Wanting to avoid a dud, so seeking tips, recommendations or related discussion.

Build direction. Carry weight 6.5 Creedmoor. Light, within reason for the $. Going trim on the barrel and lightish on the handguard... Short slim barrel suppressed hunting carbine, not a battle rifle. I prefer no forward assist or port door although the bolt carrier will have notches and "standard" is not a deal breaker. Lower will be an Aero M5. I do not want the Aero M5E1 Enhanced type upper on this, I guess, oh hell, maybe I should? Will have riflescope only, no buis, no red dot. 50mm max, low or high rail?

It'd be great if it goes together with the rail true to the bore. Known gtg uppers? Known junk? Known crapshoots? Not an AR10, LOL. Support for the handguard, for bipod or tripod use is a fairly high priority. Standard weight rear charging BCG...

Ya'llz input is appreciated. Thoughts on the Aero M5E1 Enhancd upper?

I bought the Stripped Aero M5 Lower + M5 Upper (with FA) for a 6.5 CM build. Still shopping for the rest. Mine will be rifle lenght.

P.S. - PSA has the Geissele SSA-E on sale now.

An Aero upper will be good to go - they’ve been running good QC from what I’ve bought over the years. I’d use an Aero before a DPMS, but that’s my opinion more than any facts on the DPMS .308 parts I’ve used.

The Aero Enhanced limits your handguard choices to the Aero offerings only - but it’s a solid design, and rigid - which is what it sounds like you’re looking for.

If you go with the non-enhanced Aero, you’ll still be getting into having a large barrel nut to attach the hard guard to - you probably won’t save much weight, if any.

I’ll just say that building a “lightweight” M-5 rifle is generally harder than most expect - there’s a lot of fixed mass in the reviewers, BCG, and .308 sized barrel that can’t be shaved without a good investment in specialty parts.

Good post. I'd go M5E1 all day long. Great receivers. I have some buddies that have built off of them. I believe one uses a BA barrel and it shoots extremely well. I might be wrong on the barrel, so don't quote me on that. I'd have to call him to be sure, but I believe that is what he said. I also agree on the weight debacle. It's going to be hard to get the weight down. The AR10/AR308's are not typically lightweight rifles by any means.. Mine is fairly heavy with a fairly heavy scope on board, but it also has a 20" barrel.



That is damn nice. To those that don't know any better, you can buy a very good trigger like the Larue MBT2S or $79.95 RRA 2 stage varmint match 3.5 pound and be money ahead.. Personally in a heavier kicker like an AR10 308 or even 6.5 CM, I prefer the RRA over the SSAE.. YMMV..

Really appreciate the inputs. Solid info from what I have found as well. I went ahead and ordered an Aero M5E1 upper for one build. Will try something else on another, possibly the standard Aero. I'll add that my reference to DPMS is the format, which I am learning about, not the brand.

Modified goal, not needlessly heavy. It'll take some time to get the parts gathered so any relevant discussion is appreciated. I tuned out from most of the large format AR discussions previously, but, have grown to appreciate the modularity and capabilities of the platform. Have a get it whilst I can mentally too.

Happy Independence Day.