Jgun

I have the Young BCG's on all my AR-15s and they have all worked well. Visually, they look like they are made to higher standards than some of the other AR-15 BCG's I've seen. As survivalshop has also stated, I've had no problems (yet) with either the Armalite BCG or the DPMS BCG in my 7.62 AR's, but if the young had been available when I was shopping for the BCG I'm sure I would have gone with it just because of past experience with their product. That being said, I'm not planning to go right out and replace my DPMS BCG, BUT, on the next one.........

I'm in the process of doing some load developement and presently have FMJ bullets in three weights, 145, 175, and 210gr. I'd like to buy a small quantity, say 30-50rds of each type, of other weights, ranging from 150-190 gr. so that I can determine which weight gives the best results for my application, before I place an order for a large quantity. I would be happy to trade some of the ones I have if that would be helpful to the other members. Another thing I was wondering about is can you guys tell me where your seeing the best prices for .308 bullets these days?

Sounds like just the thing I need to help push the cost of my next .308 build over 3K!

I have watched this thread for a while because I thought the IR rec sets looked to be pretty high quality, and had considered going for one. I had even gone so far as to call up and speak to Oliver. He seemed like someone that would be willing to work with me (meaning answer countlees questions before I jumped) in getting what I wanted in order to end up with the finished gun that I envisioned. For a number of reasons I didn't end up with the IR set, but figured it would be a good choice for my next build. But I don't see that many of you guys have gone with their set and this type of customer complaint certainly doesn't make me want to run out and order a set to see if your bad experience was an isolated one, or if this is the nature of how they are doing business. I can't fathom how a company can drop the ball like this when dealing with their customers. I have to think that no one who's followed this thread is going to consider buying one and if it is in fact a quality product that doesn't stick around because they are not managing the business properly, that would be a shame. Does anyone know if Iron Ridge has military or other contracts that they are giving their focus to at the expense of the civilian .308 AR enthusiast's?

I haven't got a lot of experience with this(yet), but I've been pretty happy, weight wise with the 48 rd Lancer mags for the AR-15's, or the Nordic Pmag extensions that do the same thing. I haven't ever used the Redi mag. It seems like a good idea, but I'm very weight conscious of my gun when moving around. I bought one of those 32 rd .308 mags from Highercapacity.com, and I have to tell you that I really notice the difference between that and a 20rd mag when swinging my .308 AR around. I think I might have to bulk up if i wanted to shoot it with 40 rds physically attached to the gun when the stage starts. I don't seem to notice the weight of the mags on my belt as much. Of course, having the mag right next to the well has to speed up the mag change.

Raygun, Just saw this and thought I'd clarify. My 7.62 Mega rifle actually has a Noveske 14.5" Afghan barrel with carbine gas system . As Robocop stated, I've had no function problems with it. When I started contacting barrel makers about haveing a barrel made for my Kaiser build. I was thinking about a 16" rifle gas system barrel. Without exception, all of the barrel guys told me that it was a bad idea and that the gun might not cycle reliably. I didn't want to go to the trouble of building a complete gun only to find that it was very ammo sensitive and that I could only get it to function reliably with certain specific ammo. So I went with the 18" rifle length gas system. Since completing my gun I have had the opportunity to discuss this matter with survivalshop, who does indeed have the Fulton 16" rifle gas system barrel on one of his guns. He told me that he has had no cycling issues related to the barrel length/gas system length. So I can only guess that the information that I had been given as fact was actually more a matter of personal preferance. I think the 16" rifle gas system is a pretty neat looking set up. If you don't mind me addressing your idea of putting a low pro GB on your gun and moving the existing frontsight/Gas block forward to be just used as a front sight (if I'm understanding correctly), can you tell me how the front sight/gas block is secured to the barrel? If your only going to use it as a sight when you move it forward, wouldn't it be possible to make a sleeve that would make up the difference between the gas block pad dia (where it is now) and the smaller dia of the barrel further forward? In that way you would be able to have the extended sight radius you want while keeping the existing gas system?

