Anyone have PERSONAL experience with DPMS 308 rifles. Wanting to know if DPMS AR style rifles are reliable with any cheap, crap, dirty, or surplus ammo? Anyone try S&B ammo in their DPMS 308? Three different Armalite 308 rifles would not fire it. Armalite also had problems with other ammo. Three different M1A rifles will fire any ammo put in them. Hoping someone makes an AR style 308 rifle that is reliable. If not, I will stick with the M1A.

cheap crappy dirty surplus ammo will probably not work in a DPMS 308.

Depends on the chamber... if it's a .308 chamber (tighter) probably not. Crappier ammo should work in 7.62 chamber

With the exception of a bad factory magazine (replaced by DPMS), my AP4 has been 100% in feeding the cheap stuff as well as reloads.



-Deke

Its a safe bet that the DPMS chamber is tighter than something like a FAL, or a SAIGA, or a CETME, or any of the rifles with genuine military-issue barrels.

Some lots of "surplus" ammo are NOT consistent with SAAMI spec for .308 Winchester.

If you run out-of-spec ammo, expect out of spec results.

I have fired IN-SPEC surplus ammo in my DPMS LR-308-T without any problems yet.

you can make a DPMS feed better then factory.  When you talk about running crap through it, that is not the strong suit of an AR platform.  If you got a 308 carbine and reamed or honed the chamber it would feed most anything.  I personally would rather use better ammo and have the accuracy.

Shoot in spec ammo and it'll be good to go.    Shoot crap ammo and it will run like it.

In one battle pack of SA ammo I have put through mine I had only 3 light primmer hits, and I rechambered them and they went boom. I blame that on the Timney trigger more than the rifle. Other than that, I have not had one single failure with it.

I've had three rounds jam in the chamber out of 150 fired using some factory reloaded NATO brass I got real cheap (43 cents a round shipped). All three were on the long side of cartridge length and looked like the shopuilder was slighty buckled. The stuff I made using new Winchester .308 brass runs just fine. My LR-308 is a .308 chamber and does seem to be pretty tight, however it shoots real well and will group .75 inches if I do my job right. That's off a front only bag rest at 100 yards with a 70.00$ scope (yeah I know I need better glass). I would imagine that with good quality NATO ammo it would be fine but not all of it will be made to close tolerances.

Mine is chambered 7.62 (TAC20), and it runs 100% with everything I have fed it (including S&B). I have heard of some faulty mags for the LR308, so I have been trying to use all of mine (I numbered them all to keep track), and haven't had any bad ones yet.

My AP4 eats everything, so far. That includes Lake City M80. Radway, Australian, So African and commercial stuff too. My 24" with the 308 chamber will eat everything but the So African stuff. Accuracy is only so so with he military stuff. It shoots around 2 to 3 inches at 100. My handloads shoot sub MOA all day long, with the Federal Gold Metal match in at around an inch.

I've got three DPMS mags and one had a problem feeding. If would not feed the second to the last round. Well I only tried it twice because it would stovepipe the round and basically render the round useless. When I compared it to the other two the follower didn't come all the way up to the stops. A little tweaking of the feed lip and it looked the same as the others. Haven't had a chance to try it at the range but it will cycle until empty by hand.

I have taken my DPMS .308 (20" government profile A3) to two Appleseeds and fired about 450 rounds over two days at the first one and 200 rounds on day two of the second one.  I was using mostly Remington 150 g. Core Lok.  I had a couple ejection jams on the first weekend, and a couple my last trip.  It could be being 'broken in' as someone suggested.  I'm not worried about it, I trust it pretty well.  I did shoot pretty good with it second AS (qualified).  I also had a bag DPMS mag which they replaced.  If you're gonna stock up on mags make it the C products version.  Good Gun.  I don't know what others experience is, but this thing pushes you around and you wind up with a nice 6 " group of bruises on your shoulder any time you put more than 100 rounds through it.

Through 600 rounds now, I've had no failures with my LR308, period.  I've shot 125 grn to 180 grn bullets, steel and brass case, milsurp, factory ammo, and even my own reloads.  It ate it all.  Sure, the Barnaul steel case wasn't particularly accurate, but it cycled just fine.  Mine has the .308 chamber, too.  I have not tried S&B ammo in mine, but if I had some I'd give it a go.  I will state that when I shoot it, I keep the pace relatively slow and don't warm up the barrel too much.  So, if you're looking for a bumpfiring platform, don't give my review here any credence.

Compared to FALs, the chamber on the LR308 is tight.  Drop a round into the chamber of an FAL and wiggle the head with your finger.  In the FAL, the round wobbles around like a drunk staggering to the restroom (not really that bad, but there is some wiggle room).  The movement of the same round dropped into my LR308 chamber is almost imperceptible.  

I'll admit that I'm shocked at the reliability of the LR308.  I bought the gun for the accuracy, and, frankly, I had no expectations about stellar reliability.  However, I'm quite impressed with the gun so far.

Well I have put about 600 rounds down range,only shooting Win 180 grs PP. no problems. I do have a question? What would a adjustable gas block, do for an AP4?  
DPMS may make a crappy rifle like many say, but maybe I got little better than crappy one.
       RJ

AP4 chambered in 7.62....
640rnds with 1 short stroke shooting Lithuanian GGG immediately after putting in a heavier buffer and spring.

Mostly been fed 145gr & 168gr including Winchester, American Eagle, Lith. GGG, and Prvi Partizan "Match".

No mag. problems encountered with the 3 I have...although I usually only load 5 at a time.

You could dial back the recoil impulse with an adj. gas block.  It's probably more beneficial of you run suppressed.
I just installed a heavier Slash buffer, AR10 spring, Magpul M93b rubber buttpad and called it good.

Did you cut any coils off the Armalite spring?

After a little break in period with federal NATO Ive shot a decent amount of SA surplus and Bosian surplus battle back ammo and as long as I keep it wet it runs well. Havent tried to group it.  DPMS 308 LR-B 20in heavy barrel

Thanks to everyone for the info. I have been tinkering with a friends AR-10. We have greatly improved the reliability. We have a few more ideas to try. If we can get %100 reliability, I will try another Armalite. After we have finished our modifications/upgrades, I will post our results.

Yes.  I believe I cut 2-3 coils off (until it would lock back when hand-cycled).  Then I took it to the range and shot some Lithuanian 7.62NATO.  I had 1 short stroke so I went home and cut 1 more coil off.  No other problems since...that was a few hundred rounds ago.  All said, I currently have 700rnds down the pipe of my AP4 with just the 1 short stroke.

Is your rifle an early serial number?



Amos1909