DustBuster

Streamlight Trident

I got tired of buying stupid preppy Petzal headlamps that sucked, only because when I needed one, that was the cheapest at Cabelas or wherever.... Worthless pieces of crap! I came across these and I would recommend ALL of you switch to these. With my first one, I dropped it down an elevator shaft 4 stories on a hotel I was working st and if survived just fine. Nifty Tube cycinder for three triple As. Pretty damn bright. They say 80 lumens. Buy these you won’t be sorry. Keep this company in business for the next time I need to buy one.

Here is the most distinct split. Reload ammo, same cases. Pretty rock solid prone position. I think it’s my gas block rubbing and it could be yours too, Cinders.

I also have been seeing bad groups... today they were split... I made some previous posts about my shooting and grouping... Asking everybody about rings, scopes, ammo and brass, as well as my gas block. It is, as Shooter Rex’s once was, about a business card clearance from the inside of handgaurd. I did notice slight markings inside the handgaurd before, but today after closer inspection, I’m sure it is rubbing when the barrel harmonically whips. I am going to tear it off this weekend and look at the gas port, and either reinstall a non-adjustable one with more clearance or grind some material off. I definetely also had at least one distinct split group today...

Thanks... I edited some of the quote out, too much talk about non-crime reducing regulations will spark search engine results for up and coming anti-gun nazis. As I was uninformed before and just barely heard mention of that old law as I was building my gun, the new crop of liberals on the other side of the spectrum might go ohhh” what a great law and let’s do it again”. After I posted the question above, I typed into google” Obama era infringement on gun rights”. Then after seeing and reading the results, I typed “Clinton era ...........”. I read how the Justice department determined that sunsetted law did not help to reduce crime and murders. You and some of the others here probably had hassles with your builds during that time. Anyway thanks for that link, I will read it, I think I like Armed Eye Docs video explanation enough to try and insert it into Wikipedia. I will have to consult with my Russian hackers because I don’t have wiki edit priveledes.

I wasn’t aware of semi autos back in the 90s... What was the national gun act that was passed back then and then went cold in 95. I’m sure it was something similar to the California laws( unconstitutional). Can anyone enlighten me? I did read the above article this morning, and am glad I have 1and 1/2 Swiss Army knives

No, my barrel is a 1/10 twist..... When I first started shooting this gun, with cheap open sights, I thought I detected better shooting from my reloads, but not much. Shooting at 100 yards with opens sight three shot groups is hard to see true data. Who knows, maybe some of those earlier groups of reloads were randomly of the same brass casings. I switched then to the 4x Weaver scope. Then I did not see much improvement At All at 100 yards and this is what disappointed me. I see improvement at 30 yards scope vs open signts, but now I’m seeing crappy 30 Yard scope groups with that mixed batch of reloads. Different cases once fired..( all 5 were of different headstamp). The pmc seemed much better. So.... I’m listening to Matt Cross or whoever said it, 5 to 10 shot groups is better. I will try Heavier bullets for twist of 1:10( you and others have said it) in the future. My next scope will be of unimpeachable quality( All Hail President Trump) and my shooting practices need to be upgraded to the next level... Lead sled maybe if I can’t get more rock solid... for getting this gun tuned. all shots made by me on this post and others were from the Faxon heavy fluted 1:10 rifle length gas. I didn’t break in this barrel worth a damn, and I just saw a YouTube of someone pushing the rod through from the chamber and then taking the brushes off before pulling it back through. Screw That! I hope that doesn’t mean my Barrel will die soon.

I was going for 5 shot groups... but I found a clay pigeon and hung it up on the right top corner of the plywood... I wanted to see if I could hit that sucker at 30 yards off hand. I drilled it center! Despite the fact I was swaying like an oak tree. I then put a third of the broken pigeon a little higher up and to the left.... I definitely was shaking more( gun is so front heavy and I had no sling on for choking things up) and by the grace of God I drilled that remainder and obliterated it. The true challenge will be getting good at those kind of shots, not just lucking out like I did.

Yep, I understand and eventually will be either buying or reloading some heavier rounds.. I just noticed the difference between the factory and the mix and Match brass groups...I’m not as worried before about bad Barrel or screwed up scope, I can wait till I stumble across or work up to a good shooting weight and charge. I also will be sorting my reloads all into “Like” batches now. Thanks for response, DNP Here is a picture of some groups, The reloads were the obvious huge group. Not sure what I used on the lowest left corner group, I think PMC. So One bad 5 shot group with the reloads compared to the other better ones. 30 yards.

Hey SharpShooters, I shot yesterday and kind of noticed with a few groups that my Factory pmc 148 gr FMJ shot a little better than my reloads, which were 150 gr Hornady FMJ BT on top of 42.5 gr imr 4895. It isn’t the first time I’ve noticed poor groups with my reloads, and this time it seemed the pmc was much better. I’m the one that carefully attempted exact powder charges for this batch of reloads, but the cases varied from about 5 different manufactures... All once fired. after yesterday’s shooting, it dawned on me and I looked over at the spent rounds; all different cases. Does anybody think that the pressures differences due to minute internal case size differences could open up a group, even if using the same powder charges? I’m guessing the answers is Yes?

