I was at the LGS and on the used rack they had a few DPMS carbines with "restricted" markings. 16" non-M4 barrels, flattop uppers, plastic handguards and old-school carbine stocks. Had some sort of weird circle plastic thing that I assume is a light mount.

Anyone know of an agency that might have used these? If they have an interesting story I might consider one, but if not I'd buy a new PSA at that price ($500.)

They weren't DPS, they ran Bushmasters.

Could be any city or county LE.  Probably saw the annual 50 round qualification, and just rode in a trunk for years on end.

Are restricted markings still desirable?  I know several years ago it was all the rage.  Did they have the carry handles?

Probably a small agency, and probably 20 years ago.

I think some of the African security contractors in Iraq had DPMS. If you want a good story you can have that one.

I thought I remembered someone selling such rifles a long time ago.

I bought a used Travis Co. SO-marked shotgun a few years ago, mainly as a FU Austin.

https://www.sportsmansoutdoorsuperstore.com/products2.cfm/ID/116522/a15trade/dpms-inc-panther-a-15-5.56-police-trade-in-rifles

https://madisonguns.com/used-police-trade-in-dpms-a-15-5-56-nato-w-surefire-handguard-law-enforcement-roll-marks/

https://www.admmfg.com/le-trade-in-carbine

King's has offered them as well.


No idea which agencies, likely smaller as stated above.

DPMS had both DOD contracts and agency contracts. Tons of them

If the ones being offered locally had A1 or C7-style uppers I would probably have bought one.

DPMS also offered their select-fire M-160
"back in the day."

https://www.nramuseum.org/guns/the-galleries/wwii,-korea,-vietnam-and-beyond-1940-to-present/case-42-guns-of-vietnam-and-desert-storm/dpms-m160-selective-fire-rifle.aspx

Yeah, I recall they sold some surplus DPMS branded uppers that were used by the Iraqi guards. DPMS apparently makes rifles for friendly countries but not as a main rifle for the military.

The name of the company is Defense Procurement Manufacturing Services. Their parts wound up in thousands of DOD issued weapons.

I have a pd trade in DPMS 14.5 DPMS less reciever.

Bought off strum when Buddy was pimp'n the buy me lunch shtick. Circa 2008 got a DPMS lower and did the F1 to make it correct.

No idea what dept. has a rack number sticker on the buffer tube you can only see with the stock off.

Been a great rifle used in many 3 gun matches pre scamdemic when those type of things were common.

Personally I would take anything 'older DPMS' than PSA any day of the week.

Curious if you even cracked one of the DPMS rifles that you saw open and looked inside the chamber to see if it was chrome lined or not / what sort of carrier and such?

What exactly was the barrel profile you saw?



There was an awful lot of stuff that DPMS did not do 'in house' and they would send off to others to have done in batches. They did not have the tooling, staff or people to be able to do cryo treating but... They could have it done if you were willing to pay for it. Same with chrome lining. They did not have the stuff to do that 'in house' but if you wanted it done - It was available. They tended to not use shitty companies to help them back in the day when they had to farm stuff out.

Ordered a 7.62x39 upper from them once back in the Randy Luth days and got a complete Colt upper assembly (still in the original Colt box and all with all of that good stuff straight from Colt). They did not 'advertise' any of that stuff being Colt parts at the time but that is what they sent me. Because... They were not set up to do and did not do 7.62 anything for themselves at that time. They 'sold' 7.62 stuff that they sourced from elsewhere.

 

Those same places that did that cryo treating and chrome lining for them back in the day are still around. :)   (DPMS is obviously not)


Depending on the details of the barrel I may have jumped on a few of those if I had seen them locally for that cheap. I would have definitely looked (cracked it open and actually looked inside) if I saw something like you saw in a local store for that price.

I was issued a select fire, 14.5" DPMS carbine in the early 2000's.  Patrol vehicles also had semi only DPMS carbines.

They made good, quality rifles while based in St. Cloud.  Freedom Group ruined that brand.

FIFY

Well, you do you.

As far as profile, maybe government. Definitely not M4, HB or pencil.

As I said, if it had a carry handle I might have picked up one. Not interested in another flattop.

I dont think I'd have any reason to believe a current, $500 PSA was any better or any worse. Given a choice between the two I'd probably go with the trade in. Nothing against PSA. I've bought a lot of ther shit, but it likely hasn't been shot much, it (should) show honest wear from use, it comes with the story of being a trade in. That just sounds cooler to me than another PSA. Not saying either is bad, but id rather have the one that looks like it's been around (although it probably hasn't)

Oakland, California Police Department bought somewhere around twenty of them years ago.  They never worked right and they sold - traded them all for something else.

I bought my Pd trade-in DPMS for $400 probably about 5 years ago. It was their AP4 model which is an M4gery. It had a 16" M4 profile bbl and carbine stock, it was all milspec and reliable as hell. Mine came with a DD Omega handguard and Eotech 553 sight so it was a stupid deal for $400 bucks. I feel like I bought a Eotech with a free rifle attached to it. Mine's also teflon coated upper & lower, pretty cool.

Did you even look at anything?



Not trying to argue as I dismiss anything from PSA the same exact way every time...  No need to actually 'check' when it comes to them IMO. 'Something' is going to fail spec for sure. :)

Didn't we have an ex employee do a thread on here sometime back?

I saw all I needed to see when I saw the label and the flattop upper. Again, an interesting background might have swayed my opinion.

As far as your experience with PSA, let's just say our experiences are rather different

As I said, you do you.