SmallCaliberCentral

I'll start off this forum by giving a sketch of my history with ARs. Although I have been around guns my entire live, I am relatively new to ARs. I am now ashamed to admit it, but at one time, I looked with disdain upon all varieties of "assault rifles". Being a hunter, my thinking was along the lines of, "No one really needs one of those weapons. They were designed to kill people and I'm just not into that!"

As I get older, it increasingly amazes me how thoughts, feelings and passions change. As most people mature along their journey through life, their minds become increasingly open to new and better ideas, while at the same time, they becoming more set in their beliefs, ideals and values. This might not be the case for everyone, but it certainly has been for me.

During the last several years , I have become an American. I was born and raised in Wyoming, but I was not an American until a couple of years ago. Through my experience and studies, I have gained a great respect, admiration and even love for our founding fathers, their determination for freedom and their sacrifice of which we are all beneficiaries. I take great pride in that heritage! I love my country, I love freedom and I love the Constitution that guarantees it! And make no mistake, I now understand the 2nd Amendment and the reason it was added to the Bill of Rights.

I am sure you will all remember the frenzy created from the political uproar a year ago. With all the rumors flying, I was faced with a serious dilemma, "Should I now buy a rifle that I have never wanted anyway just because I might not be able to ever buy one again?" What was the big deal anyway? The only AR that I had ever handled was one a friend showed to me a few years back. It was a 10 pound rig with a huge bull barrel on it. The trigger was gritty and long, and it felt front heavy and awkward. In my opinion, it was not the best setup for a coyote gun, which is what he was using it for. But that first impression remained with me.

Fast forward to last year. My curiosity was already piqued due to the "Greatest gun salesman in all of history" frenzy when another friend invited me over to show me his Bushmaster. "Well, this isn't too bad," I thought as I handled it. The feel of this 7.5 pound rifle was vastly different than what I remembered. I actually kind of liked it.

Two weeks later, I was the owner of not one but two new DPMS Sporticals. Now, whoa! Settle down here. Don't anyone shoot me for buying a DPMS. It was my first AR purchase. What can I say? Why two? Well, the family was with me. We went into the story with the intent of purchasing one but my 16 year old son, who had wanted an AR for several years, was begging to get one too. While I was doing the drooling, my wife and son were working out a deal where he would work like a circus pony to earn the money and pay us back if we bought him one. Well, the end of the story is that my son didn't live up to his promise and I ended up with two ARs!

To be continued...

204Shooter wrote:I'll start off this forum by giving a sketch of my history with ARs. Although I have been around guns my entire live, I am relatively new to ARs. I am now ashamed to admit it, but at one time, I looked with disdain upon all varieties of "assault rifles". Being a hunter, my thinking was along the lines of, "No one really needs one of those weapons. They were designed to kill people and I'm just not into that!"

As I get older, it increasingly amazes me how thoughts, feelings and passions change. As most people mature along their journey through life, their minds become increasingly open to new and better ideas, while at the same time, they becoming more set in their beliefs, ideals and values. This might not be the case for everyone, but it certainly has been for me.

During the last several years , I have become an American. I was born and raised in Wyoming, but I was not an American until a couple of years ago. Through my experience and studies, I have gained a great respect, admiration and even love for our founding fathers, their determination for freedom and their sacrifice of which we are all beneficiaries. I take great pride in that heritage! I love my country, I love freedom and I love the Constitution that guarantees it! And make no mistake, I now understand the 2nd Amendment and the reason it was added to the Bill of Rights.

I am sure you will all remember the frenzy created from the political uproar a year ago. With all the rumors flying, I was faced with a serious dilemma, "Should I now buy a rifle that I have never wanted anyway just because I might not be able to ever buy one again?" What was the big deal anyway? The only AR that I had ever handled was one a friend showed to me a few years back. It was a 10 pound rig with a huge bull barrel on it. The trigger was gritty and long, and it felt front heavy and awkward. In my opinion, it was not the best setup for a coyote gun, which is what he was using it for. But that first impression remained with me.

