Hey guys, I need a lot of help in deciding what I need for a good AR10 build. I damn near bought one that was already built, but let that one slip through my fingers. I hesitated because it had a short barrel. I'm wanting one with a medium weight 20" fluted barrel. I don't want the rifle to be god awful heavy. Probably keeping it under 9 pounds without scope. I also looked at a M&P 10 a few weeks ago. It was nice, and they were going to cut me a deal at $900.00. I also looked at another M&P 10 yesterday, but that shop wanted a grand for it. Let me know what you guys would use for your upper, lower, trigger and barrel and where the best deals are. Thanks for any help you can spare....

The best price seems to be from Palmetto State Armory. They sell complete lowers, uppers and rifles. They had some reported early teething problems but most reports nowadays seem to be pretty good to excellent. Windham makes nice rifles. There are many others. Just don't expect much interchangeability with parts, or uppers and lowers as there's no 'standard' to follow. There are Armalite and DPMS patterns but no standard.

I bought my AR-10 complete (Windham Weaponry) and I'm now currently working on a 243 upper build for a second "plug and play". It's a 22" fluted stainless. Right now I'm having a hard time finding a 0.936" adj. gas block for it. Windham wasn't the cheapest I could find but I've liked it a lot so far. Zero problems to date

Bsa...I started with an Aero upper/lower and a Black Hole barrel . Using a SA adjustable gas block I found I could tune things in nicely. I finished it off with an AP FF tube and barrel nut, SSA-E, and a PRS stock.

This one is a fast twist 243, but one could do a 308 in similar fashion

I am by no means an AR expert....but this build has performed pretty well so far

Sounds like a nice rifle. Thanks for sharing.

Thanks bsa....its one of my favorites and it is a shooter....learned a few things in the process.

I hear good things about Aero. No personal experience though

Hey raybass ol buddy. Hope all is well.

Anyone here try the live wire 7075 t6 matched receivers. Im eyeballing a spikes tactial upper/lower for my build. Price seems high though...

the Aero stuff is real nice in my book , particularly the "enhanced" upper/handguard combo...it makes for a very rigid system


but I dont think you could call an Aero build "light"

The M&P is a good rifle, nice balance, decent weight to size ratio. That said, it's about a 2 MOA rifle out of the box.

If your MP-10 does better, that's good, but S&W does not consider anything at 2 inches a problem they need to take care of. Mine was about an inch, manybe a bit more at 100, and JimmyP's MP-10 was worse IIRC.

The MP-10 is a DPMS clone...almost, form my experiments, the pattern was close, but just enough off that you were buying S&W uppers, barrels and BCGs to stay safely within their design limits. This may have changed by now, I was dealing with them 2-3 years ago.

I prefer Aero, they have made good products in the -15 and the -10 line-up. Agree with the light comment, there are very few "light" AR-10s in the market, without serious installment in parts and specialized barrels.

I have several uppers and lowers. I have not been disappointed in any one of them.

kwg

Thanks for the help guys.

Take a look at the V-Seven set; not cheap but you get a really nice product, IMO, way nicer than Spikes.

I used one of their matched sets for the last AR-15 I did & I really, really like how it is done & the fit is perfect.

www.vsevenweaponsystems.com

MM

BSA,

Save yourself some headaches and get the Larue Ultimate Upper kit and lower. Nothing else on the market is in the same range.

Thanks buddy.. I know Larue makes some nice chit. I'll look into it... Any suggestions on a good barrel? Probably going to go with a 20"...

If you go with the Larue kit that Formy suggests, you can just use their barrel (non-stainless) which is reported to be pretty good, & the price is right, but I don't have anything Larue.

If you want a different barrel, consider a SS Criterion barrel.

MM

MM, no one is suggesting Armalite. Why: weaknesses or flaws? Is it because you can't use P mags and the DPMS is more versatile? Just wondering... A guy has a real nice Armalite target model for sale, near me for a good price.

Because Armalite doesn't make kits.
Personally, I'd jump on an Armalite target model if it was priced right. Those Armalite stainless barrels shoot really well. Mine will do about 1/2" for 5.

I heard that more than once about the Armalite; wouldn't hesitate at the right price, but don't have one.

MM

Dang, this one seems to be priced right and it's local... Hmmm..

Where's it at and how many rounds are through it?

About 90 miles from my house, approx 300 rounds down the tube. Says he's shot some "tiny" groups at 300 yards with it. I think he's desperate for money right now...

I've yet to see an Armalite target model that wouldn't shoot but they are heavy.

The key thing to remember when going large fram AR is there is little commonality between mfg. Stick with same mfg for upper and lower and you will save some hassle. JSR has Mega sets on clearance and owning two they are good to go. The upper and lower fit is generally perfect if buying a matched set. Mega is now ZEV but JSE has Mega sets for a good price.

Aero is generally good to go but I've never built on their sets so cannot comment 100%.

The Rubber City High pressure bolt group is just as stout as JP and good to go.

I would recommend sticking with DPMS pattern guns over Armalite for parts availability and commonality.

Ar15performance has Creedmoor barrels that hammer. Rainier has/had 308 rock creek button barrels that won't break your back.

No large frame gun is going to be light but that should come close to hitting your goal. The DPMS Gen2 guns are starting to have some aftermarket barrel support and would be the best route for hitting your weight target.

No matter what pattern you pick don't skimp on the BCG and get an adjustable gas block.

BSA -

When I decided to build I went with Aero lower and upper (DPMS pattern). Got a 18" Ballistic Advantage barrel and an adjustable gas block. Also went with a Midwest Industries MLOK handguard rather than keymod. Installed a nice trigger but can't recall the make/model of the top of my head and the rifle is miles away at the moment.

Very happy with the results. If building now I would go with Aero's newer Enhanced upper.

Good luck on your build, and have fun doing it.

I just finished up a 243 Aero upper with a Stoner barrel. So far I'm getting sub-inch groups getting it sighted in. Used a Superlative gas block and put it on a Windham Weaponry lower. Thinking I'm gonna be real happy once it's all said and done.

Good to see that the Aero and Windham are compatible.

I tested the stripped upper on the lower before I bought it. It fits tight enough that I couldn't/didn't need to use one of those shims. I had been warned.

Very cool. Thats always nice when things fit good. Speaking of fitting together, i ran into a small issue with my BAD lever install. I had to re-profile the back of the nut for clearance. Not a big issue, works great now and looks good after a little alumi-black. Im sure others have ran into this issue.

Sounds great.