Quentin

Some of us put stock in the old saying, "one is none and 17 is 1"! :D Others here pick up strays that need a home, which is good as it keeps them off the streets...

I am also impressed with ALG's quality at a good price. I recently bought a blemished EMR V2 M-LOK rail that's excellent. I can't find the blemish. And I have a few of their QMS triggers. Good stuff! Thanks for the hires pictures, that's a good looking receiver extension.

Tempting, and I really like Geissele and ALG... but I don't expect to be building another AR-15. Of course the new spring could get rid of the old sprooonnngggg! :D

My ArmaLite came with a PMAG and I bought more. They work, they're cheap. I'm happy. Lancers look great and I have five for my AR-15 that work great but their 308 mags are pricey. I'll stick with PMAGs. ArmaLite tested them extensively with their AR-10A and recommend them over other brands so I haven't experimented with others. I haven't tried hollowpoints so far...

dtom, I hope your range session this weekend goes well. Or at least you narrow down the problem. You've gotten good advice and lot's of things to test. Let's hope this is just a break in issue. I wouldn't sell the rifle for a loss, working with DPMS to get it right makes more sense. As far as getting an AR-15, I'd never talk you out of that since I enjoy the ones I have. But how about in addition to (not replacing) your 308! There are advantages to both calibers, of course only you can determine what you need. By the way, the way you've answered every question we've asked really has been helpful. Sometimes the OP is lazy and doesn't go to the lengths you have to make things clear. If you do have to pursue more CS at DPMS, maybe have your own script written before the call. Have everything pulled together and stay a step ahead of an uninterested tech.

Welcome, dtom! I'm sorry you're having problems with your G2 and that the tech you talked to blew you off by trying to shift the blame on you, your ammo and your PMAGs.. Sadly that happens way too often, and of course not just with DPMS. I've read that S&W CS also has blamed magazines and 147-150 grain ammo when a customer complains of their M&P10 short stroking. Either way, the tech just wants to end the call not solve the problem. He reads his script then sends you off to try a few things while he closes the call or ticket. (Like the computer tech that tells you to reboot the computer then call back if the problem persists!) Fortunately not all techs are like that, the ones who know something and care about their customers will actually try to help you. It is important not to give up, don't get discouraged, try calling back multiple times to get a better tech. Sometimes better techs handle the email questions and even chat if that's available. If you play the game well you will win. Be sure to get his name and use it often during the conversation, that really does help. He knows you will remember his name. I think you got good advice here about testing the original DPMS magazine that came with the rifle and trying hotter 168 grain ammo. And the function tests mentioned. Of course no matter what that tech said the rifle should function with M80 and it should work with PMAGs as most factory built 308 ARs do. Lancer makes great magazines and I have quite a few for my AR-15s but $50+ for 308 mags is pretty steep. You shouldn't be expected to use Lancers only and hot ammo only. One of the driving reasons many of us buy a 308 AR is to use PMAGs and low cost M80 ammo. In fact many factory 308 ARs come with PMAGs, mine did. Don't give up, they will take care of you if you squeak enough!

Yes, very nice! More pictures?

Science tells us that black guns migrated out of Africa about 60,000 years ago and moved into the Middle East, India, China, Europe and finally the rest of the world. As thousands of years passed coloring changed as guns adapted to their new environments. Brown guns, yellow guns, red guns, multicolor guns and even white guns. Camouflage is important in nature. But how in the heck did we get pink guns! :D Sorry... :D

All Guns Matter!

You're the man, EngrBob! Not much to building a best of breed AR-15 using various parts you prefer but I know you can get into real trouble fast mixing parts in a 308 AR. No doubt lots of guys here can do the same. Shepp, I'm sure your DPMS is a great rifle. And I like mine. Variety is the spice of life, as they say! And when it comes to guns I think we all want a large variety!

Well Mega Arms billet receivers look good, and it would be smart to have the "rifle" in your possession soon. No way of knowing what WA or Seattle might do later this year. Things are a bit more gun friendly on this side of the state line but who knows what's in store for us.