Fast forward to last year. My curiosity was already piqued due to the "Greatest gun salesman in all of history" frenzy when another friend invited me over to show me his Bushmaster. "Well, this isn't too bad," I thought as I handled it. The feel of this 7.5 pound rifle was vastly different than what I remembered. I actually kind of liked it.

Two weeks later, I was the owner of not one but two new DPMS Sporticals. Now, whoa! Settle down here. Don't anyone shoot me for buying a DPMS. It was my first AR purchase. What can I say? Why two? Well, the family was with me. We went into the story with the intent of purchasing one but my 16 year old son, who had wanted an AR for several years, was begging to get one too. While I was doing the drooling, my wife and son were working out a deal where he would work like a circus pony to earn the money and pay us back if we bought him one. Well, the end of the story is that my son didn't live up to his promise and I ended up with two ARs!

To be continued...

Goes to show; "ya' can't judge book by it's cover".

Jim

So I guess the first thing I should discuss is what I think of the Sportical. To be honest, I like it. Basically, the Sportical is DPMS’s entry level AR. There are several places where DPMS cut costs but most of them are found in the upper. First, the upper receiver is made of 6066-T6 aircraft aluminum alloy instead of the traditional mil-spec 7075-T6 aluminum. It is my understanding that 6066 aluminum is a bit softer making it easier to machine. It is also cheaper to buy. I really don’t think strength will be an issue here because the Sportical upper is more than twice as thick as a mil-spec receiver in most areas. The drawback with this receiver is that DPMS does not include a forward-assist, dust cover or shell deflector. If this gun is to be used for casual shooting or plinking at varmints, this should not be an issue. However, if you are using the gun where your live could be on the line, you need to at least have the forward-assist.

Second, an aluminum gas block is used in the place of a FSB (front site base). I actually prefer this since I mounted optics (scope) anyway. The FSB obscures the view through most optics. And third, a cheaper 4140 chrome-moly light contour steel barrel is used in the place of a mil-spec chrome-lined barrel.

If you can live with these compromises, this is a great little gun. I installed a JP adjustable triggers kit in each one (more on these triggers later) and found the accuracy to be excellent. With the first gun, I was able to hold ¾ moa! The second wasn’t quite as good with the average moa being right at 1 moa. I never had a failure to feed, failure to fire or any other problems with them. They were an absolute riot to shoot!

Keep in mind that I reload everything that I shoot and I didn’t have the time or resources to shoot thousands of rounds through them. Because of this, I cannot I give any credible information about the reliability or durability of the Sportical.

Now, here is where I must admit that I was bitten by the AR bug, hard! My wife says that these guns are like Barbies, for men. You can play with them and accessorize them till the millennium! Alas, I sold the first one and replaced it with the DPMS Panther A3 Lite 16 primarily to get the nicer 7075 upper.

To be continued …

204 Shooter, You start out your post with an apologetic tone about buying a DPMS and I, for one, think you are doing an injustice to your judgment....

Over the years, I've had several ARs and at one time had five in my safe that I shot on a regular basis in various action competitions....

While my DPMS 16" bull barrel is still my 'go to' choice and has outlived my Colts and various others, it's certainly not on the low end of the totem pole...It has served me well and outlasted all the others as far as 'seniority'



My .204 AR upper was custom built, long before DPMS came out with theirs, or it would also be wearing the DPMS brand....



I might add, that none of my ARs have the forward assist or chamber dust covers and I've never found that to be a detriment....I've equipped all of them with the EOP (Elevated Optical Platform) uppers to allow the use of standard scope mounts to get the scopes up above the flat top base lines..and it allows me to swap optics using the quick detach mounts and still maintain my 'zero'...

Here are a few things that I learned as I ventured into the world of ARs. The first one has to do with mounts for optics (as you mentioned in your post OldTurtle). I like to have a good, tight cheek weld on the stock as I am shooting. I feel it is important to be able to throw a gun up and have it naturally and comfortably fall to rest against my cheek. This ensures consistency in aligning my eye with the sights/optic. For this reason, I typically shy away from scopes with huge objective lenses because they must be mounted higher on the rifle. This forces me to move my head up out of the comfortable cheek weld position.

