AR-15 - Accuracy 1st

BOOK OF TH
BOOK OF THE AR-15
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IMPACT SHIFTS SHOOTING ROLLOVER PRONE
RODRIGUEZ IS TRIGGER HAPPY
By
Tom Beckstrand III
Photos by
Mark Finger and ERIC R. POOLE
LaRue OBR Goes
ELK HUNTING
The 7.62 OBR sees action
in the Colorado Rockies.
N
estled high in the mountains of Colorado near
Trout Creek lay our hunting camp. A retired
forest ranger built the cabin several decades before
and was thoughtful enough to include an excellent
stove, a watertight roof and a two-hole outhouse.
I wished the old boy were still around so I
could’ve passed along my thanks for so
carefully providing the necessities for
our hunting expedition.
Attending this hunt were a couple of gunwriters
and editors, Todd Hodnett of Accuracy First,
Mark and Josh LaRue, and the guide for
Trout Creek Elk Hunts, Brad Carnahan.
Mark LaRue is the owner/operator
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LaRue OBR Goes ELK HUNTING
(Left) The new LaRue Tactical RISR was debuted on this hunt. This reciprocating inline stock riser worked with the Magpul CTR
and solved the problem faced when trying to operate the charging handle with a high cheekpiece. This unit allows the cheekpiece to retract rearward when operating the handle, and it springs forward when the charging handle is pushed back to the
forward position. The LaRue LT-111 OBR QD scope mount (center) kept the S&B optic true in the field, and a LaRue LT666-ADP
Picatinny rail adapter (right) secured the OBR to a carbon fiber Manfrotto tripod used for each critical shot.
of LaRue Tactical and designer of the
LaRue OBR, a direct-impingement
semiautomatic that’s turning heads in
the sniper community. Mark brought
a handful of OBRs for us to use on the
hunt, so I quickly paired up with one
carrying a 5-25X Schmidt & Bender optic
with the Horus H58 reticle. I spent the
remainder of that first night stuffing my
face with Mrs. Carnahan’s mighty-fine
victuals before settling into my sleeping
bag for the night.
MORNING PEOPLE
I awoke the next morning at 5 a.m. to the
smell and crackle of bacon cooking on the
stove and thought that life couldn’t possibly get any better than this. Mark was
the first one up, and he’d dropped about
five pounds of bacon into a monstrous
iron skillet. As I approached the cooking
area, I saw that he was in a whirl of activity, cooking bacon, brewing coffee and
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carrying on a conversation all at the same
time. Mark is a morning person.
It wasn’t long before Mark had graciously whipped up a pan of bacon and
scrambled eggs, and I wolfed down my
share after giving it a coat of LaRuebranded Dillo Dust. It was now 5:30,
and I was officially ready to hunt.
The area we were hunting covered
8,000 acres between 8,000 and 9,000
feet altitude. Todd, another hunter and
I all loaded up on a four-wheeler and
headed out for a ridgeline known for elk
passing through. Three grown men and
their packs piled on one diminutive
four-wheeler was an impressive sight.
When the terrain got steep, we parked
the ATV and started hiking the remainder of the way to the ridgeline. At that
elevation, it wasn’t long before I was
huffing, trying hard not to whimper.
The Colorado Rockies are as steep as
the air is thin. One’s physical condition
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becomes immediately evident.
Our hardy crew eventually made it
to the chosen ridgeline, where we spent
that first morning moving and glassing
the surrounding countryside. It was
the first day of Colorado’s elk hunting
season, and it was cold but sunny. While
we saw several cows that morning, only
one small bull revealed himself. The
rack had to be a 4x4, so we headed back
to the cabin for lunch and decided that
Todd and I would return to the same
ridgeline that afternoon and evening.
RIDGELINE
TO RIDGELINE
Back up on our ridgeline, Todd and I
started glassing the opposite ridge.
Some of the same cows reappeared
that we had seen earlier in the morning. They hadn’t moved from where
they had bedded down, so we certainly
hadn’t pressured them when exiting for
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LaRue OBR Goes ELK HUNTING
lunch. About an hour
into the afternoon hunt,
Todd uttered, “There’s
a bull!” I grabbed my Eberlestock
pack and scurried to Todd’s location. Sure enough, a nice bull stood
near the top of the mountain opposite our ridgeline.
I grabbed Todd’s Manfrotto
tripod, which features a LaRue
quick-detach throw-lever mount
that attaches to a small Picatinny
rail section at the 6 o’clock position
of the OBR’s fore-end just forward of
the magazine well. LaRue Tactical
carries this tripod assembly, and it is
the finest piece of positional shooting equipment on the market. Once
I locked the OBR onto the tripod, I
settled into a seated position.
