Home Forums Hunting & Shooting AR and Tactical Rifles I have a DPMS Gen II Hunter on the way, now a couple of questions...

Would I want to use small base dies for reloading?

How do the Magpul mags work in these? Is the 20 or 25 round best?,

For a good hunting load, 150 Barnes Tipped, or Berger 155?. How about 165's or 175's? Twist is 1:10 with a 20" tube.

Any other suggestions?

FWIW, I believe I will put an IOR 2.5x10 Ill MP8 on it in a QD PEPR mount. Probably will put a small reddot on the scope ring top.

We started with small base dies just because the weapon is a semi auto. I am not sure it is a require item.
Magpul mags are golden.
think about a nosler ballistic tip 165 grain slug and somewhere around 42.2 to43 grains of h4895 with a LRP, we are using military brass.

We did find out a proper crimp makes a big difference in accuracy.

After a lot of work done on the load bench my sons dpms is shooting 3 round groups at 200 yards that could be covered with a quarter. Good luck.

Thanks for the information, Warlock.

The chambering is shown as 308/7.62 Nato, so I assume either brass would work fine. Midway has some 7.62x51 Nato brass reasonable. Might pick up a few hundred, unless someone think 308 would be a better choice. I'll load for accuracy but also speed, all within pressure constraints. So would more speed be easier with 308 brass?

7.62 brass is typically thicker so you will get higher velocities with less powder than most .308 brass.

Don't worry about small base dies unless you are shooting mostly once fired surplus brass.

For a hunting load it's hard to go wrong with any quality bullet in the 150-165gr range.

Ricky, either brass is fine. If it's a bench gun buy Laupa, other wise, so long as you don't mix headstamps, and start low and work up, don't worry about it too much.

What do you plan to kill with it?

I'll probably use it for late season does in Iowa, and pigs wherever. I'm just hoping I don't have the same experience as Jimmy.

I like Lapua but can't like it enough with autochuckers to pay the price,though it's close to reasonable at Midway now. I put an ad in the classifieds for some 308 1x fired. A member has some and is checking number and headstamp later. I'll probably try the 7.62 also.

What I've heard of the way it handles and other potential makes it somewhat of a must have. If it doesn't live up to it, a must go. We'll see but I don't want it to go even before I get it, so I'll give it a good shot at staying.

Ricky I see one in my future as well, so I look forward to your range report. For deer and pigs, 150gr NBT's will work just fine. My FAL likes them with a max load of WC846 (BLC-2) and a CCI match primer.

It's a game-changer!

You will find out that the rifle will prefer loads at about mid range load info.
Don't get caught up in the speed kills idea.
You will have to work for a load that is accurate by causing the action to function the same time everytime.
We tried CFE223 due to the velocities printed and found out it is not only a waste of time and powder, it is a little scary on the pressure signs also.
I am not sure about the 150 size slugs, but the 165/168 are very good at about 2750fps.

So I've heard.

Yep I wound up with the Ruger SR-762 and Varget is a good choice whatever 308 you shoot.

Pigs require a much larger, heavier, tuffer bullet or those 308's will bounce right off.

That Ruger is a sharp looking rifle and accurate from what I've read on it. I hope it treats you better than the Hunter.

Agreed on the Varget. Hunter's been good for me, too. But that is with bolt guns. I've got the two mentioned and a couple more. It'll be fun, if I'm lucky.

I wanted the hunter to work. It's weight and configuration were very practical. I did not care about the cratered primers, but tearing up brass made me worry about it. My hope is that mine was just a fluke. They just took too long in getting an answer or were backed up some how. They are a stand up company however and refunded my money. I thought before I sent it in (and I am not an expert) that it was over gassed. It was flinging brass to 4:30 could hit a baseball cap with spent brass but 1/3 of it was torn up, specifically hornady match ammunition. Never seen ejectors drill holes in the back of a brass case before in my life. Please let us know, hopefully mine was a total fluke.

Also everyone knows that a pig cannot be killed with a lowly 308

i agree with one exception, which i stumbled upon purely by accident. since i don't have the 'game changer' model or special bullets, i snuck up reeeal close and jabbed the can in his ear. yes - the bullet bounced off, but the blast gave him a concussion which resulted in a nose bleed and severe ear trauma.

Nicely done.

An obvious fluke...

Ricky to one of your original questions, I use regular redding dies.

Thank you!

I picked it up tonight. Looks good. The forearm is a little slicker than I'd like, but if that's all, I can deal with that. It does handle and balance nice.

