Best Entry Level General Purpose AR10

[JC5188]

OP said:



There are two main issues, IMHO at least:

1) At this site there is a general expectation of ruggedness and high reliability, at least for any defensive use. I wouldn't expect truly good ruggedness and reliability from any of the three above. For example, the Armalite and S&W use clamp-on gas blocks, and I believe the Aero uses a set screw gas block. Adequate, but not rugged - you really want a pinned gas block to be rugged. Unknown small parts, unknown standards. None of those are terrible, but they aren't rugged, over-engineered and proven like you would get the LMT or KAC options - which cost much, much more. Even if the $1k options met OP's realistic desires, few if any here are going to endorse them.

2) Shooting 400-800M is more difficult than people expect if they don't have experience. Any of these will throw a bullet that far, but you probably want at least 2 MOA accuracy to be worth shooting for this purpose, with 1 MOA much more desirable (and much harder to achieve). With a better trigger, a rest, and match ammo, and a good shooter, you can maybe expect 2 MOA from the above. In comparison, for $400-500 you can buy various bolt action rifles that will shoot 2 MOA easily and can probably manage close to 1 MOA with match ammo (Federal GMM) or good handloads, without changing out parts. As an added hassle, all AR triggers have slower lock time than typical bolt gun triggers, and that plus a greater need for follow-through makes it harder to shoot an AR-10 style accurately.

After thinking about this a while, OP might want to look at the FNAR, which is a totally different rifle derived from the sporting (not M1918 military) "Browning Automatic Rifle". I wouldn't expect the ruggedness of something like an LMT, but it would offer accuracy and reliability out of the box for around $1k. Just look up the maintenance procedures before you buy one - the hour-plus field strip and reassembly time is why I sold mine.

I don't think BCM uses pinned gas blocks? They seem to work ok.




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[Jeepman1320]

Just speaking from personal experience, most factory rifle barrels these days will shoot 1 MOA or less with quality ammunition and an experienced shooter. The areas of most detriment would be the triggers on a semi automatic rifle. If you want to shoot out to 800 then expect to spend a little extra cash on a good aftermarket trigger and ammunition. As for the gas block, pinned is obviously king. That said, I had no issue running a set screw low profile gas block with a dimpled barrel and a full length handguard to cover it up to minimize the risk of it getting beat up. I have yet to have a set screw come loose that was properly torqued and staked. There are no current standards with the AR10 platforms other than SR25 style and Armalite style. Then throw in the GII style AR10 platforms and it becomes more muddied.

I went the route of buying on the lower end knowing that I would be changing certain parts to get the reliability and the ergonomics that I wanted. The other thing to remember with the AR10 platforms is since there are no set standards they tend to be more finicky with magazines. I have had issues with the Magpul 3rd generation Pmags due to some subtle changes that cause bolt over malfunctions and unreliable lock back on empty mags. So if you go this route and have some issues then try a different brand of magazine before you tear your hair out and blame the rifle.

The Armalite AR10a, Smith and Wesson MP10, and DPMS .308's are all good out of the box inexpensive rifles from my experience. I gave the DPMS GII .308 a shot and am happy with the decision after I made a few changes that I personally wanted.

[JC5188]

It really comes down to innovation and materials when talking about the KACs and LMTs, etc vs ArmaLite and S&W. the less expensive rifles are well assembled, with sufficient parts. The KAC/LMT are well assembled with better parts.

Doesn't make the ArmaLite/S&W bad guns. Just not on par with knights. And since the knights is around $3k more, I'd file that in the "well no shit" category.


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[tom12.7]

The KAC and LMT offerings are on a much higher bar than the other 7.62 DI AR offerings, by a good amount for good reason.

[hk_shootr]

The Knights and LMT offerings are outstanding in their own rights......and their own price ranges. That I can agree with and understand.

OP
Either of your choices can fill the target and hunting requests, BUT I would hold the range to about 400. The accuracy of your choices would be getting beyond my wanted group sizes beyond 400. I would not consider any of the three for a defensive role. For that, in the .308 platform, you would need to step it up quite a bit.

YMMV

[T-Dot]

OP: Like most have said, I don't think you're going to find much that will fill all those criteria.

For what it's worth, though, I've been happy with my M&P-10, as it was the option that fit my weight and price needs. It's also run just fine with the ammo I've run in it worth 0 issues.

All that said, I'm not sure I would stake my life on the rifle, though. If that's what you're looking for in a 308, you're probably going to have to shell out +$2000 for a top-shelf 308.

[ExplorinInTheWoods]

If I didn't have my colt 901 I would probably have the dpms g2 recon.