98Z5V Posted December 19, 2023 Report Share Posted December 19, 2023 1 hour ago, BigNate said: Yes - hoping to have it out this weekend… I’ll try to get with @JBMatt… I broke in my brand new, bone-dry .338 Fed gun just with a light coat of his lube. NOT dripping wet, like it's known that you need to do for the Large Frames. Just a light coat of that stuff had that thing lock the bolt back on the very first round out of it, single-loaded in the mag. It really is that good. I put vids up of that stuff in my .338 Fed build thread, the Pig Puncher... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BigNate Posted December 19, 2023 Author Report Share Posted December 19, 2023 OK - the generic front takedown pin is shorter than I think it should be. Went back to where I got it and got "they're all that way - even the one's that Aero Precision sells. I'm waiting for a response from Aero on this - but I like to think that if Aero is going to make the bosses "thicker" they'd also make the pin longer. I'm sure that I'll hear back from Aero shortly - but can anyone confirm / deny that the actual Aero pin is long enough to be started without jaming a round tip or tool down into that hole? It will "work" as it sits - but it bugs me and if Aero does not sell a longer one, I'm thinking that if I have to have a buddy machine a pin that's 1/8" longer than the one in there. 🙂 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BigNate Posted December 19, 2023 Author Report Share Posted December 19, 2023 (edited) On 12/18/2023 at 9:43 AM, BigNate said: 1) All parts arrived except the buffer tube. Called Vltor - sounds like a carrier pickup issue - I should have it by Wednesday. OK - just a little bitching and moaning... This morning I checked the tracking number for my Vltor order and it still said that it was awaiting pickup (per USPS). I was busy and didn't have time to call Vltor with a "what gives!" This afternoon I was getting ready to call them and thought I'd check one more time - to see if maybe USPS had finally picked it up... What do I see? ... So - either USPS actually picked up the package after about 0900 and miracle'd it from Tucson to north of Phoenix in less than 3 hours... (not impossible - but given that they rural carrier picks up our mail from the post office at like 0730 - I think it's unlikely) - or they can't be bothered to actually update tracking status on the package... I guess I should count my blessings that it has actually arrived (assuming that it actually has). Also picked up a cheapy pistol grip so I won't have to cannibalize one from another rifle (once I get it running I'll decide what kind of lower furniture I want on it) - and picked up a single MagPul AR10/SR25 10 round Pmag (hey - my other AR10 and 308 semi auto rifles all use straight-wall metal magazines... and I didn't bother to figure out that the Aero lower doesn't until thinking about it this morning... LOL Anyway - given this - I'm thinking that I may have pictures of an assembled rifle tonight. Edited December 19, 2023 by BigNate Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
98Z5V Posted December 20, 2023 Report Share Posted December 20, 2023 6 hours ago, BigNate said: but can anyone confirm / deny that the actual Aero pin is long enough to be started without jaming a round tip or tool down into that hole? I can confirm that. I have a very large handful of Aero M5 setups, and all the Aero pins stick out the other side. Confirmed. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
98Z5V Posted December 20, 2023 Report Share Posted December 20, 2023 5 hours ago, BigNate said: or they can't be bothered to actually update tracking status on the package... USPS has been horrible about this, and the locations I've noticed it most are from Tucson, and from the Dallas/Fort Worth area. Those fuckers don't scan in packages when they're picked up. Shiit doesn't get scanned until it hits a regional distribution center, after that. The Phoenix Regional Distribution Center is about the very worst at scanning things in, too. So, you were triple-fucked... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BigNate Posted December 20, 2023 Author Report Share Posted December 20, 2023 11 hours ago, 98Z5V said: I can confirm that. I have a very large handful of Aero M5 setups, and all the Aero pins stick out the other side. Confirmed. Thanks much. I'll get one inbound and swap it out. The other one "functions" but it's a pain to have to use some sort of implement to get the pin started. 