raz-0

Just to correct/expand on some of slav's stuff. 1) yes there are stands. No it's not "any" distance. Too close and they will cause you to hit the floor or ceiling even when you don't miss if you are the right height. IIRC we ahve markings out for them up to 21 or 25 feet. 2) Yes, the outdoor range is rented month by month. Yes, the developer was in court with the town. Bad news is he won over a year ago, and can build residential units on it. "Good" news is that the federal govenrment odnated the adjacent lots to old bridge in an attempt to stick the township with costs associated with the land. "Bad" news is that OB did a study of the contamination, and the ground is polluted badly. "Good" news is that between that, the recession, and having to clean up the dirt form being a shooting range, the land owner has not yet chosen to develop anything on it. Also, if he wants to build an access road to the land, he either has to be granted an easement on the old bridge owned property, and they don't like him. Build it on the side we already have an access "road", which has a natural gas pipeline running the length, or get an easement from one of the other residential developments already built on the other sides (i.e. knock down someone else's construction). 3) pit/range availability. Weekdays the outdoors is deserted. Weekends it is pretty busy. The indoors is empty most hours during the week. We are in the process of trying to make it more clear what is accessible when, but it is a work in progress during people's copious free time. I don't think you will see anything for running targets out and back on the indoor range ever. This is due to the age of the range, and building code at the time. It allowed the place to be built short, and with a slope to it. Because of this, installing anything below the armored baffles means you would effectively make it so nobody could move freely down range. Between that and the expense, it is unlikely to happen. The OBRPC indoor range does not allow centerfire rifle. Not sure you are referring to access to the outdoor range or not, just trying to be clear.

How does the state based layer prevent that? Knowing people in NJ who have had to deal with that crap, I can tell you it doesn't.

OK, my $0.02 on the original build list. SPikes billet upper and lower are as good as any other, but WHY? Once you take out looking cool, the only reason for a billet upper is precision, and you get that by having it be more rigid and being machined to tight tolerances with true faces and concentric openings. Which is all well and good, but you then pair it with a 14.5" barrel. Which basically means an m-4 style fake. Which has to be 16" long in the end anyway. The only reason for a billet lower is... well to look cool, or for a really nice match to your billet upper. Yeah, you can get a flared mag well, but an arredondo mag well has a bigger opening than any of the billet lowers I have run into. So do you want light, or accurate. For light, I'd go with a good forged upper and lower with tension screw from any good manufacturer (firebird are good and reasonably priced, but there are many out there). For accurate, I'd go for any of the tons of matched billet uppers and lowers. For a compromise, whcih is what I actually did for my own, I'd get a decent forged lower with a tension screw, and I'd get something like the rainier arms billet upper. It's almost as light as a forged upper, but it is very well machined and not insanely priced. Then there's the barrel. Why 14.5"? You lose velocity and accuracy. Most 14.5" barrels are cut like an m-4, which means the grenade launcher cut, which is something nobody persuing accuracy would do to a barrel. So why not just a light 16" barrel? Additionally, with a 16" you can go for a mid-length gas system, whcih will help mellow out recoil This will help with accuracy and speed on follow up shots. Battlecomp 1.5 - the emphasis on these are making the noise go forward rather than being a comp. In my experience, unless you are near walls, it doesn't matter that much and I'd jsut get a comp. If you want something short on your 16" to keep overall length short, the nordic components tactical comp is short and pretty damn effective for it's size. It's also only $35. Piston system - just don't bother. The biggest problem with the AR platform for reliability is the fact that the dust cover doesn't close itself, and crap can get in. I've shot a lot of wolf through my gun, which isn't very clean, and 1200 rounds without a cleaning caused no issue, and wasn't even that hard to de-crapify after the fact. Spikes MP tested bolt assembly. It's GTG if you believe spikes is actually doing what they say regarding testing. There's a giant pissing contest over that form various makers right now. but a HPT/MPI bolt carrier group is a good thing. Mil-spec trigger. Good god no. Just no. If you were building a bargain basement gun sure. Something like the Geissele Super Semi-Automatic is a good reliable trigger for the money. Pinned CTR stock. I'm not a fan of pinning collapsible stocks. Because at that point you have a fixed stock, and if I'm going to ahve a fixed stock anyway, I have to ask what I am compromising on. First, I could just go with a rifle length tube and buffer. What would I get for this? 1 - no messing around with buffer weight guessing. The rifle length buffer is heavier than the carbines, and will absorb a harsh gas impulse. The spring is less beefy and longer, which means a more gradual return to battery. Go midlength gas system and rifle length buffer assembly, and you ahve a NJ compliant carbine with a rifle like recoil impulse. Wieght with arfx stock and rifle assembly is about 19.02 ounces. A ctr with carbine H2 assembly is 18.36 ounces. It's very close in weight. The only reason I'd even consider a pinned stock is if I were going to seriously commit to practicing with a sling and wanted to use something like the magpul ASAP. 7" lite rail. Go midlength on the gas system, and get a midlenght or full length rail. I recommend full length. If you brace it in a port, you want to be able to avoid burying yourself in the port, and you want to not use the abrrel to brace the rifle, but the free floated forearm. This reasoning is why you see a mess of dissipator style builds, and a lot of backup iron front sights are set up to be mounted on a forearm rather than on a gas block. BCM gunfighter medium chagring handle. Big yes on this. An awesome part worth every penny. MIAD grip is good, so are others. If you have big hands, MIAD is probably the best fit when set up right, and has decent storage that stays securely closed.

