, but shows as black w/o power. I like it more than I thought I would.

That's the Burris MTAC? I've been looking at that scope myself, to replace the one I have now. It seems to be a good compromise between fast target aquisition at close range and still good at long range? How does it work for precision shooting? I've been to competitions where you have to hit 2-3 inch target area at 100 yards, or hit plates at 350 yards. The sight I have now isnt good enough for it.

If I got it right, the center dot would be about the size of a fist at 100m, and if zeroed at 50m, it should impact at the top of the dot at 100m. So it should be possible to hit a very small target there. At 200m the dot would be about 4 inches and POI would be right in the middle. So you could place it in the middle of a plate and it wouldnt cover all of it.

Any opinion on how it works for shooting at longer range?

It is the Burris Fullfield TAC30 1-4x-24 30mm tube, Erik. I don't think I'd consider the reticle to be for high precision work as such:

Burrist30reticle.jpg

Here it is at Optics Planet:

http://shop.opticsplanet.com/burris-1-4 ... gQod4xEB4g

And here is Burris's page on the scope:

http://www.burrisoptics.com/scopes/full ... pes-series

Plenty good for three gun, shooting steel plates and such. I'd rather have something with a cross hair, not to mention higher power, for more precise shooting. The BDC dots go out to like 500 or 600 yds, I believe. The scope and PEPR mount are being sold together at a bunch of places online, sometimes with the Fastfire III for a CQB red dot on top. I got mine for supposedly $100 off at Weapons World, DSG Arms or some such place some months ago. As I said, I liked it more than I thought I would--I'd looked through the scope before buying the Leupold 1-4x some months ago. I went with the Leupold because it does have a cross hair reticle, with illuminated fine center dot. The Leupold (or the mount I used) showed some tendency to not hold zero, which is disappointing. The last few times I've shot it, it has apparently settled down. I'd prefer more magnification, like the 1-6x scopes now on the market. Those get pricey, though.

[Erik]

Thank you.

Yeah, that's the same reticle as the MTAC. The TAC-30 is a similar model, i think the MTAC is slightly more expensive and is a later model, but i heard that they're very similar.

My intention would be to use it for ipsc rifle. I like a big ring for fast target aquisition up to 50 yards or so. I havent used scopes much at all, so I am slow at aiming with cross hair reticle. A big ring is a lot faster. The problem is when there's a target at 100 yards with only 2-3 inches visible, and you have to make the shot. Or plates between 200-400 yards.

It's a bit of a compromise, but at the moment most competitions i shoot has more shorter range shooting than longer range, so being fast at shorter ranges pays off more.
And im not planning on shooting precision groups at 300 yards, im happy as long as i can shoot A's consistantly.

I've also looked at a Vortex scope, it also has a big ring but combines it with cross hairs.

[toad]

'Fore I forget, part of a fluff and buff for any AR rifle is to polish up the bottom of the bolt carrier group esp. on a Piston one. Cuts the break in time down.
I need to fingerprint an optic the next time I have the wither all for a long gun purchase. I have to see if my astigmatism has been corrected enough to use a red dot with out it smearing.

[Darrell]

Erik, here's another scope to consider--the Vortex Strike Eagle 1-6x24 30 mm scope. $329 at Optics Planet, though I don't know what you could get it for over on your side of the pond:

http://www.opticsplanet.com/vortex-stri ... ticle.html

Vortex's page on the scope here, lots of info:

http://www.vortexoptics.com/product/vor ... dc-reticle

The scope gets great reviews. The reticle is a horseshoe with BDC marks, rather like the Burris. Hmm, maybe Santa will get me one for Xmas.

[Erik]

Erik, here's another scope to consider--the Vortex Strike Eagle 1-6x24 30 mm scope. $329 at Optics Planet, though I don't know what you could get it for over on your side of the pond:

Thanks for the tip! Havent seen that one, but a friend of mine has another Vortex (Viper I think) and he's happy with it. He only has two problems with it, it's not really visible enough in daylight, and the red ring in reticle on that scope is a bit small, which makes CQ a bit tricky.

I checked now, and unless my math is off, the MTAC reticle and the reticle in the Strike Eagle is virtually the same size when set in 1x. The red ring should cover an area about 30cm wide at 10m in 1x, and that should be big enough even for me to aquire the target fast. (It's 16moa at 100 yards at 6x, that's roughly 48cm at 100m, or 4.8cm at 10cm. That's at 6x, so at 1x it's roughly 5*6 = 30cm. Unless my math is really off...)

The MOA subdivisions isn't ideal in a country that uses metres (most long distance targets is placed at fixed meter distances, not yards. I also think and estimate distance in metres, not yards) but that is not a dealbreaker for me, I'll just make a cheat sheet to be able to remember the holdovers.

The price I found online here is $565, without mount or an extra red dot. It's about the same price as what the MTAC or the Viper costs here.

I'll look around, I know some local stores carry Vortex, so maybe they'll have this one and I can get a closer look at it.