I've been shopping around for parts to build a varmint-style AR on a Spike's lower and I have a "minimalist budget". The best price I've found on a 20" ss bull-barrel .223 upper is the DPMS for $499 which seems like a relatively good price. Any advice or suggestions regarding DPMS... good, bad, or otherwise?

Thanks in advance....... ws357

They get a bad rap from the tactical folks, but for hunting and what not I dont think there is anything wrong with them.  My dpms is accurate and runs really well.  DPMS makes the remington ar-15s which get good reviews for varmint hunting.  I think you would be just fine using the DPMS, but also price out RRA they can be pretty competitively priced as well.

these predator pursuit uppers would be pretty sweet for a varmint setup and they are not a whole bunch more than the DPMS you were talking about and these ones come free floated and have a stainless barrell that will probably be a little more accurate with the wylde chamber.
RRA PP

my 2 cents anyway

Price one out at J&T dist. Good quality and pricing. DPMS, Bushmaster and Remington... all one company so to speak.

DPMS is good 2 go.  

thousands and thousands of pretty brutal shooting through mine.  Flawless and accurate.



Personally I dont know if I'd like carrying a heavy stainless barreled gun around for hunting.  But thats just me.

The word is they suck ass...unless you want an out of spec, cut cornered, lame piece of crap.  Otherwise they're fine!

MBR

Two completely different schools of thought here.... at least one indicates experience with the product in question:



Sounds like the good word there. My usage would be approx 75% range-plinking - 25% coyote/assorted small critter... most carry distances for hunting around here are less than 3 mi, so weight not so much a problem.





Could you elaborate on that ?

I'd love to!  Never owned one...but have fired many.  Never shot one that worked worth a crap.  Had FT feed, FT fire, FT extract...you name it.  If you don't intend to fire more than a couple hundred rounds a year I'm sure it will suit you fine.  If you take your firearms seriously,...there are SO many better optioins...for not a lot more cash!

MBR

Oh,  BTW JohnnyBuckshot, have you ever fired a thousand rounds out of your DPMS in a day?  Doubt it...

DPMS isn't the current tacti-cool must-have brand of the month so the rank and file poster's duty is to post inane, generalized criticism against <insert-name-here>.

If not match shooting,RRA has 20" chrome moly HBAR uppers with 223.5.56 Wylde chamber for around 500. Guaranteed MOA at 100yds. Mine is chrome lined, shoots sub-MOA at 100 using plain old Wally World ammo.So better than advertised.I am now dialed in a 200yds with awesome results.

Never had a problem with mine. And I actually shoot mine. Seems the bad reviews come from those who payed WAY more for theres!

I buy, build and shoot primarily DPMS.  I can tell you from my experience their products are just fine.  Are they exemplary? No...but do work as intended for me.  They are far from "suck ass" lmao

i'v owned 12 DPMS rifles without any problems.
there are tons of LEO agencys that use them. many people bet thier lives on them.

DPMS would not be my first choice for defense, for hunting?  they ahave a rep for being pretty accurate.  On a budget Id say go for it or a  rock river.

I've had two DPMS builds since the early 90s and built several more at that time by request for friends.

Absolutely no problems with mine or reports of problems with the others.

DPMS's gear was as good as anyone else's that commercially available at that time IMO.

Time and shooting has proven mine a winner....

The word is that you can buy an arguably better product for about the same price (HP, MPI, BFH, 1:7 twist, cl, etc.).  See BCM, Spikes, LMT, or DD.

Probably too many acronyms, but it's all true.  You may likely purchase a DPMS that works fine for your use, but why not have the peace of mind of (an arguably superior) product for approximately the same price.

Basically, there are better options out there.

But it sounds like he is building more of a hunting rig, not a tactical setup.  I agree that for 500 bucks you can pick up a spikes upper when they are in stock, however these are not a varmint hunting upper.  They are great uppers for what they are, but people here forget that the AR platform can be used for so much more than tactical stuff.  You dont need chrome lined barrels or m4 profiles for a varmint/hunting platform.  You also are not going to run a hunting upper like a mil spec one.  

Buy the upper that fits what your gonna use it for.  If you plan to mostly hunt and plink at a few targets through a 3x9 scope then get a heavy or bull barreled upper that will be accurate.  You dont need a BCM or DD to shoot coyotes or groundhogs.  

So even though a DPMS or RRA upper made more for hunting applications might not be milspec and might cost a little more or the same as the Spikes, they will fit your hunting and occasional plinking needs.

A bull barrel sucks bad for balance, comfort etc.  It does not add to accuracy if you start with a decent blank.  A rockriver or Armalite stainles 20" upper is a much better choice.    

