Oly Arms 10mm carbine

[ID_shooting]

I have been thinking of one of these for a nice small short-range carbine.

Thinking of getting one and filing with the ATF to make a 10 inch SBR.

I am thinking it would be a good camp carbine, urban defence, hiking rifle.

Does anyone have one? What do you think of it? What mags do they use? What kind of performance to you see?

 

[The Grand Inquisitor]

I don;t have any experiance with the Olympic, but if you are willing to wait a month or two, you would be able to get one of Vector's HK clones in 10mm for a comprable price (I think they were around $1500-2000).

 

[Doc S]

Why 10mm?

Hi,

I hope you don't mind my chiming in here, but why a 10mm?

I'm looking for an alexander arms beowulf .50 upper for my armalight lower.
I was looking at the 9's, 40's and some of the other stuff.
The Standard beowulf has a 16 inch barrel. Appears to have MOA accuracy and can be loaded upto 400gr! All this in a small package that has the recoil of a 20ga.

Looks promissing as a pig thumper!
Not to mention vermints of a 2 leged nature!

God Bless,
Doc S

 

[3rdpig]

The Oly 10mm carbine is listed in their catalog at $824 and can be had for less if you shop around a bit. This is a far cry from $1500 to $2000. In fact you could buy two of the Oly carbines for that and may have money left over.

Personally I've had good luck with Oly and currently own one of their AR's and have another one that has many Oly parts on it. The Oly 20" AR that I own is my favorite AR out of the 3 I own and the FIRSH handguards and other Oly parts that I have on another AR are top notch. Every contact I've had with them has been good. They're on my short list of favorite companies.

 

[Lennyjoe]

I have been having good luck with my Oly as well.

16" PCR-2 and it shoots great groups with 55gr FMJ over 25gr of H-335 in LC brass.

 

[NMshooter]

Is the Oly 10mm still gas operated, or did they convert it to blowback operation?

I remember the FBI testing it along with the H&K 10mm, seem to recall the Thompson rechambered in 10mm as well. Do not remember how well any of them did.

 

[The Grand Inquisitor]

Doc - 10mm is quite a bit different from 50 Beowolf...in fact they are nothing alike.

 

[ID_shooting]

Doc, Why shoot a .50?

It is the same reason I big game hunt with a 30 year old Winchester 30-06 and 30-30 rather than some new super-duper-ultra-wonder mag fad of the week.

10mm gives you all the power you need and much faster target reaquisition.

Shooter, blowback, or at least that is what I understand. That should make for a much cleaner action than your standard AR.

 

[RRTX]

IIRC They use some sort of modified uzi mag that cost $65 each and are only 10 rds.

 

[BA110N Man]

Olympic Arms

I have an Olympic Arms upper in .45 acp and have been very happy with it. I too have considered turning it into an SBR -- it would be like having a 21st century version of a "Thompson" -- semi-auto only. But I hesitate making myself a blip on the Fed's radar.

I only have two complaints:

• The upper uses a wire spring ejector instead of the solid metal "finger" that 9mm conversions use.

• Magazine capacity!

The wire-spring vs. solid ejector speaks for itself - so no elaboration. Don't know if this is the set-up in all Olympic conversions and I've experinced absolutely NO problems... but I've not had to stake my life on it either. Definately something to consider.

As RRTX aluded to earlier, it uses a modified UZI 45acp conversion magazine. The capacity is only 16 rounds -- more than my colt but 36% less than a Thompson with a 25 round mag!

I have seen conversions that use M3 magazines (interesting) and some rumors of using Thompson mags (very interesting). The problem is that these magazines will not fit in the conventional AR lower's mag well without considerable/problematic gunsmithing to the lower.

There is an option using a Calvary lower. These are specifically advertized to take M3 or Thompson mags and Brownell's sells a converion block to retain the mag. But going this route requires the use of a fixed butt stock (integral with the MkII lower)... kind'a defeats the purpose of doing the SBR thing

Sorry to digress in addressing the original discussion.

Wish you luck... but a pistol caliber "rifle" is at best a carbine. Still, turning it into and SBR with a collapsing stock would make a fine little bang-bang!

 

[Reed1911]

We have one that belongs to the company and it's a blast to shoot, accurate as all get out, and try...I mean TRY to get her to jam. Yeah right. Cost from us on one is 700.00 + 20.00 S/H. Olympic will also convert any mags you have to fit the PCR for 25.00.

 

[GunGoBoom]

for a poor man's version

http://www.mechtechsys.com/glock.html

mech-tech upper, glock 20 lower. cheap mags 15-rd & does the job. I like mine.

Doc S, welcome!

 

[Langenator]

Since Oly's home office is within 5 miles of my house, I've been looking into getting one of these myself.

The upper comes with one 10-rnd magazine. If you want higher capacity, they will convert .41 AE Uzi mags, but you have to provide the mags.

