98Z5V

It wouldn't even shock me in the least if someone that works at PSA installed it buffer first, and spring against the back of the BCG. Wouldn't even suprise me to hear something like that. You bought a PSA complete lower - and I had to ask. TSA Bag Smashers and Ramp Monkeys are better than the "gun builders" at PSA.

Exactly. And why I asked in the first place. From the pic, if taken out of the rifle - looks like the buffer went in there first, and the spring was touching the base of the BCG. I didn't take the pics - and nobody has ever taken pics like that before and posted them here - like that. There's a reason to ask, when seeing that.

Also, just based on these pics, and the orientation of the spring and the buffer in the pics... How are you putting the spring and buffer into the extension? I hope it's not like it's shown in the pics. Not trying to insult - asking based on what I'm seeing here.

Those are known to be proprietary (and PSA states that). Getting them to work with other uppers is hit or miss. That might be an issue later, after everything else here is sorted out. Did you hae a single round in the magazine at the time of firing? If so - your gun is doing what it's supposed to do. Locking back on the last (only) round in the mag. You provided some decent details, but there's alot going on here. Read this, so you can understand why the recoil system and gas system need to be balanced, for an operational, reliable gas gun:

^^^ This is why I love this place like I do...

Alright, man - I'll get on the math and get something in here.

Don't do that. Just don't. ^^^ Yep, what he said. ^^^ Yep, he's right, too. ^^^ Nope. You run an adjustable gas port WIDE OPEN when you're running a new gun build. The reason is simple - you start closing that adjustable port down, and down, and down - and it doesn't ever get any better. Because the gas port is too small to begin with. Undersized. You just wasted a bunch of ammo, playing with clicks on a fancy gas block. Adjustable gas blocks can only do one thing - reduce the amount of gas pressure going back to the BCG gas key. They can NEVER increase the amount of gas pressure necessary to operate the platform, when the gas port is too small in the first place. That right there is the reason you run them wide open, testing a new gun build. Always, Wide Open... This isn't even enough rounds through the gun to create a carbon seal around the gas block-to-barrel, or the gas block-to-gas tube. You need alot more rounds through this thing to be able to tell if it's running right. And, you need ALOT OF LUBE... I don't know if you took those pics before you shot it (don't think so), but that thing is bone-fucking-dry.

Anything Travis Haley makes is gonna have a very legitimate gear-driven decision behind the design.

HAHA!!!

You'll do fine, man.

Hornady loads it as the Hornady BLACK .223 75gr HPBT loaded ammo. https://www.hornady.com/ammunition/rifle/223-remington-75-gr-bthp-match-black#!/ Hornady also runs it in the Match line, product number 8026. Looks like this: Black Hills Ammunition loads a Sierra 77gr MatchKing as their Red Box .223 ammo - it's identical to military issued Mk262 ammo. Here's what you'd look for: ^^^^^^ That's just civilian packaged Mk262. They also actually sell Mk262 direct to civilians now, as well: http://www.black-hills.com/product-category/mk-262-mod-1-c-mil-pack/\ I doubt you'll ever find it in a store, on a shelf, but you can order it. Comes in 460-round ammo cans. The ammo I listed above will shoot well through that gun you have. You might be able to make a better handload, but you won't find anything from a manufacturer that will work as well as anything I listed above. The only thing different about the Black Hills Red Box and the Mk262 packaged ammo - is the testing (and lot number records) of the Mk262 ammo. It's got a very high accuracy standard for testing, whereas the just load it up and package it, for the Red Box. I've used this stuff, too, and it works well:

^^^ Right there. The heavier, the better, in that range given.

TT sells the pouches separate. Hit them up: https://tacticaltailor.com/ Here's a direct link to the pouch: https://tacticaltailor.com/fight-light-saw-pouch/

6, per SAW pouch. That one pouch is dedicated to my Kestrel and range finder, though. So, 6 on the rig, plus the one in the gun - if you don't need that second SAW pouch for anything, then you can roll 12 in the pouches, and the 13th one in the gun. This is my "universal" Long Range chest rig - everything in it that I need to shoot distance. All I do to change it up is decide what I'm shooting that day, and load the appropriate mags in that one pouch.

Tactical Tailor MAV 1 chest rig, I use the SAW-drum pouches for mag containment. I have a couple MAV 2 rigs, that split in the middle, and fastex-buckle, and they'd work just as well. For some reason, I always come back to the MAV 1 rig, that you put on like your tactical bra... The SAW pouch on MY right holds my Kestrel and laser range finder, the SAW pouch on MY left holds the mags.