11 hours ago, 98Z5V said: USPS has been horrible about this, and the locations I've noticed it most are from Tucson, and from the Dallas/Fort Worth area. Those fuckers don't scan in packages when they're picked up. Shiit doesn't get scanned until it hits a regional distribution center, after that. The Phoenix Regional Distribution Center is about the very worst at scanning things in, too. So, you were triple-fucked... Yup... all of that and more with ours. On top of all the standard USPS stupidity - living in an area where last mile delivery goes through a contract carrier and to a cluster mailbox means that anything bigger than a soda can gets flagged as something like "delivery unsuccessful" before it even leaves the post office - and the next day I'll get a notice that I can pick up the parcel at the post office - which is open from 0800 to 1630 M-F and is about 45 minutes drive from the office - so this means that paying to have USPS deliver a package to my home generally costs me whatever the shipping cost is, plus two hours of work (when I bitch to them I call it "pay" - but the reality is that I get paid the same - but my company suffers because I had to take the time away from being useful in order to pick up a package that I paid to have delivered). UPS, Fedex, Amazon, OnTrac, DHL, the Boy Scouts, and everyone else can seem to get a package to my house - but the folks who say: "Neither snow nor rain nor heat nor gloom of night stays these couriers from the swift completion of their appointed rounds..." can't seem to figure it out... </rant> Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BigNate Posted December 20, 2023 Author Report Share Posted December 20, 2023 As to the build - I'm a moron and bought a 1-3/16" crows foot wrench instead of a 1-3/8"... I may have a line on one from a buddy today - and Amazon will deliver one tomorrow just in case (ordered). I guess it's specialty enough that I should not be surprised that Autozone, O'Reilly's, Lowes, Home Depot, were all no-go. Grainger has a few but they are like $60 so I can wait. Anyway - I just remembered that this weekend is Christmas weekend and we have a bunch of family stuff happening so I'm not likely to get it out until Tuesday. I'm taking next week off - so I'll have plenty of time. @98Z5V - not sure if you have time next week - but if you do I'd be happy to drive south if you want to go out and shoot it with me (would love to have your brain and experience out there while I figure out gassing and troubleshoot whatever needs troubleshooting). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
98Z5V Posted December 21, 2023 Report Share Posted December 21, 2023 13 hours ago, BigNate said: @98Z5V - not sure if you have time next week - but if you do I'd be happy to drive south if you want to go out and shoot it with me (would love to have your brain and experience out there while I figure out gassing and troubleshoot whatever needs troubleshooting). Tell ya what, brother - how do you feel about New Years Eve? @JBMatt stopped in at my shop today to give me an Emergency Resupply of silicone spray, and we were talking about it. We, right now, intend to head out here, to the SDTF, on late-day Saturday, Dec 30th, and camp out there Saturday night and Sunday night. We'll break camp on Monday morning-ish, January 1st. So, if you're available on Sunday, New Year's Eve, December 31st, maybe you could head down here, hang out, as long as you want, stay the night if you won't get grounded for it, or just do a day trip, or even do the whole weekend. Anything at all is up to you, if you've got any time that weekend. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BigNate Posted December 21, 2023 Author Report Share Posted December 21, 2023 10 hours ago, 98Z5V said: Tell ya what, brother - how do you feel about New Years Eve? @JBMatt stopped in at my shop today to give me an Emergency Resupply of silicone spray, and we were talking about it. We, right now, intend to head out here, to the SDTF, on late-day Saturday, Dec 30th, and camp out there Saturday night and Sunday night. We'll break camp on Monday morning-ish, January 1st. So, if you're available on Sunday, New Year's Eve, December 31st, maybe you could head down here, hang out, as long as you want, stay the night if you won't get grounded for it, or just do a day trip, or even do the whole weekend. Anything at all is up to you, if you've got any time that weekend. Sounds good - I'm guessing that I can make it down for at least a chunk of the day. Not sure if I'll be able to stay - but we'll see - pretty sure we've got family coming over on the 1st for the Rose Bowl. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
98Z5V Posted December 22, 2023 Report Share Posted December 22, 2023 12 hours ago, BigNate said: Sounds good - I'm guessing that I can make it down for at least a chunk of the day. Not sure if I'll be able to stay - but we'll see - pretty sure we've got family coming over on the 1st for the Rose Bowl. Awesome! Can you plug Lat/Long coordinates into your phone, and run those for a GPS location? I'll PM you the camp location. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BigNate Posted December 22, 2023 Author Report Share Posted December 22, 2023 14 hours ago, 98Z5V said: Awesome! Can you plug Lat/Long coordinates into your phone, and run those for a GPS location? I'll PM you the camp location. I believe so - and if I can't I can do it elsewhere and make myself a map... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BigNate Posted December 22, 2023 Author Report Share Posted December 22, 2023 Learning plenty on this build (candidly it's the first AR-10 and the first upper that was not from a kit). So - barrel shims on order along with the pivot pin. Should be here next week (and if not I'll source them). Not a fan of that style of hand-guard attachment. It seems kind of hoaky to have to "tweak" torque on the barrel nut to get the handguard aligned. I guess that using a rigid optic mount across the joint could serve as something like wiring a torqued bolt to ensure it can't back off... probably not good from an accuracy perspective though... 