Jgun

Beside the thread pitch, you have to take into account the different rail manufacturers method of attachment. Since there is no mil spec for the large platform AR's , the upper receiver contours vary widely. I made a barrel nut to mount a Larue rail (Armalite pattern) on a SR-25 pattern upper, I know from this , that the Larue couldn't be used on a MA TEN or DPMS upper unless you were to relieve the upper receiver for the rail mounting bolts and wrench clearance.

What, no pictures??????

Perhaps I'm confused here, but as far as I know, any railed handguard that you get, (that is actually designed for your DPMS .308) should either utilize the stock barrel nut, come with a proprietary nut, or have the nut offered for sale seperately. The biggest problem I'm hearing about with the DPMS uppers is the mismatch between the handguard top rail height and the DPMS uppers top rail height due to them changing the uppers design (for who know what reason). You say you have a DPMS .308 upper, what rail are you trying to mount?

Does this mean that you have a FDE build going together? If so, when do we see it?

Nice gesture for sure, and nice parts choices. What do you think of the DD barrel? Also, is the PRI being used as a GB, or just as a sight? seems too far forward for a middy gas system on a 14.5"

I, like everyone else I've ever asked, don't think much of the AR's charging setup, reletive to what I've seen on other guns. The biggest complaint about the AK setup seems to be that you have to reach over to the right side wih your weak hand to charge the weapon (If your a righty), The Galil's have the handle extended vertically which helps. I've seen people put a slot in the dust cover and drill and mount a left side handle. This is essentially the same thing your doing on a reciprocating left side AR setup. I've been told that when shooting you don't even see the bolt lever riding back and forth in front of your face. I've never tried one of the reciprocating left side setups, but definitely like a non recip setup like on thw REPR (and others ) better, but that would require more work to design and execute.

I've read on one of the barrel makers site's were they don't recommend the aluminum GB's because of the fact that the aluminum GB and steel barrel expand at a different rate and you can have gas leakage. Based on all of the aluminum blocks on the market, maybe that's untrue. If you decided to run one you could always plan to replace it when you replace your gas tube.

I saw the video of the leonidas on Noveskes site and although it looks pretty cool and I'm sure it effectivly serves a purpose, I'm thinking that unless the pig brake or the surpressor adds some back pressure to the barrel, I think that your wasting a lot of the useful power/powder in the .308 out of such a short barrel. My 14.5" with BABC makes a huge muzzle flash every time I fire it. I'm thinking that the 2" shorter barrel is going to be even worse, unless of course your running a can.

DPMS/SR-25 uppers have a 1 7/16"-16 pitch thread so require a nut with the same thread. Armalite/Noveske uppers have a 1 7/16"-18 pitch thread so require nuts with that thread. Obviously they are not interchangable. I have never assembled any of the factory guns so can't comment on what the outside configuration is on their barrel nuts. I can tell you that many/most of the manufacturers of aftermarket, free float handguards utilize proprietary, barrel nuts with unique designs so they will not interchange between the two platforms or between different handguards. Basically, you pick your platform, select the handguard, and either you buy the nut that matches the platform, or it is supplied with the handguard.

Ive got one of the SWS rails on a .308 AR I built. If I remember correctly, it's a few oz. heavier than the Daniel Defense or Larue equivilant, but not really noticable, not like the Knights or Swan rails. In my opinion, the DD,SWS,and Larue are all top of the line rails with steel barrel nuts, the SWS and DD have a continuous top rail which is nice, but the Larue mounting setup is very strong. I think you'll be happy with any one of them.

If your skilled and can do a professional looking job, I don't see why you can't do it yourself, only things that come to mind for me are the fact that you'll have exposed bare aluminum where you cut the slot in the upper. If your gun is used in dirty conditions, you've created a path for dirt to get into the action, unless you leave the charging handle as a redundant setup, you'll need to make a filler for the area where the charging handle presently is located. If you decide to try it , make sure you share some pics of your results with the rest of us.

I've got the BABC on a 7.62 AR and although this is subjective because I'm describing brakes on two different guns not two brakes tested on the same gun, but, I believe that the BABC is better with regards to side blast, than the Surefire I have fired, I can't tell you anything about the reletive compensting abilities of the BABC to the JP. I know that the JP's are very popular with the 3gun crowd, but that may have something to do with JP's offering complete race guns with them mounted. If your looking for any kind of flashhiding ability, I would be inclined to go with the BABC or something else, if, on the other hand, all you want is a comp that effectively reduces recoil and muzzle rise, I've heard nothing but good things about the JP. I guess we'll both be able to judge for ourselves once we get themmounted.

Only negative I've heard about them is the side blast, same as is said about any of the big side port brakes like the Surefire and AAC. The Jp's are supposed to be effective brakes. I've got one on order for my M1A. I'm looking forward to testing it as well.