I had a "loose" 4.5x14 Leupold LR B&C, so I stuck that on in a PEPR. Might put an IOR 2.5x10 on later. I found a set of RCBS dies on the shelf I thought I'd sold. Brass and 165 Partition blems are on the way. Got a couple hundred 168 TSX on the shelf, too. I'll buy a box or two of Remington's, since that's the brass on the way, and sight it in this weekend. It's supposed to be nice so it should be fun.

I had one image left of the hornady match ammo brass, sorry its not the best one.

I remember how that looked. I'm hoping that was even more of a fluke than Mr. Jones head shot hog.

I should add the hog was more skill than fluke, I am sure.

well Ricky how is it shooting?

no more fluke shots. i meant to shoot every one of them in the ass.

we know that old clunker of a rifle works Mr. Jones . I tell you what for the same 11 pound anchor weight the SR-762 is a mighty good shootin iron itself.

It's not had a chance to show me yet, really. I did get out last weekend but had scope and load problems.

I loaded up 2x what I usually need for a sight in, 6 rounds, but had scope issues. I was trying a QD PEPR and it wasn't tight enough. So I burned through the 10 rounds (6 to sight in, 4 for group) before I got the scope solid.

The load problem is it gets pressure way sooner than the loading tables indicate. I was using Varget and 168 TSX. I started about 2 grains below max. I hope to be able to try it again this weekend.

I hunted my SR-762 last weekend.

well... what did you shoot?

In GA it's usually just hunting, not shooting. 90% of what I watch is squirrels, brids, and armadillos. Every once in a while you get lucky and see a deer that's over 75lbs.

RickyD, how is the your new DPMS Gen 2 hunter shooting? Have not heard from you, let us know!!!!

Sorry, Jimmy. Things have been crazy for us lately.

I sent the upper back. It was getting pressure much too soon. Even loads (Varget and RL15 with 168 TSX and 165 Partitions) a grain under the starting load were cratering primers. The one box of factory ammo (Federal Fusion 150 grain MSR) I tried backed out the primers until they were flush with the case head and even a bit above. Groups with factory was 3.3". My handloads went from 1.75 to 2.75 for 4 shots.

I hope they will rebarrel it and send it back and it will be a 1" to 1.5" rifle with no pressure issues. We'll see.

Best of Luck to you Ricky, your experience mimics mine.

A game changer for sure.

I am wondering if its just in the hunter series of the gen2? It's kind of a shame, the carbon fiber fore end, target crowned 20 inch stainless Teflon coated barrel, light sub 8 pound weight, made it very very desirable from a true hunting standpoint. I really wanted it to work, perfect .308 hunting rifle. It sucks that an innovative design with many desirable features has been cobbled together with out of spec parts to produce what appears to be a much less than perfect gun (strike 2). Just charge $300 more for the thing and make a working rifle! If DPMS would send me one to try and it worked/MOA I would pay $1600 for it, but I won't buy another one off the shelf. I love the Ruger cause it just flat shoots, but it "seems" a heavy bugger at a pound more out of the gate and with a 4 inch shorter barrel!! Waiting to light one off at a deer from the Ruger and my ears ring for a week.

The primer cratering issue is due to the firing pin hole being oversized, not necessarily hot loads. The primer flows into the excess space between the firing pin and hole giving you false pressure signs.

When you get your upper back, it will probably do the same thing. Nothing new for DPMS. They just continue to ignore it.

The sad thing is, the GII has potential but freedom group is driving it. Its like giving the cure to cancer to a class of 2nd graders.

It's not just cratering the primer, but also backing the primer out and showing shiny spots on the case heads where the brass has flowed. It also groups very poorly.

The ejector swipes are because they lightened the BCG but kept the rifle over gassed and gas system lengths are too short. Early unlocking is causing the shiny spots and primers backing out.

Mine looked like it wanted to be a 1.5 MOA gun. I cannot add much other than neither the MP10 nor SR-762 messes up the brass. For the money the Ruger although a pig is the best in function and accuracy of the 3 I tried. I keep my pro ears gold on when I am hunting with it.

I guess that's possible but my brass showed pulled rims when it unlocked to early. Never messed with the primers. But I have been wrong before.

Any guesses what that buffer weighed? I wonder if an H3 would have helped, and or a Sprinco heavy spring.

They say a plasma torch will fix problems like this

I saw someone fix a Spikes Tactical lower receiver once with a bandsaw. It was great.

was the spikes lower that bad? I thought they were "OK"?

It had more to do with their customer service. The whole conversation was posted a several years ago and ended with a bandsaw. I think Spikes sources good quality stuff and the parts I've had in the past have all been fine. I would rather spend my money elsewhere though after seeing the owner/CEO show his tail in several threads.

