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Page AR-15 » AR Discussions
AR Sponsor: bravocompany
Posted: 8/2/2003 8:59:13 PM EDT
Before heading over the VA Arms to pick up my rifle, I stopped off at Galyan's to grab some ammo.  True to form, they managed to yet again be out of whatever it is I go there for...this time, decent/match .308 ammo.  Well, of course they had nothing but hunting/soft point kind of stuff....they guy even dug under the counter and pulled out a battle pack of SA surplus lol.  I figured that VA Arms would have a better selection, so I just bagged it at Galyan's.  

I checked the contents of the box, and my first impression of the rifle is "what a BEAST" hehehe.  I mean, this thing is big.  It dwarfs my 20" HBAR Armalite, both in barrel length (24"), and the size of the receiver, etc.  I think this barrel is even bigger than the AR-15 bull barrels, and at 24", you know it's got some heft.  

Anyway, the usual 45 callback delay for the NICS ensued, so I snagged two boxes of ammo...some Black Hills 168gr, and some Federal Gold Medal match 165gr.  I was looking for the 175gr, but they didn't have any.  

Once the callback was done, I boogeyed on down the road.  The range was packed when I got there, but I managed to snag one of the last available shooting stations.  

I was using the 3.8x12 Simmons Aetec scope from one of my ARs, since it was on a set of ARMS # 22 rings, hence very easy to mount.  Plus, I was hoping it was reasonably dialed in, since I had is shooting dead on with the AR.  

Once a cleaned everything up, I loaded 'er up, and fired the first round.  VERY nice...sort of like an FAL, but with a gentler push.  The fact that the rifle weighs 11 pounds or so tamed the recoil, I'm sure.  The round landed about 6" below the dirt clod I was aiming at, so I went ahead and put a target out.  

I fired 2 more shots for sighters and to get the feel of the rifle.  I fired a 5 shot group into of the Federal into what looked to be right at 1".  Not bad.  I fired another 5 shot group with the Black Hills, which had an altogether differnt feel to it.  This group was also right at 1", but looked be less spread out than the Federal group.  The 3rd round of this group was fired after a fairly long cease fire, cool off, drink water break...the 4th round was back in where the 1st and 2nd were, but the 5th ended up right next to the third...otherwise, I was gonna call round 3 a flyer. What surprised me was the fact that the Black Hills shot about 3" high, and 2" right compared to the Federal.  

I was cleaning after every shot, and it was fairly tedious...exacerbated by the absolutely crushing humidity we had around here today.  I fired a total of 12 shots, and finally bagged it around 4:30.  As I was putting my stuff away, a couple of guys showed up...being the lazy bastard that I am, I suggested they shoot at the station I was leaving...so I conned them into using my target stand...so I didn't have to wait 'til the next cease fire to go down and get my target hehehe.  So no pictures, or precise measurements, although I was pretty sure of the group size because of the 1" squares on the target.  

The rifle is a pleasure to shoot, and performed flawlessly for the short time I actually fired it.  Overall impression is that it's a very well made, well engineered piece of equipment.  

The fit and finish are first rate; it has a real nice, almost powder coated look to it....different from the Eagle and Rock River finish I'm used to.  The buttstock is much grayer than I'm used to seeing, and not very smooth...but this might just be normal for a DPMS; can't tell, since I never owned one before.  

All in all, I'm very happy with everything...I think I may take it out either tomorrow, or Wed night to the NRA range, just to put some more rounds through it.  DPMS suggest cleaning after every round 'til 25, and then after every 5 until 200 rounds!  It's gonna take me a while to get this thing fully broken in at this point, and it's too damn hot and humid for me to enjoy doing it outside lol.  But the NRA is air conditioned!  If it's not too crowded tomorrow, maybe I can shoot up the rest of this ammo.  

