During the Florida Blogshoot, I had the opportunity to shoot Dave of Ammoman‘s Scout Rifle. I was amazed at how much lighter his rifle was, and how little felt recoil there was. I knew right then and there that I would have to build one of my own. In keeping with his ScoutRifle 2.0 theory, I began thinking about what I wanted to do with a new rifle. 

I want something that is going to be more suited to a militia kind of battlespace: 

I need my rifle to be relatively lightweight, right around 8 pounds carried weight. My Oracle is too heavy at 9.3 pounds unloaded with an ACOG on top. 

I want a rifle that had more power, more range, and fires a larger bullet than the 62 grain 5.56mm that my AR15 uses. 

I also want to stay with the AR platform.  

I thought that .308 would be a great caliber. Now since parts are kind of hard to come by these days and it would be difficult to get a lower right now, I decided that instead of building a new rifle from the ground up, I would simply rework my DPMS Oracle:

I reworked it by replacing the 16 inch heavy barrel that came with the rifle with an 18 inch Faxon pencil barrel. Then I added an EDGE 15 inch Carbon Fiber handguard from Brigand Armsan adjustable gas block, a Nitromet gas tube, and a Gemtech compensator. I also replaced the bolt carrier with a low mass bolt carrier  from JP rifles. 


I used the bolt that originally came with the Oracle, because JP rifles didn’t have any bolts in stock. I checked the headspace on the bolt, and it locks up fine with the go/no go checker.

I just finished assembling the rifle. The rifle weighs 7 pounds without the ACOG and 8.1 pounds with it. The balance is right in the center of the mag well. It is 36 inches long and looks great:

Here it is, pictured above my AR15 for comparison. The AR-10 only weighs 3/4 of a pound more than its 5.56mm cousin. I am now (no so) patiently waiting to take it out to the range on Saturday. I need to tune the gas block and get the scope dialed in. 


I know that the pencil barrel won’t do as well with a large amount of fire as the heavy barrel, but this is not a battle rifle. It’s also too heavy to call a scout rifle. I am going to call this a skirmish rifle. 

In all, the modifications cost me right at $1,150. Counting the cost of the original rifle and the ACOG, the total cost for this rifle is right around $3,200. I already know that the rifle is just as easy to carry as my AR-15, and packs a bigger punch. I am hoping it is a tack driver.







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3 Comments

Miguel GFZ · December 11, 2020 at 4:31 am

Outstanding! You gonna bring it to the next meet?

Ratus · December 11, 2020 at 6:22 am

Here's some advice on how to keep your adjustable gas block functional.

https://youtu.be/lvEDYweysFw

Ratus · December 11, 2020 at 6:49 am

Not bad on the weight, just checked my 5.56 "lightweight" pistol build, 14.5" with red dot and light is around 6lb.

And my midlength 16" 5.56 is at around 8.5lb with light, red dot, and 3x magnifier.

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