Jgun

That's one fine looking Sage! What barrel contour is that? It's a 22", right?

I have the BABC on a 14.5" .308 carbine and find it to be effective.

The polygonal rifling is supposed to be similar to the Obermeyer 5R rifling in function, and doesn't foul as much as conventional rifling because it doesn't have those tight 90 degree corners where the sides of the lands meet the surface of the grooves. I think that this is one of the reasons that Noveske gets a premium for their barrels even though their not all rifled like that. I think they actually charge more for their polygonal rifled barrels. Wonder if they actually cost more to produce?

Survivalshop, From the videos in the post above, I'd say it's obvious that a hand lapped match grade barrel with the smoother finish and lack of imperfections will outperform a mass produced production barrel. If made from the same material, and to the same ID (one not tighter than the other) I don't see why the lower quality barrel should wear out any sooner. Of course, if it's not accurate to begin with, because of poor quality, inconsistent rifling, you would have a harder time telling when the accuracy goes away, as you can with a high quality, sub moa, match grade barrel, that's accurate to begin with. I mentioned trying the melonite. My interest is to see if it has any effect on reducing the accuracy of a barrel that has been treated. To that end I'm planning to take my 300 barrel, test it off the bench for accuracy at 100yds with my final 300BLK load, I will then send it to LOSOK to be treated, and repeat the 100yd test when I get it back. I will also rechrono my loads after treatment to see if I can verify the claims of increased FPS due to the reduced friction claimed. I'm thinking that If the supposed superiority of an off the shelf high end barrel to a lower priced one is something you seriously want to prove/disprove, all you'd need to do would be to buy two barrels of the same material, specs, etc. and test them side by side, maybe try two barrels from the same company that are sold as their mid priced and their match upgrade? Doesn't Rainier offer their own barrels at different quality/prices? I thought Robocop mentioned something about it in one of his posts.

Welcome friend, As a fellow lover of old iron, I too, hope that you'll post some MC pics from time to time. I'm sure that you'll find the knowlledge shared here useful if your planning to get involved with the .308 platform. I'm presently on hold with some of my gun projects (waiting for parts/lack of funds) so I'm keeping myself occupied with this, 1938 ULH flathead, hope to be ablre to complete it this year.

Just to throw my 2 cents in here. I'm thinking that comparing the 10mm to the beowolf or the .458 is an apples to oranges thing. I've got a pistol cal carbine in .45 acp and, although i like it, I think it's practical use is somewhat limited, I see it as something that would be useful in a compact SBR role, like an MP5, certainly not for hunting at 100yds. The 10mm, if I'm not mistaken, is ballistically similar to .357 in range and performance, definitely more practical for longer ranges than the .45 acp. The .458 on the other hand is supposed to be ballistically similar to the 45/70, and can be loaded with 600gr bullets. I think that although you can sometimes take an animal with a smaller cal, when planning to go for something big, the .458 might be superior to the 10mm withing their effective ranges.

Wow, that's some hog! I've run out of room for any more powder in my 300BLK cases, I think I may have to try the Wilson out for the extra .200" case capacity. Now that I've actually done load development for the 300, I know that the Wilson would fit in unmodified Pmags with lighter weight bullets like the 125's, 135's flat base, not sure if it would with the 175 or heavier boat tails.

Those stocks really look elegant. I think I need to get a gun that i could put one on. I know they make an M1A stock, wonder if they'd offer it in the tiger strip? Regarding the wives, I sure hope it doesn't take 3 to get it right, I don't think I could survive another one. Wash, you should just think how much less free time and money you'd have if she'd stuck around!

Wash, that wenig stock is gorgeous, can you tell me what wood it is?

Survivalshop, I know you said no seat of the pants opinions here, but I thought I'd give you a different hypothetical barrel comparison and see it you think it might be valid. I'm thinking that an off the shelf barrel, that is not chambered to your specs is only going to be better than another less expensive off the shelf barrel if a higher quality blank is used. As far as I know the bench rest guys prefer cut rifled over button rifled, the first costs more to produce. Now on a semi auto gas gun the chamber needs to be larger for functional reliability. I have to believe that the very act of stripping the rd from the mag by the bolt carrier in a semi has to be more violent on the rd itself than a manually operated bolt action. Another thing here is that certain off the shelf barrels, Novesle for instance, demand a higher price because of the brands reputation. They might be only marginally better made than a no name barrel, but no one wants to buy the cheap one and then pay for a second (more expensive) barrel if they're not satisfied with the accuracy of the rifle they build. I believe that a barrel, custom made to your specs from a quality blank has the potential to be more accurate than a high priced $500 off the shelf barrel, especially if you have it chambered "tight", and the custom barrels don't really cost more than the expensive off the shelf barrels. I doubt that there would be much if any difference in the accurate life of one over the other, assuming they were both made from 416 stainless and had the same ammo shot through them. One possible exception might be the stainless the Lothar Walther uses, I know that they claim that it outlasts the 416. Personally, I'm anxious to try the melonite coating on a barrel to test for myself if it has any effect on extending the accurate life of the barrel (as claimed).

Nice setup ther Blue. Can you tell me which brake that is on the barrel? Also, You've got to glue the Clark tube on the nut, correct?

