by Will Cox

Opportunities for long-range shooting have improved dramatically in my part of North Texas over the past couple of years with the opening of the Tac Pro Shooting Center (35100 N. State Hwy. 108, Dept. GWK, Mingus, TX 76463; phone: 254-968-3112; on-line: www.tacproshooting-center.com) on the prairie west of Fort Worth. Tac Pro, under the direction of Bill Davison, a British expatriate formerly with the Special Boat Service, offers training in the use of small arms and also opens it's ranges to the public. One of these is a 1,000-yard rifle range.

I've been shooting and hunting with rifles for a long time and have even been fortunate enough to have had some formal training in the use of the tactical carbine and Scout Rifle at Thunder Ranch and Gunsite. My opportunities for true long-range precision shooting, however, have been pretty much limited to the occasional "Hail Mary" type shot taken just for fun at a rock or other inanimate object during treks to the back country; once or twice I've even managed to connect.

I've been hunting deer in Texas all of my life, but nearly every shot has been less than 200 yards, with the vast majority probably closer to 100. The range at Tac Pro, while a bit daunting to a non-sniper like myself, was a challenge I decided I should try.

But I needed a rifle.

I already owned several nice hunting rifles, including my beloved Gunsite Scout, but for target shooting out past 300 yards, something more on the order of a true precision rifle seemed called for. This also provided an excuse to try out a gun I've had my eye on for a while now. The AR-15 has been one of my favorite rifles for a long time and I currently own four, the most recent acquisition being a neat little ArmaLite carbine.

Perusing the ArmaLite catalog prior to the carbine's purchase had revealed several rifles chambered in .308 rather than .223. One, the AR-10T, features a free-floating stainless 24-inch heavy barrel and a two-stage match trigger. The receiver is of the "flat top" or Picatinny rail variety, providing a solid base for mounting optics. I had wanted to shoot one of these rifles since first seeing it in the catalog and now I had a proper place.

But the question was: Would a gas gun be accurate enough for true long-range work? I was about to find out. An order was placed with ArmaLite.

The Past
The AR-10 rifle was first produced in 1955 by the original ArmaLite company when it was still a division of the Fairchild Engine and Airplane Corporation. This was during the period in which the Army was seeking a replacement for the Garand, considering both the T-44 (M-14) and the T-48 (a version of the FN-FAL).

With the AR-10, ArmaLite hoped to knock them out of the running. That didn't happen, of course, and the rest is the history of the M-14. The AR-10 was licensed to the Dutch Arsenal, Artellerie Inrichtengen, but since sales languished, it soon fell into small arms limbo.

Fast forward to 1995 when Mark Westrom, owner of Eagle Arms, purchased the rights to the ArmaLite trademark and decided to name his new .308 rifle the AR-10. The AR-10T is one of several members of this .308 family.

First Impressions
Ten days after placing the order I had my rifle. Initial inspection showed everything to be as expected. Other than size and the match trigger mechanism, the only difference between the AR-10T and the AR-15 is a firing pin spring.

The manual states that it is provided to prevent primer dents when closing the bolt and possible slam fires. I've never experienced one with an AR-15, but perhaps with the heavier firing pin of the AR-10 rifles it's a good idea. In any event it obviously works well and I'm happy to report there were no slam fires.

The only area of concern was the trigger. It was beautiful, breaking at four pounds after initial take up with only a small amount of creep, which the owner's manual correctly advised would reduce to an acceptable level with use. It felt pretty good to me out of the box so why was I concerned?

I've known several AR-type rifles over the years with "trigger jobs" and "custom match triggers" and most of them have doubled, or worse, eventually. Frankly, I was worried that I would have the same problem, but I shouldn't have been concerned. During the course of the test, I would fire over 500 rounds and I had to press the trigger every time.

Setting the AR-10T up for the range was a simple task. After inspection and cleaning, all that was left was to mount the 2.5-10xI.O.R. Voldada tactical scope in the supplied mount and attach my Turner sling. The next day I was off to a nearby range for sighting in the scope and breaking in the barrel.

