Thanks to a nice fellow on the forum, I have a Seekins barrel on the rifle now. Unfortunately, I don’t have the resupply of bullets yet, so I just sighted the rifle in with reloads I have for the bolt gun. Shot a few groups and found the rifle to be pretty darn accurate with those loads, going into about an inch. Compare that to the old barrel that wouldn’t shoot that well with the best load I found for it. This may just turn out to be a very accurate rifle now.

I swapped the old barrel even up for the work the gunsmith did.

And, that Athlon Midas scope I have on it Is working out great. Tracks well and good glass. It’ll mostly be a set and forget scope, which won’t work it too hard.

That is awesome and you can use current loads if needed.

Hope it works out for you. Good luck.

I've heard those Athlons are pretty darn good at tracking and holding zero.

I think I can finally put this to bed. Zeroed the AR with the loads for the bolt gun, let it cool and shot a couple of 3/4” groups. I think I'll just stick with that load for both rifles. Keeps things simple.

Naturally, I wonder just how good this rifle will shoot if I spend the time to do more load work ups. Maybe I’ll get around to that eventually. But for now, I’ll hunt.

3/4" is great for an AR! To have it shoot the same load as your bolt is pure awesomeness!!! I'd buy a lotto ticket tomorrow.

Congrats 603, glad you found a good barrel and load quickly. 👍

Well, jeffbird, the load work up was pretty easy. I took 15 rounds out of the MTM case for the 223 bolt gun and shot them in the AR and they printed so nicely. Can’t get any easier than that. Sure beats the 250 or so bullets I sent downrange through that original barrel without any joy.

Then, I put some tape on the MTM box that said “AR too”. All done...Ain’t it grand?

It's nice when a plan comes together.

Almost a month since I mentioned the accuracy with the new barrel (Seekins Precision) on the formerly inaccurate AR. I’ve been shooting one cold barrel round every now and then, just to convince myself this thing is as accurate as it seems to be. I gotta tell ya, this thing will shoot. It might be better than my bolt gun. And as mentioned before, I’m shooting loads that I worked up for the bolt gun. I haven’t even done any load workup with this rifle.

And thanks for selling me that barrel...you know who you are. Much appreciated.

Seekins...my, my, my...

I thought that barrel was intended to just be a test drive.