Home Forums Hunting & Shooting AR and Tactical Rifles M&P-10 vs DPMS-GII-Recon, Any conclusions now ???

The DPMS-GII-Recon got off to a bad foot at first.

What now?

Everyone everywhere seems to rave about the Smith and Wesson.

inwould buy an HK if I really wanted another 308. I still have the Ruger SR 762. Good gun.

I stumbled upon an M&P-10 at a local gun store last week. I had never seen one before except on line. It was light as a feather, handy as a bottle opener. It sure got me to thinking.

I have not nailed down all the facts on em yet but it seems that there are some proprietary parts.

It is a pretty good gun, not a tack driver but it is lighter and reliable.

All the 308 ARs have proprietary parts.
I wouldn't worry about it.

Good rifle - had one for about 18 months. If you can live with 2-2.5 inch accuracy, it's a solid buy.

The barrel and bolt are propietary per the SW website. This would limit you if you wanted to change out the barrel for caliber or new barrel.

Mine would not accept DPMS uppers, pins are same spacing, but the length of the lugs were different. So, you would be limited on upper options as well.

I liked the weight (lack of), the ambi controls, and it went bang with boring regularity.

Good rifle - had one for about 18 months. If you can live with 2-2.5 inch accuracy, it's a solid buy.

The barrel and bolt are propietary per the SW website. This would limit you if you wanted to change out the barrel for caliber or new barrel.

Mine would not accept DPMS uppers, pins are same spacing, but the length (depth) of the lugs were different. So, you would be limited on upper options as well.

I liked the weight (lack of), the ambi controls, and it went bang with boring regularity.

AH64

Was there nothing straight forward to be done to tweak it up to 1.5???

Right off the bat I am thinking a quick swap to a free float and a geislle trigger install.

The reputation for reliable function and the light weight has my full attention. But someone posted somewhere else that S&W won't sell spare parts to anyone but certified armorers so spare bolt is a not go without hassle.

The eternal quest for the affordable lightweight reliable 308 autoloader continues...

HK??? as in a PTR91??

Didn't you but a DPMS GII Recon last year or so? Did you throw in the towel on that???

If an M&P-10 cannot be tweaked fairly easily maybe I buy a DPMS GII recon and just rebuild to problems out of it.

After I picked up that M&P-10 at the local store I cannot get it out of my mind... that light weight is seductive for a 308.

A work colleague bought one as well, and had a Troy tube installed on it. My opinion, he lost the balance and handling by doing so. His rifle felt muzzle heavy to me.

PM jimmyp - he did a lot of load work up on his, but didn't get much in results IIRC.

You'll also need a gas block, the SW gas block is a big block that is in the same plain as the reciever to mount BUIS.

My stock trigger was not a bad trigger, not match, but not gritty or overly heavy.

If refering to the DPMS, I don't believe he did any load work. He started getting pressure immediately and made them take it back, from what I recall.

I had the same experience but they put two barrels on mine and it appears to be shooting much better without the pressure issue. I may put an adjustable gas block on it anyway, as I have heard other with the same pressure issues we had just did that it it began shooting great.

Right now my DPMS Gen II Hunter has shot a little over 1" for five a few times. That's a decent start but it took a while to get there. I've been too busy with a house sell to work with it since but will be getting back to it in the next few weeks.

I thought he had an MP-10 before the DPMS, but it's been a long week.

He may have, like I said "If" referring the the DPMS, those were my recollections. Didn't mean to step on your post, if I did.

No toes here - pretty certain you are correct on the DPMS, it was not a good rifle out of the box.

MP 10 is a good rifle and smith thinks 2MOA is OK, many loads tried and it was still a 2 moa rifle, the DPMS went back for tearing up brass, they sent me a check, would not buy another.


http://www.thefirearmblog.com/blog/2016/04/01/breaking-hk-wins-csass-competition-g28e/

I get real confused on all the HK jargon and nomenclatures. The HK417 is the current most best model you are suggesting?

I had had real high hopes for the new light weight DPMS models but there you go. Evidently, getting a good 308 autoloader means spending some cash and working overtime.

I think I will get that 2000$ Armalite. But if more overtime kicks in I might take a hard look at the HK417 or Larue or LWRC

Thanks for the links and the feedback.

I can tell you that DPMS does stand behind their rifles. Unfortunately, it did take them a couple of times to get mine right and they had to outsource their repair to Allman's which is not a bad thing in the least, but it was made right. Many people have gotten good ones right off the bat. Jimmy and I didn't. He obtained a refund directly from them, and I waited it out and got the lightweight 308 I wanted. I believe we're both happy.

DPMS does stand behind there rifles. The ruger I have is a heavy gun and does not get used often because it is heavy, but it works like a big AK with the piston. Then it is in my opinion casually accurate. The suck part of the ruger is weight and trigger pull. Even with the trigger it shoots well.

I, too, have been impressed with the M&P-10's handling qualities and light weight. As to accuracy, over the years I've noticed light rifles often don't shoot many loads really well. But, if you look and try different powder charges with good bullets and brass, it should shoot better than 2-2.5 MOA. Might take a while to find such loads, but, if you really like the gun, it might be worth it.
If you look at some of the U-Tube videos put out by NutnFancy, he found some simple factory hunting loads that would hold about 1.5 MOA for five in his. As well as many not so good.
I bought an M1A Squad Scout instead of the M&P-10. Another rifle that isn't suppose to be very accurate. BTW, mine, out of the box was only slightly heavier than the M&P-10, not what Springfield Armory said it would be. Shorter, 18 inch barrel and synthetic stock.
The rifle does shoot Mil surp and some handloads into 3-4 MOA. But I have one load that shoots right at MOA for four rounds as well as a couple of hunting loads that shoot under 1.5 MOA again for four rounds. E

Keep LMT in your search as well, they are built like tanks and accurate.