Got Juice?

Worst money I spend was on the Strike Eagle. Nobody likes to waste money, or make a bad decision, but I fell into the marketing, lost sight of what the main use of the gun was, and seduced by low price. 6x for under 500.00.... wow... at least I only lost 100 bucks when i sold it, so the lesson was not too expensive. I did look at Vortex's high end AR scope but what a heavy lump. Glass and reticle were good, but you need a bowflex to drive the gun due to the weight. But a fine optic other than that. But overall, I am liking the SFP scopes. FFP belongs on my precision rifles, and varminting rigs. The reticle is just too darn small at 1x, and the horseshoe reticles that are lit to compensate for that are a little too flare-y for my liking.

I am a MOA fan, but decided to try out Mils on this one. While Mils is a little coarser in nature, for an AR, and limited power optic, I felt was best solution. Of course, I also had to install my Trigger Tech trigger at the same time, and should be slapped... too many changes to the gun takes getting used to. But now that my trigger memory has adjusted, I am spending more time being critical of the whole platform, and the scope. It is very much to my liking. Even though the Danish SF Spec Colt IUR is a little, heavy, double taps are confidence inspiring.

Having run some 3 gun with the following optics here is my .02 1. Strike Eagle. SFP 1-6 PASS.... terrible fisheye at 1x Reticle is hard to focus without slightly blurring the reticle Terrible Tracking (failed box test) (my eyes are 20/20 x 20/15 so vision is not the issue) FOV is pretty good, if blurry as heck. Heavy like a battleship 3.5/10 2. Vortex TCMQ SFP 1-4 OK glass, cluttered reticle, not true 1x, expensive for what it is and does, limited mag Great Tracking 6.5/10 3. Nightforce NXS SFP 1-4 Finally. Good glass without chromatic aberrations, CLEAR reticle, expensive, limited mag. GREAT TRACKIng!! barely gets a 7/10 because of cost. 3. Bushnell SMRS 1-6 FFP Decent Glass. Some chromatic issues at edges, not true 1x, more like 1.2x Decent mag (can even get it in 1-8) good tracking, smushy turret clicks, again, a little spendy for what you get. DID NOT LIKE FFP!!!! Reticle disappears in cqb stages!!! FOV is a little narrow . Heavy. 7.5/10 4. Sightron 1-7 SFP. Finally. An alternative to Swarovski without donating a kidney!! GREAT GLASS!!! Really Great Glass!!! No Chromatic or Aspherical distortions at all. True 1x, CLEAR glass etched reticle!! Red Dot in center does not flare like other reticles on ''torch'' mode. Some may or may not like that. Good turret clicks, i personally do not care for the non-tool less turret resets though. Great Tracking, Excellent field of view. Not as heavy as the Strike Eagle. If you love the Swaro, but can't stomach the cost, this one is for you!! 9.5/10 5. Swarovski 1-6 Not much can be added. 14' (120 vs 106') Wider FOV than the Sightron, slightly better finish. Glass is 2nd to Sightron in my opinion in terms of contrast. But both are excellent. Picking one over the other is budget dependant. Lighter in weight than the Sightron, tracking is Great, Turret Clicks are Great, Illumination is a little stronger than the Sightron, Great reticle, this is truly the benchmark of everything I have tried, and run to date. If money is no object, look no further, Swarovski has your optic. 10/10 6. Bushnell AR SFP 1-4x Solid Glass, Reticle is painted in, so it is way to thick for 3 gun over 125yds imho. Clicks are smushy, tracking is not too bad. Decent FOV, very light weight. Coatings on glass are not premium (but then neither is the price of this piece) Love the lightness!!! Really like it. slight chromatic distortions at edges, but nothing major. Other than being down in power, I would take this over the Strike Eagle in a heartbeat. 5.5/10 In the end I sold my Swaro to run the Sightron. Mainly because of the reticle, and a preference to the glass in the Sightron. Budget was another reason. For a given level of high performance, is the Swaro 2.5 times better than the Sightron? No it is not. It is at best 10-15% better in my opinion. And I can afford to equip 2 rifles with the Sightron, and still have money left over for more ammunition. There are other solid choices out there, and as 3 gun gets bigger, competition will no doubt improve the breed.

Tried one. FFP and CQB/3Gun don't mix well in my opinion. FFP Reticles are way to small even when lit for close quarters 3 gun work. On farther targets FFP is nice for drift/drop, but we are not shooting 600 yard varmints. IMHO FFP reticles are great for varmint guns, and other precision guns, but are a waste on a 3 gun AR, and slow to acquire. I have played with a SWARO and a SIGHTRON. Second Focal Plane, Red Lighting, 1:8 zoom, thin reticle subtensions, make for a very user friendly scope. Tried the Vortex Strike Eagle. Not my thing. Reticle was blooming a little much at high intensity in daylight, subtensions too thick... and murderously heavy. If I had to make a choice, I would look my bank account Then find a Burris, Sightron, Swaro that I could afford.

