Ultralight Ultralight Rifles

4090Sharps said:
It looks almost identical to the Tegra lower. Probably similarly tough.
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And 3.7 oz is what my Tegra weighs. Thats a CF filled nylon afaik. The glass filled ones weigh about 4 oz. So should be good material. As long as you're careful not to over torque any of the threaded areas it's probably okay.

*Reading the description, I see it does say CF filled nylon. Should be the same as the Tegra and the original NFA, before they went to glass filled nylon.
 
Swapped my handguard from a Jag carbon to the Trybe posted a few months back. I like it. Sitting right around 6lbs flat loaded with 10rds.

Also think this is the first time I’ve shot with the OG on there instead of the A10. Handles great, so much fun to shoot. I might replace folding stock with carbon to lighten it back up closer to 5.5lbs.

I’d love to build a 6x45, just need to pick up another lower…which ain’t easy in Washington even though it would be 100% legal with the Solo upper.

IMG_2703.jpeg
 
I went for a quick trip looking for bears last night on the motorbike. It makes me smile every time I carry that rifle. Maybe a bear will make a mistake when it’s in my hands one of these days. I only take it to a few spots with shots under 350 yards.
 
Thegman said:
In addition to what's posted above from @JFK , I think maybe some variables (whatever they may be) have come in to play where your barrel is "faster" than average, and my barrel is "slower" than average. Just guessing this as I looked at some data for my Shaw 1:7 223 Wylde barrel and 26.2 grains of LVR under an 88 ELD-M seemed to be around 2,625 fps in that 16" barrel.

What barrel are you using for your 223 AI? I'm looking forward to see how my X-Caliber 223 AI barrel does. Thinking it might be about the "ultimate" chambering for the UL-ULs if these 88s shoot well in them.
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@Thegman can you share stats for the X-Caliber 223 AI barrel you ordered? I didn't want to clutter up the 88 TMK thread with ULUL stuff.

I've been thinking about a 223 AI AR barrel for lobbing 88's or a Howa Mini in 22 ARC for a while now, but the more I carry my ULUL, the less interested I am in the Howa option.

I have a reloading progression going right now where I buy prepped 1x fired 5.56 brass, load it and fire in the .223, then reload and fire in my .17-5.56 and toss. I'd like adding an AI loop to that flow more than dealing with another ARC cartridge.
 
Taudisio said:
I went for a quick trip looking for bears last night on the motorbike. It makes me smile every time I carry that rifle. Maybe a bear will make a mistake when it’s in my hands one of these days. I only take it to a few spots with shots under 350 yards.
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I did the same last weekend. No luck, but the rifle was a joy to carry.

1775330581622.png

1775330615120.png
 
4090Sharps said:
@Thegman can you share stats for the X-Caliber 223 AI barrel you ordered? I didn't want to clutter up the 88 TMK thread with ULUL stuff.

I've been thinking about a 223 AI AR barrel for lobbing 88's or a Howa Mini in 22 ARC for a while now, but the more I carry my ULUL, the less interested I am in the Howa option.

I have a reloading progression going right now where I buy prepped 1x fired 5.56 brass, load it and fire in the .223, then reload and fire in my .17-5.56 and toss. I'd like adding an AI loop to that flow more than dealing with another ARC cartridge.
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Yes.

It will be a port-less barrel with no gas journal with a straight 0.57" diameter up to the flare for the1/2x28 muzzle threads.

X-Caliber was really helpful. I was pretty sure they wouldn't/couldn't make one of their spaghetti profiles without a gas journal, but talked with Steve about the possibility. Steve came up with the idea and suggested that I order an ultralight profile from their AR22 page. These barrels are normally designed for accurate shooting of 22 LR and have no port or gas journal and are .218/.222 RF blanks. Steve asked me to accompany the order with an immediate email indicating I wanted to have the order chambered in 223 AI with a .219/.224 barrel blank (1 in 7 w/5R rifling).

So this will be a little lighter profile than their normal spaghetti contour and will have no gas journal, win-win. I very well may leave it exactly as it comes, but I just recently found out that a neighbor of mine within a couple of miles has a mill and a lathe and is an expert with this stuff. We talked yesterday about turning down barrels and he said it would be no problem if I decide I want it turned down a little more.

Steve said that the main problem they had with making journal-less barrels was they haven't programmed that into their CNC. He said as these requests are coming up more frequently, they may do that. I think they should just make this ultra-light 0.57" contour their go-to for these requests. I'd rather it be somewhere around 0.52 - 0.54, but I'm not complaining.
 
Thegman said:
Yes.

