204 AR

Well, I barely believe this myself, but my phone rang 10 minutes ago, and it was a gal from the "loose items" department of the Omaha post office. She described the bcg that Brandon sent me, and is packaging it up and sending it my way! So this story has a happy ending and no one gets screwed. I think I learned a lesson to have a little more patience. Hopefully Brandon will accept my good wishes and apology for any stress he may have suffered over this. Russ

I've had an unfortunate business transaction with a member here, an item I bought thru the classifieds. I have discussed this with one of the administrators starting over a week ago, and was told if it wasn't resolved by today to give an account on the open forum. This is not enjoyable to me in any way, I simply want the issue resolved in a fair manner. If this is in the wrong forum, feel free to move it. Here goes. You may remember a stainless bcg posted for sale by 308Gunner in early November. I claimed it, and thru messages we agreed upon a usps MO, with $15 added for ups shipping. I mailed the MO promptly within a day or 2 at the most, and it was received Nov 8th. Brandon mailed the bcg out on the 13th or 14th. By the 18th or 19th I was getting concerned, and got the tracking # from him. It showed that it arrived in Rochester NY on the 14th and that is as far as it went. We texted back and forth a few times, he was trying to figure out what went wrong and to get the insurance claim started. I kind of chalked it up to one of those things, and figured the package would show up sooner or later, until the empty package showed up about 10 days ago. It was a simple lined paper envelope from the ups store, with a hole in it. And a note from the usps stated "We sincerely regret" bla bla bla. Well I was a little perturbed that anyone would put a large chunk of iron in an envelope and try to mail it. If it had been in a box of any kind I'd have it and none of this would have happened. Ok so it happened, I just want my funds returned. Brandon got defensive at that point and said he's trying to do everything he can, and that it isn't his fault the mail lost it. I say it definately isn't my fault either, but I'm the only one who's out $265. Now I haven't heard from him since last Friday, his last text said his wife went into labor and he was a little preoccupied. I can understand that and wish them all the best, and hope all is well. That can be a stressful time. But a quick text wouldn't take long, let me know what you plan to do, I let him know I just want the money back, and any insurance that's supposedly on it would be his to keep. Throughout all of this I feel I have been civil and forthright. I know if the situation was reversed I would take responsibility for not packaging a valuable (not to mention rare) item appropriately. Three texts this past week have gone unanswered, including a simple one asking if everything was alright. I really hope all is well with Brandon's young family, if anyone knows him personally please post anything you know of whether they're ok. Thanks Russ LeMunyan

+1, this is unthinkable.

I'm sure it will work great...now I just got to decide, does the chrome carrier go on the 243, the 308, or the 300 saum. The bolt is for the 308, as long as it headspaces ok. Thanks Brandon!

I'll take it! Been looking for one of those!

Thanks for the reply. Does Fulton have any type of discount codes that you know of?

Anyone know who has the 308 bcg's in stock for a decent price? JSE is the best price I've seen, but don't have any. Thanks for any help!

44mag.com has them for $20, free shipping. Don't know about the NY shipping though.

Thanks for the compliments guys! I do really like it, though I've changed things a bit since that pic. That Zeiss now sits on my 243 build, since the bdc reticle closely matches the 80 gr Barnes I'm shooting out of that one. I also robbed the carbon fiber tube for the 243. I plan on getting another for the 308. And I put a Houge grip on the lower, much nicer than mil-spec. Cheek weld is good, I used some high Weaver quad-lock rings. Not the see-thru's, just normal high rings. The full story is that the first 308 barrel was a dog. Not many acceptable groups with anything, and different weight bullets shot to drastically different points of impact. Rainier took it back and sent me another, and this one is much better. Haven't found a "magic" load yet, however everything I've shot is acceptable for a light contour barrel. I don't know the name for the contour off hand, but it is pictured on Rainiers web site. This is the Select line, which is made by a manufacturer in WA that can't be named here. Cleans ridiculously easy, in fact you'd be hard pressed to find any copper in it at all. Overall I'm really happy with it, and will be happier yet when I test a few more loads. It likes 150 gr Sierra GK ok, but I'm going to try the flat based Pro-hunters, sometimes barrels just prefer the flat based bullets over the boattails. Here's a pic of both the 243 and 308, 243 on top. :

Also found out that my 243 barrel shipped today, it will be a twin to this one except 22" barrel, and JP stainless lo-pro gas block. And has the A3 upper. OK, maybe twin was the wrong word, lol.