Same ugly reticle thickness issues as the Bushnell though.

I have the non PCL Version in 1-4x. Pros, great CQB Reticle, accessible WE Knobs, easy to use, well marked, inexpensive. Decent Glass Cons: Reticle too thick for accuracy over 150m, fails the box test (only by a little) Glass flashes in oblique angle sunlight Will be upgrading to a SIGHTRON 1-7x soon.

It does tend to flash a little bit. Smooth as glass though

15.6gn H110 and 124gn Berrys... 180 pf....

But it IS addictive.... the blast, the smell of H110, the RO's uttering blue verbose with each stroke of the bang switch....

This stuff works great Mopar Combustion Chamber Cleaner http://www.amazon.com/Genuine-Chrysler-Accessories-4318001AD-Combustion/dp/B00BV4D97K

30lb Mainspring, 5-7 variable recoil spring. 5.8gn Titegroup, 180gn Berrys. 200PF and shoots nice and soft.

What Division of 3 Gun would the DP12 be legal for? If at all?

New blaster is done. Simple and clean. I'll follow up once I get some ammunition loaded for testing.

My new blaster is almost done . I can't wait

It's good training to set your CED timer to random delay. It prevents 'creeping', and sharpens up your expectation of a short or long beep. Great training tool

I shoot .40 Major from my Apeiro. 197 Pf. Soft as a kitten to shoot (resprung the main spring and recoil spring to compensate) I never worry about making PF anymore. Although the RO's do look at me funny after finishing a CoF

Slower. So much will depend on the tightness of chamber, and mainspring an recoil spring rates. More dwell time of the barrel will also influence the pressure curve. Internal ballistics. There is only so much time a powder can burn And propel a bullet down a 5" barrel.

Let the good times roll. I received my CAPE mag bases for all of my mags today! They sure look and work great. Fit and finish is superb, and the gun fits perfectly into the IPSC box! I also purchased a small bottle of gunbutter oil and grease just to try out. I love my gun! (will the addiction never cease?)

Threadsurrection time. I found a new Titegroup loading that my gun just loves (and so do I) Measuring a Vomit-inducing 197 PF, it's enough to make an RO wish he double plugged, but oh well. 180gn Berry's 5.2 TG, CCI SRP's OAL of 1.152 What a laser, and smooooooth. After some Border gaurds saw mw shoot, they snubbed IPSC rounds as 'target ammo'. They saw how smooth the gun was and they assumed (wrongly) that they were powder puff loads. So, I let them shoot my gun. That only served to reinforce their misconception as it is so smooth to shoot. So I did the only thing I could think of to prove that IPSC/USPSA are anything but weak. I had them choose a mag off my belt, and we loaded 10 rounds in their S&W MP. Wow. The results were dramatic. The first round fired through their pistol and the officer said a bad F word. Then I tried my loading in his gun. OUCH! Poor thing felt like it was going to kersplode. He suggested that we not shoot another round like that through his gun. Yep.... ULASC time.

The Berry's and Titegroup is a winning combo

If you were to cut down rifle cases wouldn't a .204 Ruger be a better choice than .223? (or the parent case .222)

My current fav. Mophie Juicebox Pro. I love the xtra battery life.

Another side note/observation. I can make major PF in my Aperio with 4.7gn titegroup under a 180gn Berry's. But the gun behaves like total crap. Snappy recoil, bad slide dynamics etc. Load development led me to increase my charge to 5.2gn. Now the gun settles inbetween shots perfectly. Counter intuitive that more powder will smooth out a recoil impulse but it does. 197PF. What happens with this 'hot' load is the powder burn rate does not change, but the available case volume for the expanding gas volume is less(and slows down the expansion cycle). This creates a condition where the expanding gasses do not overcome crimp as easily since there is less initial 'free space' in the cartridge fir the gas to exert pressure on. A good analogy is to exert a force of 5lbs of force on your friends nose with your fist for 5 minutes. No damage will be done. Now change the equation. Apply the total force excerted on your friends nose over the last 5 minutes, but decrease the time used to deliver the force to 1 second......you'll break his nose.

Internal ballistics. Once the gas pressure from the burning powder overcomes the crimp holding the bullet in the brass and propels the bullet out of the case mouth, any excess powder is no longer in a confined burning area. It will continue to burn slightly down the bore of the pistol, and some half burned flakes is evidence that is happening (and wasted).