I bore-sighted the Voldada, loaded a 10-round magazine (two are supplied) with Remington's inexpensive ball ammo, and was immediately on paper at 50 yards. ArmaLite provides an instruction sheet with a very detailed prescription for the break-in of the triple-lapped stainless barrel.

The instructions probably work very well, though I can't say for sure as I had left the sheet at home. Not wanting to waste a trip I decided to use a method that has worked well for me in the past where the barrel is cleaned after every shot three times, after every two shots 10 times, and after every three shots five times.

By the end of this process I had moved to the 100-yard bench and had begun to pay attention to group size. They ran about 1-1/2 inches which is very good for ball ammo. Next I tried some of the excellent Hornady 168-grain AMAX match stuff. Three 5-round groups were between 5/8- and 3/4-inch center-to-center. Yes! I wanted to keep shooting but the break-in had eaten up most of the afternoon. Like any AR, you have to field strip it to clean the barrel from the breach which is fairly time consuming.

Getting Familiar
On subsequent range trips over the following weeks I switched to the 200-yard bench and tried some Cor-Bon match rounds as well as some Black Hills moly-coated ammo to determine if the accuracy with the Hornady could be duplicated. Nearly! It was a matter of consistency. Both would group into one minute-of-angle (MOA) at 200 yards regularly and occasionally 3/4 of an inch, but the Hornady fodder would do -inch any time and often a bit less in this particular rifle.

Here I should pause for a disclaimer. I suspect that with the Hornady ammo this rifle might be capable of 1/2 MOA in the proper hands. A shooter with superior bench rest technique than myself, using more sophisticated equipment, could likely do better. But I was still mightily impressed. Anytime I can get 3/4 MOA at 200 yards with an out-of-the-box semi-auto rifle using factory ammo, I call it success.

During these same weeks I had another pleasant surprise. My supply of Remington ball had been exhausted by barrel break-in and plinking. Not wanting to burn up all my match stuff just yet, I tried some inexpensive Portuguese surplus ammo I had on hand. One-and-one-quarter to 1-and-one-half MOA at 200. Cool!

There was a three-gun match coming up at Tac Pro and I made the decision to use the AR-10T for the rifle stages. My buddy, Skip, and I shared the rifle and were the only ones in our squad to hit three steel prairie dog silhouettes at 200 yards with only four shots each from a hastily assumed field position. (Davison called them "assault prairie dogs" as this was a tactical match after all.) We saw other shooters blow as many as 25 rounds before dispatching these same three "prairie dogs."

Long Distance
On several subsequent trips to Tac Pro I shot the AR-10T out to 500 yards. My favorite target was a steel humanoid silhouette with a hinged flapper in the chest area. This flapper was about 8 inches square and would move to the rear and then reset itself after each impact. From 300 yards it didn't stand a chance. From a prone or cross-legged seated position I could hit the flapper virtually every time.

The same target at 500 yards proved more of a challenge, but only slightly. From a seated position, due to my inability to hold well enough, I might only manage to hit the flapper three or four times out of 10. From a rock-solid prone though, I could pretty much tag it at will. The heavy 24-inch barrel "hangs" well, providing stability, and the great trigger (which had lost its creep by now) made breaking the shot without disturbing the sight picture an easy task. Also I was glad to have the Turner sling to wrap myself into. The nylon unit that comes with the gun is really more of a carrying strap than a shooting aid.

Five hundred yards was the maximum distance from which I fired the AR-10T as I was unable to attend the orientation class that Davison mandates to shoot further. Sooner or later I will have the opportunity to do so and hopefully report on the results.

At the Bench
By now I had pretty much exhausted all the factory match ammo I had on hand and since it goes for about a buck a round I decided it was time to spend some time at the loading bench. Could I handload rounds that would at least come close to the wonderful accuracy I was seeing with the Hornady ammo? The answer turned out to be yes, and thanks to the folks at Redding, it was easy.

Redding offers a full-length sizing die with removable bushings which size the neck and are available in .001-inch increments. The procedure is to measure the neck of a loaded round of the brand and lot of brass that is to be used and then insert a bushing which is .002 or .003 smaller into the die. This will result in a proper press fit for the bullet of .001-.002. With the die properly adjusted these bushings will self-center on the neck and improve concentricity. The result is the elimination of the variation in mass-produced dies.

