New Colt .308s

[PrarieDog]

I like the concept of the 901 but I also like what (I cringe when I say this) DPMS has with the GII. That said the SCAR 17s has many advantages over these two designs. (other than price and magazines) The magazines are becoming less of an issue with the SCAR though.

[Sticks]

Well, with Colt setting out a whole line of them, we may finally see a set standard in parts and design - getting away from this proprietary parts BS.

A little bummed that the 18" is not on their website yet.

[Safetyhit]

This might solve my conundrum how what parts to use for a .308 AR build. I'd honestly rather buy a factory rifle, and let them handle the teething pains.

Plus I have a spare 6920 upper just sitting in a safe. Hmm.....

Sounds like a wise choice. The 16SE is without a doubt my most preferred next purchase and may do a little swapping of sorts myself to accomplish the goal.

[Berserkr556]

I really like the look of the FDE model, it's calling me. My only problem is a lack of spare parts. Springs, bolts, extractors, barrels break or wear out. I like to have spares on hand, I'm not into shipping my rifle to the manufacturer for work I can do myself. BTW before someone says I can't afford enough ammo to shoot out a barrel or wear out a bolt be advised I was stacking 1,000 round crates of 7.62 NATO back in the days when they were $80. so yes I can afford to shoot out a barrel, several if I wanted too. I'll have to keep my eye on Colt and see what happens with the spares.

[JBecker 72]

The 16S does look promising. I wonder if the only reason for the lower price is the non monolithic receiver and no sights. If that's it and there were no other corners cut I would be in.

[LRRPF52]

This might solve my conundrum how what parts to use for a .308 AR build. I'd honestly rather buy a factory rifle, and let them handle the teething pains.

Plus I have a spare 6920 upper just sitting in a safe. Hmm.....

This is what I have been recommending for people lately, since the AR10 parts market is coming apart in both good and bad ways. There are so many shops that have finally caught up, and mistakenly gotten ahead of demand on both -15 and -10 parts, in the post Sandy Hook panic. Now they are sitting on basically obsolete designs, almost none of which have been engineered with compatibility, since there is no standard outside of the SR-25, and even within Knight's, the SR-25 has evolved a lot since 1993.

There are after-market BCG rails that impact other after-market receiver extension tube threads on the lower with the correct buffer arrangement. There are receiver sets being advertised as compatible with DPMS, but aren't. There are fire control group pin locations that are off, and magazines that one would think should lock the bolt to the rear....don't.

As the prices are being driven down by competition and volume, as well as manufacturing efficiency with bigger companies, it makes very little sense to try and DIY with AR10's, unless you really know this platform well, have all the tools necessary (many are different than -15), are prepared to look at custom barrel work where you can control the reamer (rather than leave it up to the primary source of roll the dice on reamer specs), cut your own gas port diameter, source your own quality ejector/extractor/recoil springs, do your detailed bolt work, and run slow-motion video analysis on your cyclic rate to balance the gas/recoil/extraction/ejection systems.

Some people like doing that, but Joe Q. simply doesn't have the time, understanding, or patience to deal with any of this. He expects to be able to slap a bunch of parts together, walk down to the LGS or China mart, lock and load, and blast away with 100% reliability with a rifle that costs ~$1000. The ArmaLite DEF10 will do that out of the box for $999, but color me very skeptical that you are going to do it with these $700 parts guns from PSA.

Colt and DPMS, on the other hand, have reputable CS and support, and are currently the only two companies offering AR10's that get back to the original shorter receiver and BCG set. I'm eyeballing both of them for some custom projects, since .308 has been dead to me for years now, and I'm stepping way outside of my comfort zone with calibers on these next projects.

Where these designs are really going to break out is in the hunting market, once calibers are explored more.

[philcam]

I wonder if the rail on the 16s could be replaced with a CMR.

[Failure2Stop]

I wouldn't do anything slower than 1:10 on a 16" 7.62.
Other then that, there seems to be some promise to the guns.

[Vegasshooter]

It would seem like a guy could buy this new Colt, replace the barrel with a .260 or a 6.5CM and have a really nice long range gun without breaking the bank. Lower, BCG, mags could all be the same. Essentially a "factory" .260/6.5CM.

Am I missing anything??

[darr3239]

I wouldn't do anything slower than 1:10 on a 16" 7.62.
Other then that, there seems to be some promise to the guns.

I'm no expert on 7.62 twist rates, but I got a 1.17" 100 yard group with 175 FGMM, from prone with iron sights on my son's LE901-16S. It was the first time it was fired out of the box.