09-28-2021, 12:18 AM
Fail me once, shame on you. Fail me twice shame on me.
Easiest stage of the match on Saturday. Second stage my squad shot, with 5 targets from 205 to 440 - engage near to far off the seat of an old motorcycle from a reverse kneel and then go prone and engage far to near. I get in position and release the bolt and get a misfeed. Pull the charging handle back a bit and ease the round into the chamber. Get on target and just a Click. WTF. Go to yank the charging handle back to cycle in a new round an it won't budge. Take the rifle off the cycle and rest the stock against my thigh for a little leveraged, but it still won't budge. I hear "what's going on?" from the RO. Still nothing. Perhaps not always condoned while on the clock, I crater it three times against my thigh and it finally gives. Only made it through 8 targets in what I had left of the 90 seconds. The last 2 were at 205 and right next to each other and the scope elevation was dialed to them,, so only would have taken a few more seconds. Seriously pissed off to drop 2 on the easiest stage.
Reconstructing events, the bipod was down and the way I set up the position, my support bag was clearly pushing pretty hard on the 20 round Duramag. A misfeed had happened to me once before on the clock when the mag got pushed back, and it's also happened at least once in a practice session. So 2 misfeeds in 5 matches (25 stages) and at least 3 in about 700 rounds. OK, the mag is tilting and causing the misfeed, but it's never happened with any other rifles - including those same mags with Gigi in more matches and about 4k rounds as a 243 LBC.
So I go to measure to see how much the mag lip moves from normal to a full pressure tilt and it's about the same in Rubin and GiGi. And then I do another measurement to find that the barrel extension sits in Rubin's upper receiver 0.025" higher than it does in GiGi. (Rubin is a billet 2A Armament matched set while GiGi is an an old Aero matched set with a monolithic upper). In addition, the BCG channel Rubin's upper is extremely tight - with noticable increased wear on the JP carrier after only a few hundred rounds in it. So I'm guessing with the mag tilted, the round catches on the higher barrel extension and the carrier has extremely limited play to work it's way through the catch and jamola. Tight tolerances are great, but they can be too tight
I dont know why the round didn't fire or why I had to crater it. Probably due to the round getting roughed up. It doesn't matter. It can't happen again. Rubin has been disassembled and GiGi is wearing the 16" Lilja nicely! With 4k on the 243 LBC, it'll go on Rubin for practice duty until it's shot out. It makes more sense to use the lighter rifle for practice anyways. A super light rifle is great and a fun challenge, but it's shortcomings certainly do manifest themselves on speed stages and more precarious props.
Ultimately, I'll probably put a 223 barrel in Rubin. Maybe a 16" light contour JP can be found in the future. Or the Lilja M4 barrel they designed for the Navy Seals. I can't see 223 having the same issue given how much thinner and sleeker the cartridge is. I'm guessing the receiver set is probably even optimized for 223 - I don't think the world that 2A thinks about goes outside of it.
And yes, the bruise on my right thigh has an interesting kaleidoscope of colors.....
Easiest stage of the match on Saturday. Second stage my squad shot, with 5 targets from 205 to 440 - engage near to far off the seat of an old motorcycle from a reverse kneel and then go prone and engage far to near. I get in position and release the bolt and get a misfeed. Pull the charging handle back a bit and ease the round into the chamber. Get on target and just a Click. WTF. Go to yank the charging handle back to cycle in a new round an it won't budge. Take the rifle off the cycle and rest the stock against my thigh for a little leveraged, but it still won't budge. I hear "what's going on?" from the RO. Still nothing. Perhaps not always condoned while on the clock, I crater it three times against my thigh and it finally gives. Only made it through 8 targets in what I had left of the 90 seconds. The last 2 were at 205 and right next to each other and the scope elevation was dialed to them,, so only would have taken a few more seconds. Seriously pissed off to drop 2 on the easiest stage.
Reconstructing events, the bipod was down and the way I set up the position, my support bag was clearly pushing pretty hard on the 20 round Duramag. A misfeed had happened to me once before on the clock when the mag got pushed back, and it's also happened at least once in a practice session. So 2 misfeeds in 5 matches (25 stages) and at least 3 in about 700 rounds. OK, the mag is tilting and causing the misfeed, but it's never happened with any other rifles - including those same mags with Gigi in more matches and about 4k rounds as a 243 LBC.
So I go to measure to see how much the mag lip moves from normal to a full pressure tilt and it's about the same in Rubin and GiGi. And then I do another measurement to find that the barrel extension sits in Rubin's upper receiver 0.025" higher than it does in GiGi. (Rubin is a billet 2A Armament matched set while GiGi is an an old Aero matched set with a monolithic upper). In addition, the BCG channel Rubin's upper is extremely tight - with noticable increased wear on the JP carrier after only a few hundred rounds in it. So I'm guessing with the mag tilted, the round catches on the higher barrel extension and the carrier has extremely limited play to work it's way through the catch and jamola. Tight tolerances are great, but they can be too tight
I dont know why the round didn't fire or why I had to crater it. Probably due to the round getting roughed up. It doesn't matter. It can't happen again. Rubin has been disassembled and GiGi is wearing the 16" Lilja nicely! With 4k on the 243 LBC, it'll go on Rubin for practice duty until it's shot out. It makes more sense to use the lighter rifle for practice anyways. A super light rifle is great and a fun challenge, but it's shortcomings certainly do manifest themselves on speed stages and more precarious props.
Ultimately, I'll probably put a 223 barrel in Rubin. Maybe a 16" light contour JP can be found in the future. Or the Lilja M4 barrel they designed for the Navy Seals. I can't see 223 having the same issue given how much thinner and sleeker the cartridge is. I'm guessing the receiver set is probably even optimized for 223 - I don't think the world that 2A thinks about goes outside of it.
And yes, the bruise on my right thigh has an interesting kaleidoscope of colors.....
#FJB