Jgun

Regarding shipping them Fedex to FL. Although a viable option, I think it would be pretty expensive if I decided to ship 2 guns plus my loaded ammo down there. But I guess, unless I were to drive down, it's really the only other practical solution.

I've heard good things about the Nikon scopes, and they seem to be more reasonably priced than the competitions offerings that are the same magnification. Can you tell me what model/power/retical? What are your impressions so far? Oh, and what mount are you using, it looks as though your pretty high off the top of the rail, do you find the cheek weld to be OK?

That cut down LC brass is starting to sound like the better option. So far it's all I've used because I couldn't get my hands on any of the factory brass. I thought it would be nice to have some that was marked 300BLK, but if there is even a slight performance advantage to using the LC stuff, I'm going to have to keep an eye out for another sale on new LC 5.56 brass

What ammo did you get? I've been looking for some factory ammo since I built mine, and all I've ever seen in stock, is that 220 gr stuff, which is not supposed to work well in my 1/10 barrel.

I guess that's one of the perks they offer when you go for the GTR-3S lower that matches their own upper. I've only done builds using their GTR-3H billet lower, and unless they've upgraded that as well, the ones that I've worked on have all had the dreaded AR-15 roll pin.

I find that the thing that makes or breaks it is keeping the low pro gas block oriented so that the pin bore is vertical. What I was told, and what has worked for me, is to put the GB in a smooth jawed machinists vise. I protect the gb surface with paper and usually slip something round under the gas tube part of it so the it doesn't have a tendency to roll as you apply pressure. Obviously not everyone has access to that type of vise. I have seen a delrin gas block fixture on PRI's website that they sell for $29. It looks as though it might make the job a lot easier if you were just trying to do it on a flat surface without the aid of a clamping device. I've been meaning to try it out but I never remember to order one and I never have that patience to wait when I want to install a barrel/gas block.

Thanks for the range info. I get down to FL fairly often, but usually east coast not west. Next time I get over to the Sarasota area, I plan to check that range out. I've never had a chance to shoot at anything over 500 yds away, and that includes while hunting. The idea of shooting at steel out at 1000 yds, where you get immediate confirmation of hits, without having to check the spotting scope, sounds very appealing. Now the only thing I have to do is figure out how to get my favorite AR's down there. Not too keen on the idea of checking them at the Airline reservation counter. It's bad enough taking a handgun down.

Never saw this before. I think I need to pick one up.

I've never seen a Mega AR-15 lower with a threaded bolt catch pin. Just checked the one in my possesion and it's got the roll pin. Unless they changed it recently, I think the threaded pin is just in the MA TEN receivers.

Man, am I jealous!!!!!!

My buddy, who originally got me interested in the rd, first built a 16" upper and was so impressed with the results (he's one of those tactically focused individuals) that, he's in the process of building a short barreled suppressed upper for it. (he's in Maine). He is always evaluating everything from the tactical point of view, and since he's also a big 5.56 AR shooter and trains with them regularly, he demands commonality and redundancy between all his rifles. Obviously, the fact that the 300 can be built on the AR 15 platform means that all your training for one applies to the other, all your muscle memory, common mags, being able to scrounge parts fairly easily (he also has something of a survivalist mentality, so the ability to feed and keep one running if parts or loading supplies were to become scarce, is something that he reminds me of regularly. I'd say that it would make a pretty damn good SHTF weapon, especially with the can.

It's my understanding that it was developed for a military/LE type application, where they wanted good lethality at relatively close range from short barreled/suppressed weapons. What I hear is that a lot of people are finding that it's also an effective hunting rd at distances of less than 200 yds (makes sense). My hope is that it will be useful for competition shooting against .223 equipped competitors because, if it is possible to make the major power factor, you are scored more leniently and don't have to be quite as accurate. I know that if I could own a suppressed gun, I'd be thinking suppressed SBR. So, which of these functions sounds most interesting to you Drew? Another thing that is appealing about it is that it offers 7.62X39 performance in a package that shares much commonality with the AR 15 so you can make use of BCG's and magazines that you likely already have.