🙂 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BigNate Posted December 22, 2023 Author Report Share Posted December 22, 2023 8 minutes ago, BigNate said: Learning plenty on this build (candidly it's the first AR-10 BUILD and the first upper BUILD that was not from a kit). So - barrel shims ARE on order along with the pivot pin. THEY should BOTH be here next week (and if not I'll source them). Not a fan of that style of hand-guard attachment. Fixed... Man - I hate not being able to go back and edit... LOL Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BigNate Posted December 27, 2023 Author Report Share Posted December 27, 2023 Well - it is together… not fired - but together…. I stole the lower furniture, Millet LPVO, and bipod off of a 300blk that I haven’t shot in years. They’ll do for now for getting the gun up and going. No muzzle device - because I’m suppressor shopping and have nothing else that can use an M18X1.5 threaded muzzle device - so for now it’ll get shot bare until I either hate it enough that I’m willing to waste $100 on a muzzle device that I’ll never use elsewhere - or I determine that I don’t care and can shoot it that way until the suppressor gets here. Looking forward to shooting it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BigNate Posted December 27, 2023 Author Report Share Posted December 27, 2023 Managed to triple post the same thing… <rolleyes> Deviations from the plan above - mostly the furniture - but also found that the LaRue MBT that I thought I had - I didn’t - had put it in my brother’s gun when we both hated the trigger that came in it… Had an SSA-E waiting for another project so I used it. It’ll get pulled and replaced with something else good but a bit heavier (MBT, SSA or something similar) if this ever becomes something that is more than a range gun. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
98Z5V Posted December 28, 2023 Report Share Posted December 28, 2023 7 hours ago, BigNate said: Well - it is together… not fired - but together…. Let's fix that! Just sent you a PM with some Lat/Long Coords in it. Let me know if that's gonna work... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BigNate Posted January 1 Author Report Share Posted January 1 Great to see you today @98Z5V - thanks for the assistance in getting things sorted. For those following along - we learned some things. 1) With the gas system wide open, the red Springco spring and H3 buffer work nicely with the supersonic 210 gr rounds - but the subsonic 285 gr rounds don’t have enough mph to cycle properly with that buffer / spring combination 2) Swapping out the buffer and spring for the basic rifle buffer and spring from another AR that I brought - had the subsonc rounds cycling nicely with no other changes. 3) The subsonics chrono’d at about 950FPS and the SuperSonics were about 1950 FPS. Guessing that these numbers will go up a bit once a suppressor is in place. Thanks again @98Z5V - appreciate you bringing your chronograph out! 4) I brought 4 X 1 gallon water jugs and a 2.5 gallon. Lining them up in a line, and lining the large one up on its long axis gave about 4 feet of water. After sighting things in, we lined up on these and put a sub-sonic round through the water jugs… yes… all of them - and out the back end - and into the dirt 50 yards down range. This was repeatable. I was a bit frustrated that we couldn’t get them to “petal out” or fracture. I’m probably going to send the video to Gorilla and ask about this. I’m guessing that I might see a different behavior in ballistic gel - or tissue - but the failure to expand in water is concerning. 5) Recoil is really pretty minimal. I’d put the super sonic rounds in the same category as a 5.56 in a lighting rifle. The sub-sonics - really, truly, minimal… 6) The big subsonics really “thump” on steel. The noise sounds “heavy” when it hits. Looking forward to shooting it suppressed. All in all - it was a very successful day. The gun functions - and there is a relatively easy way of tuning the gun so that you can run both super sonic and subsonic without much drama (the spring and buffer change is easy). The reality is that once I get a suppressor in place, I can’t see a reason to shoot supersonic loads in this gun. It’s not meant to be shot at longer ranges. In my opinion - if you are shooting this beyond 150 yards or so - you’ve probably brought the wrong gun. On the other hand, having 20 rounds of quiet, and heavy hitting 285-350gr subsonic rounds is an exciting prospect. Once sited In, it consistently nailed the ipsc silhouette at about 100 yards - and I have no concern about it performing beautifully through 150 yards. Looking forward to load development and getting some heavy subsonics to expand… Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
