I've had a PreadtAR since last September but haven't really ran it hard and seen what it will do. I've got an old Nightforce 2.5-10X24 with mil recticle and 1/4 MOA turrets, SSA and a Surefire muzzle brake.
During the last week I have been teaching a law enforcement long range (sniper) class. During meal breaks I stayed on some days and was able to pretty much get this rifle zeroed and get a pretty good idea of it's capabilities. I've found in the past that at 100 yards it will stay sub MOA for about 10 rounds and then opens up to about 1.5 MOA till cooled down. The cold bore is generally within a 1/2 MOA of the following groups. It also seems to do a bit better with 168's over 175's which surprised me. I haven't chronographed it but with a 16" barrel maybe that's a factor at longer ranges. As a first it also shoots Remington Match tighter than Black Hills, which also surprised me as that's not been the case with 3 previous Remingtons that I've had.
After the students pass the Phase I and II and the written exam we take them on the last day to a steel range to shoot out to about 600 yards. During this phase I was able to shoot at roughly 300, 400, 500, and about 550 today. Our target are steel and 20X20 and 20X40. I found that with the small scope and standard SSA I was consistently able to head shoot out to 500 yards as long as I stayed off the trigger and didn't shoot too fast for too many rounds for a string. At 550 on a better day where we could see trace I think I could have still made head shots but today wasn't it or it wasn't my day. I ran out of Remington 168's after 500 so also had to switch to the Black Hills which I hadn't doped out yet for longer ranges.
It was a blast with a semi auto at 400 and 500 yards to dump a 5 shot string and listen to the pinging with a semi auto if you've never done it. I bought this rifle as a general purpose rifle but was surprised with its ability as a precision rifle. If I was going to use it as such I would install a SSA-E and use a bipod instead of a ruck and probably put an optic on it that had a larger objective than 24mm. All in all I was very impressed as were the students and other instructor with this rifle. I'm considering ordering a PredatAR/OBR or even an OBR but am not sure that they wouldn't end up sitting in the safe as the PredatAR is such a lightweight, quick handling package. I still have a custom Remington but realized that a a LEO the PredatAR can accomplish anything I would ever require of a rifle that a 5.56 can't.
Bookmarks