It will be a port-less barrel with no gas journal with a straight 0.57" diameter up to the flare for the1/2x28 muzzle threads.

X-Caliber was really helpful. I was pretty sure they wouldn't/couldn't make one of their spaghetti profiles without a gas journal, but talked with Steve about the possibility. Steve came up with the idea and suggested that I order an ultralight profile from their AR22 page. These barrels are normally designed for accurate shooting of 22 LR and have no port or gas journal and are .218/.222 RF blanks. Steve asked me to accompany the order with an immediate email indicating I wanted to have the order chambered in 223 AI with a .219/.224 barrel blank (1 in 7 w/5R rifling).

So this will be a little lighter profile than their normal spaghetti contour and will have no gas journal, win-win. I very well may leave it exactly as it comes, but I just recently found out that a neighbor of mine within a couple of miles has a mill and a lathe and is an expert with this stuff. We talked yesterday about turning down barrels and he said it would be no problem if I decide I want it turned down a little more.

Steve said that the main problem they had with making journal-less barrels was they haven't programmed that into their CNC. He said as these requests are coming up more frequently, they may do that. I think they should just make this ultra-light 0.57" contour their go-to for these requests. I'd rather it be somewhere around 0.52 - 0.54, but I'm not complaining.
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That sounds about ideal. I'm going to reach out to them to see if I can get one as well.
 
SteveAndTheCrigBoys said:
Swapped my handguard from a Jag carbon to the Trybe posted a few months back. I like it. Sitting right around 6lbs flat loaded with 10rds.

Also think this is the first time I’ve shot with the OG on there instead of the A10. Handles great, so much fun to shoot. I might replace folding stock with carbon to lighten it back up closer to 5.5lbs.

I’d love to build a 6x45, just need to pick up another lower…which ain’t easy in Washington even though it would be 100% legal with the Solo upper.

View attachment 1044663
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Beautiful setup! Can you show a link to your build? I have been searching back a ways and cant find it.
 
4090Sharps said:
That sounds about ideal. I'm going to reach out to them to see if I can get one as well.
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Yeah, really thinking this is about the ultimate route for an UL-UL. The only concern I have is this:

One of the things I'm trying to get away from going forward is the really long throats on 5.56/223 Wylde chambers. When used in ARs, even with windowed mags, these chambers require such long jumps for the hunting bullets I use, I think they probably reduce accuracy potential of some bullets. I'm not sure the AI throat is going to be much shorter, but hoping it is. The extra case volume from the AI chamber should at a minimum, make up for the volume lost from the long throats when it come to pressure and velocity.

So far though, it seems like these 88TMKs may work even in my 5.56 chamber BCA pencil barrel, with a 0.235" jump, so this X-Caliber AI barrel may just be better in every way (except weight).
 
Thegman said:
Yeah, really thinking this is about the ultimate route for an UL-UL. The only concern I have is this:

One of the things I'm trying to get away from going forward is the really long throats on 5.56/223 Wylde chambers. When used in ARs, even with windowed mags, these chambers require such long jumps for the hunting bullets I use, I think they probably reduce accuracy potential of some bullets. I'm not sure the AI throat is going to be much shorter, but hoping it is. The extra case volume from the AI chamber should at a minimum, make up for the volume lost from the long throats when it come to pressure and velocity.

So far though, it seems like these 88TMKs may work even in my 5.56 chamber BCA pencil barrel, with a 0.235" jump, so this X-Caliber AI barrel may just be better in every way (except weight).
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Any idea how much additional weight the .57" is going to add approximately? I'm tempted to change my order, but only if it's a significant amount of weight. My order is set at a much bigger diameter, and the $200ish (including tax and shipping) for LRI to mill it down, sure adds up cash and time wise.

On a side note: I got back my Shaw that I had chambered to ai locally, and I haven't fired it yet. But, he ended up setting the barrel back for a full new throat and standard ai specs. Luckily, the NAS3 cases are actually chambering with a light crush fit, so I may yet succeed in getting an extra 100+ fps on top of the extra ai speed, so I'm hoping for 3500fps with 57gr hammers, which I realize is greek for most all of you. I was able to load them out to 2.36" with 5 thou jump, but haven't shot them yet. I'm pretty sure the 77&88s are much more pointy, but I don't have any to mess with.
 
Compared to the 0.6" spaghetti profile, the .57" profile should be around 11% to 11.5% lighter. Probably between 2.5 oz - 3 oz lighter. Not huge, but should be simpler for someone to turn down if needed.
 
If there's enough interest in this X-Caliber 223 AI, I could probably arrange a group buy of some sort. Would need 10+ to get the best price.
 
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