Please post your issues with Armalites .308 lowers

AR/M4 Beyond 5.56/.223
1

i really want to get a lower very soon and don’t want a pos.
is $250 a good price for their lowers?
on other forums i’ve read good things on them.
i’d get an lmt lower but can’t find any. besides i really dont want to dump $2500 into a gun at this point.
thanks

2

I’ve had my ar-10 for a few years now. No function issues with the lower although it wasn’t the best finished. You can see tooling marks on it. Overall I’ve been happy with it. If you are getting on that takes the armalite style mags you just need to watch for them to go on sale in the multi packs to get a good deal.

3

The Armalite AR10 lower (and upper) is made from 7175 alloy which is superior to the 7075 and 6061 alloys used in other receivers. It uses the Armalite magazine, not the PMag type. It should be used with Armalite and Armalite compatible uppers for correct fit.

Armalite now has an upper & lower set that’s compatible with the PMags but currently is only available on a complete rifle. The new uppers & lowers must be used together

4

someone said the newer lowers are better for some reason. any serial #'s to look for or avoid?
thanks

5

From what little I know about the new style lowers, the only reason they are “better” is that they are designed to take the PMag type magazine.

Here is a link to a thread created by Armalite on TOS about the new rifles
http://www.ar15.com/forums/t_3_62/559245_THE_NEW_ARMALITE_AR_10A_.html

6

Yea the only real difference is that it takes the original ar-10 style mags(which now include pmags). Really the pmags are the only good cheap mags I know of for that style. The larue and kac mags are expensive and a few of the other mags(like the dpms ones) are junk. The armalite gen 2 mags are good and work fine. People just want the magpul mags. Don’t get me wrong the magpul mags generally are good. Personally I’ve gotten too many that are a little out of spec that needed light sanding on the 5.56 mags to make me want to jump platforms for them.

For the standard ar-10 using the gen two mags I just wait for the sales. I got my 25 round gen two mags for like 20 some bucks a shot.

7

I owned an Armalite AR-10 for 7 hours. the disco broke, I took it back where I bought it and was 100% humbug on the subject of 308 ARs for 15 years until just a few months ago when a friend wanted help breaking in his cheapo DPMS LR-308(which ran beautifully).

8

Any reason why you want specifically Armalite?

And if you dont want to drop $2500 on a gun right now, dont start this project. I finished my MEGA MaTen over a year ago and I think I did it for just under 2k. Pricing it by parts now the gun can be had for around 2100-2200. AR308’s are fucking expensive

Unless you want more of a battle rifle. They can be had for much less.
If you can find this in stock…well that’ll be the hardest part of the project. If you’re dead set on Armalite
http://dsgarms.com/ProductInfo/ARMU10A4BF.aspx
http://dsgarms.com/ProductInfo/ARMEA0901G.aspx

And if you want to assemble your own lower its all the same parts except for the takedown pins and the bolt catch.
You need
http://dsgarms.com/ProductInfo/ARM10203100.aspx
http://dsgarms.com/ProductInfo/ARMEA1113.aspx
http://dsgarms.com/ProductInfo/ARMEA1112.aspx
for an Ar10. They are wider than standard ar15 receivers (duh) so they take longer pins. The bolt catch is all around different. All the rest of the parts are the same as an ar15 LPK

I’d also suggest the Gunfighter charging handle for 308

LOL Edit to get back on topic
I think most people steer away from the old generation due to the Pmag thing. 308 pmags are cheap and tough so people want to use them. But as has been stated they now offer a model that accepts PMAGS and some speculate the reason Noveske took their 308’s off the website was to wait on Armalite to come out with that lower so they could get on the PMAG train

9

i can see spending over $2k. not in a big rush on this.
and not really dead set on armalite at all. but among the limited amount of lowers i’ve seen armalite seems to have a relatively good reputation, given that lmt lowers are unavail.
and thanks for providing the links

10

What I’ve seen is they are one of the few brands that will sell a forged lower. Most others that you can get pieced out are billet.

I was thinking this were true, but couldn’t remember exactly
http://www.snipershide.com/forum/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=1816768

In this thread the barrel extension is talked about and that there are 2 different patterns and they are not interchangeable in the others uppers. Another thing to consider is the rail. The armalite pattern has a different thread for barrel nut than then dpms pattern. So, if you have a particular rail in mind, double check what will work with it. And even DPMS in all their dumb assedness has since released a SECOND version of their own rail. The thread is the same, but the rail is like 1/16" taller.
See this product page @ Rainier
http://www.rainierarms.com/?page=shop/detail&product_id=2493
There are 3 options there. Armalite, DPMS low pro, DPMS high pro.

This PDF shows the difference between the 2 DPMS’
http://www.rainierarms.com/misc/DPMS_RECEIVERS_COMPARE.pdf

Because there is no TDP for the AR308 like there is for the AR15, there is no real standard. There are 2 major patters out there:
Armalite pattern, who owns the rights to the name AR10. Armalite and Noveske’s old ones they dont sell anymore are the only brands off the top of my head to use this pattern
and DPMS pattern
KAC, LMT, so on and so on. This is the more prevalent one. More than likely solely based off the magazine thing. It could be though mfg’s saw Knights on this pattern and since this was the last place Stoner worked (I think), they may have gone this route. Who knows. Not this guy lol

Anyway, there are alternatives out there. The Mega Ma-Ten (either monolithic or non monolithic) solves the problem of worrying about any of these things. As long as your bolt matches your barrel and you use a DPMS thread patter for the barrel nut, you’re good. Oh and it takes a standard AR15 LPK because it comes with the take down pins already installed.

If you do go armalite, you can get almost any barrel you want from the barrel manufacturer and have them cut and install whatever barrel extension you want. Depending on your use for the gun, this may be perfect for you. You can get a Mike Rock barrel (some say the best out there) cut and threaded by GAP and whatever extension you like for around $800.