I've been looking for a .308 auto. The Springfield M1A is my first choice, but I am curious about the AR-10 platform. I don't know much about them. Is the aluminum AR frame strong enough for the .308? Seems like it's a little too light weight. Please enlighten me.
AR-10 Questions
- Thread starter Sky Dog
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As was mentioned most if not all AR10 rifles are going to use some parts that aren't interchangeable between brands. My brother in law has a Sig 716 and it's a fine weapon, if not a bit expensive IMO. However he is limited to going through SIG to get replacement parts if something should go wrong with it. There's no going down to the local shop and getting a replacement, at least not in general.
There basiclly three camps when it comes to the AR10 (used here as a blanket term).
1. Armalite- The original AR10 but pretty much only uses their parts and after market support is there but limited.
2. DPMS- While the AR15s may give people pause their AR10s are pretty dang good. The DPMS pattern has the most after market support so if you are building one the DPMS pattern is the way to go.
3. Everyone else- RRA, LaRue, LMT and other makers do their own thing. They have their own rifles and their parts may not fit another rifle. LaRue does not even offer their OBR parts for sale. At least last I looked.
Hope that helps some.
1. Armalite- The original AR10 but pretty much only uses their parts and after market support is there but limited.
2. DPMS- While the AR15s may give people pause their AR10s are pretty dang good. The DPMS pattern has the most after market support so if you are building one the DPMS pattern is the way to go.
3. Everyone else- RRA, LaRue, LMT and other makers do their own thing. They have their own rifles and their parts may not fit another rifle. LaRue does not even offer their OBR parts for sale. At least last I looked.
Hope that helps some.
Dontkillbill
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I just shot an AR-10 this week with a match barrel. Awesome gun and its solid. I heard Win and Ruger are Windham have models. After shooting the AR10 I might need one in my safe. It was light shooting as it had a compensator.
ugaarguy
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I'll add a few things to what Robert has mentioned.
Armalite in its current form is a division of Eagle Arms of Geneseo, IL. Their AR-10 is not the same as the original Armalite division of Fairchild Aviation AR-10. It is the only .308 platform AR that can be called an AR-10 because Armalite owns that name, and it's the .308 platform AR that's been on the market longest. It uses modified M14 mags, but they recently added a version with a new lower to use the .308 PMags. Decent aftermarket support just because there are so many of them.
Knights Armament SR-25 is parts compatible with the original Fairchild Armalite AR-10. They're expensive but very high quality. These will use .308 PMags, and even the original Fairchild AR-10 mags. JP and others make aftermarket internal parts for this pattern.
DPMS LR-308, LR-243, etc, are fully SR-25 / Fairchild AR-10 compatible. Their new GII models may or may not be fully compatible, but I haven't checked all the details.
Current Bushmaster and Remmington are DPMS variants built at the Remington plant in Ilion, NY. The three companies are all owned by Freedom Group and they standardized on the DPMS LR-308 pattern.
Rock River Arms bought Bushmaster's original .308 AR design after Freedom Group switched Bushmaster to the DPMS pattern. There were very few original Bushmaster .308 AR's made before they were bought by Freedom Group, and the design sold to RRA. The RRA uses unmodified FAL mags or Rock River's own contract built polymer mag.
As Robert noted everything else is its own design with only partial (if any) parts compatibility between the Fairchild AR-10/SR-25/LR-308 pattern or the Eagle Arms Armalite AR-10 pattern.
Armalite in its current form is a division of Eagle Arms of Geneseo, IL. Their AR-10 is not the same as the original Armalite division of Fairchild Aviation AR-10. It is the only .308 platform AR that can be called an AR-10 because Armalite owns that name, and it's the .308 platform AR that's been on the market longest. It uses modified M14 mags, but they recently added a version with a new lower to use the .308 PMags. Decent aftermarket support just because there are so many of them.
Knights Armament SR-25 is parts compatible with the original Fairchild Armalite AR-10. They're expensive but very high quality. These will use .308 PMags, and even the original Fairchild AR-10 mags. JP and others make aftermarket internal parts for this pattern.
DPMS LR-308, LR-243, etc, are fully SR-25 / Fairchild AR-10 compatible. Their new GII models may or may not be fully compatible, but I haven't checked all the details.
Current Bushmaster and Remmington are DPMS variants built at the Remington plant in Ilion, NY. The three companies are all owned by Freedom Group and they standardized on the DPMS LR-308 pattern.
Rock River Arms bought Bushmaster's original .308 AR design after Freedom Group switched Bushmaster to the DPMS pattern. There were very few original Bushmaster .308 AR's made before they were bought by Freedom Group, and the design sold to RRA. The RRA uses unmodified FAL mags or Rock River's own contract built polymer mag.
As Robert noted everything else is its own design with only partial (if any) parts compatibility between the Fairchild AR-10/SR-25/LR-308 pattern or the Eagle Arms Armalite AR-10 pattern.
Averageman
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And this is exactly why when looking for an AR10, I ended up with an M1A.
ugaarguy
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Armalite is still cataloging both on their website so far. However, there are more variants of the AR-10A (the model that accepts original Fairchild Armalite Mags and .308 PMags for those unfamiliar) listed. I suspect the popularity and availability of the PMag LR and steel SR-25/LR-308 pattern mags from DPMS and ASC have influenced the popularity of the AR-10A.
ugaarguy
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To be fair, while all internals aren't the same on .308 AR's, per Midway's product description:
The S&W M&P-10 and Ruger SR-762 also use, and even ship from the factory with, the PMag LR. So, the SR-25 / LR-308 pattern mag has become the de facto standard. The AR-10 type rifles are also very easy to mount optics. As long as one understands that the piston rifles are proprietary, and that most of the gas tube rifles fall under either the Eagle Arms Armalite AR-10 internal parts pattern or the SR-25/LR-308 internal parts pattern there's no reason not to buy an AR-10 type rifle.
Thanks for listing the pmag compatible models. I've always wanted a comprehensive list. I'm not in the market now, but if/when I am I'm going to look at only ones that accept pmags due to their reasonable cost from a trustworthy company.
If the cost of mags were a major issue, I think there's even a model built that accepts HK G3 mags, which is pretty cool as long as you can scoop up a ton while they last.
If the cost of mags were a major issue, I think there's even a model built that accepts HK G3 mags, which is pretty cool as long as you can scoop up a ton while they last.
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