Bill, I see that you posted about your build already, describing some of the issues you dealt with. You had a bolt catch that was hitting the upper receiver stopping its upward movement. You solved that by grinding material off the upper. I’ve had issues before having a bolt catch that went up too high, prematurely stopping the bolt before it could clear the back of the magazine. I solved that two different ways by modifying the different brand of magazines. I only had that problem with empty magazine bolt stop, not with General cycling. Hard to know what is fouling you up

Hi Bill, I hope you can get your gun working. The simplicity of your explanations made me think back to this little cartoon an iron worker friend posted on Facebook once. Please give more detail for these experts here to help your build. Take Care

Ok, my head is ringing because I did get plenty of sense knocked into me. Vortex Venom it is, Thanks Matt Cross and the rest of you “Dads”. The Nifty scabbard I got for my gun which barely lets everything including the bipod squeeze in will then become a waste of money once I get the Venom,,, the rings also. I will try some new ammo and better shooting posture, maybe a good bean bag for the back...I’m sure the Monstrum scope is cheap Chinese crap, a roll of the dice whether you get a marginally good one or a flawed one. The same deal exists in the radio world....Baofengs and Wouxons on the reviews, some happy some sad; better off to buy a Kenwood or an Icom/Yaesu. I buy the best feedline LMR400 and wire things up properly with good grounding, etc. Some radio ops make homebrew equipment which sparks things up and that’s ok if they are crafty. I do waste a lot of time when I’m too lazy to find an Allen wrench but I happen to have a teensy Weensy Torx bit that fits good enough. That kind of mentality with gunsmithing is bad news. I need to beat myself silly before 98 does. Goodbye

Hi shooterrex... just a quick question for you in regards to your Space Cannon scope.. Are Monstrum scopes Unimpeachable? Im never gonna be practiced enough to be in the High Class of shooters, but to gain some practice with turrets etc, I think I saw a monstrum first focal plane scope. Probably a waste of money, but I don’t have five Hundy extra anymore. Don’t everybody slap me for asking about a Monstrum

Haha, I like that name sort of. Well, I basically did that but then I loosened the top rings enough to easily turn the scope and later I slid it forward some, then retightened. I figured my scope was going to be the perfect straight starting point, and then I found out maybe that there is a slight variance with the rings or my rail. After retightening top of rings, it is basically the same as your method. I’m still trying to find out from my brother how big his medium quality Vortex scope is.... in case I buy one of that size. That will probably make me refrain from buying a lapping kit for this old 1” scope. I may in the not to distant future take the gas block off, and replace it with a fixed block I got from KaK. The cheap variable I have on now and the fixed KaK have different dimple locations, so I’ve only dimpled my barrel so far in the one common location between the two. I left that option open until I commit to one or the other. Do the extreme Marksman here use only clamp on gas blocks for fear of inducing stress points on their barrels? I read that recently elsewhere.

No, I saw someone else here did that...No I clamped the barrel wrapped in thick leather near the muzzle and turned it I hope less than a turn and a half past tight on a crush washer, just till a nail I had going through the bottom holes of the compensator eyeballed level...Armorers wrench at 90 degrees to a torque wrench an I got near to 30 fr lbs when it stopped correct. I’ve heard how an overtightened compensator could squish the barrel tip, hope they didn’t happen to me...Geez these things are not simple to put together right

Unimpeachable, I was impressed with the term but I didn’t even see the Trump connection, haha

Geez, Shooter Rex, I was rereading your reply here and it finally clicked what you were asking.... I sure hope the barrel extension didn’t loosen from factory to my place.... It didn’t feel loose, maybe a bore scope would see a gap inside if it did? I’d be the most unluckiest barrel buyer in the world if my first two barrels both had loose extensions... I’m gonna have to study more about their process and look at a cross section of how the extension and barrel meet up inside... I’ve read a quick explanation from 98 of the process... but I could learn more in depth about it.

I will look at getting heavier bullets for sure... a sand bag, and will search for a good scope. I’d like to be able to hit the steel turkey at 500 yards some day in my lifetime...

1) Twist Rate 1:10 2) Norma tactical FMJ 150gr and PMC bronze FMJ 147gr my Handloads are 150gr Hornady FMJ 42.5 grains IMR 4895 3) FMJ, the seating depth for the Norma is seems quite deep But they seem to shoot same 4) I was prone using a bipod on a bumpy wool blanket with millions of shotgun hulls and brass underneath.. not comfy. Had a carhart coat and sweatshirt jammed up as a rear bag. I could get reasonably steady after adjusting for a while, but Neck had to kink upward awkwardly to see through the scope at that angle with my higher rings. I could feel cheek pressure shaking the situation. I’m sure I was the Weakest Link! After closer inspection of my targets, I won’t draw any conclusions just yet.. I just felt I was steady enough when I pulled the trigger to have better groups.. The thirty yarders would be nice to be 100 Yard groups. Here is a picture of the groups. I ran out of space and some shots got mixed up... two must have gone into other holes. I always shot groups of 3. Anyway... thanks for advice and interest... I think I’ll buy the 1” lapping kit from midway even though I probably will never use it again... 30mm scopes are probably the next thing to go to in my future.

