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Thread: Need to know about an AR-10

  1. #1
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    Default Need to know about an AR-10

    Been a while since I built a rifle. Thinking about building an AR-10 for hog hunting. 20" barrel so it will be a good long range target shooter. Thinking of a kit from Daytona Tactical.

    I have also thought about a .450 cal upper mounted to one of my AR-15 lowers. That setup could be resold to states allowing that round for deer hunting..

    Opinions.????


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    I’ve heard some good things about the 350 legend.

  3. #3
    Senior Member kyratshooter's Avatar
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    Be careful choosing an AR10 supplier.

    Unlike the AR15, there is no military standard template for the AR10. When you buy initially you are very much restricting yourself to the upper/lower/internals of the facility you choose. Parts from PSA are not going to fit a Daytona Tactical for instance. Not all of them anyway, and which ones do not interchange are a crapshoot.

    One thing about these high volume shooters and their ammo is that they are not designed to easily use hand loads. They fling their brass to kingdom come, require full length resizing for every round and require a specific pressure curve to function. They are much easier to deal with using mil-surp ammo for your cheap shooting and factory rounds for hunting. There is a huge range of factory .308 out there as well as the NATO surplus of half a planet. You can generally buy ready to shoot mil-surp 7.62 for the same price as just the slugs you would use to reload any .30 cal.

    I would not consider a wildcat or exotic for an AR-anything and have to reload each and every round it ate. A bolt gun yes, but not an AR.

    That last part is just my opinion the first part is based on experience. Well, the last part too.
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    Senior Member DSJohnson's Avatar
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    Not surprisingly at all Kyrats said almost everything I was going to say. I shot the AR10 the first time in 1975. A U.S. Customs agent stationed on Guam had one. It was one of the Portuguese rifles, he had bought it while he was working/stationed in Viet Nam. I loved it. I am basically an M14 guy and I still loved it. It was a much different animal than what we know today as an AR-10. I echo Kyrats here. I would stick to the 7.62 NATO caliber and I would recommend either buying a used one that you know will shoot or buy a good complete kit if you absolutely have to build one. My son shoots an AR platform with a 7.62 X 39 upper that he really likes. I have been loading rifle ammo since about 1969 (A Lee Loader kit at the kitchen table, with my father watching me) and I have to tell you, loading wildcats is very rewarding but man it is sure expensive and time consuming. If you like to load more than you like to shoot I get that. I really enjoy loading my own ammo, especially pistol ammo, but today when you can buy pretty good .556 NATO ammo for less than you can buy the components for, it makes you wonder about what is the most fun way to spend your time, loading or shooting. I, too, have read good things about the 35s....Let us know what you decide.

  5. #5
    Senior Member DSJohnson's Avatar
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    Well Mr. Glass what did you decide? I almost bought a Bushmaster AR-10 and was thinkin' I could blame it on you for putting the dang thing on my mind. A poor victim of Crude Oil being so cheap is thinking about selling some guns to make his truck payment and has offered me his AR-10. It is one of the later/newer ones made after Remington bought them I believe. A flat top standard model with the 16" barrel. He has 8 mags with it. I just could not bring myself to do it.......yet

  6. #6
    Grumpy Gun Guy 13JFO's Avatar
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    HI, I'm somewhat of an AR/gun nut and can give my two pennies. If you want an "AR-10" you'll want to stick with the DPMS LR-308 platform. It's Panther Arms' commercial equivalent to the erstwhile, actual ArmaLite-10/SR-25 from Knights Armament. most .308-cal ARs are built on it now. I'm not sure what exactly Daytona is pushing as far as parts/kits, but it is probably LR-308. I don't know of any other makers besides the ArmaLite/SR, which are $$$$$$$ compared to, say, $$ for DPMS. Stick with a 20" or longer barrel. I'd go with a 24" since most platforms can be pretty lightweight nowadays and the .308 does enjoy the velocity.

  7. #7
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    Thanks for the replies. I come close to ordering an AR-10 from Daytona Tactical back in May. At that time I just didn't feel the passion to buy another gun the way I felt about buying my other guns. This corona virus has me thinking differently these days. In early April handgun ammo disappeared to the ammo hoarders and now rifle ammo is disappearing and now reloading supplies are impossible to find.

    However, with the AR-10 on the back burner I decided to build a very different gun. So i designed and built a 25mm gun with a 36" long barrel that shoots 1" ball bearings. The whole idea was to build a gun that would be totally intimidating to people (anti-gunners). The thing has a 10" long flash hider, red dot scope and an AR-15 hammer and trigger mechanism and a bi-pod on the barrel. It fires 12 gauge shot gun shells with the buckshot removed. I took it to a gun shop and they determined everything was legal. It is very cool to look at. Problem with it is, all there is to hang onto is the AR-15 hand grip and it is hard to hang onto when fired. It is also very loud. It is not at all accurate, none of my scratch built guns have been accurate. Next time at the range I'll try lashing the 25mm to the shooting bench then test firing it when secured, that might be more accurate. Wish I could post a picture, this thing is awesome.

