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  1. #1
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    Accuracy Evaluation of a Noveske 14.5” Afghan Upper

    Accuracy Evaluation of a Noveske 14.5” Afghan Upper






    This is a Noveske assembled upper group based on the 14.5” stainless steel Noveske Afghan barrel. This barrel has a medium contour and a 0.750” diameter gas block journal. The gas block journal for this barrel is designed for Noveske’s low profile gas block and the journal is only one inch in length; standard length gas blocks will not work with this barrel.

    The chamber found in this barrel is Noveske’s proprietary Noveske Match mod 0 chamber that “was developed to fire MK262 Mod 1 on AUTO in hot environments." The barrel has a 1:7” twist and polygonal rifling. The barrel extension has “M4” feed-ramps.

    This upper comes with a Vltor MUR upper receiver with a forward assist. The barrel is free-floated in Noveske’s version of the SWS railed free-float hand-guard. Since the unwashed masses in my state are not allowed to own an SBR, this unit has an S.E. Vortex flash-hider pinned and welded to the muzzle.



















    I conducted an accuracy (technically, precision) evaluation of the Noveske 14.5” Afghan barreled upper from my bench-rest set-up following my usual protocol. This accuracy evaluation used statistically significant shot-group sizes and every single shot in a fired group was included in the measurements. There was absolutely no use of any group reduction techniques (e.g. fliers, target movement, Butterfly Shots).

    The shooting set-up will be described in detail below. As many of the significant variables as was practicable were controlled for. Pictures of shot-groups are posted for documentation.

    All shooting was conducted from a concrete bench-rest from a distance of 100 yards (confirmed with a laser rangefinder.) The free-float hand-guard of the rifle rested in a Sinclair Windage Benchrest, while the stock of the rifle rested in a Protektor bunny-ear rear bag. Sighting was accomplished via a Leupold VARI-X III set at 25X magnification and adjusted to be parallax-free at 100 yards. A mirage shade was attached to the objective-bell of the scope. Wind conditions on the shooting range were continuously monitored using a Wind Probe. The set-up was very similar to that pictured below.














    For this evaluation, I used one of my standard match-grade hand-loads topped with Sierra 55 grain BlitzKings. When fired from my Krieger barreled AR-15s, this load has produced ˝ MOA 10-shot groups at 100 yards.










    Three 10-shot groups fired from the Afghan upper at a distance of 100 yards using the match grade hand-loads had extreme spreads of:

    0.993”
    0.941”
    1.004”

    for a 10-shot group average extreme spread of 0.98”. I over-layed the three 10-shot groups on each other using RSI Shooting lab to form a 30-shot composite group. The mean radius for the 30-shot composite group was 0.33”.



    The smallest 10-shot group . . .








    The 30-shot composite group . . .





    ....

  2. #2
    Join Date
    Sep 2014
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    Nice work up, but what is that solo cup gauge? A wind gauge?

  3. #3
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    I'm sure it doesn't hurt that you're a great shooter Molon.

    Thanks for posting this. I have this exact Noveske Afghan Upper with the SWS rail and the pinned Smith FH. I don't have many rounds down range with it because I end up shooting the Recon more. By the looks of the results, I need to shoot it more.

  4. #4
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    As said before, thanks for the time you put in to post up these results, i enjoy reading such..

    Another thing " I need/want" is to try out a noveske barrel someday..

  5. #5
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    Wonder how it does accuracy-wise with MK262.

    Is the gap between the rail and the upper normal?

  6. #6
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    Sep 2014
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    Thanks for sharing, as always Molon.

    It looks like this Noveske barely out shoots the chrome-lined Colt 14.5" SOCOM you tested in 2010.

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