Leupold VX-R Patrol 3-9x40mm and Mark 4 30mm high rings for the M14 EBR

I've bought and sold Leupold Mark 4 rings in the past, but this was the first time I coughed up for brand new ones and it was a bit hard to swallow, lol!  That being said though, these are damn fine scope rings and I needed them to complete a certain look I was after.  

I understand that my M14 EBR is pretty far from a proper Mk14 Mod 0 clone, but one thing that has always sort of bothered me was my choice in glass.  I can't bring myself to spend $1,900 on a second focal plane MOA scope (Leupold Mark 4), but at the same time, I can't afford to keep a Steiner T5Xi on there either.  I settled for a Bushnell Tactical 5-15x40mm, miildot reticle with 1/4 MOA adjustments.  

It's not a bad scope at all, and was one of my first half-decent scopes, but I've gotten used to scopes in first focal plane, or at the very least scopes with a mil-based reticle with mil adjustments.  

The Bushnell also has a peculiar object paralax adjustment which is something that has been sort of getting on my nerves.

I also wasn't 100% sure on the Weaver Tactical rings.  You can see the ring tops flex if you don't crank them down evenly, and I also found the rings themselves scratch and even get gouged pretty easily.  This didn't exactly instill confidence considering the M14 has been known to be rough on scopes, let alone soft aluminum rings.

Also, if you look at the ring mount keeper screws/nuts, the front one in particular, there wasn't enough clearance to tighten the nut.  The nut would actually hit the ARMS base with every turn.  Not the manufacturer's fault in this case as it just simply wasn't designed for this base in particular, but the material would scrape away with every turn and would probably end up rounded out if I did it often enough.

The scope base is an ARMS unit, and I think these are made of steel.

The Leupold rings fit like a glove to the ARMS base, and the keeper screw easily cleared the base.

Leupold called for 65in/lbs, but when I took the pic, I had it adjusted to 45in/lbs.  I did torque it down properly later on.

So, I know I said I currently prefer first focal plane scopes, and the VX-R Patrol 3-9x40mm is clearly a second focal plane scope, but I wasn't about to buy another Steiner for my M14.  This Patrol came from my Mk12 Mod 1 clone (I got new glass for my Mk12 Mod 1) and I hope the elevation adjustment has good tracking so I won't have to rely on reading the reticle for shot adjustments (either that or keep it at 9x magnification when shooting or ranging).

Anyway, far from being clone correct, but I think it's a step in the right direction and probably a far better scope than the one it replaced.  I would liked to have gotten another Steiner T5Xi 5-25x56mm for the M14, but I'm not sure if the rifle itself warrants premium glass like the Steiner.

Looking forward to taking it the rifle out one of these days and see how she groups.  I've had it for years and still haven't shot groups with it yet, lol!

Remington 700 Barrelled Action in 6.5cm

It seems like 6.5 Creedmore has been all the rage since it came out.  To be honest and since I don’t reload, I don’t know much about which round has the best ballistics and why, all I know is I have several friends who now own rifles in 6.5cm and they are able to get rounds on target with a lot less effort than with their .308s.  I have experienced some shooting with their rifles, and I more or less have to agree with them, this round seems to work very well.

I sort of resisted for a long time since 6.5cm ammo seemed hard to get when they first got into it, and I already had too many rifles in too many calibres, which made things difficult when choosing what to bring on those long range trips (I know, first world problems).  But the idea of getting into one has been creeping into my mind ever since my buddies Colin and Alex got theirs.

The seed was planted when I sold one of my other rifles and ended up with a spare Bushnell XRS.  Then Alex showed me a great deal on an AICS 2.0 Folding so I couldn’t pass that up.  I was thinking about using it for my 700p, but I already have a custom 700 in .308 so building another .308 in a chassis would be redundant.  I decided to leave the 700p in the factory HS stock and keep it the way it is and as a result, the AICS ended up in my spare parts bin, nearly forgotten.

What pushed me over the edge was a post I saw in the middle of July from Wanstalls.  They said they would be bringing in Remington 700 barreled actions in 6.5cm and .308 for $749.  The 6.5cm would be a 1:8^th twist 24” threaded barrel and the .308 would be a 1:10 twist 20” threaded barrel.  Both would also come with the X-Mark Pro externally adjust able trigger.  I remember a few months ago, my pals Alex and Jay picked up Remington Stainless actions, no barrel or trigger, for about $650 or so (the plain black oxide finish was about $50 less) so I thought the deal from Wanstalls was a good one.  

