Home Forums Hunting & Shooting AR and Tactical Rifles Armalite vs Bushmaster

If you do some searches you will find there were reports of bolts breaking in the Bushmaster 308. That design was actually made by Rock River for Bushmaster at the time. It used FAL mags and it appears that rotary bolts and FAL mags do not play well together. The bolt breakage was at the tail end of the bolt and Bushmaster replaced the bolts. There appears to have been a revised model of the bolt to deal with that issue at some point.

I believe Bushmaster discontinued their 308 models, and RRA started selling it themselves. I don't think the bolt breakage issue is valid anymore but it was predicted by Westrom of Armalite and it did occur precisely for the reasons he pointed out, according to folks at the falfiles.

I have not seen Westrom's article so I can't speak to that, but I also note that the AR-10 uses modified M14 magazines and more recently Armalite is selling their Gen II magazines for what I consider fairly competitive prices.

I have no issues buying the exact magazine made for the rifle. I buy Sig mags for my pistols, etc.

Like you pointed out, I'm not sure at what point the bolt design changed but I have not seen any RRA LAR-8 bolt failures that I can find and they still use FAL mags. You can't buy a new Bushmaster 308 of the old RRA design that your are refering to with failures anymore so not really an option anyway. I noticed Bushmaster has a 308 again but I am sure it is the same as the DPMS-Remington since it is all the same parent company.

I use cheap thermold FAL mags in my RRA 308 and not had any jams or any failures of any kind with them.

I don't even know anybody who is shooting either of those rifles, much less putting several thousand rounds a year through them. I'll bet DPMS sells more 308 ARs than RR & Bushmaster combined.

I read on another site the other day that the govt has reopened the search for a 308 AR, seems the Knights Armament version has been giving some trouble, maybe Mackay can give some insight since he has been trained buy KAC to work on them.

My money is on the LMT for the next govt contract but in my own safe sits a 308 bolt gun, I had fit's with my Armalite carbean over timing issues. I wouldn't have a dpms, BM, Rem or RR.

The Brits went with it, we might as well LMT too!

Isn't the LMT basically a refined/upgraded Armalite AR-10?

Pretty much.

I bought an AR-10B when they first came out. I did a lot of reading, carefully comparing them to what was then available (Knight).
The Knight's seemed to come with better barrels, but I think to this day the Armalite design is the best engineered and most durable. Refining that is icing on the cake.

I don't have either rifle or have I ever shot one. But I do own a RR LAR-8 and have put over 400 round through it with out one hicup. It is accurate 1moa with the right load and has shot everything I've put through it 2moa or better. That being said they have no compatibility with any after market parts besides the ones sold by RockRiver.

For that reason it is for sale. PM me if you want it. I will give you a good price.)

Testing handloads today with 155 Matchkings, in the SASS upper AR10. 1st shot was a called flyer, the next 4 went into 5/8" at 100 yards. That was my best group of the day with it.

I bought a Nightforce out of the classifieds here, and I reckon it's about time to put a Timney trigger in the 10. It will be interesting to see what it can really do.

Get the LMT MWS. LMT's quality is unquestionable. You can swap the barrel out in about 60 seconds time with a different length or caliber such as .260 The monolithic rail is great and the thing is built like a tank.

I'm sure LMT has good stuff, but the base rifle is $2800, and the quick change barrels are $700 each. I've got about $2600-2700 in my AR-10, with two complete uppers.

You can find a "base LMT" for around $2300, but you're right, quality isn't cheap.