I had a Bull barrel DPMS and hated the bull, plus it sucked on accuracy as AR's go.  Only ever saw one worse  (a CMMG carbine)  My brother has an Armalite 20" and it shoots like a dream.  Although a slight service issue in the beginning.

FWIW...

I have a mid range (price) DPMS 16" carbine.   Love the thing.    It is nothing too special.  It is a 16", 1 in 9" twist, 5.56 bbl with M4 feed ramps. It has the traditional forward assit, staked front site post with lug.   It is a flat top.  It sits on a DPMS lower.    

I have a 1-4 Trijicon TR24R in a Burris PEPR mount on top.

DPMS makes my favorite hammer.   Unless I am using a single stage target trigger and hammer, I prefer DPMS hammers in everything.  

I prefer it over my Colts or RRA.   I say it is hard to compare any of my "builds" so I won't or don't.   I would say is probably my "go to" rifle.   But, it does not get a ton of use.   A few thousand rounds a year is about it.  Never had any issue with it.  It is easily my most reliable AR.    Then again, it is hard to run any one of them very hard all of the time without neglecting the rest.   I'd have to say my RRA has given me the most problems.   I've had a few broken parts with it a few times.  Yet, I don't know why.   I would guess, generally, "parts is parts" ... LOL!   RRA has been good about parts/service.   I added a DPMS hammer to my RRA, and that has helped a ton.   So, I will do something like that to my Colts eventually.   But, they are harder to get parts for, given how odd ball Colts can be.  

DPMS has made some rifles (AR15s in 5.56)  that I have seen which I would never buy.   Those had no forward assit and probably no M4 ramps.  The front site base was held on with set screws that only supplied upward pressure.   Those economy rifles weren't that cheap and they did creep me out a little.  

YMMV

Dpms is fine.  Just stay away from wolf or brown bear ammo.

Oh, and don't even think about putting a  can on a dpms barrel, on mine, the bore and flashider threads are out of sync by an entire 16th of an inch

I shoot mine a lot, even use it in competition. It's just fine. I also have Spikes, which is better quality but the DPMS has been a work horse. People just like to hate on DPMS. They make a decent rifle for 99% of the people here.

I've never had in mine nor my brothers, a FTF/FTE. I've seen it in other "better" brands.

I know there are plenty of DPMS haters out there, but DPMS makes a good rifle these days. I can't say anything about what they put out in the past when they got a bad name, but the stuff they put out now is up to par with all the other common commercial AR manufacturers. I bought mine in may of 2009 and I have yet to have a single problem with it that wasn't related to crap ammunition such as wolf (including one FTF today due to an out of spec Remington loaded round that jammed and locked in the chamber. totally the ammo's fault). Other than replacing the gas rings and other parts such as swapping in a Spikes ST-T2 buffer, all parts are stock DPMS that show no sign of wear outside of what any other AR would show at this round count. The receivers put out by DPMS are Forged 7075-T6 (Mil-Spec).

I am not a DPMS fan but I had a 16" stainless bull .223 from them that would consistanly shoot sub moa.

I would never spend my money on one, when I have high-value options that are of a much higher quality... Namely BCM or Spikes.

If they suck ass then why does mine work just fine?

You mean you actually own one and shoot it?

Your opinion is not welcome here!

DPMS parts will not suddenly fail when used in self defense. If you want it buy it. It may work out, it may not. Be sure to post pics either way.

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You will be fine. Buy shoot and have fun. I used all DPMS parts in my 10.3 SBR . their parts work just fine. I will say i know use Stag only , CS is out standing with Stag.

I'll take your word on the bit about the bore alignment.  But as far as Wolf and BB... let's add silver bear, Tula, and other surplus 5.56...

I think I have probably 4k rounds of steel case through my 16" LW gun.  It's not lined and I've shot, laquer, polymer, and brass in the same outing.  Usually in volume.  Surplus 5.56...
It will eat anything.

0 FTF/FTE with any .223/5.56 to date.

The only thing that broke was a hammer pin.  And I have no idea when because it didn't stop running.  Everything else internal shipped with the gun.  And has many thousands of rounds on it.

I got my $680 worth a long time ago and the thing just runs.  Feed it half decent brass and it's a decently accurate 16" gun.  I've shot plenty worse.  Few better.  

I'd buy DPMS again.  

this is too funny:

About 1/3 of the way down, lt557

He's almost prophetic.

This is nonsense.  There's a whole lot of steel cased ammo being run through a whole lot of AR's.....including mine.  It may be underpowered, and it is dirty, but a quality rifle should run it just fine.  Though true that it wouldn't be very accurate for long distance varmint hunting, it's great for plinking.