I don't know if you guys that came out in the Fall remember Nick, the guy that works at POF. His 7 PRC is gonna get that Mile target, we'll make sure of it. That gun can do it, but it just didn't happen that day we were going after it. Sometime over the summer, we'll make that shot.

I will certainly agree with you on that one, brother - With only 2 x .300 Win Mag rifles hitting the Mile out here, and outside of a .50 Barrett - your gun is literally the only other gun that's hit that target. In all this time doing this shot, there's only 4 different guns that have connected. My Win Mag, @JBMatt's Win Mag, @sketch's Barrett M99, and your 6.5x284... That's it. Be pretty fucking proud of that gun, and yourself, brother, you did it right.

The movie on it is pretty badass, too. The movie is "The Outpost." The most impressive thing about that battle were the men - there were TWO Congressional Medals of Honor for that, both living. Which is unheard of. Those dudes went through some shiit. Here's the movie trailer, and it's a badass movie to watch.

You'll notice a pattern with me. It's Bryan Litz. I trust him. The books, first. Unreal information. Applied Ballistics software, and Applied Ballistics information. I bought the Kestrel wind meter that was loaded with the Applied Ballistics software. The book, by itself. I use JBM Ballistics for calculating all my dope charts - he's involved in that, heavily. The engines in the JBM Ballistics rely on the Bryan Litz data... When you select certain projectiles in the beginning, if you select the "Litz profile" for your projectile, your chart and calculations will just be a "little more accurate..." I'm just sayin'... https://jbmballistics.com/ballistics/calculators/calculators.shtml Just use the "Simplified Trajectory" calculator for most of your stuff - it's more than sufficient. The descriptions of the other calculators are listed right there, and you can play around with them and find what suits you best. The big thing is projectile selection - look for this, if it's available for your projectile... It's the first thing you can select, when you get into the calculator - "Library" - that's your projectile selection. You want to find one of these, if it's available for your projectile: Here's my example, during projectile selection - my 75gr Hornady HPBT magic projectile. These NEED to run north of 2750fps from an 18" barrel, for the magic to happen with the projectile (my magic handload is 2789.75fps, averaged over a 30-shot string, 18" barrel). Well, there's a "standard profile" to select, and there's a "Litz profile" to select - if it's available, you ALWAYS want to select the "Litz" entry - it's a different drag factor, that Bryan Litz put the time into, to develop for that projectile. It's not a G1 drag factor, it's not a G7 drag factor... It's the custom Bryan Litz drag factor for that projectile, and it's more accurate in the JBM Ballistics software, for developing a Dope Chart for your gun. This is why my Mk12 Mod 1 is what it is. Math... (click it - it gets bigger... That's what she said...) Weaponize Math, brothers. It's all out there. Make your gun more accurate, by using Math. It's too easy, and it's all out there. I'll guide you along the way to making a better gun.

These dope charts are forever part of my Long Range Chest Rig... Every precision-type gun I have has a Dope Chart for it, and it's in that front chest pouch on the Rig. Easy to get to, if I need it.

My Kestrel wind meter blue-tooths to my laser range finder. The Kestrel is loaded with Applied Ballistics software, for firing solutions. If I load my gun data and load data into the Kestrel, I lase the target with the range finder, and the Kestrel immediately gets the data, tells me the dial that I need to make the shot - right on the screen of the Kestrel. I don't use it to shoot targets. I only use it to proof my Dope Charts, at distance. I hardly ever use the thing, like it's intended to be used. It's one HELL of a powerful tool, combined together with the two devices. The Dope Charts are where it's at, when the batteries die, and you have no more power. Same with all this technology shiit. Look at Land Navigation. GPS. Millions of motherfuckers are Land Nav heroes. Until their batteries die. Can they use a compass, protractor (with a string), and a map? Do they know how to covert the numbers on that map to Lat/Longs with a 30cm ruler? Yeah, probably not. Can they look at terrain lines on a topo map, and "see" the terrain in front of them? Again, probably not. Same here. When the batteries die, can you shoot the gun a long, long way out? No electronic aids? This right here is exactly why I do what I do, brother, teach what I teach. Learn it old-school, absorb it, repeat it, make it memory. Practice it, make it proficiency. Once it's at the proficiency level, you won't give two shiits about electronic aids. They're always there, to make the hunt shot a meat-bringer, when it needs to be done. But you won't need to rely on any of that shiit, in the long term. We'll run the Full-Meal-Deal this Fall. All the classes, all the way through. If you - and I mean YOU, Mike, want to do High Angle, we'll hike that big fuckin' hill and do some High Angle training. We'll run the classes - but going up that hill, and shooting it, makes it stick in your melon. Forever. That hill sucks ass, though, I'm telling you right now... After that, you won't even care if you have dead batteries in your stuff, at all. You won't even check them before you go out shooting - you'll do it all from your head, or simple calculations that are easy to perform in the field. No batteries required.

