I've been a gun guy all my life with rifles, pistols, and shotguns but no AR platforms...never all that fond of the .223/5.56 just from a personal bias.  I recently bought two Armalite AR-10's in .243 and .308.  I have both calibers in bolt guns and love them.  The .243 is my varmint rifle and the .308 for pigs.  I reload for both guns.  Today I got to fire and sight-in the .308.  Both rifles are 20-inchers.  The .308 has a new Burris 2-7X35 Fullfield E1 scope.  I used white box 147g Winchester instead of my loads to insure a known base for this rifle.  My first impression over my Savage bolt gun?...no freakin' recoil.  Frankly I think my Savage is a fairly harsh shooter, though quite accurate.  This AR has less recoil than my Ruger .243 bolt.  I knew the increased weight and semiauto gas design of the AR would help recoil, but this is downright plush...like cheating.  I love it.  I had laser bore sighted the gun, and it didn't take many shots to dial in the scope.  I did this at a family T'giving outing in the country.  An adult nephew who had never fired a big caliber rifle or even an AR-15 put all 6 of his shots in a 3" circle at 100 yards.  This gun is easy to shoot.  I think I'm going to enjoy this gun.  The lack of recoil still amazes me.  The .243 is going to feel like a BB gun.

Congrat's!  Your enthusiasm is contagious, guess I'll have to take out the big gun tomorrow!

Bill in OR.

They can be tamed beyond your imagination as well, to the point that the reticle doesn't move.  What .308 AR10 did you get again?

Armalite AR-10, .308, 20" barrel...model 10A4BF to be exact.  I do have a Kies linear compensator on it, but it was on my Savage .308, and frankly seemed to do little to tame that gun.  I've never owned or fired a large caliber semiauto rifle before.  I knew the weight and gas design would help, but it's uncanny IMO.  I have fired an H&K MP5 9mm before and was amazed at the absolute control of the gun during full auto...understandable...but I think this AR-10 seems almost as tame...not full auto of course.  I can kind of see now how those .30 cal SAWS and similar military squad machine guns can be fired by a soldier without being on a bipod or other fixed mount.  The recoil seems damped a great deal by the weight and gas design...logical in retrospect.  Hiking around carrying this thing will not be as pleasant as my Savage, but with a good sling system and some practice, it will probably be more fun.

ARMALITE    

I just recently started a build myself and I have never been so impatient before in my life. I am trying to use mid grade to high end parts on my build with not alot of upfront money. Reading threads like this don't help my patience. The build may take awhile, but it should be rewarding to build piece by piece. Now let me get back to seeing what I can pawn for gun money!