Todd used his laser rangefinder
to ascertain the distance to the
bull—505 yards. That’s a long shot,
especially from the sitting position,
and I wasn’t sure I would take it until
I had a chance to look through the
scope and see what my crosshairs
were doing. As I settled into position,
Todd asked me the million-dollar
question: “Are you stable?”
Shooting long distances is a hotly
debated topic in the hunting community, and the argument centers around
ethics. An ethical shot is one that kills
quickly and cleanly. The longer the
distance involved, the greater the probability of wounding and not killing the
game. What is an ethical shot for one
hunter might easily be unethical for
another. An individual must determine
what is ethical based on his experience,
demonstrated ability and equipment.
Todd has proven himself to be one of
the most talented instructors I’ve stud-
LaRue Tactical OBR 7.62
TYPE: Gas operated, direct
impingement, rotating
bolt, semiautomatic
CALIBER: 7.62 NATO
CAPACITY: 20-round, detachable box
magazine (a permanently
modified 3-round M110
detachable box magazine
was used for this hunt)
BARREL: 16.1 in., 18 in. (used for this
hunt), or 20 in., 1:11.25
twist, LW50 stainless
OVERALL LENGTH: 37.5 in. (stock extended)
WEIGHT: 9.7 lb. (unloaded w/o
optics)
FINISH: Hardcoat anodized
(aluminum)
STOCK: A2 (standard), Magpul
CTR adj. w/ RISR (tested),
LMT SOPMOD (optional),
Magpul PRS and UBR
(optional)
SIGHTS: Troy Ind. flip-up sights
TRIGGER: MIL-SPEC
PRICE: $2,995 (base model)
ANUFACTURER: LaRue Tactical, larueosr.
M
com, 512-259-1588
ied under throughout my years serving
as a sniper in the Army. We met while
I was a student at the Marine Corps’
Scout/Sniper Advanced Course, where
Todd was a guest instructor. I later took
members of my team out to Texas to train
with him for three weeks on long-range
shooting with an emphasis on unknown
distance, wind calling, moving targets
and positional shooting. We had worked
together in the past and were familiar
with one another’s capabilities.
I also trusted my equipment. I had
tested and evaluated the OBR on two
previous occasions and can assuredly
say that it’s the most consistently
accurate semiauto 7.62-chambered
rifle that I’ve ever fired. The OBR is
so accurate that it outshoots many
of the custom bolt-action rifles
available today (as seen in recent
sniper competitions). The rifle
was easily capable of making the
shot that I faced. The image in the
scope was sharp and offered a clear
view of the antlered bull. All that
remained was to get stable.
As I continued to fidget into position on my quest for stability, Todd
noticed that I was trying to find a
solid point of contact for my strongside elbow. The tripod provided a
very solid point of contact for the
front of the OBR, and now I needed to
address the rear. Merely resting my
elbow on my bent knee meant reliance on muscular tension for stability. This technique introduces some
wobble into the crosshairs that I was
unwilling to accept in this situation.
Todd moved around to my right
side and pushed his left knee and
right foot under my right knee. This
stacking of appendages, much like
stacking sandbags, allowed me to
rest my elbow on my completely relaxed
inner knee. The result was a very stable
partner-assisted position.
Two critical pieces of gear accompanied
each elk hunter: a nonresident elk tag
and the Whiz Wheel, developed by Todd
Hodnett of Accuracy 1st. It functions like a
ballistic calculator that can be configured
in the moment to actual conditions for the
most precise hold possible.
tucky windage and estimating holds are
sure ways to wound game. The Horus
H58 and PDA take some time to learn
and appreciate, but once mastered, this
system offers the shooter an unparalleled capability to engage
one-round hits accurately
at unknown distances.
I was firing Hornady’s
new Superformance .308
load that achieved 2,670
fps out of the OBR’s muzzle.
That’s more than 100 fps
faster than the military’s
M118LR load. Hornady has
come up with an excellent
SNOT BUBBLES
I told Todd that I was seeing no wind,
and he confirmed the same observation.
He entered the 505 yards into his handheld ballistic computer, the Accuracy
1st Whiz Wheel, and gave me a hold of
2.6 mils. The PDA/ballistic computer
and the Horus reticle in the scope are
absolutely critical pieces of equipment
for accurate long-range shooting. Ken-
Legs lock up to 5 positions
BPO/BPOS
8-12”
High impact polymer 30 round .223
magazine
BSR/BSRS
6-8”
BSR/BSRS - Side Rail
Mounting Bipod
COMMANDARMS.COM • 1.866.611.9576
EMATACTICAL.COM • 215.949.9944
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LaRue OBR Goes ELK HUNTING
ammo line with its new
Superformance offering.