Also, all old bridge matches are open to the public. So if you want to actually shoot an event, you don't have to be a member, you can just show up with your gear and entry fee. Most disciplines don't have an issue with you observing, but you need to bring ear and eye protection. Part of the reason why OBRPC makes people participate and observe is that we are a competition heavy club. If you don't like participating, you are going to find a lot of prime time on the ranges taken up by competition. The outdoor range is largely booked for a good chunk of Saturday and Sunday, and the indoor range is booked several nights a week. The outdoor range on weekdays, and late nights at the indoors are pretty vacant though. You'll be lucky to ever see more than 4 or 5 people max.

Ugh.. When I said you can get an ar-10 that will hold MOA out to 100 yards at the end, I meant 1000 yards. If only I was typing what I thought I was typing, I'd get a lot more done in a day.

I took them myself. When I said I was doing their galleries, I meant from click to display. I was surprised how useful my 10-17 fisheye lens was for something that is regarded by many as a gimmick. It really let me stick the camera in places I couldn't otherwise.

Honestly, it ddepends on the gun and what you ahd done to it. You can make a VERY accurate ar-10. But out of the box, cheaper bolt actions will beat them. Take for example my ar-10 A4 vs my CZ-550 varmint out of the box. AR-10: 1-11 twist rate on a 20" H-BAR contour barrel with a recoil check, 8lb gritty creepy trigger. Best I could do wiht it was about 2 moa at 100 yards and was fighting it all the way. With decent ammo, I could pick off clays fairly quickly at 100 yards as it stays on target pretty well. Got it for $900 ($1077 adjusted for inflation to the year of the cz purchase). CZ-550: 1-12 twist rate on a 26" barrel, pillar bedded, single set trigget that breaks at 5.5lbs normal, 2lb set, has a fair amount of non-gritty creep in the normal mode. "free floated" barrel was not really free floated. About 1 MOA out of the box. Cost me about $725 delivered. AR-10 modifications: accuracy speaks adjustable butt pad, JP-rifles trigger which has to use heavy springs to not have light strikes, but is a nice clean crips 5lbs with little pre-travel or overtravel. new grips. Total outlay, about $275. Shoots basically the same, but is slightly less hassle to do so. It NEEDS a float tube if I want more out of it. That's probably going to run me about $400 all said and done. It also needs a different trigger more suited to the needs of the AR-10. Which basically means either a RRA 2-stage modified by someone who knows what they are doing for about $160, or a knight's 2-stage for about $320. I believe timney has a new one that deals with hammer mass in what looks like a sane manner. It's about $250. CZ-550: redid the pillar bedding and also bedded it with dev-con steelbed. Adjusted the factory trigger, and get 3.5lbs normal mode, and 9oz set mode. Barrel is now actually free floated. Now groups about .75 MOA, and I'm definitely the limiting factor there. Total cost, about $50. If you go for a AR pattern .308, I'd go with DPMS, it is the best bang for the buck in that area. Stay away form their sportical though as you really do want it free floated. If you want more than that, I'd just get one custom built. You can get an ar-10 that will hold MOA out to about 1000 yards. Of course you need to start with an ar-10, and add about $5000 to it in gunsmithing and parts. There are only a couple gunsmiths that will do it with any kind of guarantee, and you will have to WAIT. A lot. You want a bad ass 100 yard bolt-action, you can buy ready buiilt guns form a dozen manufacturers or smiths, and likely save 1-2 thousand on the price tag. [ET]

The only one I know is doing it are the world class steel folks. I know because I'm doing their galleries. Downrange photography that isn't the same thing over and over and over again is a huge PITA. We recently put on a pro-am match, which was actually pretty good for getting some more interesting shots. gallery is here: http://www.worldclasssteel.com/gallery/2009EastCoastPro-Am