Jgun

As mentioned above, Many of the manufacturers don't have the equipment in house to make their own barrels, I doub't that many rifle their own blanks, even if the do the rest. I've read that with the AR 15's a few companys are making most of the forgings, and that they are just marked with the name of the manufacturer. You have to understand that the equpment to actually make these parts is large, expensive and specialized, along with the techniques and knowledge required to make a good barreled blank or forging. Even companies that "could" financially make parts in house sometimes outsource in order to save money, I just read something about Mossberg getting barrels that are made in Mexico, I doubt that it's because they make better barrels there than we can in the US. That doesn't mean that the company isn't an actual manufacturer. I have been surprised in the past, when I've traveled to a city, and decided to visit the factory where something I own is made, only to find that it's a very small operation, not the huge complex I had invisioned. Tha't doesn't have to mean that the product is inferior, although a smaller outfit probably won't have the resources that a larger one has for R&D and customer service. I still think you should consider building your own, there's a lot to be said for getting a gun designed exactly the way you want.

Agreed, I'm hoping to retire down south so that I can build some SBRs and enjoy shooting without ear pro. I have started to consider suppressor mounting on all of my guns, and since they're pretty pricey, I'm figuring on one or two .30 cal suppressors that I'll switch from gun to gun. I'm hoping to get down to try out a few before settling on one. I noticed that only some of the Mfgs list the sound reduction capabilities of their suppressors. I found this to be of interest, if you haven't already seen it perhaps you will also. http://www.tucsonguns.com/Suppresser-010-five-compare.php

It sounds like your not pushing the 30 to the limit as i am with the 300 to get to 2,600 fps. I KNOW there's no way I could get 24gr of powder in my 300 cases. The reason I originally started load developement with the 300 was to try to make major power factor for 3 gun shooting. I was also trying to see if I could improve the trajectory and get it to shoot flatter. Since my results are with an 18" barrel, and your's are with a 16" (or shorter) I'm thinking that the 30HRT has the potential to surpase the 300, wonder why no one is using the 30HRT in 3gun competition? Team H, you say that your 6.8 has a 16" barrel, what do you consider the effective range of it?

I'll be Looking forward to seeing that!

I'm probably just looking for that mythical "perfect" do everything rd for the small platform AR (and for the large platform AR for that matter also). I had assumed that with the larger cartridge base, the 30HRT would substantially out perform the 300BLK. I based this assumtion on the performance I've seen reported for the 6.8 SPC. I guess the reason the SPC outperforms the 300 is because of the smaller cal bullet. I don't know how many gr of powder your able to fit in the 30HRT case, but I'm presently getting 2,600fps with my 125 and 135gr bullets from my 300BLK loads, of course tha's out of an 18" barrel. Would it be logical to assume that ballistically, since we're both getting similar muzzle velocity from equal weight bullets, I could expect a 30HRT AR to have similar ballistic results as I'm getting from my 300BLK? In order to achieve the results that I have, I've got my cases filled as much as is possible, theres no way I can get any more performance out of my 300. I have been giving some thought to the idea of trying one of Wilson's 7.62 X40 barrels just to see what I could get out of it if i had that extra .200" of case length to fill.

So, If I'm understanding you correctly now, You were asking about suppressors to fit the Vortec FH, not looking for the FH. I'm not in a state that allows suppressors, so I'm not that knowledgable, but for the most part, I get the impression that the suppressor mfgs design their mounts to fit their cans not the other way around. Every mfg that I'm aware of has their own proprietary FH/mount, that includes Surefire, AAC, YHM, and Gemtech. Even the Gemtech Vortex type FH/guick mount has a different mounting design than the Smith vortex FH mount, even though they both have the exact same FH design.