My pal Hermes from Reliable Gun said he could do better, so a few of us decided to do the pre order through him.  At the beginning of September, Northpro posted that they would also be bringing in these barrelled actions, but they posted a picture of the product with a one piece picatinny scope mount for $647.  We knew we still had a better deal through Reliable, so I stuck with the original pre order.

These came in last week, but I only got around to posting this now.  It looks like these were distributed from Gravel Agency and they were fairly well packed, but no markings from Remington anywhere on the box, no manual, no extras of any kind, just really good bubble wrap.

The barrelled action was fairly clean, devoid of any packing grease, or oil.  It was blemish free, which seems to be a plus these days so really nothing to complain about.

The rail appears to be a 20moa rail, but maybe it’s just my eyes.  To me, it does appear to have a cant, but I could be wrong.

The trigger however, is not an X Mark Pro externally adjustable trigger.  I’m not that familiar with factory Remington triggers, but my pal told me this was definitely not an X Mark Pro because there was no place to adjust it externally?  I have no idea, more on this later.

The 24” 6.5cm barrel was threaded for a muzzle device and came with a nice thread protector.

The bolt was actually pretty stiff and hard to work up and down compared to my other 700s, but it will work itself in eventually.  There didn’t seem to be much slop, if any, when working the bolt back and forth.

A pic of the rail.  It didn’t seem like it was of poor quality, it seemed decent.  I don’t think I will need to replace it with a $200 all steel Nightforce or Badger Ordinance one.  

The trigger pull was horrendous, lol!  It felt like it was 6.5lbs, but the scale said it was 5.5lbs.  All of my other 700s had either Timney or Triggertech triggers, so I’ve never actually tried a factory Remington trigger that was right out of the box.  When I got my 700p, I don’t even recall it being this bad.  Anyway, I was tossing around the idea of picking up a Timney Calvin Elite, adjustable down to 8 ounces, or maybe an inexpensive Triggertech trigger, but since I had the Remington unit here, I decided to youtube how to adjust the factory trigger.  

  

Against the opinion of most gunsmiths, and the warning of most videos about adjusting the factory trigger and voiding warranty, I did it anyway.  It was a fairly simple matter of scraping away the glue from the front of the trigger that Remington plops on top of the allen screw that adjusts the weight of the trigger.  Most videos suggest turning small increments at a time, reinstalling the rifle into the stock (if this was the X Mark Pro, I should have access to it while installed in the stock right?), and doing the drop test (cock the rifle, drop the rifle on the butt stock and see if it sets off the trigger).

I skipped all that nonsense and adjusted it until I was satisfied with the trigger pull (1.5lbs).  I figure it is unlikely that I will use this rifle for anything other than target shooting, in which case I single feed when I’m ready to shoot.  I know, most of my rifles are in chassis and mag fed, but it’s just my habit.   

A collection of the parts from my spare parts bin and the barrelled action.  My buddy Alex coerced me into trading my American Defense AD-RECON-SL mount for his AI unimount, but as I was not running a flat top on this set up, I wanted to get some lower rings.  He was nice enough to give me a spare set of Mark 4 rings he had laying around so I threw those on my XRS.

After assembly, I did the drop test, a few times with the safey on, and a few times with the safety off, and it seems to have passed the test with the trigger set at 1.5lbs.

Anyway, I’m really looking forward to testing out this new build.  It’s heavy as expected, and the ergos on that AI stock are pretty nice.  The stock folds solidly to save space when needed, it’s built around a full length aluminum chassis and the barrel channel is HUGE so it should free float even a straight taper barrel.  The comb is adjustable with an allen key (I think there’s an adjustment knob you can buy that replaces the allen key) and there is no adjustment for length of pull unless you buy the spacers.  There are sling loop on both sides of the stock, and if you don’t have the AI bipod mount, you can still use the bottom sling swivel for a standard Harris type bipod, which is what I’ve done.

It’s an older design, so it has some limitations compared to what’s out there now, but over all I’m pretty happy with it, and ever since I played Counter Strike years ago, I’ve always wanted the AWP, hahaha!

I ordered some Hornady Match 6.5cm 147gr ELD Match because they had a 12% off sale.  Let’s see how she does.