I'm aware that all barrels are crowned (or should be). I guess I didn't word my post clearly. What I was trying to state was that I didn't have an AR with just a finished unthreaded barrel without some sort of muzzle device. Since both of his uppers appeared to be almost identical, with the exception of the 3" extra length and the brake on the 24" I thought he'd be able to give me some good feedback on just how significant the effect of the comp was. This may be more a matter of my not being very perceptive when it comes to the effects of different brakes, but I often have a hard time telling if one is clearly more effective than another. I just picked up a comp (threaded for a .223) that I want to test on my 300 as soon as I bore it out for .30 cal and rethread it 5/8-24". This seems to be an area where there doesn't seem to be a great deal of scientific documentation to back up the claims that the mfgs make. Every one says that theirs is the most effective.

That's one fine looking gun. Makes me want to build something similar. I need to put a UBR on something, and I've always wanted to try the tank brake, I didn't realize they made it for the .308's. If you don't mind my asking, what range do you use with steel set out that far? I've got nothing like that near me (as far as I know)

Yes, Happy Birthday. Now, if I might ask, just what do you have in mind for the Wilson 300 barrel?

I hesitate to add anything here because you guys have probably already covered it, and I have never seen the thread you speak of where they say that there can be problems mixing DPMS style uppers and Armalite type(Noveske) barrels (with the appropriate matching bolt or BCG) But I can state from personal experience that the MEGA .308 upper, which has DPMS config. barrel nut threads, does work with AR-10 barrels and BCG's. I know this because I've done it myself. I have no way of knowing if that means it would work for your Iron Ridge upper (although I'd bet it would) That's why I suggested that you give him a call to verify that the only difference was the barrel nut thread. I can certainly understand your reluctance to risk buying expensive parts that you might have to replace because they don't fit. I'm glad that I never saw the information that you read saying that it couldn't be done, because if I had, I probably wouldn't have put together my Mega/Noveske/Armalite carbine that is 100%n reliable.

I have a question for you regarding the 21" vs the 24". I see that the 24" has a muzzle brake. None of my AR's are crowned barrels without any muzzle device. Since both of your uppers are very similar other than the 3" difference and the brake on the 24, I was wondering if you could give me your subjective opinion on how much difference it makes having a brake vs a bare barrel? does the recoil of the unbraked one feel a great deal heavier than the 24"?

When I purchased my carbon wrapped barrel, one of the reasons that I chose ABS, was because I was led to believe that the strand orientation and actual chemical composition of their carbon caused it to work as an effective heat sink. It was also explained to me that the manufacturers using the carbon that did not effectively dissipate the barrels heat, had to deal with another problem, that being the fact that the barrel heats up and expands when shooting, while the carbon does not. with the other type of carbon, their was a tendency for the barrel and carbon wrapping to delaminate due to this dissimilar expansion/contraction. I was told that the way the other manufacturers were preventing that was by applying the carbon in such a way that when the barrel was cool the carbon was under longitudinal compression and when the barrel heated up that would be reduced, which was not conducive to best accuracy. Mike at ABS, told me that their testing had shown almost double the accurate life from the barrel. He went on to say that when/if the barrel was shot out, it could be re chambered for .338 federal and would be good for a second life. Now all of those claims of barrel tension and insulating properties would be difficult for me to verify through my own testing, but I think that if you remove a substantial amount of steel from your barrel (reducing it's effectiveness as a heat sink) and then wrap it with something that is very effective at insulating (the wrong type/application of carbon) I would expect that insted of extended usefull life, you'd be more likely to have accelerated wear and dramatically reduced barrel life. I have been led to believe that the military is using these barrels in some applications, if true, I doubt that would be the case if the carbon wrapped barrels were in fact a bad design that would be prone to sooner failure. For myself, I went for the carbon, for two reasons, one, hoping for a dramatic weight reduction, which I did not find to be the case with my .750" 18" long barrel. Perhaps the weight savings would have been more dramatic on a 24" bull barreled gun. The other reason I went for it was the desire to experiment an try something that I had never tried before. So far I have found the gun/barrel to be lighter (1.5 lbs lighter than my 14.5" Noveske barreled .308) and it seems to be accurate, but that may be more a result of a custom made Rock Creek barrel than of the carbon wrapping. I think that if you decided that you wanted to try one , it would be something like ordering a custom made barrel from one of the high end barrel mfgs, along with a certain amount more aggravation due to the fact that thee aren't that many choices on where to go, which means that your likely to have a greater wait, and obviously greater expense. Is it worth it? Only you can decide.