Am I correct in assuming that the front sight block is just for the sight and the actual GB will be located under the guard? Is that going to be a 14.5 w fixed FH? What about the gas system carbine or middy?

If your positive that you want the Noveske barrel, you might want to give DSG arms a call. When I was looking for my 7.62 X 51 Afghan barrel, Noveske told me the same thing. The girl suggested that I try DSG. I called them up and even though it was listed as out of stock on the website, they found one in the warehouse for me. It might be worth a phone call.

Will your friend load the 300 to your specs? I see the custom loading service section, but get no info when I click on it.

I recall seeing a ad from JP from the shot show where they had two low pro GB's pictured and I thought they were both described as being steel. But now I can't find the ad and I don't see them on thier site.

Regarding the adjustable GB's. I see that JP's now offering clamp on, steel, lowpro (how lowpro I'm not sure) gas blocks. I'm not a fan of aluminum gas blocks and as far as I know all of their adjustable GBs used to be aluminum, which was a deal breaker for me.

Yeah, I'm pretty happy about that. Now I know that, with this barrel config. I can make major power factor with anything from 125-175gr bullets. I'm planning to buy some bulk of the 125 TNT's and load so that I can test for groups and get my holdovers down for 200-300m. I realize that this power factor is just an arbittrary number and really has little real world usefulness. I am planning to back the 125 SMK loads off to 21gr and chrono them just to see what kind of fps I can get. I think, based on the appearence of them, that they might make a more accurate rd than the TNT's but will have to find a safe load with them before I can shoot for groups. I'm hoping to pick up a 14.5" barrel within the next few months. It will be interesting to see how much the MV is lowered from the shorter barrel and tighter twist.

Don't know if this is of any help to you, but I've got a Noveske 7.62 Afghan barrel that they list as being 14.5" long. With my gun assembled the Barrel measures 14.5" from the front surface of the upper receiver(the point where the top rail ends, not to the front of the threaded dia where the barrel nut threads on) to the front end of the barrel(threaded for muzzle device). I'm thinking that if you have your upper, measure the distance from the front of the barrel to the ring that locates the barrel on the upper, add the distance from the front surface of the upper to the front of the threaded section and add them together. If they equal 14.5" it's a 14.5" barrel. You realize of course that BATF doesn't care how you get your barrel length to 16", so if the barrel your looking at is only 14", your still OK as long as you get a 1/2" longer muzzle device to bring the finished length to at least 16".

I think that the carbine length gas system being a bad thing originated with the M4's. I have read that they were very hard on bolts because of the earlier gas pressure on the carrier effected the timing and this caused the bolt to be trying to cycle and extract the case too early, before the case pressure had diminished sufficiently. I have a mid length gas system on my 14.5" 5.56 gun and prefer it to the carbine setup. I find that the gun seems to cycle smoother and recoil is less. Now if you were to apply the same logic to the .308, I would think that the mid length gas system (or rifle length for that matter) has the potential to give you a smoother operating gun. Of course the 7.62 is not the same rd as th 5.56 so the gas impulse will not be the same. Personally I have a 14.5" 7.62 AR with what Noveske calls a carbine gas system, But the GB is actually located in the same place that an AR 15 mid length gas block is located. I wouldn't want the gas system on my 14.5 gun to be any longer than it is for reliability reasons. That being said, a 14.5 barrel is a different animal than a 16". Barrels are expensive, If your gun runs well as is, I'd be inclined to leave the system alone. You could put a heavier buffer in it. The only reason I'd consider a different gas system type would be if you wanted to change the barrel, not to change the barrel because you want a different gas system.

The Rainiers don't appear to unclude the gas block or tube. I see that Rainier's also got 14.5" Noveske barrels for $450 including the GB and tube. I'm thinking that puts the price of the Ultimatch within $30-$40 of the Noveske's depending on GB choice. I think that if going for that price range they're close enough that it becomes a matter of personal preference.

Helotes, How about a picture of your .458 SOCOM?

Finally got back out to the range to chrono my 125 gr TNT and SMK test loads. First off the disclaimer, I consider these to be the max powder loads that will fit in the cases with these bullets, in fact the SMKs were too hot, so I don't recommend that you duplicate them, and if you do it's at your own risk. The best loads I have are the 125 gr TNT's with 22gr of LIL GUN powder, in new Rem brass loaded to 2.150 COL. with this load I got an average MV of 2612 fps, which easily make major power factor. My loads with 125 gr TNT/22.5 gr of LIL GUN chrono'd at 2700 fps. Unfortunately, the 125 gr SMKs, due to their longer length, had to be seated deeper into the case in order to fit the Pmags, so with the same powder loads as the TNT's, the SMK's were over pressure and blew out the primers. I strongly advise that you don't try them. All of the loads here are compressed, including the TNT's.

could someone educate me as to what a "chain saw" bolt release is? I'm not sure if this is something I've never seen, or if it's just that I've never heard the part called that before.