Thread: The Howikka Test Bed

Btw if there is a mechanical issue with the rifle, then all the components used so far are wasted as your 'test bed' is compromised.

Originally Posted by Roarless20

Btw if there is a mechanical issue with the rifle, then all the components used so far are wasted as your 'test bed' is compromised.

Not really I can provide that info here and show actual proof of it having serious effects. I'm happy to show anything concrete and be wrong.

Have you actually done any large sample size testing?

It's not I don't believe that you could be correct. It's more I want to prove it rather than just take the "general knowledge" and anecdotal assumptions out of it as much as possible.

I will mess with the bedding, suppressor, action screw torque, recrown, barrel length, etc at some stage and will tag you when i do especially if your right as im not disagreeing just saying that i dont think your conclusion can be validated yet. It would be nice if you are right and hopefully you are but I will be testing other barrels to add more data at some stage. I have hundreds of bits of brass, a wide range of powders, a decent supply of projectiles (albeit ones that may not agree with the barrel). If the rifle shot too good it would actually be much harder to separate shooter error from rifle capability.

One thing to consider @Roarless20 is this a 223, and it can be a highly variable sort of beast, once you start shooting decent sample sizes the "surprises" happen. There is none of the "I pulled one" bullshit that so many people indulge themselves with in the following targets, they are a product of careful shooting.

Both shot with the same rifle at 100M in pretty similar weather conditions, just a wee breeze from 6 o'clock. The scope was changed out between targets and obviously the zero also varies.



Pretty interesting how on the 28/2 (group 1) with Hor 73s it shot 1.04 MOA but on 10/3 the group with the load was 66mm and the worse group of the day.

If you have a look at the 28/2 target you can see the rifle shot 3 consecutive groups (shot count varied 9 to 11) of which the largest was 1.08 MOA. And then a splatter from some FMJ stuff (which incidentally does go OK in another rifle).

There seem to be a lot of shooters too scared to fully explore the variability of their shooting system, it's maybe less important for hunting, but it's also less than usefull not to know the limitations of your rifle, especially with the current "long range" fashion.

Originally Posted by Roarless20

Btw if there is a mechanical issue with the rifle, then all the components used so far are wasted as your 'test bed' is compromised.

@Roarless20 time to eat crow? (For me I mean) Quite possibly will update furrher but here's a preview of a 20 round group shot tonight. Some excluded shots from letting a girl shoot a mag full from the 223 as it was her first time shooting and her partner only brought a 22. She did unfortunately shoot at my target twice before i realised (lucky i had dialed the rifle back to zero). Anyway I have 50 more of this load to take hunting. About 1.3moa for 20 not significantly better than the 15 shot group but the rifle has been completely stripped back and a bit of a quick fix involving some bits of broken hacksaw blade has been implemented. May like different ammo now who knows but the groups distribution is much cleaner.