Use of the Redding Competition Shell Holders also made achieving proper headspace easy. Available in sets of five from plus .002-.010, these shell holders allow setting correct headspace with the shell holder against the bottom of the die which provides a more precise alignment.

Seating of the 168-grain Sierra Match Kings was accomplished with the Redding Competition Seating Die. Not only is seating depth adjustable to within .001 by virtue of a micrometer, but correct bullet alignment is assured by an internal sliding sleeve which is independent of the depth stop and allows the bullet to align itself before meeting firm resistance.

I had some Norma brass that was consistent enough in weight and neck wall thickness that I decided to forego neck turning. Measuring the necks of loaded rounds showed a dimension of .335 so I used bushings that were .333 and .332. Basic reloading techniques and a recipe of 40.8 grains of 3031 with Federal Match primers under the Match Kings resulted in .95 MOA at 200 yards with the first batch. Sweet!

I could determine no difference in group size between rounds loaded with the .332 and the .333 bushings. Additional experimentation would almost certainly shrink groups down to the size of the Hornady ammo. I suspect that if I had had a supply of the AMAX bullets on hand my handloads would have done even better as this particular rifle just liked that bullet.

A Final Test
By this time I had had the rifle for several months and fired over 500 rounds through it-both off the bench and at Tac Pro. What else could I do for a thorough field test? Take it to the field of course. Thanksgiving was approaching and with it my annual deer hunt at Brinlee Ranch in Pecos County, TX. A hunt in this rough country will quickly reveal any weaknesses in guns, equipment and hunters.

Several days of hiking, climbing, and stand hunting proved the ArmaLite up to the task. When the proper time came, the AR-10T performed perfectly and collected a nice eight-pointer using Remington's Premier Boat Tail 165-grain softpoint which dropped the buck in his tracks.

I'd like to say that the shot was 325 yards across a canyon requiring every bit of the AR-10T's phenomenal accuracy. I'd like to, but I'd be lying as it was only 115 yards. However, it was early morning and the sun wasn't up yet but the light gathering capabilities of the Voldada glass made it easy. This Romanian-made sight appears to offer the optical quality of more famous European scopes at a much more reasonable price.

According to those who know about such things, the AR-10T should also make for an ideal sniper rifle. I recently visited with a friend in the SEAL Teams who had just completed the SEAL Sniper Course. One of the rifles he was issued was a .308 AR-style so apparently the SEALs are okay with the concept of a semi-auto sniper rifle. That's good enough for me. My friend stated that the AR was his favorite of all the rifles (Remington bolt-actions, M21's, etc.) he was issued in the course and now refers to it as his "war gun."

In a recent article in Soldier of Fortune on civilian volunteer police snipers in Israel (They really have those!), the author reported on using an ArmaLite AR-10T to good effect in that troubled land. Before deploying one as a true tactical rifle though, I would want to somehow darken the bright stainless barrel to avoid detection.

The Last Word
Is there anything to criticize with this gun? I'm having trouble. At 43.5 inches it's a little long for heavy brush and quick snap shots but that's the price to be paid for the great "hang" of the 24-inch barrel. Also the weight, 10.5 pounds without scope, will be objectionable to some for a hunting rifle although it didn't bother me much.

I did have a couple of inconsequential hiccups which I nevertheless feel compelled to report. One was a failure to feed the Remington softpointed hunting ammo. This rifle was designed for full metal jacketed match bullets so it's really not fair to fault it for not feeding softpoints. If that is a requirement, some careful polishing by a good gunsmith should fix the problem. Also there was one failure to fire with the Portuguese surplus ammo but I didn't sweat it. The dent in the primer looked fine and it was foreign surplus after all.

There really isn't anything to complain about with the AR-10T. It does everything it was designed to do and it looks good doing it.

For more information, contact: ArmaLite Inc., PO Box 299, Dept. GWK, Geneseo, IL 61254; phone: 309-944-6939; fax: 309-944-6949; on-line: www.armalite.com.