10-4

I was having problems with beating up the brass on my gen II also, but an adjustable gas block fixed that right up. It is now shooting very well and easy on the brass too. I got the Syrac ordnance gen II gas block. it was easy to install and adjust and made a huge difference with the brass damage.

I think a lot of folks have speculated regards the gun being overgassed. I was for one quite puzzled that it would drill the twin ejectors into the back of the case without the extractor bending or warping the rim in any way and did not know how that related in a physical sense to being overgassed?

UPS tried to deliver the upper to me yesterday. I notified them I would pick it up at the hub. Probably won't be until Friday. I'll hope to get out with it this weekend. After over 6 months, I hope to see a lot of improvement.

Looking for brass? Brass

Not at this time, thanks.

anxious to find out if they gave you a new barrel and have drilled a smaller gas port for the lighter bolt/carrier.

A little over a month ago they told me they had a new barrel and bcg for it but hadn't been able to shoot it to see if it was fixed. I was told it would be next in line. 3 weeks later I called to see where it was and they still hadn't shot it. I did find out in that phone call they were moving the plant to the south: Alabama or Arkansas, don't recall which. Three weeks later it's sitting in UPS.

you have much more patience than I do.

Well, it was a good day at the range for everything but the "rebuilt" DPMS Gen II .308 Hunter. It ripped the rim off the first round and used the second to jam the first one in so tight I had to pound it out with a chunk of 2x6 on the end of a cleaning rod. About deprimed it in the process. Lacking discipline, I had to try another, but this time no second round so as to foregoe the battering ram effect. Ripped another rim off. No need for the 2x6 this time.

I doubt they shot it at the factory. I know they are moving south, and it seems the only guy they had to test guns was not at work or doing something else there for a long time. I called them many times over the last half year, and the time before last, I was told my gun was next, but they hadn't had the guy who shot and worked on them doing that for a while. Another month went by, no gun, I call again, and still this guy is not doing what I need done. Anyway, they are majorly messed up. Too bad! I wanted this gun to work.

here are the words you need to say....give me my money back...

Pretty unbelievable, isn't it?

yep with ignorant boobs babbling all day that they "hear good things about the Gen2"

Wow, that's nasty!

Gotta wonder if an adjustable gas block would fix that though. Sucks to need it on a new rifle that should work from the factory, but if you really want it to work, sometimes you have to make it right yourself.

I'm sorry to read of your troubles on this.

Thank you, sir. No worries, though. I'll send it in to Allman's who now do their warranty work. Hopefully, they can fix it right. DPMS certainly seems incapable of that.

I do wonder what it will take to fix it.

I think DPMS designed the receivers and BCG of the GII but forgot the rest of the rifle. From what I have experienced with my .308 with standard weight carriers, lightweight carriers, buffers, etc...., .308's need a longer gas system, not just a smaller gas port. The GII uses a lighter bolt carrier group but still uses a short gas system designed for a full mass .223 bolt group. I think this is why they chew up brass so bad. The lightweight carrier starts moving while chamber pressures are still high (bullet is still in barrel) and this rips off rims, primers back out, and gives overall false pressure signs. If you move the gas port closer to the muzzle, the bolt stays put longer and won't unlock as early. If you time it right, you can find that sweet spot where reliability and undamaged brass come together.

Why DPMS would do all that R&D only to stick with a .223 gas system amazes me.

At one point when I was looking at maybe buying a G2 I contacted DPMS and asked if they were considering a mid length gas system.

"No!"

Oh well.

They are part of Remington.

I bought this Gen II Hunter a year ago, it's been back to the factory once and then on to Ahlman's. DPMS subs their repairs to them, and I got it back today. To say they gave excellent customer service, is an understatement.



I doubt anyone can read the notes, as they are difficult in the hand, but the target says most of what I want to know. 5 at 100 yard just under an inch with factory ammo. Nosler 155 gr bthp Match, factory, but I'll take it.

Interesting thing on the note said I thought it was getting excess pressure. That's what I told them I had it in to DPMS for the first time and it came back stripping rims off the case and leaving the empty in the chamber to pound out.

They polished the chamber, rebuilt the bolt, tested headspace and increased buffer weight. Then they tested 3 different loads with a 180, 165, and 155. It appears the 155 won. They mighta got it right. Hoping!

Let the gamechanging begin. Hope to get a 165 Partition or 168 TSX flying straight. I'll try Hunter first. Might be a while though.

There used to be a guy on arfcom called Slash that built heavy buffers for AR-10's. That was my main grip with the big guns, drive a 150 gr bullet over 2700 fps and they start pulling rims. Adding one of Slash's buffers cured lots of ills.