    My first challenge was finding a way to increase to bore to 1.004". The tubing as purchased was .9995. One day I stumbled across a 6-flute end mill that measured 1.0015. I attached a 36" shank on the end mill and used the end mill like a reamer. Bore came out 1.004"

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    Grumpy Gun Guy 13JFO's Avatar
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    That sounds amazing, I need to see pictures of this beast of a gun you've made if you have any. I'm getting into the game of making my own guns, but not even close to "from scratch", as you've done, more of the "80% AR-15" route (getting my way around to cutting this thing https://www.80-lower.com/products/80...marked-1-pack/) while I toy around with a new Sieg mini-milling machine and center-cut end mills.

    This might be a dumb question, but this 25mm thing is smooth-bore?

  9. #9
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    An update on the 25mm. It is a smooth bore. I'm having a great time tinkering with this thing. The problem is the barrel is not gun grade steel like 4140 it is just semless tubing 1 3/8 OD and 1" ID. I'm careful to not overload the thing. Right now using 12 gauge dove loads. The steel ball bearing has tremendous drop over a short distance because of its weight even coming out of a 36" barrel. Just not enough powder behind it. I'm thinking about making plastic projectiles. The maximum range wil be less but hopefully more accurate for short range like 100 yards. Unfortunately my photo storage is maxed out on this forum.

    I'll see if I can load a video on youtube then provide a link here.

  10. #10
    Administrator Rick's Avatar
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    I would watch you touch that thing off but I'm like....

    Guests can not see images in the messages. Please register in the forum.

  11. #11
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    Going to the gun range tomorrow. I'll see if they would allow me to shoot it there. If they do I'll make a video. I call it my
    "Illinois riot gun". People see it, wonder what it is then wonder what else I might have then leave me alone.

  12. #12
    Senior Member Phaedrus's Avatar
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    There's no real reason to go longer than 16" for .308 even for target use.

  13. #13
    Senior Member kyratshooter's Avatar
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    Really?

    That works for shotguns and .22s but not centerfire rifles.

    Even the .223 suffers when taken from the rifle length guns to the M4 with its 14" barrel. You don't find many M4 carbines winning matches at Camp Perry, or any 16" .308 rifles.

    .308 is an old school cartridge, from back in the early 1950s, with old school characteristics. It works best with moderately burning powders and was developed in a 26" length barrel.

    Almost all the reloading manuals will list it in a 24" barrel and tell you that it looses about 25 fps for every inch you take off of that. It only starts with 2750 fps as its standard.

    You take 8" off that and you are down to 2550 fps.

    That is AK and 30-30 territory and you have turned a long range hunting and military rifle into a 200 yard brush gun.

    Your trajectory starts looking like the theme song to Wizard of Oz.
    If you didn't bring jerky what did I just eat?

  14. #14
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    This link may not work or might not play well.

    I downloaded using my cellphone as a hotspot that disconnected from the internet randomly.

    copy the link and paste to google and the video works perfectly.


    https://youtu.be/be-WRcwOa5k
    Last edited by jim Glass; 08-08-2020 at 10:33 AM.

  15. #15
    Administrator Rick's Avatar
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    That's pretty cool.

  16. #16
    Super Moderator crashdive123's Avatar
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    Pretty cool. I believe they would now call your pick-up a technical.
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  17. #17
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    I think I'm going to try a 3" magnum load. In my area shot gun shells are even hard to find. If anyone approaches my home and I need to get a gun out they will see the 25mm and ask themselves "what is it and what else does this guy have", then hopefully leave me alone.

    Amazing how intimidating a piece of pipe can be with a red dot sight and a bi-pod mounted to it. The 25mm is legal except the barrel needs to be permanently welded to the breach. I'm reluctant to do that because I may need the tubing for another project. The steady rest I made to support the barrel works great. Using just the bi-pod I had the thing almost jump off the shooting bench.

    I have a special cleaning rod to clean the barrel after each shot. Any debris left in the barrel prevents the steel ball from going all the way to the breach. I have learned the steel ball needs to be close a possible to the shotgun shell to get a hot discharge. Apparently the powder needs to compress in order to get the big "bang".

    I was able to color the barrel black with some stuff called "Tool Black". The effectiveness of the Tool Black is dependent in how clean the steel is and the type of steel. Turned out great so it must have been a good match between the steel tubing and the Tool Black.

    Life is just to much fun.
    Last edited by jim Glass; 08-08-2020 at 03:57 PM.

  18. #18

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    I know that you will find this hard to believe, but I am just an idiot spammer that came back and edited my post to spam your site. I thought I could get away with it, but got the ban hammer instead.
    Last edited by crashdive123; 10-23-2020 at 07:56 AM. Reason: Idiot Spammer

  19. #19

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    I own a PA10. Palmetto State Armory version. I've had two issues since I've owned it.

    The barrel extension was proud of the upper receiver about a 16th of an inch, causing some rounds to catch on the extension and jam, pushing the bullet into the case about an eighth of an inch. PSA was quick to fix it and return it to me. I just sent them the upper.

    Took it out after receiving it back from PSA, and now it seems to have an over gassing problem. I ordered, and received, an adjustable gas block. Next step is to install it.

  20. #20
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    good luck with that. My AR-10 is on the back burner until after the election

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