I will send a picture of the groups... and fill in more details later today... yep, lots of stuff. Ammo is cheap pmc gold 147gr, also I had a tiny bit better results with my Hand loads, which I carefully trickle charged to very close amounts. Not big improvement over pmc though. I’ll give more details later, thanks, gotta go

The barrel extension on my first barrel ever purchased was loose, not this one. I hope I can come to be happy with this barrel, I’ll try to trouble shoot the entire gun I guess till I’m out of ammo, about 350 more tries I guess 😞 Research on the Web here has brought to mind many different possibilities of trouble. Ammo type. Bullet size, some barrels like different loads I hear. Not sure if the gas block clearance is a possible reason for my unhappy shot groups. I might have dimpled the barrel slightly more off dead center of the off center gas port, exaggerating the tilt, I won’t know till I remove the gas block. I have the gas screw cranked all the way out I believe, since because of my 4:30 o’clock brass ejection I thought it was undergased... I didn’t see or feel any remarkable change in gas from my first shot until the screws present location, mostly out. Im more interested I guess in the gas block clearance which can be resolved with my other non adjustable, and the possibility of a pinched or bent scope. I made one adjustment sighting in at 30 yards, I shot two inches left so I clicked right 32 clicks, then back 5. The POImpact Tracked exactly. Later in the day it almost seemed if I lost my lateral zero, however...but the wind was picking up some and I was starting to get frustrated. Thanks for replying guys... Here is a couple of pictures of: Empty chamber open bolt gun Top of muzzle view Bottom of muzzle view Gas tube which looks pretty parallel. These might show relative gas port tilt. Not sure if it is an issue

I’d say it’s about at 12:15 or maybe 12:45 tops. Too late for me to send it back. What reason would you guys reject a barrel with a (slightly) rotated gas port? Is it because it might require custom bending the gas tube to be exactly in line with the carrier gas key. I have not altered the factory gas tube at all, it seems pretty straight with the gas key anyway.

Hello Shooters. I have completed my 308 build in stages. I have fairly good quality parts. Good fitting Upper and Lower... Heavy Buffer/ Carbine length Extension Faxon Match series heavy fluted rifle length barrel, thermally Tight and proper Barrel Nut torque. I had mixed success with cheap open sights, at 30 yards and 100. I wanted then to see if my Barrel was any good. So I replaced the milspec Trigger with a Larue MBT-2s and bought two Warne Mountain Tech Extra tall 1” rings. I have an old Weaver K4 4 power scope. I then went to sight it in. I am not happy. I think at 100 yards I shot better with my open sights. Thirty yards yielded a few groups with bullet holes touching each other but always a spoiler an inch away. I’m pretty sure I never flinched or moved as much as those spoilers. I have a few things I can work to determine what is bad( including my shooting technique). 1) I could possibly be over gassed( maybe this takes away from bullet speed?) 2). My adjustable gas block is 1/16 or a bit less from touching the inside of the handgaurd. ( it is slightly tilted due to the orientation that Faxon drilled my hole) Maybe Barrel whip is making that make contact? 3) When I first installed my rings, I attached them to scope first, then arranged them to fit the Picantanny rail. Upon tightening the rings down to the rail, it seemed that the rearward ring wanted to put slight torque downward on the system. They have not been lapped at all. Since then I’ve loosened the top halves of the rings and leveled the cross hairs, re tightening to what felt like adequate torque. My front rings cross bolt is tight to the front of a picantanny rise and the rearward rings cross bolt is tight to the rear of a picantanny rise. This makes those dual use Weaver/Picantanny rings fairly tight and snug with no slop, even before tighting the base bolts. Could a non-lapped, slightly downward stressed scope cause shooting anomalies? Is it worth it for me to buy a 40 dollar scope lapping kit for a 1” scope size? I’m gonna be sad if I did buy it and later find out I just have a bad Barrel. 4). Bad Barrel maybe. Many variables to rule out before I accept this fate. Please pray for me 🙂 Good Day

Yes. Thank you Wise Master. I am like GrassHopper, and need a Face slapping every now and then. I don’t demand info from here, but it may seem like it. Your wealth of knowledge could never be bought from the likes of me. I definetely won’t be screwing with my trigger; I’m still learning it and probably will never get to a level of needing to. It does take work to learn stuff at this site, that’s for sure. Guess I don’t have the hang of it yet. I’ve tried the Quotes technique and it doesn’t seem to work so great. I will keep learning here and elsewhere as need arises, thanks a ton.... Sometimes I will post stupid rookie questions like a mouse tickling the cheese, and then hope the trap doesn’t slam down too hard and break my neck. This time I think you let me wiggle out. I will try again when there is bigger cheese, or if I have some to share