I have a better POF customer service story. I bought a POF lower receiver which I planned to use for a build. I bought it online from a gun shop. It was sold as a new, factory assembled lower. When I got it I noticed that there seemed to be a problem where someone had used excessive force to assemble it and had created a dent inside the magwell area (probably from hitting a pin too hard ) The seller was willing to take it back, but I had already paid FFL and shipping fees which would not be refunded . I called POF up and they told me to send it back and they'd take look at it. when they saw it they told me that the receiver was in fact damaged. they destroyed the original receiver and sent me a brand new assembled replacement receiver to which they had applied my original serial number so that I didn't need to deal with FFL BS. All of this for no charge. Based on this experience I would consider their customer service to be second to none.

I spoke to the the designer of the handguard today. He told me that the AR-10 rifle length Recon hanguard weighs 9.16 oz with barrel nut!!! If true, that's pretty damn light. He says that the picatinny rail is actually molded right out of the carbon fiber. The handguard uses a proprietary barrel nut but is Armalite thd (1.437"-18) so unless your building an AR-10 it may not be an option.

I'm not sure what your friends budget is , and I'm NOT a machinist, but on every AR-15 upper I've seen, the takedown pin hole in the upper is always oval with the larger ID oriented on the horizontal axis. So you could open that up .003 without doing anything to the lower. If you start reaming parts, you end up with an upper and lower that can't really mate well to any other uppers or lowers. Have you tried one of the offsett rear pins from JP Rifles? or maybe the Deamon tactical take down pin that expands in the hole when you throw the lever?

I see the handguard listed as out of stock on their website. I'm going to see if I can contact them about it. I don't see carbon ff tubes on tactical rifles very often. The only exception to that statement might be the PRI carbon handguards, but in order to make them strong enough for combat/LE, the handguards aren't all that much lighter than a DD or Larue rail and those two rails are plenty strong with excellent mounting setups. I'd sure like to see what you get for your money when you order a $400 carbon fiber handguard! I wonder if it's even offered in the Knights/DPMS mounting conf. I see that the Christrnsen receiver appears to be DPMS type.

I built my 18" carbon barreled .308 with great attention paid to making it as light as possible. Mine weighs a little more than 8 lbs empty with iron sights. I do have an extra heavy buffer which is a couple oz. heavier than a standard one. My quad rail weighs 18 oz. The only place I can figure where you could save much weight over my build would be a lighter (carbon fiber?) free float tube. Maybe the Christensen barrels are made lighter than the ABS? I think I'm going to look into the Christensen hand guards.

Based on that pic, I'd say they don't look interchangable. I would like to add one to the gun but the Magpul BAD doesn't work, I may see about welding one of the steel add on levers to an AR-10 bolt catch. Thanks.

What I was wondering about was if one of the bolt catches for the AR-15, with an integral BAD type lever could be used on my Kaiser .308. I understand that there could be interference issues with the receiver it'self but was wondering, if I picked up one of the extended AR-15 levers and clearenced it to the outside of the receiver, would the part of it that functionally locks the bolt back be the same on an AR-15 bolt catch as a .308 bolt catch. I'm thinking no because the bolts are different dia's. But thought I'd ask before buying and modifying one only to find out that they wouldn't function on the .308 platfoem because they are dimensionally different.

How do you like their rail? I understand that its not a free float, but by the way the gun feels, would you say it's relletively light, or do you think it's heavier than a LaRue or DD?

I should know this, considering that I've put a few of each together by now, But I never compared two side by side. I know that most of the fire control parts for the AR-15 and the .308 platform AR's are at least the same size. Like selectors, and triggers, but can anyone confirm for me that the .223 and .308 bolt catch are different dimensionally, I'm assuming they are.

I have one of the Magpul BAD levers on my MA TEN. I posted picks of it somewhere on the forum.

