Ever since my brother bought a large agricultural property in Northern Michigan, this past summer; I have been accumulating parts for an AR -10 .308 caliber build. The main purpose of this rifle is so I can hunt whitetails on his property with a proper rifle cartridge. In Ohio, we are limited to Pistol caliber carbines and shotguns for whitetail firearm season hunting. In northern, MI you can hunt with a proper rifle cartridge. I decided on .308 Because of the many platforms it can be hosted on, and the wide variety of bullets and powders for loads. I really wanted a zastava m-77 .308 type “AK” but it wasn’t really practical with the proprietary magazines, etc. The AR-10 despite there being two types, is more practical for my use. I also wanted a semi-auto rifle vice a bolt gun as my shoulder is ruined from competitive swimming & triathlon. Anything that is heavy recoiling (like a sabot slug out of a 12 GA rifled barrel) becomes quite painful after a dozen shots. I also looked into the Ruger American Hunter in .308.
I’ve built several AR-15s at this point so how hard could it be?
I have slowly been accumulating Aero Precision parts for the most part. Finished up receiving Athe last few parts with Black Friday sales. The Spikes Tactical .308 lower parts kit did not include the springs and detents or take down and pivot pins. I did not know that spikes tactical ships their “stripped” lowers with these included (another google.) luckily I knew about the pins (which I ordered separately.) but not the springs and detents. However, these are common parts with the AR-15 and I had a spare lower parts kit to pillage. I found a chart as I was accumulating part of which parts are common between the two types of rifles. I also opted for an upgraded trigger in the form of a Rise Armament Rave 140. For me trigger control & feel, is one of the biggest components of accuracy and worth a little bit extra money on the component.
https://www.wingtactical.com/blog/what ... ar15-ar10/
Another tip I have found is those magnetic parts trays you get from Harbor Freight, the best $6 spent for an AR build.
I found Lots of little quirks in my build last night; and there are almost no decent AR-10 videos on YouTube. The biggest difference are the locations of the takedown and pivot pins & how much more of a PITA it is to install the detent and spring on a AR-10 than an AR-15. Plus, every AR-10 lower brand is a bit different.
I was about to give up for the night with everything built except the front pivot pin; but I finally realized that I have this little tool I bought for installing AR-15 detents and that did it with a small hook tool. (I still ended up loosing one detent to inevitable detent entropy theory of the universe.)
The funny thing is that it’s been a few years since I built an AR -15 and I forgot I had the tool.
Next up is to locate large rifle primers…I’m not crazy about adding a new reloading caliber that requires almost all new components.
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
AR-10 build: How it started & how it went.
1
Last edited by INVICTVS138 on Wed Dec 07, 2022 9:25 am, edited 1 time in total.