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CMMG Barrel and Federal American Eagle .223 Horrible Groups ??
Yesterday I had a new VTAC -Troy Extreme Rail installed on my Middy and me and a buddy headed to the range to Zero my NightForce 1-4-24 NSX. I started with Federal American Eagle .223 55 grain ammo at 100 yards and it took forever to get on paper...Approx 25 rounds. I started to get frustrated so we dropped back to 50 yards and I couldn't get the gun to group at all. I started to get frustrated and decided to change ammo and went with PMC .223 Bronze and the 1st 3 shots at 50 yards damn near made 1 ragged hole.:confused:. I went back to the Federal and again the groups barely stayed on paper.
My Upper was built by Robb Jensen:neo: and has always been rock solid and I have never had problems with accuracy. The crazy think is that my buddy was zeroing his ACOG mounted on his 20" AR with a CMMG barrel and he had the exact same issue. I had my 12.5 BCM SBR with me and the American Eagle was fine so I'm baffled...
Could the CMMG Barrel / American Eagle ammo just be a bad combination? :confused:
BTW : Robb makes some bad ass Uppers. :D
Pretty strange since they are both 55gr. Did your buddy also shoot the Federal AE through his CMMG barrel?
FWIW- CMMG is not the epitomy of quality. But I would think that you could still get some decent groups. I guess you need to accept that it will not shoot Federal AE ammo so you will need to look at something else.
CMMG Barrel and Federal American Eagle .223 Horrible Groups ??
Yesterday I had a new VTAC -Troy Extreme Rail installed on my Middy and me and a buddy headed to the range to Zero my NightForce 1-4-24 NSX. I started with Federal American Eagle .223 55 grain ammo at 100 yards and it took forever to get on paper...Approx 25 rounds. I started to get frustrated so we dropped back to 50 yards and I couldn't get the gun to group at all. I started to get frustrated and decided to change ammo and went with PMC .223 Bronze and the 1st 3 shots at 50 yards damn near made 1 ragged hole.:confused:. I went back to the Federal and again the groups barely stayed on paper.
My Upper was built by Robb Jensen:neo: and has always been rock solid and I have never had problems with accuracy. The crazy think is that my buddy was zeroing his ACOG mounted on his 20" AR with a CMMG barrel and he had the exact same issue. I had my 12.5 BCM SBR with me and the American Eagle was fine so I'm baffled...
Could the CMMG Barrel / American Eagle ammo just be a bad combination? :confused:
BTW : Robb makes some bad ass Uppers. :D
The Upper is about 3 years old and I have never had an issue shooting decent groups. I'm aware that CMMG is not a top end barrel and I got what I paid for. This gun was built for training and shooting the shit out of so I'm extremely happy with it.
My Buddy tried the American Eagle and had the same issues so it was pretty weird.
I'll just avoid shooting the AE with this set up and roll with it.
Thanks for the feedback
I have a CMMG 20 in. that did 5 shots of my reloads (75g Hor, 23.5g AA2520) into less than 2 in at 200 yards. 55g Hor did about 1.5 in at 100 yds. Fed XM193 did about 7 in at 200 yds. It sounds like something is wrong with that batch of ammo. Did you tear down a few rounds, and look them over?
Tom....
what doesn't make sence is that my BCM 12.5 shot fine with the AE :confused:
Dos Cylindros
07-04-11, 10:01
Tom....
what doesn't make sence is that my BCM 12.5 shot fine with the AE :confused:
Did you install your new rail? Did Rob, or somebody else? Perhaps something is wrong in that department. I admit that does not make sense due to the fact that you say the other round grouped perfectally.
JeepDriver installed the new rail.... He knows what he's doing and the rail is installed correctly.
with PMC the gun was grouping nicely.:D
I was thinking the same thing. If the ammo was wonky, your 12,5" wouldn't have shot good either. I am somewhat stumped. Have you double checked your scope and mount?
Tom....
what doesn't make sence is that my BCM 12.5 shot fine with the AE :confused:
I'm thinking you might have a tolerance stacking prob. Maybe some of the bullets are .0005 under, and the barrel is .0005 over. The BCM being at or maybe even a hair under spec. No easy way to measure the barrel, but you still might check the bullets. In another post I mentioned a fellow's FN SCAR (pretty new) keyholing at 20 ft. about 1 out of 3 rounds using Montana Gold 55's. It was fine with some Fed 55's from Walmart. I suspected the bullets were undersized.