How quiet is it? can you post video?

i should have done this before my first post, but I just took a look on GB. Is this what your looking for? http://www.gunbroker.com/Auction/ViewItem.aspx?Item=291229351

I see the Smith Vortex FH's for sale regularly, If that's what you want why don't you do an internet search? I'll keep an eye out and post the next one I come across. I'm guessing you'd like it to be threaded, 5/8"-24, correct?

prehaps you could give some further (first hand)information on the 30HRT? I have done some load developement on 300BLK, and although I like the commonality of parts that it shares with the .223, it certainly doesn't have as good performance at long range as I might like. Before going with the .308, I had looked into the 6.8 SPC. I liked the idea of a more powerful cartridge than .223 while still retaining the light weight of the small platform AR. The things that I read that didn't sound so good were that there were bolt life issues, and that there were reliability issues because of the proprietary mags needed. Obviously, the ability to use off the shelf AR 15 parts is an undeniably attractive advantage of the 300BLK. I also remember that it was going to cost a good deal more to load for 6.8 than to load 300BLK. If I disregard the economic advantages of shooting 300BLK, could you share your experience with the 30HRT, with regards to accuracy/range, reliability, feeding, bolt life ? I have heard from some people that the smaller caliber bullets are inherently more accurate, and that is one of their reasons for goig with the 6.5 and .260 cal bullets, but I find that I prefer a .30 cal bullet. How do you find the performance/accuracy of the HRT as compared to the 6.8 SPC ? And finally, what mags do you find to be the best, and how many rds of 30HRT fit in the mag?

I would have to agree. I've got a 14.5" .308 AR and find that the handling is very good, as well as the accuracy, but it makes a pretty good fireball when fired. I would consider that to be wasted powder, and figure that a 16" would better match the .308 cartridge. I'm sure there's applicaions where the reduced size of the SBR are advantages, but if your not getting the ballistic performance out of the rd, then, a smaller cartridge like 300BLK might be more efficient. I'm thinking that a suppresed 300BLK SBR is going to by a more useful tool than a suppressed .308 AR SBR.

Haven't seen any off the shelf DPMS based .308 SBR uppers, But all it would take would be for you to use a DPMS upper along with a Noveske Leonidas barrel and Armalite BCG. If you could find out the gas port location and port size for one of the established SBR uppers you could probably have a barrel made, but that sounds like it would probably cost more than just buying the Noveske barrel, (if available). The upper doesn't care what barrel or BCG you use. I'd think that anyone that is capable of assembling an AR upper could do it for you. it might take some buffer/spring fine tuning to get reliable function but that shouldn't be too difficult.

Barrel blank is presently 30" long and 1.625" OD. It's 1/15 twist and deep chambered. I don't think it will take more than .250" to face,crown,and finish chamber it, so I souldn't lose too much on the length. From what I've heard about shooting the .50's, extra weight can be more of an asset than a draw back. I intend to keep the barrel as long as possible, but will contour it somewhat. I expect this gun to be very heavy when finished. Hopefully, with the addition of an effective brake, along with the weight, it won't be too punishing to enjoy shooting. I don't want this gun to be something that people only want to shoot once, just so thay can say they've shot a .50 cal.

I haven't ever ordered a fluted barrel on purpose, simply because they usually tack on an additional $100 (at least) for the service. I only got my fluted Noveske because they didn't have a non fluted and gave it to me for the non fluted price. The fact that you got a fluted, melonite treated barrel for that price sounds like a steal. I've been waiting for the Rainier Ultimatches to become available, and was thinking I'd get it melonited, but now I'm thinking that I should see how soon LOKI expects to have some more of these, in stock, I think I'm going to have to give them a call this week, Hurry up and finish this thing, I need a range report !!!!!!!!!!!

I've been putting guns together for a while now, and am always looking for something new to try, in order to gain knowledge and to challenge myself. I've done some AR's and AK's and some pistols, and I'm presently working on an M1A. I've been thinking about building a bolt gun for a while, and don't think it would be something beyond my present ability. I'm always in awe of the members that are building off of the raw forgings, and was considering trying to do that, but I lucked into a chambered .50BMG barrel blank at a price I couldn't pass up, so, I'm thinking about seeing how far I can get with a scratch built .50 bolt gun, I've looked at some of the plans that are out there for home builders, but all of them were for single shot guns, and I want a mag fed. I also like the idea of a steel receiver/barreled action, mounted in a chassis type stock, so I'm thinking about using some established plans to get some of my bolt dimensions, but designing the rest on my own. Having never done anything like this before, I'm not sure exactly where to begin, I think that I'll probably build a non working receiver/bolt out of aluminum first, in order to prove out the design, and get my mag height and retention down, before I attempt to make the receiver/bolt out of steel. I have an idea that this is going to be a very loooooong term project, just hope I live long enough to see it through.

