Home Forums Hunting & Shooting AR and Tactical Rifles AR10 basics?

I came across an 18” fluted 6.5 Creedmoor AR10 barrel and now I need an AR10 education.

From my reading there are not the standards that exist in the AR15 world.

My goal is a lighter weight rifle without going nuts spending money chasing all the ounces. 7-8 pounds without scope is the goal versus the ~13 pound guns out there.

Can you point me in a direction for the basics or line them out for me here?

I bought one of the 20” GII Remington R25 308’s last year. It shoots surprisingly well and is around 7.5lbs with its fluted SS barrel. Their blueprint is not a bad one. Handles like an AR15 and is becoming one of my favorite hunting rifles.

For starters, given your desire for a reasonably light weight rifle - pay close attention to weights of the receivers and handguard you buy (and barrel, but you already have that). In the large frame guns, it's easy to end up with a heavy tank of a rifle if you don't pay attention to the weights.

A couple other things to know that come to mind:

- Do some reading on DPMS vs Armalite (AR10) pattern. Most of us use the term "AR10" as a generic catch-all for the 308 ARs, but technically AR10 and the DPMS pattern 308 are two different things. DPMS pattern parts are more common and seem to be the way the 308 AR industry is going IMO. There is also "high rail" and "low rail" within the DPMS pattern, low rail is the most common.

- Receivers are best bought as matching pairs, or at least from the same manufacturer. Don't expect Brand A upper to match perfectly with Brand B lower, since they are not standardized like the AR15, as you mentioned.

- for the recoil system, you can use either one of two combinations of parts - a standard length (AR15) buffer tube and special 308 buffer, or a 308 length (extended) buffer tube and standard AR15 buffer. Personally I prefer the extended buffer tube because the AR15 buffers are more common.

- Pretty much all 308 ARs have some combination of proprietary and standard AR15 internal parts - which parts are proprietary depends on the manufacturer. Most can use standard AR15 triggers (but not all), but other parts such as takedown pins, bolt catch, etc may be proprietary to the receiver manufacturer.

- Plan to use an adjustable gas block from the start. You'll most likely need it.

Hope that helps.

You hit on a lot of good points. When I was looking for an "AR10", I contemplated building my own, but then realized it would be far easier to buy one because the "AR10" is not so much "plug and play" like the ar15. I did research and found this to be useful information:

AR10 308 COMPATIBILITY

I damn near bought a Remington like the previous poster bought. That seemed to be exactly what I was looking for, but happened to luck into a real AR10 (Armalite) and decided to buy that.... That way, I can actually call mine an AR10 and not get scrutinized about it ... Mine doesn't have an adjustable gas block either, but that's how the cookie crumbles. I believe one would be nice, but I'm not messing with my rifle, as it runs like a fu cking top...:






The only thing I noticed was when running factory ammo (federal gold medal match), the rifle had a few hiccups. But that was remedied with a little grease on the bolt. My AR15's can run damn near dry, but not this AR10..... No failures of any kind now, after finding that out...

Good luck to the OP. A 6.5 Creedmoor AR10 would be bad azzed...

What does the barrel weigh by itself?

I have a 16" 308 rifle that bare weighs 7 1/2lbs, it's the lightest one I have. That is no mag or optics, these things get heavy quickly

Lawrence,

Try the NM load of either imr4895 or h4895 with the 175gr OTM. I would use the nosler rdf. 39.0-39.7 of h4895

You are talking complete upper to include bcg and charging handle?

Thanks buddy.

They are pretty proud of the 175 SMK.. the story on how the "168" became the standard for 1000yd shooting is interesting. In short one of the top shooters of the time shot a world record with the 168 SMK and everyone started using it. Even though it's not ideal for 1000yd shooting. Across the course with a m1a yes. The 175 offer a better BC but, the 175's have the same BC as the 88gr eld-m. If you are using the 224 Valkyrie or 22 nosler heck even the 223/5.56 it's all a wash. I'm shooting 90gr Sierra's from a modified mag in my AR getting close 2500 FPS with H4895.

I'm willing to bet one reason you are slow with 90s is the 4895. We got great accuracy and SLOW speeds, I don't think I burned more than about 3 pounds playing with that before I said never again.

175 jlks I thought were better at 1000 than 185 bergers at the time, but I couldn't shoot all that well when we were shooting M1As. Never got out of MA class. We used to shoot 180 SMKs before they changed the boat tail for some nutty reason.. the old 180s were not all that bad.

The 168 story is same I heard, and makes sense as thats how people think. Even though it was something akin to the 69 in 223, ok, but far from the best shot at it.

That said, IIRC 4895 DID work well in 308. But its been a long time.. and once we bought that 200 pound keg of surplus powder, we didn't use commercial much.

I tried couple powders and I got the best speed with H4895, I'm going to get some 88gr eld-m try it with some Leverevolution. Hell by next year I will have this all figured out lol..

The Sierra 168's were designed as a 300M bullet. They debuted and won at the Mexico City Olympics (They were called 168 Internationals back then). For Highpower hey were initially used in Mexican Match (where the 173 FMJ's were pulled and replaced over the same primered and charged case) I'm guessing because they were closest in weight to the 173's. 168's did well at 600 yards, but ran out of gas at 1k because of their short boat tail out of the M14'S. (Sharpsman will be along shortly to contradict me). The 175SMK's were designed at the request of the USMC who had been working on a product improvement project for ammo to shoot to 1K in the M40A1's. The 175's were essentially a match analog to the 173 FMJ's.

If you're looking for a load for an AR10, try Varget under a 175 or 185 Juggies. It's what the cool kids are using out of their M110's out to 1K.

The 175 SMK isn't much of a 1,000 yard bullet either. The Juggernauts are a big improvement.

Yep it takes some time. Wild that you can't get more than 2500, 90 JLK in 20 inch tube were at 2700 for us. 223 Holliger chambers

I’ll have to weigh it when I get home at the end of this coming week. Thanks!

I shot some critters with my buddy’s 308 AR10 and it is almost at the limit of maximum weight for Idaho. I think it is ~14#. Yes Idaho has a maximum weight limit for hunting rifles. Supposedly they made the law to eliminate 50 cal long range guys.

It sounds like I need a “gen 2” and should plan to stick with one manufacturer for all my parts.

Oh and I just realized you said mag length... no room for powder, that might be killing your speed. But like I said, 4895 just did not get up to speed at all with 80s, think even with them I was only about at 2550 IIRC.

Nimrod, the gen II/DPMS pattern idea is a good one. That way you can use P-mags if you want. I've been eyeballing the Aero Precision M5E1 lowers. They offer everything I'd want in an AR10, except I don't think you can adapt a BADD lever to one yet. If you can, someone please correct me. That is one thing I really like about my Armalite, I have it set up exactly like my AR15's, so muscle memory doesn't have to change a bit. It uses all ambi controls (I shoot left handed), including a BADD lever.


Since I am new to AR's, I want all the controls to be the same so I don't feel like I'm fumbling around....

Yeah that probably whats getting me. I'm going to work on 600yd slow fire round.

Armalite AR10s use PMags too.

Just the older ones from the '90s don't.

You are kind of right, but off a little on the timeline. Mine was made in 2011 and is considered a "B" series. The "A" series was introduced in 2012 and it can use p-mags. That one totally slipped my mind, until you brought it up. Good catch Tyrone. When i think of the Armalite AR10, i always think of the old ones that take the steel mags.