I've been hunting said mags for the last 6 weeks; the lack thereof is the only stopping me from getting the 10mm upper.

 

[ID_shooting]

GGB

How are the glock based frames a "poor man's version?"

Upper is $359, a Glock is around $450. That would be $800 give or take.

The Oly Carbine retails for about that same cost.

Just currious

 

[Cortland]

I think the magazine capacity is the deal-breaker here. .45 Uzi magazines are tough to find and when you do find them they're $50+. .41 AE are even worse. And they're single stack.

For the cost conscious I'd concur with the Mec-Tech option because of the magazine issues.

Now, the ultimate 10mm carbine would be one of Vector's semi-auto Uzis. Then buy a .45 bolt, get a 10mm barrel made, and add on one of Vector's grease gun magazine conversion lowers. I've got such a set-up (with silencer!) ready and waiting for when I get to take my FA Uzi home ... you can stuff 37 rounds of 10mm into a greasegun magazine!! But even in semi-auto this is like a $1300+ option. The saving grace of course is that the Uzi is great gun to SBR, easy to attach a suppressor too, and grease gun magazines are $10 a pop. And as an SBR the Uzi is a heck of a lot more compact than an AR SBR.

Or you could wait for Vector's MP5/10, but I'd bet it's gonna be more than a few months.

 

[NordicG3K]

I've been very happy with my 10mm Oly. It's not perfect though. The two weak points in the system are (in my opinion) the mags and the ejector. The current Oly design works, but a redesign would make it much better. I just don't think they sell enough of them to make it worth the time and money to do it. I don't know if I'd bet my life on my Oly 10mm, but it sure is one of my favorite "fun guns!"

 

[ID_shooting]

"The two weak points in the system are (in my opinion) the mags and the ejector."

Please elaborate

 

[NordicG3K]

Oly has been using the modified Uzi .41 AE mags for their 10mm carbines. As the 10mm cartridge is too short for the Uzi mag the mag body has been pinched to bow out the front. This makes it "just" big enough for the 10mm, but tolerances are so tight as to make reliability somewhat hit and miss. Oly also welds a filler block to the back of the mag to make it fit the standard AR magwell. This makes them rather clumsy and just downright ugly in my opinion. I'd like to see Oly tool up, or get with another manufacturer, to produce dedicated 10mm mags. These could also be used with .40 S&W and .357 Sig AR uppers. Sans that probably the best option currently available is the Cav Arms lower and M3 Greasegun mags, though the feedlips will need to be modified.

As for the ejector, the Oly pistol-caliber carbines use what can only be described as a "paperclip ejector." It's simply a piece of wire wrapped around a pin in the upper. It rides in a slot on the underneath side of the bolt and contacts the case head as the bolt goes back. Again, it works, but it just seems extremely flimsy and I don't see how it could hold up to heavy use, especially with full-power 10mm ammo.

As it is the Oly pistol-caliber makes a fine recreational gun, but that's as far as I'd take it.

 

[3rdpig]

Oly also makes a carbine that uses Glock magazines. They only make it in 9mm and .40 S&W, but if you're willing to step down to the .40 cartridge it would cure the magazine problem. 33 round 9mm Glock mags and 29 round .40 Glock magazines are readily available, reliable, and not very expensive. Also, all Glock mag extensions work on those mags including the +5 extensions.

Unless I was using it as a hunting weapon, the Oly carbine in 9mm with the lower that takes Glock mags would be my first choice with the model that uses converted sten mags close behind.

Also don't forget that Oly also makes an AR in .30 carbine, which is a round closely resembling the 10mm and .357 mag handgun cartridges in power. It has the advantage of using non modified 30 carbine magazines.

 

[BA110N Man]

Calvary MkII lower

Went to the gun show in Frisco, Texas this last Saturday (wife was playing tennis with some friends and said I could go... her mistake.)

Saw a couple of things of interest to this forum:
(1) Baretta carbine in 45acp - $539.00 (ummm... but pricey.)
(2) Calvary MkII lower receiver w/ integral butt-stock.

• Bought the latter for use with my Olympic upper in 45acp. Also picked up a couple of M3 "Grease Gun" magazines. Population of parts in the lower was straight forward and easy. (It should be noted that the parts count was lower as some parts, like detents and their springs, were not needed for the push-pins.)
  
  Will test it with a 5.56mm upper this week and post my experiences.

• The Olympic conversions use a new bolt head in a conventional AR15 bolt-carrier. To use a more robust ejector would require a slot cut into the bolt and bolt-carrier. I have not had the chance to look at the way Colt deals with it on their 9mm carbine but I do know they use a beefy ejector "paw" sticking up from the magazine well adapter block.

I do know that I will be buying a 45acp conversion for my Uzi carbine, the Vector Arms M3 magazine adapter grip assembly and putting in the paper work to turn it into an SBR... like Cortland suggested (just as soon as my wife tells me I can.)