Home Forums Hunting & Shooting AR and Tactical Rifles DPMS G2 Hunter first impressions

Even with a 20 inch barrel the gun feels and is more compact than the Smith M&P10. The lock up of upper to lower is not as tight as the MP10, I would say "loose" as there is movement between upper and lower.

The gun functions with Pmags, and feeds and fires with no failures of any type. I do like that it puts the brass into one nice pile at about 4PM. On the other hand the dual ejectors bent the rims on a 4 out of 5 pieces of horandy brass, and there were dual ejector gouges-marks on this brass. The ejector marks on plain to see on several other pieces of brass. The chamber seems tighter than the MP10 as unfired cartridges where tough to extract. I did note the craters in the primers but it seems to have no effect on performance.

I experienced no failures of any type with it.

I had loaded up several WW cases with 3 types of bullets and powders intending to shoot it for groups, however when I arrived at the camp the Club president was there and we had to tear down a storage building as the new lease owners told us "no permanent structures" on the lease this took a couple of hours of hard manual labor and we still did not get to complete the job! I did get to zero the rifle Putting the same scope from the MP10 on it in an LT104 mount, I found it shooting 10 inches higher with the same 150 grain WW Powerpoints I had fired in the Smith. After a rough zero I fired two groups but was tired and did not do my best, the third group with a 150 grain TSX and I shot two bad flyers so I knew I needed to come back another time.

The first group was 1.5 inches shooting 150 grain WW Power point factory ammunition, the second was 1.2 inches with Hornady 155 grain match. The third was a handload with 47 grains of BLC-2 which put three into a clover leaf and then one 3 inches away and then one an inch away. The primers were not any worse with this load but it was plain that I was tired so time to go home. I fired a few 147 grain WW white box ammunition I had found at Academy sports in the general direction of a target and they all went off and went down range.

Overall impressions, at 9.5 pounds or so full up including a fully loaded 10 round Pmag its not a bad design. I like the teflon coated barrel and carbon float tube, well done, the ejection pattern makes it easy to find your cases, I like the balance, I think the gun is about 2 inches shorter than the Smith with its long flash hider and longer receiver, and I sort of like the fixed stock. It seems to have a tendency towards more intrinsic accuracy than the Smith MP10 but its too early to tell. I am going to replace the trigger as it does have a good bit of creep in it, this is next on the agenda. I would not say this gun is a head and shoulders step up from the MP10, however the application is clearly hunting and it does seem to have the indications of being more accurate, but cannot tell for sure yet. There are Pro's and Cons with both guns, but for now I am liking my decision because I am primarily a hunter. The carbon float tube is a real plus over the Smith fore end. If your primarily interested in a more Military style gun I would get the Smith MP10, if your primarily interested in hunting then this type of gun, if you were looking at the G2 Recon and the Smith MP10 I would get the Smith due to barrel length.


I need some advice regards the ejector marks and bent/gouged rims on the Hornady match brass! Even with a max load of BLC-2 the WW reloaded cases did not show this problem!

Softer brass, different burn rate of powder?

Its gas port IMHO. To large as it generally is with the factory stuff, and adjustable block or more weighted carrier will probably stop all of that.

Though IIRC Hornady brass was heavier than normal and it may just be an over load vs case capacity?

I didn't see if H was factory or reloads

Yep sounds like a hot load or wrong burn rate and it's extracting before the chamber pressure drops enough to release the case.

There was a guy on arfcom who sold heavier rifle buffers, went by Slash. Or you could make your own.

A fully adjustable gas block is the best thing you can do for your .308. I'd get one from Syrac or SLR, both of which have locking detents so no worries about screws backing out.

what was the purpose of the dual ejectors?? I wasn't aware of other 308 ar's having ejection issues. is this just marketing hype. I would rather have more metal in the bolt face. I am not that worried if my cases come out a certain way. rather I don't want excessive ejection force.

"if you were looking at the G2 Recon and the Smith MP10 I would get the Smith due to barrel length."

Really? The MP10 is 18"... right?

no review is complete without a pile of hogs!!

The only brass that was torn up was from the box of factory loaded Hornady 155 grain match ammunition. There were ejector marks on the 5 reloaded WW cartridges I shot and ejector marks on the WW power point cases and the WW white box cases, however the Hornady's were just torn up.

I have been fighting this but now I think I am going to have to give in to doing it.

I don't know if hype or needed, regardless of the load or the aggressiveness to the brass I had two fellows watching me shoot and as far as I could tell the brass went in one general spot.



The Smith has the same receiver size as the original DPMS, in the so called "light weight" $1500 .308 Winchester rifle category my impression is that they both have their strengths and weaknesses.

The DPMS recon model is a 16 inch 308, not sure I would want one, the smith is 18 inch pencil barrel with a 3 inch flashhider, the DPMS Hunter is 20 inch target crown about 2 inches shorter than the MP10 and feels more like an AR15.

Soft brass and or powder that has high port pressure. I get pretty significant smears with Hornady 168 gr AMAX Match factory loads.

I had rims start to lift when do some loading with MR-2000. I have not been shooting my GII because of other projects but it may get an SLR block.

Burn rate of powder... if 155s likely run really hot since thats the palma bullet that needs to stay supersonic to 1000 and past....

Probably not anything other than burn rate and max loads now that I know the rest of the story.

Yep. The 155's are just not ideal in the large frame AR. 175's/178's and 4064 is magic though.

well the DPMS gunsmith dude wants me to send the upper in after he saw pictures of the cartridge cases.

I don't have 4064, got 180's, some 165's, Varget, BL-C2, TAC, RL15, Hybrid 100V and a few others.

Varget is another good choice.

Tell the DPMS gunsmith dude to lengthen all the gas ports in their GII's. This isn't a new problem, just one they have chosen to ignore.

All this is making the Ruger sound better and better.

I honestly wondered regards the accuracy of the Ruger. I am thinking this is the specific loading per other comments.

Lengthen the gas ports?

Better and better and more hypocrytical when Bill wanted ARs banned in the 90s... azzhole. I"d still like to piss on his grave.