Best AR-10 for suppressed use

[RobertTheTexan]

I'm looking to buy a large frame AR in 308 - this would be my first AR-10 - and I'm going to be shooting suppressed 90% of the time.

I have been eyeing the LMT and am strongly leaning in that direction but I see reports that it is overgassed for a can. I have considered buying the 20" barrel and having it cut down to 16", hopefully leaving me with an appropriate port size for that length when suppressed. Obviously this adds significant cost, but it would be worth it as long as it works as intended, and of course I could then have barrels in 2 calibers.

Are there better options for an off the shelf 16" gun that isn't overgassed with a can?

Has anyone here cut down an LMT 18" or 20" barrel that can report on function with/without a can?

Cans that might be used - omega, sandman s, maybe sandman k.

Edited for spelling and stuff.

I have an LMT MWS 308 that was originally a 20" cut down to 16" by ADCO. (LMT MWS upper on a Mega MATEN Lower) From my perspective, it's awesome, simple as that. I call it awesome because there is no need of tuning to get it to fire any particular ammo and cycle correctly with or w/out a can. When I test a build, I run all kinds of ammo, from high quality, to crappy cheap ammo, even if I only have it to test. I've ran a wide variety of ammo with and without the can and never once did I experience a FTF or a cycling issue. Personally speaking, I have not found it to be too gassy. Usually when a weapon is too gassy, I'll run a bead of high temp RTV along the horseshoe of the CH, and so far I haven't been impressed to do that, which tells me I haven't really noticed a lot of gas in the the face. I'm using a 7.62 Raptor CH so there's no gas mitigation with the charging handle. One observation I have made is around the recoil impulse. When compared to my custom build 308 (18" rifle gas barrel, Vltor A5 buffer system) my custom build had less recoil impulse. Granted I had an adjustable gas block, but even with the gas block fully open, it was still a bit of a softer shooter than my LMT. That said, the only impact are my follow on shots, which I expect at some point of training I'll regain some of the speed I had with the other 308. Some points I absolutely am over the top impressed with: I have always been impressed with LMT 5.56 BCG's and run them in my AR-15's. But their 308 BCG? Holy cow is that thing both a beast and a work of art. Just a super well-built, excellent design, pretty easy to clean BCG. Again, what has impressed me is not so much how much gas I have in my face or not, but the fact my LMT just chews up and spits out every single round I've fed it. From 1980's vintage German military surplus, (hard Berdan primers) to craptastic steel cased Tula. That not what my go-to ammo is. My go-to is Priv Partizan 145gr FMJ ammo. It's a solid 1 MOA rig when shooting 175 gr Federal Gold SMK. With the Priv, about a 1.5 MOA. I can live with that. My custom build was a <.5 MOA shooter, but the LMT does "good enough" in that regard and has the shorter barrel which is what I was looking for. One more comment regarding cans. I believe the upper I have is from their CQBMWSF rifle as it has the stainless steel barrel with the monolithic quad rail. I like quad rails, but my current suppressors are AAC 762 SDN-6, and I find that with the can on, it is really too front-end heavy for me to comfortably run drills with it. I'm a pretty stout guy with pretty good upper body strength, but I will tell you that I need a mini-can with it. If I want to run that weapon efficiently, suppressed, I am going to have to pick up a mini or even if there is a micro. (for real) Now without the can, I can run the same CQ drills I do with my 5.56 SBR's, albeit not as fast. At least yet. The MLok rail'd versions of the MWS are a little lighter I think.
Optically, I have a Burris XTR II 1-8 mounted in a Geissele Super Precision mount and that's an amazing combination, and what I'd consider the about the most "PERFECT" optic (1-8) for the purpose I designated for this rifle.

Hope this helps, sorry for the ramble, but I really don't see how you can go wrong with the LMT MWS 308.