If this is the .223 in the black box, I too have had problems with groups. I haven't shot it out of an AR but out of my bolt gun it would not group at 100. Changed to WWB and the rifle shot about .50-.75 MOA. Went back to black box and it looked like Ray Charles used a shotgun.
The black box 5.56 has shot well in all ARs but my bolt gun is chambered in .223 so I haven't tried it.
I went to the range again today and hung 4 targets at the 50 yard line and did 5 shot groups with 4 different kinds of ammo.
American Eagle .223 Red Box 55 grain , PMC Bronze 55 grain , Federal M193F and PMC X-Tac M855 62 grain.
All of the ammo shot 1MOA Groups EXCEPT the AE .223 Red Box.
I also did the same 5 round groups with all 4 types of ammo with my Knights SR-15 and all ammo grouped at 1MOA.
My CMMG Barrel doesn't do well with the AE Red box :confused:
as a matter of reference the rifle with the CMMG Barrel has a Night Force 1-4x24 NSX and the Nights SR-15 has a Aimpoint T-1..... Obviously a superior barrel goes a long way.
arizona98tj
07-10-11, 22:06
I went to the range again today and hung 4 targets at the 50 yard line and did 5 shot groups with 4 different kinds of ammo.
American Eagle .223 Red Box 55 grain , PMC Bronze 55 grain , Federal M193F and PMC X-Tac M855 62 grain.
All of the ammo shot 1MOA Groups EXCEPT the AE .223 Red Box.
I also did the same 5 round groups with all 4 types of ammo with my Knights SR-15 and all ammo grouped at 1MOA.
My CMMG Barrel doesn't do well with the AE Red box :confused:
as a matter of reference the rifle with the CMMG Barrel has a Night Force 1-4x24 NSX and the Nights SR-15 has a Aimpoint T-1..... Obviously a superior barrel goes a long way.
OK, so 3 out of the 4 produced five round 1/2" groups at 50 yds.
How bad was the red box AE ammo?
Couldn't get it to consistently group.... 2- 3 " ? it was bad enough to post my previous finding.
It shot fine with my 12.5BCM and my 16" KA SR-15
I went to the range again today and hung 4 targets at the 50 yard line and did 5 shot groups with 4 different kinds of ammo.
American Eagle .223 Red Box 55 grain , PMC Bronze 55 grain , Federal M193F and PMC X-Tac M855 62 grain.
All of the ammo shot 1MOA Groups EXCEPT the AE .223 Red Box.
I also did the same 5 round groups with all 4 types of ammo with my Knights SR-15 and all ammo grouped at 1MOA.
My CMMG Barrel doesn't do well with the AE Red box :confused:
as a matter of reference the rifle with the CMMG Barrel has a Night Force 1-4x24 NSX and the Nights SR-15 has a Aimpoint T-1..... Obviously a superior barrel goes a long way.
Did you try the AE Red Box through a different rifle? You already know your gun doesn't like it, but it could also be a bad batch of ammo.
He already stated that he used it in his SR15 and his BCM 12.5.
Did you try the AE Red Box through a different rifle? You already know your gun doesn't like it, but it could also be a bad batch of ammo.
He already stated that he used it in his SR15 and his BCM 12.5.
Missed that part. In that case the ammo sucks.
i would suspect a bad batch of ammo or undersized bullets.
take the barrel to a smith and have it slugged for dia. sizing to find out for sure.
Thanks for all the feedback guys...
This Forum always helps to keep me talking to myself.. :D
I have a CMMG upper with a bull barrel, that I hoped to use for Prairie Dog shooting. I couldn't get it to shoot less than 1.5" with any ammo until I found that it has a short throat. Loading my ammo to 2.250" my bullets were hitting the rifling. Try this with your ammo that wont shoot good: load a round in the mag and and use your bolt release to load the round into the chamber. Now use the charging handle pull the BCG back to remove the live round from the chamber( Clear the round). Do this with several rounds of the same ammo. Watch to see if the charging handle and bolt pull back easy or if you have to really pull on it. If it's hard to pull back on the charging handle then the bullet is engaging the rifling.
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