Welcome from another new guy from the Northwest (Idaho). I also recently bought my first 308 AR after dancing around the fire for years. I also wanted something around 8 pounds empty. I finally got drawn into the fire as prices got more attractive and there was a good chance that wouldn't last depending on the outcome of the election. I was leaning toward a PSA build and eyeing the S&W. I love PSA for AR-15s but their PA10 stuff was hard to pull together (find in stock) for a build and I kept hearing reports the S&W is undergassed even though it comes with a lightweight buffer. The DPMS GII probably will be a winner but I got the ArmaLite DSR10, added some PMAGs and haven't been sorry. The under $1000 price was hard to ignore so I jumped all over one when I finally found one. Like you, a milspec diameter buffer tube is important to me since I went that route with my AR-15 builds. I like the way ArmaLite uses a slightly longer tube so you can use standard AR-15 carbine buffers and that the rifle comes with an H3 buffer which means you could drop to a lighter buffer if short stroking was a problem (hasn't been, even Tula steel case). I haven't found the 16" barrel to be too vicious but definitely can see your preference for 18". Anyway, a build probably is your best route to get exactly what you want. Now on to the M1A Scout... I have one and love it for what it is (a greatly improved M1 Garand) but can't recommend it over a well designed 308 AR. The scout rail adds 8 ounces out front and I would pull it off except that it's good for a red dot. I like the 18.5" barrel over the standard 22" but my gamble with 16" on the AR-10A turned out fine. If I removed the scout rail the weight with no magazine would get closer to 8 pounds but a 308 AR has so many advantages it's not a contest. Still, the Scout Squad is a favorite with everyone when I take it to the range. Good luck on whatever path you take!

Shepp, you're right that lx2008's question has been answered but he didn't seem to mind thread drift to the past. I suspect a few other people have enjoyed this "pissing match" especially since it was fairly civil and informative. And no, I'm not an "armite "fanboy"" just not a DuMPS fan! :D

Thanks, Rsquared, yeah you're right. Some people love one brand and others love another. It's just annoying to see the term "DPMS compatible" bandied about when they came to the party 50 years after the fact! It is important to keep the story straight so new people get a glimmer of what actually happened. There are FAQs here but they're not up to date and even if they were I doubt that many new people would bother with them. These days everyone wants the Cliff's Notes version. I'm an older guy who carried the M14 and M16 in Vietnam so at least I don't have a problem with the M14/M1A vs AR-15/AR-10/308AR debate, I knew first hand 48 years ago both platforms were good. And now I have one of each so I'm happy. Hey, maybe I should have bought an AR-10B, maybe I could have figured out a way to use the same magazines in my M1A! :D Actually it was a real stand up move by ArmaLite to offer the AR-10A but I hope they continue to support AR-10B, some of those customers go back 20 years. And I hope the new owners keep the quality high. By chance I never owned a Chevy either (and just one Ford) but I've put a few hundred thousand miles on company Chevy pickups over the years! :D

The point is they are Stoner magazines or SR-25 magazines. DMPS didn't make them, they just copied them. He who went to all the trouble to design something that became popular deserves the credit, not the johnny come lately. Is SR-25 compatible so hard to learn? I'm sure DPMS makes good stuff today but those early crap magazines around 2005 and a crap LPK and receiver extension kit of theirs I bought in 2008 soured me on the brand. I'm glad you like yours but even a fanboy has to admit DPMS borrowed heavily from ArmaLite Fairchild, Knights Armament and Eagle Arms ArmaLite. If they hadn't they wouldn't have a good AR style rifle today. Anybody who has an AR pattern rifle should know the story of Eugene Stoner and ArmaLite. I agree about Lancer magazines. I love their AR-15 mags and am tempted to try their SR-25 compatible mags.

I remember first 308 DPMS magazines were so horrible that the plastic feed lips broke off after 100 or so rounds. People were scrambling to find SR-25 mags and even 1950s ArmaLite mags so they could shoot their rifle! It was so bad at the time I permantly scratched them off my list for a 308 AR or even AR-15. Finally DPMS came out with a metal magazine that was better. Then Magpul came out with the PMAG which was SR-25 compatible. Today's ArmaLite saw the writing on the wall and had to offer an AR-10 that was (Arrgghh!) PMAG compatible. I'm an old timer and prefer SR-25 compatible. (1950s ArmaLite AR-10 would be better but is too easy to confuse with the M14 style magazines.) Eugene Stoner designed the AR-10 in the 1950s then decades later modernized it as the SR-25. DPMS made a knockoff.

I meant to mention that 20 round SR-25 magazines and 1950s ArmaLite magazines were in short supply so ArmaLIte/Eagle Arms went with M14 mags and Bushmaster went with FAL. Later Bushmaster sold their design to RRA and finally came out with their SR-25 magazine compatible version. Yeah, people are lazy and say DPMS compatible but at least should give Eugene Stoner a tiny bit of credit and say SR-25 compatible! After all he was the guy that designed the AR-10 and forty years later the Knight's Armament SR-25!