Don't know if my input is of any value here as I've never shot the ACR, only handled them. That being asid, I think (as mentioned above) the question is more of what your needs/ desires are for the gun, The ACR and POF are not redally comparable, in cal or configuration. If your thinking of selling/trading the ACR in the first place, maybe it didn't meet your expectations? The POF is a full size piston operated battle rifle. Maybe you should give some thought to the POF individually, would a .308 gun fill a need? do you prefer a DI gun to a piston? I find the POF guns to be high quality, well made guns, although somewhat heavier than other similar sized .308 AR's. Good luck with it and let us know what you do.

Are you talking about, To buy or to build? Regarding the shotgun and .22 there's already a .410 shotgun and .22 available in the AR 15 platorm, I doubt anyone would want them in the large platform AR's when they can get them in the small. A 12ga shotgun on the other hand, I think would be very popular.

I'm also not sure whether the performance of the .338 justifies the expense of gearing up to load/shoot another cartridge. I have not personally had the opportunity to try it for myself. I also have an upper/lower receiver set that I'm trying to figure out what to do with. I'd like to do something different than I've done in the past in order to keep it interesting for me. Other than going with a different caliber, (.338 Fed, .260, etc.) the only other thing I think of to make it more interesting for me would be to use the next one as a test platform for trying out different technologies, like the melonite, fail zero, maybe that barrel sleeve, maybe try my hand at powdercoating the gun FDE to see how durable it is. I wish that I could experiment with suppressors, that really WOULD get me excited again!

Survivalshop, I think that long range you have down there, with the steel set WAAAAY out there would be a perfect place to see what a .338 FED could do.

This may be more a matter of where I was personally, when I first started posting here and not representative of what the other members experienced. When I first started posting here, I was not posting extensively on any forums, I really didn't feel as though I had much to contribute. I feel as though, with the help of the other members, I've become much more competent in my knowledge of the .308 AR platform. Certainly what you've listed has all been achieved (IMHO) but, I think it's something that may be easier to accomplish than to maintain, especially as the membership grows, although I believe that you, and the other administrators/moderaters are still doing an exceptional job of it, I believe that by it's very nature it will require greater effort to maintain as the forum grows. Funny thing, since becoming active here, I have begun to be more active on other forums that may focus more on certain other platforms, and although I've met many good people on them, I truly find the atmosphere here to be much friendlier, and more geared to helping people to, accomplish their goals with these guns, and the generous sharing of knowledge, experience, and even parts/resources is truly commendable. Hope that didn't sound too touchy feely group hug for anyone.

Unless price is no object, the MA TEN will be your best bang for the buck, especially with Branson's group buy. As mentioned above, if you want to have the best shooting gun you can, two things (aside from ammo) will have the most dramatic effect on how well the gun shoots (or how well YOU can shoot it) those are a match quality barrel, and a high quality trigger, don't cut corners on either. Regarding brakes, Although I really like the BABC, I don't like the price much, take a look at the Spikes Dynacomp, very similar to the other but less than $100.

I recall reading an article about the value of the forward assist on the AR rifles. I got into it myself, because, I also found the lack of a forward assist disconcerting when I was researching my first .308 AR build. I think that the article said that the forward assist was originally there because the early M16's were jamming due to fouling, when they were first being fielded in Vietnam. Some say due to the wrong powder in the ammo, others say due to lack of maintenance by the GI's and some say due to DI being a bad design for a combat weapon. Anyway, the forward assist was something of a bandaid. it didn't stop the fouling, but enabled the shooter to get the gun into battery when it hung up. I think there was a thread on this forum, where the pros and cons were debated. As stated above, if your .308 AR's bolt doesn't close, it might not be a good idea to try to force it closed with a forward assist. I think that with the greater spring pressure and bolt mass of the .308, if you keep your gun clean, a bolt that doesn't lock is telling you you've got a bad round that you ought to eject.

I'd say that the likelyhood of the platform becoming reality, is far greater than the chances of ammo in the chambering ever being reasonably priced. Just take a look at the price of .458 SOCOM ammo. I think that the only chance for any large cal ammo like that to ever be reasonably priced would be if it was adopted on a large scale by the military, or at the very least, was based on a cartridge widely used by the military. You notice that you can get .50 BMG ammo cheaper than , .408, .416, and, as far as I know, it's even cheaper than the .338 LM.

Tactical machining has a child board in thr 80% lowers section on this site.

Is that the Dec issue?

I haven't tried one of these, even though I like the idea of the 45 degree throw, because I favor a lever profile that is low profile with just a "button" on rhe end. I've been using the RRA star selectors and like the way the raised button feels. Unfortunately, I've found that their ambi selector was too long on the right side for my use. I think that when you have this setup available with the long lever on the left and the short of the same profile for the right side, it will be time for me to enjoy the benefits of the 45 degree throw, along with the rest of the guys.

I bet that things sure fun to shoot on the move!

I'm curious, can either of you guys help me out here, I see that the OP said that his 21" weighs 16 lbs, 10 oz loaded, while Dusty 44 states that his fluted 24" weighs 12 lbs 6 oz, unloaded. Can the unfluted 21" barrel, and 20 rds of .308 really weigh 4 lbs. 4 oz. ? more than the same gun with a fluted 24" ?

Nice build. I bet your going to be fielding alot of questions when you take that out to the range, not likely to be seeing another like it when you take it shooting. Makes me wonder what it would look like with the blond wood like on an AK? Your going to have to let us know how the handguard stands up. I think I read somewhere where someone had some problems with his wooden handguard cracking, but I think his was a heavier cal, and it might have been a different brand of stock. Good luck with it, You must have a walk in gun safe!