DPMS LR-308 Oracle first impressions\range report

[grwd]

If you like the M1A Super Match, try the SOCOM 16 instead of the AR-10. Why take a step backwards?

apparently you have little time behind a socom 16.

 

[B Gordon]

Some folks hate him, but James Yeager has said that he has NEVER seen a .308 AR complete one of his rifle courses. The M1A has one major advantage over the AR-10--it is reliable. Little else really matters in a battle rifle.

Maybe my experience is not typical but I saw multiple of problems with M1A rifles when I was running the High Power program at Red Castle.
Example; One guy brought his brand new M1A to a 600 yard match. He had run 20 rounds thru it with a break in procedure and verified he had a good 600 yard zero before the match, but that was all. First string, some internal part broke and he was done for the day. He sent it back to Springfield Armory to get fixed under warranty. Got it back a month or two later and showed up for another match. Made it to either the second or third string before one of the sights disappeared in the grass somewhere. We looked but didn't find anything.
Another guy showed up at one of the cross-the-course matches with a new M1A. He could't get any of the magazines to feed right and ended up shooting the rapid fire portion by single feeding rounds. Not good for his score.
Seems like there were a couple of other problems but I can't remember the specifics.
Getting too old and forgetful.
The stuff I did see gave me a bad feeling towards the quality of Springfield Armory rifles.

I have also seen a few problems with AR-10's.

Either one seems to me less reliable than the AR-15 platform based on what I saw while running the matches.

 

[Hoov]

SOCOMs are cool if you don't like your hearing. M1As are usually reliable until you try to scope it low. I have seen several reliable AR-10s. I don't know Yaeger, but short of sabotage, whatever would break an AR-10 would surely cripple a M1A.

 

[Hoov]

BTW, Flatwins, watch your brass for neck splits...

 

[Sanford]

I know it's an old thread, but I had to send my LR-308 back to DPMS twice before it stopped having FTF issues. Failures included partial FTE's, stovepipes, bent cartridges, new stripped round hung up on ejected brass, etc. DPMS factory mags and PMags. Initially only one every second or third mag, but by the time I had about 400 rounds through it was happening to the tune of every second or third round. Tried different ammo (different manufacturers, commercial and milspec). Tried different types and amounts of lube. Tried cleaning it lots. Tried not cleaning it at all. Nothing seemed to matter.

The first time I returned it they replaced the ejector, said they shot 40 rounds through it, and sent it back, there was no change.

The second time they called me and said "we can't get it to fail, and if we put any more rounds down it to test we'll end up owing you a new barrel" so they sent it back again.

And it does run fine now - just wish I knew for sure why. Now just need to get it back out for resighting and accuracy check (sort of hard to do when you don't know if the next round is going to fire or not, and have to keep clearing and resetting before shooting again).

Oh - and here's what some of the brass looked like:

 

[Sanford]

After being returned the first time - in case any of you gurus want to hazard a guess on what was wrong, and what automagically fixed itself.

 

[henschman]

My DPMS Oracle .308 has been having FTE's too. I am thinking it's due to not turning up the gas enough... I put a Criterion 18.5" CL barrel on it with an adjustable gas block. The ejector seems to be strong enough. I have it turned basically all the way up now, so we'll see how she does.

 

[ASP785]

I had issues with my PRI adjustable gas block cycling and ejecting correctly. I ditched it in favor of a standard block and then went with a heavy buffer from Slash. That has helped tremendously. I can't remember having a stoppage since then.

 

[Sanford]

The one thing I did differently after I got it back the last time was to "liberally" grease the recoil spring and buffer. Basically grabbed a glob of grease in my palm, dragged them through it, and stuffed them back in the tube. I have no "sproing" now.

I was actually considering overgassed since the bolt's going all the way back and stripping a new round from the mag before the previous shell's cleared the chamber.

 

[ASP785]

Sanford, The first DPMS 308 I bought was way over gassed. When I built my second one I used the adjustable block which just created other problems. That is when I went to the heavy buffer and spring combo to combat it.