Is there a summary of AR 308 rifle options?  Something that breaks out advantages/disadvantages vs cost vs availability?  The lack of standardization makes decisions a mess.

This is strictly an AR design question.  I'm not asking about fal, scar, hi, etc.

I would start here...

.308 AR FAQ? Your help & knowledge is requested!

I’ve had several .308 ARs in the past, built and bought. Everything from 10” to 20”.  Was a huge fan.

I think if I were going to do that again, I’d just buy a POF and skip the tinkering and parts compatibility gambling game.  The POF have excellent quality, awesome reliability, no gas/tuning issues, and they’re pretty much AR15 weigh class while still slinging a .308 bullet.

IMO, the introduction of the 6.5G and 6.5CM really diminished the use case for 308 ARs. There’s little reason nowadays not to select a 6.5G AR15 for a DMR/scout rifle or precision SBR over a .308 (of similar length) and there’s little reason not to select a 6.5CM for an actual precision rifle.  So the .308 is kind of limited to this heavy-hitting turn-cover-into-concealment intermediate hunting range choice... not that there’s anything wrong with that.  But the moment agility matters and/or shooting over ~500 yards the .308 is simply outclassed by lighter handling and/or lighter recoiling weapons.

TBH, I ended up getting a Tavor7 some time ago and subsequently ditched all of my .308 ARs ... it was just no contest. You can find them frequently <$1800 new and they’re no shit as short as my 10.3” AR15.  Cool guns, reliable, super easy to handle and carry  and just pounds shit like a hammer.  Excellent urban type gun or field hunting gun.

Thanks, but that discussion only confirms there are no clear answers.

I spent a very long time (years) not being able to figure out where to go with a 308 AR.  I can't give you any kind of thorough scientific/expert breakdown of things... all I can offer is that once I decided to just go with what I went with, I was happy.  

That's just me though.  
All I wanted was a good 308 AR, and I feel like I got it.


Basically, I just built one using Aero Precision receiver parts.  

M5 lower
M5E1 upper
M5 enhanced handguard
M5 lower parts kit

The rest were non-Aero parts.

POF has packed it all into a small package.  

If PSAs parent company ever gets with it, they could bring back the DPMS G2, another shrunk down platform.

I agree with this.  If I am doing .308 in a semi-auto I prefer to do something non AR-ish.  I have a B&T APC308, but have owned a Tavor 7 and a SCAR 17 and they're all excellent options.  I mean you'll pay almost $2,000 for a high quality AR-10 if you build it yourself.  At that point I think the Tavor 7 is almost unbeatable.  It's very well built, compact, completely ambi like the Beretta ARX100, soft shooting, and is accurate enough.

The G2 I shot was one nice package. Seemed like a great value.

If the demand is there, they will build it.   PSAs parent company owns everything that was DPMS.

How heavy are they

It's very hard to do a direct comparison when they are so different. My normal advice is to pick a budget and then research about what your best options are in it. The cheapest is usually to piece something together with parts on sale. If you want foolproof sticking to one brand is a good idea and buying a complete gun usually comes with a warranty of some type.

For a budget gun I think I'd just go PSA. Wait for your upper and lower to go "on sale" and snatch it up. The newer Sig seems to have gained a pretty big following and there's a long thread going here with several owners. At the other end of the scale is stull like LMT and Knights which are extremely proven and extremely expensive.