Ive got a neighbor that is doing Ceracote as a side business, so I had him do an AR for me. I think he does very good work.

Sweet! Good job! How did he do the scope? There is a guy here that wants me to do an AR bright purple for him...

That looks awesome!

Very sharp!

That sure looks nice.

Nice!!!!!

Congrats.

quote:

Originally posted by Tommydogg:
Sweet! Good job! How did he do the scope? There is a guy here that wants me to do an AR bright purple for him...

I believe he used an air cure ceracote since the scope can’t be heated in an oven. I used blue painters tape to mask off the areas I wanted left black.

I think I’ll have him do the grip and a couple mags as well. I’ll pass along the kind words to him.

I'm guessing he used H series on the rest? I have often wondered how colors between different series would match, looks like very well!

Looks great! Doc Savage would be all over that.

One of my favorite Cerakote colors.

Nicely done. I generally don't care much for the non-black ARs, but this is classy.

Have you shot it yet? I had a similar type of AR-15 set up this way -- PRS stock, good optics, long & heavy barrel, round hand guard in carbon fiber. But the hand guard didn't have a good place for a bipod or sling attachment. Furthermore, extended shooting left the barrel much hotter than I wanted, as there is practically no air circulation under such hand guard.

So I dumped the round guard for a more traditional vented one, with attachments for bipod & sling.

quote:

Originally posted by fritz:
Nicely done. I generally don't care much for the non-black ARs, but this is classy.

Have you shot it yet? I had a similar type of AR-15 set up this way -- PRS stock, good optics, long & heavy barrel, round hand guard in carbon fiber. But the hand guard didn't have a good place for a bipod or sling attachment. Furthermore, extended shooting left the barrel much hotter than I wanted, as there is practically no air circulation under such hand guard.

So I dumped the round guard for a more traditional vented one, with attachments for bipod & sling.

I’ve put maybe 150 rounds thru it. No mag dumps or really even very fast. Your probably right about the heat issues with the hanguard.

I never did any mag dumps, just engaged 10 or so steel targets at various distances as rapidly as possible. Essentially training for a PRS-type match under tight time constraints. I think these were the only times that my suppressor cooled quicker than my barrel.

The round handguards do look nice, but I feel heat management is their downside.

I don't have my round count book on me, but suspect I have 3,000+ rounds on this barrel. The beauty of such a heavy barrels is that their POI doesn't change as the barrel temp changes. A downside is that once the barrel gets warm, it stays warm a long time.

What barrel do you have? Have you determined the ammo it likes best yet?

That looks great!

quote:

Originally posted by fritz:

What barrel do you have? Have you determined the ammo it likes best yet?

The barrel is a Wilson Arms. It's stainless but has been thru the salt bath nitride process. It's 24", 1x8 twist chambered in .223 Wylde.

I have yet to determine the best bullet but it shoots 55 grain vmax reasonably well.

That is a very nice build ...your neighbor does do very nice work (I wish I had a neighbor like that )

quote:

Originally posted by badcopnodonut!!:
I have yet to determine the best bullet but it shoots 55 grain vmax reasonably well.

All my barrels shoot 55 Vmax well. With twist rates of 1/9 through 1/7, lengths from 14.5" through 24". I it's one of the best factory loads on the market. Its only downside is the bullet's low BC.

Consider a load with a 69 Sierra Match King bullet. Federal GMM comes to mind first. Now that Federal is pushing newer bullets in its GMM line, the older SMK bullet loads are more reasonably priced. Black Hills, Fiocchi, Copper Creek, and Aussie Outback also offer quality ammo with 69 SMK.

Hornady 75 HPBT Match is a great round in my 1/8 through 1/7 twist barrels. MV is noticeably faster than most 77 SMK loads, so I don't consider 77 SMK ammo anymore. 77 SMK ammo does work quite well in many barrels, however.

Hornady 73 ELD-M works extremely well in a Krieger 1/7.7 twist 223 chamber barrel. I don't get any advantage over 75 HPBT in my 5.56 chamber barrels. Uncertain what it would do in a Wylde chamber.

I'm in the process of evaluating a few boxes of Hornady 68 HPBT. MV is noticeably faster than FGMM 69, although the jury is still out on its accuracy compared to SMK 69 bullets.

I'm seeing lackluster accuracy with loads using Sierra's Tipped Match King (TMK) bullets. I've heard the TMK bullets require a lot of futzing with handloads to make them work in many barrels.

HSM makes some good match ammo. Pass on the Hornady/Frontier line -- very consistent MVs, but inconsistent accuracy.

Your Wylde chamber will accept 5.56 ammo. I have not found 5.56 match ammo that shoots as well it their 223 ammo counterparts. The additional MV of the 5.56 ammo is nice, but not it if comes with the price of inferior accuracy.

Fritz, thank you for all the advice. Since I load my own, I'll try out your recommendations when it cools off a bit. It's too damn hot to have any fun shooting right now.

The man with the (kinda) golden gun. Very sharp looking indeed.

quote:

Originally posted by badcopnodonut!!:
Fritz, thank you for all the advice. Since I load my own, I'll try out your recommendations when it cools off a bit. It's too damn hot to have any fun shooting right now.

Hot? Well there's the perfect rifle match for you -- Aug. 17-19 Heatstroke Open in Oklahoma. Leave your down-filled jacket at home.

With hand loads you may be able to take advantage of the newer, heavier bullets. Based on my experience with factory loads, and from discussing load issues with others, I suspect bullets like Sierra's TMK don't tolerate a lot of jump. This also means one may have to change AOL in order to chase the lands as the barrel throat erodes.

The advantage of older bullet designs is that they seem to work well in so many barrels, even after the throat erosion is beginning to take its toll on the barrel. Like Vmax 55 and SMK 69. Maybe also SMK 77 and Hornady HPBT 75. I know that my last barrel shot these bullets well until the accuracy took a sudden nose dive. The 'smith who pulled that Wilson Combat SS barrel stated the throat definitely showed some wear.