So far, in my admittedly limited experience, I have found that the choice of barrel will have a far greater effect on the accuracy and function of your rifle than the bolt carrier group you use. if it were me, I might consider saving the Young's bolt carrier for another build, and go with an Armalite BCG, if you get the word from either Young's, or Iron Ridge, that you cannot use it, along with an Armalite bolt, with the Noveske barrel, for your build. That is, assuming the Noveske 21" barrel meets your needs. I will tell you this, I have used the Noveske stainless barrels (not the 21's) for both AR.308, and AR 15 builds, and recommend them highly.

You say that the Noveske is not an option because it's Armalite pattern vs DPMS. Can you tell me what receiver your building on? It is my understanding that you can use a Noveske barrel on the DPMS pattern receivers as long as you use a Armalite bolt. I built my Mega .308 carbine which has a DPMS 1.437"-16 thread instead of the Armalite 18 pitch thread with a Noveske, Armalite pattern 14.5" Afghan barrel by using the complete Armalite BCG, but you might possibly be able to use just the Armalte bolt with the Young's bolt carrier. If that serves your needs you could give Youngs a call and ask them.

Just wondering here, I may be asking stupid questions but since we're trying to diagnose the problem based on you description certain things that are obvious to the person holding the gun are not clear to me. You say that with the gas system opened up all the way, the gun cycles properly, but still does not Lock back on an empty mag. You also state that changing the bolt release lever has no effect on the problem. Have you ruled out that, as stated above, it's definitely not under gassed? Sometimes the bolt carrier has enough gas to strip and load the rd but is not going back far enough to give the bolt catch a chance to engage the front of it. Just throwing ideas out here, but have you tried different mags from the same, and from different mfgs? Do you have some ammo that you know to be loaded hotter to give a greater gas impulse? I don't know what your parts resources are from your own extra parts, and from friends, but if you have access to different parts maybe you could try a different BCG or buffer or spring, Maybe that CWS that the members have spoken of. I'm pretty much out of ideas on what else could be causing your trouble. Once you figure it out, your going to have to post it so as to increase our base of knowledge here.

I don't think there can be any acceptable excuse for not having had that out to the range by now. I'm sure there was some sort of return policy that stated something to the effect of "if the recipient does not fulfill his filial responsibilities within a reasonable period of time, ownership of said POF lower shall revert to the previous, and rightful owner who will be sure to shoot the poop out of it as god intends" I think I should have been a contract attorney.

I'll tell you this, I went through a decent amount of stress and aggravation in getting my carbon wrapped barrel. Is it lighter, yes, but, Unlike Robocop, I haven't built the entire gun as light as I could, so what I saved weightwise on the barrel, doesn't make the gun feel that different. I remember while doing the build, I had envisioned a gun that, when you picked it up, you were shocked at how light it felt. That has not turned out to be the case. My gun, with BUIS (no optic) and an empty mag, weighs 8.5 lbs, about as much as a heavy AR 15. Of course it does have a full railed handguard, and an 18" barrel, but it's not surprisingly light as I've heard the Christiensen guns are. The barrel life claims will probably take me years to prove/disprove. What I'd really like to find out this year, is how accurate is it. Unfortunately, My gun building sickness seems to be preventing me from saving the money for the appropriate optic to do that.

First off, I don't want anyone to hold me responsible if they should try this and are dissatisfied with the results, but, for those of you that don't find a straightforward .308 AR build challenging enough, I see that desertfox01 over at snipershide, is selling A3 type upper receivers that are designed to mate up to the POF .308 lower receiver. I have no idea what kind of fit or quality you will get but it's got me thinking about a POF based build again.

I made a mistake before when I reccommended the Firebird GB, describing it as two piece. The one I was thinking of was the JP Rifles, JPGS8 two piece GB, but I see that one has a .936 bore so is unlikely to fit. Sorry for the bad lead.