Went to the local indoor gun range today. Got their early and had my plans foiled: the range wasn’t open yet. Last night they had a lot of welding and rebuilding going on. They redid all the target rails. They are more heavy duty, no more wobble. Everything was tight and solid. The welders were finishing up so the range opened up a little late, but it was worth it.

What was the reason for the range trip? I got my Aimpoint CompM4s. Had to get it mounted and zeroed.

Everything was to be zeroed at 50 yards. This is part of that Revised Improved Battlesight Zero. With the irons I could only do so much since the rear is just a flip-up BUIS so no elevation adjustment, and of course the Aimpoint is a different beast. But the key was using a 50 yard zero, thus giving me that “ideal battlesight trajectory” from 0 to 200-250 yards.

I started with irons and some 55gr. FMJ Georgia Arms Canned Heat. Ensured things were on paper, then turned to Hornady TAP FPD .223 Rem 75gr.. A few adjustments and things were looking as good as my eyes would get them. Once that was all set, I put the Aimpoint on. I’m using their QRP2 mount, with the spacer. It’s certainly good enough. Yeah, a Larue mount would be cool, but that’s more money I don’t want to spend right now. Aimpoint’s is good enough.  I repeated the same process, starting with the 55gr. FMJ. The Aimpoint was close to zeroed from the factory, shooting about 1.5″ left and a hair high. I didn’t bother adjusting the scope with the FMJ rounds since they were on paper and close enough. Put in the TAP, a bunch of tweaking, and she’s about as good as I’ll get. I say that because with that 2 MOA dot, there’s only so accurate you can get. I did try a few things to help, like turning the brightness down as low as I could get, which helped. Usually I use one of their fluorescent red sight-in targets, but I thought maybe black would allow the dot to show up better. It didn’t really, plus it made it harder to see my holes. So back to the red targets. And overall the grouping and accuracy was good given the limits of the system I was working with.

I’m pleased with most things. But yes, most.

I noticed a lot of the holes in the target weren’t clean round holes. Were the bullets keyholing? Possible. I’d need to shoot at 100 yards but didn’t have enough time or ammo today to try. I think those 75 grain TAP bullets might be pushing the limits of the 1:9 twist of this barrel. But the interesting thing was I also noticed the 55gr. bullets were making similar holes. Nothing was a full-profile keyhole, just you might notice a little “tearing” on one side of the target more than the other. I’m not sure. The target was also moving some due to the air circulation system, maybe that. I need more research.

Bottom line: I’m happy with things. I really like the Aimpoint. Both eyes open, point and click. Just put the dot on what you want to shoot and press the trigger. So nice.

I also rotated my carry ammo, shooting what I had on me and replacing it with new stuff. Boy, you go from shooting plinker reloads to shooting 124gr. +P, and it sure feels different in your hands. 🙂