Carefully blending certain
powders together, Hornady squeezes 100
to 200 fps more velocity out of traditional
combinations without exceeding maximum allowable pressures.
The bull was facing broadside, so I
held just behind his shoulder using
the holdover Todd had figured. I eased
down on the trigger, and my shot broke
cleanly. “Shot’s good,” Todd reported.
The first shot entered the bull just
behind his shoulder and cut a 2x2-inch
channel out of the lower portion of his
heart. The bull hunched his shoulders
slightly and stood completely still, so I followed
up with a second shot.
Again, the shot was on.
After the second hit,
the bull turned slightly
to his left, locked his
knees and died. He toppled forward down the
mountain, doing a complete somersault before
colliding with a small
tree and coming to a halt.
We later found that both
hits struck within three
inches of each other. With
high-fives and pats on the
back complete, we gathered our gear and
went to retrieve my elk.
A short ride on the four-wheeler was
followed by a hump up the mountain.
I posed for a hero shot with my prize
before Todd cleaned him. Then began
the arduous drag down the mountain.
I’ve never tried to drag a 700-pound
critter before, and I don’t care if I do
it again. It took us about 45 minutes to
drag the bull 400 meters to the bottom
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Each return to the cabin was an opportunity to hang and dry out gear. Built decades ago, this rugged home was warmed by a wood fire stove and featured a luxurious two-hole outhouse. No two hunters shared the outhouse at the same time,
but the extra hole certainly increased the comfort of a bitterly cold experience.
Hornady Superformance ammunition
was used in this LaRue OBR to harvest
an excellent 4x5 bull elk ranged at 505
yards. The OBR was outfitted with a Magpul stock and grip, and a SureFire muzzlebrake. With it fixed on the Manfrotto
tripod, felt recoil was nonexistent.
of the mountain. Blowing snot bubbles,
I collapsed, lower lip protruding and
aquiver. I got myself back together after
a few minutes, and Todd and I figured a
way to load the bull on the back of our
four-wheeler for the trip back to camp.
Six Inches in Four Hours
I awoke the next morning to another
panful of bacon and eggs, a can of
Mountain Dew and lots of snow. Day
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two would bring about eight inches,
six of those falling in just four hours.
Our group hunted hard on day two, but
the elk just weren’t moving much, so
nobody fired a shot.
The morning of day three started
much like the previous one, with more
bacon and eggs and Mountain Dew, followed by more time in the snow. Mark’s
mission was to return to his factory in
Texas with elk meat, so he drove out
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to town and purchased additional cow
tags for the group’s third day. On the
way back that afternoon, Mark spotted
several cows bedded down on a hillside
not too far from a field near our cabin,
so we rounded up the group and set up
a linear ambush.
Infiltrating on four-wheelers, we
used a long row of round hay bails to
mask our movement from the elk as we
approached them from an open field
below their position. Once in place,
we flanked the haystack and quickly
developed a strategy. The sound of the
first hunter firing resulted in a dead
cow, which was followed by a shot from
the second hunter, dropping his cow.
I was up and gently drew the trigger
for another successful hit. When the
smoke cleared, we had neatly filled
each tag so that those who build the
LaRue OBR would have elk to chew on.
HUNTING WITH
A BLACK RIFLE
As the AR becomes more prolific, I
expect and hope to see more ARs used
for hunting. The LaRue OBR was an
excellent and quite practical hunting
companion. Its exceptional accuracy,
match trigger and configurable design
all combine to make it an individual
hunter’s dream.
The LaRue OBR is ideally suited for
those seeking unmatched quality and
accuracy in a rifle that they can use for
everything from Heavy Metal 3-Gun
to world-class hunting. It offers a level
of flexibility and sustainability that’s
unmatched by any other rifle.
The author kneels proudly beside Eric Poole (center)
and Brent Wheat (right), whose coordinated ambush on
the last day resulted in the successful harvest of these
three cow elk at more than 400 yards using a 7.62 OBR.
Take a SHOT
not a GUESS
You might hit a large, highly
visible target at moderate
range with iron sights. A
tough shot at a moving,
covered, or unpredictable
target makes the outcome
questionable. When seconds
count, lives are at stake, and
opportunities are fleeting,
you can depend on Leupold
illuminated tactical optics.