Lewis Machine and Tool LM308MWSE

[TheBelly]

Because my PredatAR needed a fat little brother.... I came into a little bit of money, so I decided that 2-is-1--1-is-none and bought this guy (for $500 less than retail).

http://i994.photobucket.com/albums/af70/thebelly925/2C96953C-B659-4A06-81D7-357E2202A9B0-12806-000006B041174567_zps8d051e42.jpg

http://i994.photobucket.com/albums/af70/thebelly925/6DFAAFE4-1282-4EFC-ACEB-F1120796A7EA-12806-000006B03AB8F1AC_zps0395a51c.jpg

[BPTactical]

Pretty much hatin ya about now........




Awesome score!

[duke_39a]

I bought the same thing today! Didn't get quite the same deal. Added some optics.

[TheBelly]

I bought the same thing today! Didn't get quite the same deal. Added some optics.

**high five**

[kwando]

Jelly!

[OneGuy67]

Hate you both!! Very jealous!

[BPTactical]

Hate you both!! Very jealous!

High Five OneGuy!

Us "Haters" gotta stick together......

[Marine24]

Nice grab. Get you the 18" barrel and you are set for close in and long distance shooting.

[TheBelly]

I'm going to see what kind of accuracy I can get out of the CL barrel. If its MOA or close, I'll stick with what I got.

[Marine24]

You'll do just fine with the 16" CL barrel. I was getting around 3/4" consistently with everything from FGMM 168gr SMK and 147gr blaster ammo in mine. Conventional logic says to go with a longer barrel for long range shooting, but seen where some on this forum are shooting plates at nearly a 1000 yards with no problem.

[TheBelly]

Yeah, As long as I plan for the slower velocities, I think it'll be ok out to 800 or so.

Im expecting about 2500 fps, which should get me around 7 mils drop at 750.

[TheBelly]

So, the first thing I noticed today at the range was that the rifle is pretty heavy, compared to both my DDM4V1 (obviously) and my PredatAR 7.62. This becomes important later.


I shot about 50 rds today. 10x FGMM 168, 30x BH Match 175, and 10x M118LR. The FGMM was left over from a rifle test I did a couple years ago or so and I just wanted to get a feel for how it shoots, recoils, and to get it on paper.


Moving on to the zero target, I started shooting the BH Match for groups. It didn't take long to get a Group that I was happy with. It was just under 1 MOA, so i was happy enough with that. I honestly don't know what to expect out of a 16" CL barrel. I didn't push it to get the smallest groups possible.


Next, I took all the weather, gun, and ammo data and the confused gave me a solution for 750yards. The range I went to today has steel out to 1k, so I was taking advantage. Truing the curve wasn't difficult. The BH ammo was still giving me about 2550 fps. I attribute this to the shortER barrel.


After that was done, the sweet sweet sound of steel get hitting by rifle ammo was heard! Incredibly accurate.


Regarding the weight issue: the M118LR ammo was noticeably hotter than the BH ammo. The drop at 750 went from 6.8 to 6.2. That puts the MV at over 2625 fps for a 16" barrel. The weight of the gun REaLLY helped to soak up some of the recoil. I didn't notice how much until I went back to the PredatAR and then got knocked around a little more forcefully by the M118LR. The difference that those 2 measly pounds makes is pretty dramatic!


I only did shooting today, no pictures, sorry!

[TheBelly]

In its current configuration:

http://i994.photobucket.com/albums/af70/thebelly925/920935DA-96B3-48FD-BE43-6877EB51029D-14942-000007CB3590D044_zpsbf273cd5.jpg

i expect it to stay this way for a while.

[Marine24]

Can't argue with those results. I've always been a 18 o 20" barrel advocate for going out beyond 600 yards, but need to rethink that given the results you were getting. That is a very sweet setup.

