.308 everything receiver

[MaDuce]

I'm new here so I may be in the wrong place. Forgive me if so.

I have had an idea in my head for a while ago, or at least ever since I've started giving serious consideration to a .308 AR. This was mainly inspired by the fact that I'm in California and was originally looking at a featureless build (if you live in California, you'll see the relevance).

I've noticed that there are allot of .308 ARs that feed and function different magazines just by having different lower receivers.

Has anyone ever considered a lower receiver that can accept a variety of mags, such as LR-308, Armalite, FAL, G-3 etc?

I know it sounds crazy but I myself figured out how it might be doable, assuming the feeding can be worked out. Seams to me like there'd be a strong demand for something like that, assuming it's functional and reliable.

[Jgun]

just thinking off the top of my head here, I'm guessing that you'd have to have a receiver with an oversize magwell opening that could accept different "inserts", each of which would be specific to a particular magazine configuration. without even taking into acount variations of mag release mechanisim, it sounds as though it would be very expensive to manufacture, as well as being of questionable durability. Keep in mind that you can't make one receiver that will just accept all mags because the mags are different, so your making a receiver that would require you to stop and reconfigure before switching to a different mag type. I don't think you'll ever see something like this. The closest thing is that company that has the modular receiver that can be reconfigured to take diffeent mags and change calibers.

[MaDuce]

I guess I would have to play with various mags head to head to be sure, but from what I have seen so far, It shouldn't be very difficult. What I was thinking of is a 2 part mag catch. A rack with a heavy spring that the shooter presses a button on to release, and that rack it's self housing various catches that are powered by a softer spring. The idea is that they would all work as you insert the magazine, but only the one configured for the specific magazine to actually catch it, and when the shooter presses the mag release, the entire rack moves out of place, effectively engaging all mag releases at once. The bolt stop could probably be configured similarly.

For that to work, the left side of the receiver would have to be more spacious to house the racks, but otherwise it should work fine.

Yes, it would be more expensive then normal. I for one probably wouldn't be able to afford it. But I am sure some folks who can would love it.

[Jgun]

Again, just brainstorming, without the actual mags in my hand to compare, but, based on individuals on this forum that have had problems with mags not feeding and functioning properly in their guns (even though they were all supposed to be DPMS compatible mags) because of differences in the actual external dimensions of the mag tubes. I remember posting measurements from  a KAC mag a DPMS mag and a Pmag and there was enough difference in them that a member I think had problems with the Pmag in his JD lower. I'm not even getting into the FAL mag here because I don't have one of them. I'm thinking that if your going to try to have a lower that will accommodate all of those mags plus the Armalite besides, your going to have to make the mag well large enough to accommodate the one with the largest dimensions and then your going to have to come up with a mag catch design that will hold all of them, including the smallest, loosest fitting one, in place securely enough so that it won't move (even when full) under recoil, something the mag catch was never intended to do without the support of the mag well in the receiver. If you can design something like that , I think it would be a pretty impressive achievement. If you can design something like that and it actually works you should patent it.

[MaDuce]

Yeah. That's where we get in to the whole "feeding" issue. Such a thing can certainly be done, but I have a hunch that such a receiver is going to be super expensive and have some reliability issues by it's self.