WMTX91

Nice looking rifle, glad the Armalite rails are working out, I'm planning to get the national match rifle-length quad rail. I'm working on upgrading my DEF-10 myself and I'd like to know what flash hider is that? It looks M110-ish.. and since I'm going for the M110 look I think that would be a better fit than the factory piece, I'd rather not have my new barrel cut for 3/4 threads if I can avoid it.

I had a set of ARMS flip ups that I threw on there to test, I probably won't use Iron sights in the long run, I might use this gun as an excuse to try out Vortex, if not I'll just go with the old standby, Leupold. While I wasn't shooting for accuracy, I can say the bullet did seem to be hitting the same general area pretty well, but I was just shooting into a berm, not at anything, I took my lower with me to work and installed my old LMT two stage trigger (after I replaced it with a Gisessle on the original) while I was on break. Huge improvement, while I like a good single stage trigger, it's hard to beat a nice two stage for precision work. It's not really that bad, I was really more just commenting on how easy the Armalite is, the LMT does require me to use a bullet to remove the rear pin though. Yes it has the H3 buffer, and did I read that right, the H4 is 1lb? It'd be something to consider if I was going to keep the carbine buffer tube.

So I just went out and put 20 rounds through the Def-10 and all I can really say is wow, hold on tight. I was completely floored by the amount of recoil that has while shooting 150gr factory rounds. I'm not really a recoil-sensitive guy, and I own most forms of .308 (M1A, FAL, G3/PTR), not to mention I shoot a lot of .45-70 up to level II, but when the recoil of this gun causes the collapsible stock to collapse during shooting half the time I think that says something. If nothing else, this has assured me that I will be swapping to a 24" bull barrel with a rifle gas system and putting a Slash heavy buffer in this thing, pronto. I put 10 rounds through a Pmag and 10 through a Lancer, both functioned flawlessly. Also, the barrel comes marked "7.62 Nato CR-MO CL 1:11.25" I mention that because some people were arguing on another forum about how the rifles were going to come, but the Armalite website is accurate.

I recieved my firearms today. I haven't had the chance to shoot it yet, but I am impressed with the overall quality and finish of the Armalite Def-10. What throws me off is that the lower is labeled "SPR Mod 2A" and there no reference to this number anywhere else on the website I ordered it from or on the receipt or packaging. That being said, I am sure that it's the Def-10 I ordered, and while it's most likely not an issue it's just strange to me. As I said the fit and finish is good, the design is typical Ar-10, so things are pretty streamlined when compared to my LMT MWS (my only other .308 AR), so the weight is definitely down. I don't see anywhere in particular where corners were cut or anything like that, everything is there such as the removable finger guard, and it does come with a dust cover and standard forward assist (not the wonky DPMS style). The gas key is staked properly, it has M4 feed ramps and I can actually remove the takedown pins with my fingers instead of a punch and a hammer. Both Pmags and Lancer magazines insert and fit fine, lock the bolt open, and drop free. The trigger is somewhere between rubbing two pieces of sandpaper together and the stock Scar-17 trigger.. so I'll probably be upgrading it in the future, for now I'll just try dropping it a few hundred times. The castle nut does NOT come staked, which is preferable to me since I'm going to be putting an A2 on the gun soon enough as it is. The only changes I've made to it out of the box so far are swapping the charging handle for the one that came with my LMT after I swapped that one. The only reason I changed them is because the LMT handle has a little more surface are compared to the stock Armalite. I also put an Ergo Grip on it just because I prefer them. My only real complaint is the handguard situation, the factory ones are pretty loose and wobbly, but that will change before too long so in my case it's a non-issue.

Little update, My order got delayed by "severe weather conditions" and the UPS tracking left me in limbo since it deparetd on the 16th and stopped updating on the 19th. I'm really hopeful it'll show up on Monday since I have two more guns waiting to be picked up and it'd be nice to get them all at once.. I'm still throwing it back and forth on what I want to do with the armalite.. I really want to do the 18" bull barrel with rifle gas system and a free float but I also like the idea of having a lightweight 16", so I might just slap a rail on it and call it a day. I can't really use the "niche" system to decide because I already have guns that fill each of those roles much better.. the LMT MWS with the 20" and the Scar-17, respectively.

Strange you mention that, I was always interested in the older Armalites that had the rifle length hand guards on the 20" barrels with the A2 front sight, though I think they used their midlength gas tube on it, never got to handle one so I'm not sure. It was the magazines and the fact that it was an AR-style gun that kept me from buying one. By the time I got over the latter fact, and that Armalite started offering Sr-25 compatible lowers, they had already stopped offering that particular model, though I suppose you could get close by using a railed gas block and a fixed front sight that mounts on a rail.

Wow, that's kind of sad that I missed those on Rainier, since that's where I was looking at the Noveske. The 18" match barrel they offer is probably perfect for my needs and honestly the ultramatch would be wasted on me.. however I do see that the 20 and 24" barrels offer rifle length gas systems which I prefer, so I might have to get one of those and have it chopped. GRA I'll update here on my impressions of the DEF-10, I expect it will exceed my expectations but I usually keep mine pretty low. Less disappointment in life that way.

Like I said, it's not a matter of doubting their quality or accuracy, or even fan-boying out to another manufacturer, I just want to have a gun built a certain way. I'm lucky enough to have a job that allows me spare money to play with on the side. I find that a little funny too, because to be honest (in my experience as a firearm salesman) a lot of people who buy the "cheaper" .308s tend to buy the cheaper ammunition (147-150gr) too instead of the 168 or 175 grain match bullets that a 1-11.25" twist barrel is suited to. If it was one of their higher end models like the (t) or SASS, I could understand it more. I do think it's cool of Armalite to offer it, maybe allowing people who don't have 2-3k laying around for a high end build to have an edge with match grade bullet selection and be able to afford the ammunition after buying the gun. :D I've noticed several people saying that the Larue OBR and LWRC REPR have 1-11.25" twist rates, but a search on their websites reveals they use 1-10" (maybe it's a service you can request). The only other manufactuerer that I know of off the top of my head who offers 1-11.25" is LMT with their stainless steel barrels.

I just ordered an Armalite Def-10, it's my first "true" AR-10, and I guess that's pushing it with the P-mags, but I do have an LMT MWS so I do have some light experience with .308 ARs. From what I've read, I understand that the Armalite receiver will take a DPMS pattern barrel if you use a compatible DPMS bolt, is this true and are there any cavets to this? From what searching I've done, very few companies produce AR-10 compatible barrels, most do the LR-308 pattern. So my options using factory-specific parts seem relatively limited without going completely custom. I want to free float a barrel, and I'd prefer to have a heavy contour or bull barrel around 18", it's just the build I want to do, I'm not trying to argue the quality of the Armalite factory barrel or anything, it's just something I've wanted to try and I didn't feel it would be any cheaper to build it from the ground up since I prefer to stick with nicer quality parts. I'm thinking about one of two things, one would be to get a Noveske heavy barrel and having it installed, the second thing would be to get a criterion bull barrel, chop it and add an LMT .308 bolt (partially so I could have a spare for my MWS too). I'm not stuck on the noveske barrel but I really can't find much else that will essentially plug and play, please let me know if I've blatantly overlooked something. I would have got one of the Armalite bull barrles but they don't seem to offer them on their website any more and I don't see any in stock where I have looked. So after all that, is there really any pros or cons to going with the AR-10 or LR-308 pattern in my situation? I'm not going to have parts commonality (other than magazines) with the LMT either way, which for now, is the only other .308 AR I own.