I'll post some pics of this thing tomorrow, just to show what a honker it is compared to an AR-15.  Too tired right now to mess with it.  
Link Posted: 8/2/2003 9:36:52 PM EDT
[#1]
Sounds good.  What magazines can be used with this rifle?
Link Posted: 8/2/2003 9:47:42 PM EDT
[#2]
The DPMS .308 uses proprietery 10rd polymer mags from DPMS or can use the extremely expensive 20rd mags of the Knights SR25.
Link Posted: 8/3/2003 2:29:53 PM EDT
[#3]
Okay...not content with the measly 12 rounds I fired yesterday, I headed out to the nice, air conditioned confines of the NRA range today.  I had about a 20 minute wait, more crowded than I would have thought.  While killing time, I started talking to someone else who was waiting for a lane...turned out to be motopix...who was kind enough to help me put some rounds through the rifle.  

I still needed to go through another 13 rounds to get to the magical 25, so it was clean...shoot...clean...shoot all over again.  This time, though, it went much faster.  Motopix had to leave before I got to 25, so he didn't get a chance to fire more than a few rounds.  

The range emptied out to me and one other group of folks...under those circumstances, the range bosses will let you stay well past your allotted hour, so I was able to snag one of the heavy shooting tables near the right side.  I shot 2 five shot groups, with one round tossed in to try and get a point of reference.  

This was the first time I really had a chance to try and be accurate with this thing...the first group is a bit larger, as I was trying to get used to the leaky old rear bag I got from their storage area.  The second, smaller group was the first one that felt comfortable:

[img]http://img.villagephotos.com/p/2003-8/188491/dpmstarg2.jpg[/img]

[img]http://img.villagephotos.com/p/2003-8/188491/dpmstarg1.jpg[/img]

That last group near the head felt good...the single shot there is not a flyer...I was trying to figure out the best, most repeatable place to aim...I ended up putting the bottom of the thick part of the 12:00 crosshair on the top of his head...for some reason that worked better.  It's shooting right, but I'm not really worried about that...just wanted to get a decent group.  This is only 50 yards, but the last, small group shows good things to come, hopefully.  

Link Posted: 8/3/2003 3:49:06 PM EDT
[#4]
Very nice!
Link Posted: 8/3/2003 4:00:17 PM EDT
[#5]
looking good, keep us updated.
Link Posted: 8/3/2003 4:05:40 PM EDT
[#6]
Looks like I have my next purchase planned. My SR25 needs company. [:)]

ls
Link Posted: 8/3/2003 5:10:02 PM EDT
[#7]
Looks great.  Weird that it started to shoot to the right as the afternoon wore on.  It was shooting fairly centered for the first bunch of breakin shots.  Although like you said, that could have been the wobbly table you started out on.

Thanks for letting me shoot a few.  If my current M1A deals falls through, I may have a DPMS in my future.

I'll let you know when I get my Quantico membership and we can try it at 300 yds.

Link Posted: 8/3/2003 7:18:00 PM EDT
[#8]
Motopix, thanks for the help!  The pictures are pretty much where it was shooting on Saturday, although at 50 yards it wasn't high...but everything saturday was to the right.  

This is a cool rifle, but it's like the varmint gun of .308s.  Not for trekkin' through the woods with, as Motopix can attest.  I don't think this takes the place of a normal AR-10, anymore than a 24" bull barrel varmint rifle takes the place of an M4.  But it's definitely cool, fun to shoot, and shaping up to be as accurate as bolt gun.  

Recoil is similar to an FAL, but more of a shove...like someone pushes you with their hand already on your shoulder.  You could put a lot of rounds down range before you wanted to quit...although the rubber pad on the FAL buttstock comes in handy after about 500 rounds or so lol.  The DPMS takes a standard A2 buttstock, so I guess anything that will fit on an AR will fit on this...which opens up a lot of possibilities hehehe.  

I have to check, but I believe the trigger can be swapped out as well.  The stock trigger is MUCH better than most of the AR triggers I have, but a match trigger is probably on the horizon at some point here.  

Well, I cleaned the shite out of it when I got home...I've had virtually no copper fouling.  I haven't seen a hint of blue on the patches after using the Sweets...I don't know what to make of that.  At least the next few times out, I'm only gonna have to clean it after every five rounds...and only 190 more rounds of that to go hehehe.    

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