I took the 18 inch barrel back to the range with the VARGET. This group is comprised of the following load: 69 grain SMK with 25 grains of Varget on a 70 degree day.
The barrel continues to impress. Remember, this is a chrome lined barrel. While 10 round groups don’t look impressive, they are a much better indicator of practical accuracy than 3 or 5 shot groups. Statistically they represent the capability of the barrel, bullet, and shooter far better than cherry picked three round groups. I shot ten rounds, counted my brass to make sure… and I negated the far left shot because that one was far enough away from the center of the group that I believe that was shooter error rather than barrel or bullet.
Like what you see? Visit Criterion Here.
Im confident that 9 rounds are in the bulk of the measured group meaning two rounds had to have went through the same hole. I had a good feeling after shooting the group and called my shots center. I was shooting bipod prone, with the Vortex Razor HD II. See the full (and ongoing) review of the Criterion Barrels Inc 18 inch Hybrid here. The barrel continues to impress me and it’s the perfect blend of accuracy and chrome lined longevity.
Why ten round groups? Read this.
18 Inch Criterion Barrels Inc. Hybrid Profile Barrel: Chrome lined goodness.
Kinda pointless to shoot a 10 round group then discout one of your shots. You gotta accept the good with the bad.
As a shooter error yes I should take the good with the bad, but for the purposes of testing the barrel… that one left shot i believe I can safely call an outlier.
I wouldn’t want to blame the barrel for this unless this still occurred if the gun was mounted on a rail. I am satisfied that this combination of rifle and ammo together are capable of just past 1 MOA based on the 9 shots. Edit: I went back to add that left flyer, and my grouping opens to 1.7 MOA provided that was actually the barrel and not my fault. I will give the barrel the benefit of the doubt since im a human behind the trigger and far less accurate than the gun is. 🙂
That’s a statistically significant group for me but I understand your thoughts. I look forward to the day I purchase a shooting sled so I can remove my human error from the barrel testing procedures.
One day.
Thats great shooting by the way. Definitely a solid rig.
I run a Criterion 18″ chrome lined hybrid 1:8 twist with rifle length gas on my colt. I use Black Hills remanufactured 69gr SMKs. The rifle shoots consistantly 1/4 MOA at 100 yards with that ammo. Often I run that rifle suppressed on steel course out to 800 yards with excellent succcess. I can not say enough good things about that Criterion barrel.