As soon as someone else cold-bores the mile, and gets to within 3" of the very epicenter of that target, I'll give them my new coffee cup that someone made for me... Hasn't happened yet, though...

I'm just the "Laymen's Terms" for explaining shiit like this. Dumb it down, for the masses, as much as you can. Army. You train people. You train some REALLY SMART people, and you have to train some REALLY DUMB FUCKERS, too. Part of the game - you have to be able to train ALL of them in a way that ALL of them get it. Make it funny, humorous, serious, non-chalant, whatever - whatever gets them to learn it all, and get proficient. THAT is the hard part - judging and figuring out the audience, and then helping them get it... It sucks, more than "it's fun!..." For real. I started hard - hard-headed. Learn this shiit on my own, took alot away from the US Army, and training. Spent alot of money on ammo, guns, shooting, range time. And then, it hit me... Eh (Canadian "EH!"), I cheated. Someone else wrote the book, so I bought it, and read it about 5 times cover-to-cover. I'm on the 6th time now, just because there's so much information to absorb. I'll never get it all, but I'm trying. Bryan Litz wrote the book, and it's the one to have, for external ballistics. Internal ballistics is reloading - that's equally important, to making accurate loads. Internal ballistics all happen inside the gun, and determine how accurate your load will be. External ballistics are all the factors that affect your projectile as soon as it leaves the barrel. Bryan Litz is the king of that. Here's the book to own, and try to absorb - it'll be a long process, trust me, an cost alot in ammo practicing... There are a couple other books I have that are wonderful teachers, and I'll list them in another post. THIS BOOK, though, is the one. It breaks everything down into real information, that can't be refuted. It's solid facts. Yeah, brother - one gun. YOUR gun. That's the only thing that matters. You need to know that thing inside and out, know that reticle, know that dial, know that projectile drop at distance - your dope chart need to be in your head, for hunting. At the very least, the MPBR - Maximum Point Blank Range - needs to be ingrained inside your brain pan, for hunting. Long Range hunting - different game. Long Range shooting - as well, different game. You'll never be able to memorize all that shiit. You have to trust your dope chart, and that thing better be accurate, as fuk. Again, garbage in/garbage out, when you're developing it. You trash a number going in, then the whole dope chart is worthless, and even more worthless the longer distance you decide to shoot... Having a printed dope chart on your person is the best defense, when the batteries die in all the fancy gadgets. Hardest job in the world, kid you not - Me, observing targets, and spotting for @Matt.Cross... I'm serious... I'm all about Mils, and HE is the world's worst MOA-Whore for scopes. When I'm spotting for him, it's like triple duty - I need to watch his shot, I need to observe his shot in my Mil scope, THEN, I have to convert that shiit on the fly and give him a correction in MOA... QUICK, TOO!!! HE AIN'T WAITING AROUND FOR A CALCULATOR!!! It's rough, and I should be awarded a medal just for taking up the task. I round it up, I won't lie, and I hate rounding these numbers. I see him 2 mils off (2 x 3.4377) - Fuk that. That's 3.5, right then. Matt, your 7 MOA off... Ish...

Vic had ALOT of spit flyin' in that one!

Yep. There's enough total adjustment in the front sight to account for it. Fr adjustable front and rear sights, remember this acronym: FORS. Front Opposite, Rear Same. you adjust the sights for the way you want the observed impacts to go. If you're shooting, and it's impacting 3" exactly left of the bullseye, then you need to move it right. Rear Same. Move the rear sight right, to move the impacts right. If you're shooting 3" directly high above the bullseye, then you want to move the impacts down. Front Opposite - you'd adjust the front sight UP, to move the impacts down. Remember FORS, and you can't go wrong.