[duke_39a]

Mine got out today. Fired 20rds of 145gr PRVI FMJ and 15rds of 175gr FGMM. This is a 16"chrome lined barrel. It kept less than MOA when I did my job from a somewhat makeshift rest. I was having issues today but when I was able to focus I kept 5rds of FGMM touching. Recoil is ok. I'm not sure I like the 2 stage trigger. I will shoot it more to figure out if I want to change it. Some of the trigger issues may be due to the fact I was going from the LMT to my AR-15 Performance 6.8x43mm and 2 BCM's in 5.56 that all have stock single stage triggers. It is now sighted in with FGMM almost 3" high at 100 so it should be close to dead on around 200. The LMT wears a Vortex Viper PST 1-4x w MOA adjustments. The optic is fine, clear glass, great eye relief, and crisp adjustments that seemed pretty true. However, I think I'm going to change it out one of these days for 2 reasons. The first is that 4 power was a little low for precision and the 1/2 MOA adjustments per click are too large. I had trouble seeing some of the aim points on the targets and can use 1/4 MOA adjustments for more precise adjustments. The Leupold VX-Rl 2-7x Duplex Firedot on my 6.8 was much more useable as far as magnification goes. The second reason is that the illumination on the Viper PST is not true daylight visible. The target was in full sun and even with the illumination all the way up I could not see the dot. The VX-R's illumination was bright and visible even on lower settings but the thick duplex crosshair was a bit distracting and really fills the sight picture. Both are 30mm tubes in Larue mounts. I may move the Viper PST to one of the BCMs and upgrade the optic on the LMT to a 3-9x, 3.5-10x, or some in that magnification range from Leupold or Nightforce. This gun is not a battle rifle, it is too heavy for that, it is a precision weapon. It needs higher magnification and a better effort from me to extract its potential.

Next time out I will chrono both loads to see what velocity I'm getting, and move the range out as far as I can go.

[The Rat]

Just got done doing a rit dye job on my LMT308's previously foliage green furniture. Went with royal blue, but it came out a bit dark. Doesn't help that it's overcast outside as well.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v495/rupert42/Guns/lmt2_zps6ac7cd11.jpg

[TheBelly]

The blue is a nice change. It looks pretty sweet!!

I'm getting mine tuned up with hand loads, so we'll see what kind of accuracy I can get. The weight of it is a good balance of portability and stability for precision fire. The more I shoot it the more I love it.

Rat: are you a lefty?

[The Rat]

Nah, thankfully right handed/right eye dominant.

[TheBelly]

Rat: so how does yours shoot?

[The Rat]

Shoots better than I can, that's for sure. I've only managed to take it out to a 600y range once so far, but I was able to get pretty consistent hits on a chest-sized piece of steel at that range, using Brit surplus 7.62.

Part of my reasoning behind going with the LMT is that it has a chrome-lined barrel, so I can shoot surplus without feeling bad about it. Plus if I ever shoot the CL barrel out, I can replace it with a better one at user level.

A better picture in some good sunlight. Chicks with guns!
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v495/rupert42/Guns/lmt3_zpsffdd0a35.jpg

[TheBelly]

As a matter of fact... Yes that IS a 20" .260 Remington barrel....

http://i994.photobucket.com/albums/af70/thebelly925/4B6C4AC4-0773-4540-A142-5FEA6695A55D-8712-000004BBD410DB40_zps99577fb5.jpg

[TheBelly]

Read it and weep!




Here's what it looks like with the barrel:


http://i994.photobucket.com/albums/af70/thebelly925/90B1D6D0-7448-4EF3-949F-050B46E54109-10271-00000589E4BB29B4_zps20e2f4fd.jpg








First ten shots out of my .260 Remington barrel:


http://i994.photobucket.com/albums/af70/thebelly925/9A6F444A-0541-4882-B2B3-2D2989AC021A-10271-00000589EAC3618B_zps336206bd.jpg


0.875-0.260=0.615" for ten shots.


The caveat here is that there wasn't enough powder to reliably pick up the next round. It extracted and ejected just fine, it just have enough oomph to pick up the next round.

[duke_39a]

Someone convince me I need another barrel for my MWS! I've got the 16" chrome lined in 308. LMT has some barrels in stock (www.lewismachine.net). 20" chrome lined in 308, 20" stainless in 243, 260, and 6.5 Creedmoor are what I'm interested in. I reload for 308 already. Give me pros and cons, please.

[TheBelly]

I have the 20" .260 Remington barrel. I like it because I can re-size my mountain of .308 brass.

I don't even put my .308 barrel on it anymore.