.30 Carbine AR

[rjacobs]

Got a buddy who is way to into .30 carbine guns and wants to build a .30 carbine AR. I have no clue about anything besides 5.56 AR's so figured Id throw this question out here. The damn search function is all jacked up still.

I am guessing the upper/lower would have to be AR-10 based. What bolt would be applicable, a .308 bolt? Anybody make barrels for .30 Carbine?

Anybody make a factory .30 carbine AR?

[khc3]

Olympic Arms used to make an AR in .30 carbine.

I don't think they do any more though.

[xrayoneone]

I worked with a man that was an engineer at DPMS who made an AR in 30 Tokarev for his dad. It took PPSh stick mags and was generally a pretty cool little gun. If your friend were to call them up they may accomodate him. During the Clinton ban they were really looking into wierd AR chamberings to take advantage of the cheap surplus standard capacity magazines that were on the market. DPMS may not have the best reputation but a 30 Carbine AR sounds like a range gun and not a serious duty gun anyways. You'd be able to base it off the AR15 upper and lower as the 30 Carbine is not very powerful and is shorter in OAL than a .223/5.56.

I'll stick with my standard M1 carbines and maybe an Enforcer pistol if I find one at a give away price.

[chadbag]

I worked with a man that was an engineer at DPMS who made an AR in 30 Tokarev for his dad.

7.62x25 AR -- https://www.m4carbine.net/showthread.php?t=40164

A 30 Carbine AR would be interesting to see from an intellectual perspective...

[rjacobs]

So the consensus is that it could be done using an AR15 upper and lower instead of the AR10 like he thought.

He is not against doing some custom work to get it to work. I think the barrel might be the hardest part to find.

What about the bolt? Modified AR15 or Modified AR10 bolt? I am thinking its going to have to be an AR10 bolt. I think Remington is using a modified AR10 bolt in an AR15 upper for their new AR30R(or whatever its called).

[glocktogo]

The rim diameter for .223 is .378" and the rim diameter for .30 carbine is .360". That means the .30 carbine rim would be undersized for the standard AR bolt. You might need to weld up the AR-15 bolt face and recut it for .360 in order for it to work. Same for the extractor.

[xrayoneone]

As long as the extracter has enough rim to grab onto then there should be no need to modify the bolt in any way. A decent machinest would be able to make an extractor if your friend finds out that it won't grab.

You wouldn't need anything from the AR10. The 30 Carbine is much less powerful than the 7.62x39, 6.8, 5.56 so there would be no need to worry about pressure in an AR15.

As far as barrels go your buddy could call DPMS and see if they have something like that sitting around. He could call Olympic Arms and ask the same thing. Otherwise there are ample barrel manufacturers that could help out. All your friend has to do is call and ask and he'll probably find a machinist that is sitting around wanting to experiment with that very concept, but he wants to do it on someone elses dime. Let's face it times are tough and if somebody were to call me and ask me to chamber an AR barrel in 30 Carbine I would do it in a flash.

As far as Ron Williams and his 30 Tokarev uppers I don't know anything about that. My co-worker built this thing in 2003 and it was a dedicated 30 Tokarev. There was no magazine well block or anything else. He was an engineer for DPMS and he milled the receiver himself to specifically accept the PPSh magazines.

Like I say all your friend has to do is find the right guy and Bob's your uncle he's in business with a 30 Carbine AR. The only PITA I see is getting the DGI to work correctly, but patience and a little at a time I think it would be a success.

[glocktogo]

I guess my biggest question would be why? .30 carbine is not as abundant as 5.56 and it's very costly these days. I'm set up to reload it and once you have the brass it can be pretty cheap to reload though.

[rjacobs]

Well the reason why is that thats how my friend is. He likes to have different guns from everybody else. He has a whole safe full of weird shit.

I guess the barrel is going to really be the key to the whole thing so thats gonna have to be the first thing to secure.

Ill let you know how the process moves along if he decides to do it.

[J-A-R]

I like the 30 carbine to, but in the AR15 platform the 300 whisper or 300/221 is a better option. Hope this works out for your friend though, always thought it would be cool to have on in 30 carbine myself.

Good luck.