98Z5V Posted January 2 Report Share Posted January 2 I gotta say - I'm COMPLETELY IMPRESSED with the 8.6 Blackout! What a fantastic cartridge. The difference between those subs and supers was wild - getting the recoil systems and function right was pure luck, and @BigNate's spare parts on-hand. Full normal recoil system for the supers, VLTOR A5 extension, H3 carbine buffer, Sprinco Red spring. Works great. Wouldn't eject the sub cases. Quick check - toss in a lighter buffer. He had a regular 3.0oz carbine buffer, and a rifle spring from an AR15 - works with the subs, perfectly. We got lucky, but we didn't send but one wasted sub round downrange to come up with that combo. Ammo conservation at it's finest! We started the SA gasblock wide open, the first round was a sub, and didn't eject. Next round was a super, ejected, locked the bolt back. We were on fire after that. So, I don't know what the gas port diameter is, but it doesn't matter - we now know how to get the 8.6 running, depending on what ammo you're shooting. I'm sure this info will change slightly once a can goes on there, but that's what the SA adjustable gas block is for. One badass little platform! Numbers from the magnetospeed = Subs went 981, 961, 942. Supers went 1962, 1958. I imagine those sub speeds will even out once the barrel is broken in, and everything smooths out. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BigNate Posted January 3 Author Report Share Posted January 3 On 12/31/2023 at 9:07 PM, BigNate said: For those following along - we learned some things. ... 2) Swapping out the buffer and spring for the basic rifle buffer and spring from another AR that I brought - had the subsonc rounds cycling nicely with no other changes. Correction to the post above (for the record). I realized that I mis-spoke here. I swapped in a standard CARBINE buffer and spring from another AR15 (not actually a rifle buffer). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
98Z5V Posted January 10 Report Share Posted January 10 Ever since I watched this vid, I've wanted to shoot one of these. You made it clear @BigNate. It's all that, and the bag of chips. How this thing rips through 3 full-size gel blocks, I'll never know, but that's why it just laughed at 3 of the 1gal water jugs, and the 2.5gal jug turned longwise... Love this vid on this caliber. Skip to 10 mins even to see it rip all 3 gel block, straight through, and it's not even a thing... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BigNate Posted February 28 Author Report Share Posted February 28 (edited) OK - a few evolutions since the last post... SilencerCo ASR Break arrived yesterday... Omega 36M is in jail... ( a buddy has a Hybrid 46 with the ASR QD - once I know that the bullets hold together we're going to give it a test...) A couple of extra springs are in the range bag and an adjustable "light" carbine buffer. The first ladder of possible "cheap" subsonic reloads are in a box - waiting for a free evening to see if they'll cycle (recorded here for posterity - in case some poor bastard is going down the same road) 250gr HPBT (Midway USA "factory 2nd" bullets - supposedly SMKs) 16.6gr - 14.8gr of AA1680 (in 10 steps - with 0.2gr increments) which GRT tells me should give me 1103 - 1022 FPS - and . Not worried about blowing myself up - the model says that peak pressure on the "heavy" load should be 13415 PSI - and on the light end just over 10K - but I'm very worried about whether there is enough gas to cycle properly. Converted Hornady 6.5CM brass CCI 200 primers 1.685" case length 2.750" COAL Already planning to swap in an 8" barrel - "soon..." I'm debating whether to pull the brake off of the gun when I put the first few rounds through it. At 1000 FPS the bullet will be spinning just a bit faster than it would be at 2900 FPS out of a 1:10 .338 Lapua... (240K vs 232K)... I doubt that they will have an issue... but it would suck to have one come apart going through the brand new brake.. but I'm lazy... but it would really suck to damage the brake... but I'm "pretty sure..." LOL Edited February 28 by BigNate Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BigNate Posted February 28 Author Report Share Posted February 28 Also - stumbled on this picture of the 350 maker bullets outside of the case and with a ruler for scale... thought the thread needed a copy... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
98Z5V Posted February 29 Report Share Posted February 29 So, Nate... 😍 What are you doing THIS weekend?... @BigNate - we'll be out at the SDTF on Saturday and Sunday... I'm just sayin'... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BigNate Posted February 29 Author Report Share Posted February 29 40 minutes ago, 98Z5V said: So, Nate... 😍 What are you doing THIS weekend?... @BigNate - we'll be out at the SDTF on Saturday and Sunday... I'm just sayin'... I have a wedding on Saturday - but I think Sunday is free…. I’ll ping on Saturday afternoon to confirm… Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
98Z5V Posted February 29 Report Share Posted February 29 1 hour ago, BigNate said: I have a wedding on Saturday - but I think Sunday is free…. I’ll ping on Saturday afternoon to confirm… Right on, brother. I think we have some work to do, so we might be out there into the early afternoon. Ish. Get ahold of me, text most reliable out there if I see it. We;re doing work, and you are more than welcome with the crazy work you're doing... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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