I guess that means it must overhang the Mega lowers, kind of like the DPMS .308 uppers do, correct? I understand that many believe that the thicker uppers increase the rigidity of the rifle and action, over that of a forged AR 15 upper, but is there any other reason besides cosmetics that they make them thicker than their standard billit uppers? By the way, that LOKI barrel looks really nice, can't wait to hear how it shoots. If you don't mind me asking, is the $285 price I see in one of you pictures, the base price or the total with the fluting?

good looking carbine, I especially like that Magpul hand guard. Thats 16" rifle length gas system, yes?

If you build it yourself, you should check headspace before shooting it. Understand that if you were to find the headspace to be out of spec, You'd have to have it handled by a compitant gunsmith (unless you own a lathe and know how to chamber an AR barrel). What you will find is that, as long as you use quality barrel/extension, and bolt, it's very unlikely that your going to have a headspace problem, just be sure to go with the same pattern for both barrel extension and bolt, don't mix DPMS and AR10 bolts and barrels.

I hadn't thought of that, thanks.

I'm getting ready to install the barrel on my M1A build. I've been advised to use some powdered rosin on the barrel soft jaws to help prevent the barrel from spinning when I torque the receiver on. I see that brownells sells 1 lb containers for $25. I don't think I'll ever have use for that much in this lifetime, so I thought I'd see if any other members that use it, might be willing to sell me a small amount to use for my barrel install.

I spotted this on Brownells site. Looks like a new type of low pro adjustable gas block. Not sure if it's a good design, but if anyone's looking for one to use on an AR 15 build it might be worth looking into. www.brownells.com/.aspx/pid=53466/Product/AR-15-AR10-FRONT-ADJUSTABLE-GAS-BLOCK

thanks, Robo. It must be nice to have computer skills.

Robocop, I attempted to email the file to you, I'm guessing you didn't get it, if that's the case, I'll try again.

Someone sent me a file on the Honey badger. I found it to be pretty interesting. My question is this, It's in Adobe and it's 28 pages long. Can that format be posted here? If so, am I correct in guessing that at 28 pages it would be too large to post? Here is the PDF in 3 parts. -Robocop1051 4396_.pdf 4397_.pdf 4398_.pdf

Not wishing to add fuel to the fire here, but I ordered an AR 10 carbine buffer and spring from Armalite last year, and, not sure if it was due to an error on my part or due to the salesperson not understanding/knowing my component combination, but when it arrived, within 5 min I realized that it would not work because it was too long. I never fired the gun, only tried to charge the gun once and then removed the parts, They had no marks on them and were as new (could be resold). I called Armalite immediately, this is the day the parts arrived. They told me the same thing "No problem on the return, 20% restocking fee and shipping is on you" . I still have them in my possesion. They made no offer to assist me in resoving the issue as Slash has done. If it had been me I'd have held on to the parts for another build, because I know them to be of high quality, and have functioned in every gun I've used them. You could also have posted them for sale here and on SH and I'm sure that you would have been able to sell them with little problem. Sorry they didn't work in your application, and I'm not trying to disagree with your diagnosis of your problem, but I have not found a situation where one of the heavy buffers did not function in a gun as long as it was physically the correct size for the application. in some guns that are working properly a heavy buffer is not needed, but generally will not cause any function problems, but I'm not sure if it's fair to expect Slash to guarantee that his product will solve a problem, diagnosesd by you, on a gun he hasn't tested, and when it doesn't solve your problem, expect him to give you a full refund. I'm sorry it didn't work for you, but if it were me, I'd hold on to them, because they're good parts, and will be of use to you in the future.