Your teasing us with that distant picture, how about something a little closer!!!!!! I was thinking about trying one of those (expensive) selectors, but I'm worried that if I like it, I'll be dissatisfied with the ones in all my other guns.

I have never seen any scientific data to support any of the claims, including the heat dissipation improvement. But most of the claims sound feasable. The heat shedding improvement due to greater surface area seems logical. The rationale behind the rigidety, is I believe the I beam theory, that you can remove material strategically in specific ways so that a beam has greater resistance to flex in a certain direction. It may be more a matter of the barrel being equally rigid to a solid one while reducing (somewhat) the weight. I'll tell you one thing, I've seen amazing high speed film of barrel whip created by the force of the bullet traveling down the barrel applying force against the rifleing, and after seeing that the possibility of ribs running the length of the barrel working against that force, also seems possible.

I looked into Jarrett's background. Apparently she was born in Shiraz Iran. One could logically theorize that she might be likely to be predisposed to be sympathetic to the Arab/Muslim position in this and other matters.

I have seen claims that fluting also improves barrel rigidity. I certainly think that the added surface area must speed up barrel cooling. I haven't found that the fluting makes enough of a weight reduction (by itself) that I really notice it much when I handle two similar guns with and without fluted barrels.

Survivalshop, Do you think you could send it to me? It looks like something I need to study and it would be easier to read if I could enlarge it.

That sounds like good advice. I'm thinking that I'll make some dummy rds up to find out just how long I can safely go with this bullet weight/conf. Just wondering, I'f I load some dummys + .100" over my present 2.1" col and drop the bolt on them, and they are too long, What will happen is that the bolt will force the bullet back into the case untill the bolt is able to close,Correct? This will mean that, instead of headspaceing off the cartridge the dummy will haedspace off the point of interferance of the bullet, right? Won't that harm the barrel? Another question, I have the 175 MKs now and see that they are very close to the conf of the 145's I have tested. Since I have no data to refer to, Is there any formula or rule of thumb to go by that would give me a starting powder charge if I used the same powder as before and loaded the 175's so that the base of the bullet is in the same place as when I was loading the 145's (same case capacity)?

98Z5V, That 16" fluted recon, is one nice looking barrel. If I should decide to build a second one I think I'd go with it. Funny thing, since first reading your post on the 7.62X40, I've started to load for the 300. I find myself second guessing the experts that have probably tested all of these possibilities before settling on the 7.62X35 (300BLK) and the 7.62X40 Wilson. I think the slightly longer case of the 40 would really be helpful in trying to load the bullets longer in the case. Although I wouldn't want it to require special mags, as that would to some extent, negate the beauty of the design, where you share everything except the barrel, with the .223. I have found that I have .180" clearance from the front of my 300rds loaded with 145gr fmj bullets to the inside front of the mag. I wonder if they could have designed the 300 with a .100" longer case? Maybe loading the heavier bullets and fitting them inside the mag is the reason they went for the case length they did. I sure would like it if L had a little more case holding the bullets though.

I have .180" room from the front of my bullet to the front of the mag, so I don't think thats going to keep me from going a little longer, My biggest concern with these particular bullets is how much purchase the case has on the bullet. On my first batch I loaded to 2.1" col. With this setting the bullet cannalure is about .075" in from the case mouth. My friend that first suggested this powder told me that he has loaded up to 17.5 gr of this powder with no pressure problems, although when I ask what his fps readings were with that loading he tells me that he never chrono'd them? I'm think that as you suggest, I will load a small number of rd's with 17 an 17.5 grs, and that I will load the bullets + .075" longer. if I'm not close to my goal, I think it will be time to start trying those heavier bullets, and maybe order the other powder.

If you load your own .223 ammo, and 300 BLK uses .223 brass, I'm thinking the only difference pricewise between loading .223 and 300 will be in the cost of the bullets, I'm curious, how much more expensive than a .223 bullet is an inexpensive 30 cal bullet?