Here she is! 20" Rainier barrel, DPMS carbon fiber ff tube, adjustable dpms gas block (modded myself), 5 rnd pmag (modded myself). DPMS slick side upper, and DPMS bcg. Weighs 9.25 lb as shown with the 4.5-14x Zeiss on top. Now gotta get some calm days to test accuracy! I've had it out testing function, it ran flawlessly and I got the gas block adjusted.

Thanks for the good words guys! I sure hope it shoots well, it's gonna look killer for sure! It's the cheaper select barrel, I know who makes those and I know they're not highly thought of here. But they have a satisfaction guarantee, and I've read good about them elsewhere. It's the perfect profile I was looking for, and in stock to boot! I about peed myself when I stumbled onto it!

Got a 308 barrel from Rainier, and slick side upper from JSE on the way. Also DPMS carbon fiber ff tube coming from DPMS. They're swapping out a defective aluminum one and upgrading me for free!

Ok thanks for the reply. That's what I figured, overgassed. I watched a Bushmaster midlength carbine go on gunbroker for over $1100, but it did have a nice ff tube on it.

I've read on here that it's wise to choose mid-length gas systems on the 16" barrels. I understand the port pressure thing, I'm just wondering how much of a difference it makes. The reason I ask is that I'm considering buying one of the cheap oracle uppers, and they are carbine gas systems. Are they reliable and worth while? I've also noticed that the Bushmasters use a mid-length system, and they look much more proportional. Also noticed that Bushy uses lowers that use replacable trigger gaurds, why doesn't dpms? Thanks for any replies!

From looking at the buffer and tube, I think the buffer is AR15. Reading the description on the tube, it says it will only work with the Armalite spring, and AR10 buffer part #EC0120. To me the buffer looks too long.

Same as what Racerken said, the catch shouldn't catch the bolt carrier, but the bolt lugs. If the bolt won't pull back far enough for the bolt to catch, you may have the wrong buffer. Your bcg looks fine from what I can tell. I've noticed on mine that the bevel on the bottom of the carrier isn't an even grind, that's normal.

Pure genius! Thanks for the idea!

I got a 22", satin stainless .243 barrel on order, and a lo-pro silver stainless JP adjustable gas block and and a black gas tube ordered from Midway. Here's the rest of the build: That probably isn't the scope I'll keep on it, but wanted to see what it looked like.

http://www.44mag.com/product/magpul_pmag_20_lr/pmag_magazines Here's another option for you. Free shipping, and they're super fast.

Look, I didn't come here to argue with the "any one elses ideas are stupid" crowd. Just thought I'd post a little show-n-tell. Take what you want from it... ;D

Valid point I guess. But, 4 reasons come to mind. 1. Saves some weight 2. Full length will hit the shooting table when shooting off the bench if you're not careful. 3. Looks better IMO. Even the image of a big-ol banana clip in the "deer woods" may turn some off. Not that I care that much what people think, but just saying.... 4. Spares take less room in the pack. When you're hunting with a 5 round limit, I would like to carry a loaded spare or 2. When I'm coyote hunting there is no limit, so the above doesn't apply and I'll likely carry it loaded with a 15 or 10 rounder. Cut down but not as short.

Thanks guys I was pretty happy with it! BTW 44mag.com has pmags in stock, free shipping too.

Yip that's where I got the inspiration! Except he uses roll pins instead of the machine screws to hold the floorplate on. With the screws I can easily take it apart for cleaning.

I read about cutting the pmags down on Snipers Hide while doing a search for 5 round Pmags. So this isn't entirely my idea, but I did add a couple of my own touches. Here's some pics to show a little more Even cut down to the top rib, they hold 7 rounds. So here's how I blocked it, with a piece of the mag cut to 1.7", and placed into the groove in the follower, and pinned in place with the spring itself. It rattled at first, so I wrapped it in duct tape and that took care of the rattle. It took some trial and error, but 1.7" allows only 5 rounds, and still allows use of the cover, and allows the loaded mag to be placed into the rifle with the bolt closed. I cut 5 spring wraps off in all, it seems about right but will have to wait till my rifle's done to test fire. [img width=810 height=607]http://i925.photobucket.com/albums/ad92/204AR/SDC10293.jpg Here's the cut down mag, with the floorplate drilled and tapped for (3) 6-32 x 1/4" long hex head screws. This worked fantastic. [img width=810 height=607]http://i925.photobucket.com/albums/ad92/204AR/SDC10294.jpg Cut down with the full sized one next to it. [img width=810 height=607]http://i925.photobucket.com/albums/ad92/204AR/SDC10295.jpg And stubby mag inserted in my rifle. This is my 300 saum, pmags don't work in it. I wish they did, cut down like this it's a much lighter mag than the steel dpms ones.