The Clinton 1994 AWB forced ArmaLite/Eagle Arms to introduce (in 1995, I believe) their AR-10B using a magazine based on the M14 magazine. This was done so the rifle could use existing 20 round M14 magazines (slightly modified) that were grandfathered in under the ban. Otherwise, new magazines would be limited to just 10 rounds. If not for the ban I believe ArmaLite would have used the old 1950s ArmaLite magazine design as KAC and Eugene Stoner did with the SR-25, which came out before the AWB. Bushmaster, then RRA also got burned by the AWB and went with FAL magazines to offer existing magazines greater than 10 rounds. DPMS and almost everyone else were late to the 308 AR party, after the AWB sunsetted in 2004 so they were free to go with the original ArmaLite/SR-25 magazine since low capacity no longer was mandated. Then Magpul introduced the SR-25 compatible PMAG that was cheap and good. This was a huge advantage to anyone using the SR-25 form factor so ArmaLite introduced their AR-10A line which gave customers a choice of the 1990s "old ArmaLite" magazine or the new, err, old 1950s ArmaLite magazine. Strange twist of events! What's interesting, in the 1950s the old ArmaLite made the AR-10 and AR-10A, so the new ArmaLite/Eagle Arms, which owned the terms ArmaLite and AR-10, called their new rifle the AR-10B and today they sell the AR-10A which is modern yet fully rooted in the past.

Actually it's ArmaLite/SR-25 style (Eugene Stoner used his old 1950s ArmaLite magazine design), 1990s ArmaLite/M14 style and FAL inch style. DPMS and Magpul didn't create a new form factor, instead they are compatible with the Stoner Rifle-25 magazine.

I have a M16/M4 pull off carry handle that I cut down to just the sight and no handle. It looks great on my AR-10A! I would like an AR-10 carry handle but this will do.

Thank you for that information, Fletch! I assume lower receivers with serial numbers around A11-001xx are recent forgings. The A0020xx lowers, as I mentioned before, are around Sept. 2014 which surprised me at first since my rifle was assembled in Feb. 2016 and another AR-10A with a serial number within 14 of mine existed Dec. 2014. But when I talked to Tim Rooker of ArmaLite he said you can't date a rifle by serial number since they may have receivers pulled from stock for assembly that are new or a couple years old. That has to be true, that explains why my new AR-10A has an old SN. Anyway, ArmaLite needs to look at their lowers, at least the new ones. It's possible only one lower is defective but I doubt it. I'll certainly watch for any change in the fit of my receivers. The sloppy machining marks on the bolt are annoying but I doubt it will cause a problem. I wish AR-10 bolts were made of Carpenter 158 steel like their M15 bolts! But I haven't heard of many failures of AR-10 bolts over the years, even with the softer 8620 steel.

Fletch, I just saw this thread and really feel bad for you. And that ArmaLite didn't make it right. That is inexcusable! I bought a DSR10/DEF10 AR-10A back in March which is pretty much the same rifle as the one you had except for cheaper single stage trigger and standard handguards. I have around 200 rounds through it and the upper and lower receivers still mate together properly, the buffer tube interface has not bent back like yours did. My bolt has similar wear on the lugs but not quite as much. The little gouges you pictured near the lugs are on my bolt, too, but as others said it appears to be sloppy machining but not something to worry about. It certainly existed before the phosphate finish was applied, the gouges were not caused by the barrel extension. The gap between the receivers that keeps expanding near the charging handle is a real worry as you and others said. ArmaLite was wrong to discount the problem. And the gouging in the upper receiver. I wonder if they got some bad (soft) receivers? My AR-10A left the factory in Feb 2016 and I took it home in March. I believe the lower receiver was made around Sept. 2014 and the serial no. is A0020xx. ArmaLite told me the lower was made Sept. 2015 but I'm sure that's a mistake since I saw a serial number within 14 digits of mine on a DSR10/DEF10 that was tested Dec. 2014 in a magazine. Since you got your AR-10A about the same time I did it would be interesting to know when your lower receiver was made. ArmaLite should be concerned about this. Heck, I'm concerned about it, especially if your SN is A0020xx, too. I don't know how many AR-10A rifles have been made since introduction but surely more than 2100. Anyway, I hope your current 308 ARs work out for you!

... and cutting out flour, potatoes, refined carbs of any kind to get the blood serum glucose and A1C down. Hold down alcohol as much as possible Watch out for hidden sugar/fructose, for example in fruit. I would try to hold carbs down under 50 grams a day and get your calories from fat and protein. Quality Omega-3 capsules are not a waste of money.

Sisco, that's a great idea - buying a second upper to convert he SASS into a lightweight carbine when needed.