LR-308L: Worth it or build?

[xanderzuk]

After lugging around a friends Remington R-25 all Thanksgiving weekend, I strongly desired a lighter .308 AR. I went into a local gun shop yesterday and handled a DPMS LR-308L which comes in at 7.9 lbs. They had an R-25 in stock as well and picking the two up back to back is like night and day.

My question is, is there a better way to do a lightweight DPMS build for less than or the same $1500 it would cost to buy the LR-308L? I would like it to be as light or lighter, and an 18-20" barrel. Are there reasonable aftermarket barrels out there that I could perhaps contour or flute, and which contour would you recommend? Free float hand guards? Stock? etc?

Remember, goal is 8lbs or less without optics.

I should also ask, what about the carbine length gas system on a .308 vs mid or rifle length? will there be more recoil or less reliability?

 

[Leverb66]

I don't know about building, but I can comment on the DPMS platform. I have an LR-243L. I haven't gotten a shot off at an animal yet, but it has been great at the range. I carried it during deer season and it was great, I never got tired of carrying it.

 

[Tirod]

The .308 is a full power battle rifle cartridge, and because of the gas pressures, will usually result in a relatively heavier gun than intermediate cartridges. Getting under 8 pounds will be a stretch, as already noted. Stoner's exercise at eliminating the separate gas piston and operating rod on the barrel, plus using a barrel extension instead of a heavy machined receiver generally trims a pound and half from the gun.

Building a .308 AR10 isn't like the AR15, there aren't many suppliers, and the don't adhere to the same TDP or blueprint that is considered military standard. Uppers and lowers aren't necessarily interchangeable, bolt assemblies vary by fractions of inches, not thousandths, etc. They are largely proprietary, as a military version wasn't made the standard.

Your best bet may be to buy the upper and lower separate, shipped to the same FFL, and by that means avoid the tax on a finished firearm. There will likely be no warranty, either. Specifying all the lightest weight parts and buying them might work, free floats aren't known to be that light in full rifle lengths, other accessories may not be the lightest either. It takes some diligent research.

Your better answer is to call the lightest .308 maker out there and discuss what you want, then pay for it.

Or, consider a build up at home using the AR and an alternative caliber larger than 5.56. An effectively equivalent gun with optic can be had, weighing less than the .308s bare. It's a matter of what you are willing to trade off to meet a criteria. Since I won't shoot game out past 350m, I don't need the larger gun capable of 600m. I can then trim another pound and a half carrying the AR - rather than the personal benchmark, the heavy, bulky, and overbuilt HK91. Love the .308 all I want, that 12 pound slug went down the road when it escalated in value by 5X.

I share the same concern, just solving it differently.

 

[xanderzuk]

So what's your current setup Tirod?

 

[Tirod]

Bolt .30-06 or lever .30-30 until the AR is done. Both are light, the lever is short and handy, ammo is never a problem, even in a panic. Inexpensive in comparison. However, because of the manual action, you lose the sight picture reloading, and can't track the animal if and when that perfect first shot somehow became less so. Life is like that. Lost a deer to another hunter because of it.

It was recovered, no harm no foul, it makes for a wasted day when one more shot a split second later would solve the problem but the action is waiting for you to cycle it.

We seem to buy our firearms because of what we think might be a worse case situation, I traded off shooting at 600m to correct the rare condition of deflections and game that jumped hearing the 65db safety click off.