All of my rifles have either low or medium height rings. With that school of thought, I picked up a set of low rings when I bought the rifle. Big mistake! What I didn’t take into consideration then was that the stock on an AR is perfectly lined up with the barrel. As an AR fires, the bolt unlocks and the bolt carrier group moves rearward into the buffer tube to which the stock is mounted. By nature of the design, the buffer tube/stock must be in line with the barrel.

The stock on a conventional rifle, however, angles slightly downward from the barrel and action. This places a person’s head in a slightly lower position than on an AR stock. After a little trial and error, and about 3 trips back to the store, I found that even the high rings were not high enough for me to comfortably rest my cheek on the stock. I would have to cock my head and push my cheek into the stock before I could see through the scope. This was not comfortable at all!

After a little research on the web, I found what I consider a great value for someone wanting to mount a scope to an AR. The solution: the Burris Extreme Tactical rings! They are very secure, fairly light-weight since they are made of aluminum and have a decent price. And the height of their x-high rings was perfect for me! These rings do not require an extra mount or base but they are not QD rings either. They even have an optional ring top with a small Picatinny rail! Incredible cool factor!





AR triggers were the next subject that I had a crash course in. Mil-spec AR triggers are absolutely awful when compared to nearly any gun used for target or varmint shooting! A quick not here on DPMS mil-spec triggers. Having no experience at all with ARs, my first impression was that these triggers were horrible. However, after working on numerous rifles for friends and acquaintances and after my latest purchase of a high-quality AR from a very reputable vendor (which will be named later), the DPMS triggers aren’t all that bad. By far the worst trigger that I have ever felt is sitting at home on the most expensive rifle that I have ever purchased!!! Trust me, you will hear more about this later.

For my two Sporticals, I chose the 3.5 to 4 pound JP adjustable trigger with the speed hammer and oversize anti-walk pins.

JP Trigger Group


Anti-walk Pins


Speed Hammer

Now, I don’t want to get too in-depth here, but I must say that installing these triggers is a royal pain in the you-know-where! Not that it’s too difficult. I think that nearly anyone can do it. It just takes awhile to do it right. I probably put the trigger in and took it back out nearly 40 times as I was trying to get the fit just right. The final result however was very good. A trigger that broke at just over 4 pounds that was very crisp with almost no perceivable creep. I must note however that one of the speed hammers had not been polished at the sear engagement point. The surface was rough and the trigger pull was gritty. Because of this, I could never get that clean break that I was looking for. Since the sear engagement is adjustable, I was able to adjust all the creep out of it. This gave a quick and clean break but it was right on the edge of the sear. The engagement was half of what JP recommends and was just too dangerous.

My solution was to ditch the speed hammer and use the mil-spec hammer that came with the gun. With this hammer, I was able to adjust the trigger just how I like it. The feel was almost as good as the first JP trigger with the speed hammer.

After having installed two of these triggers, I cannot recommend the speed hammer. It is an extra $50 that, in my opinion, is not merited. An average person will never be able to tell the difference between the mil-spec hammer and JP’s speed hammer. But if you have the time and patience to install it, this is a good trigger at a good price.

I also tried out Timney’s modular trigger.

Timney Competition Trigger

This little gem installs in under 10 minutes vs 2 to 3 hours for the JP trigger. This trigger is not adjustable and there is a tiny bit of creep. However, the pull is smooth and it breaks cleanly. I highly recommend the Timney, especially if you don’t want the hassle of adjusting the trigger and grinding the back of the trigger for proper safety fitment.

In conclusion, I really liked the Sporticals. They were fun and I learned a lot while playing with and customizing them. I never had a bit of trouble with either one. But, as I stated earlier, I had the AR bug. I finally succumbed to the urge to build a better rifle and sold the first Sportical to fund my next project. Later, I sold the second to fund an even bigger project. But that’s another story!

To be continued …

You may also be interested in the Burris AR-P.E.P.R. scope mount.

I used one on my AR and have been extremely happy so far.

You can go here to read about my latest AR purchase, the Spike's Tactical M4 Carbine with Adam's Arms piston kit.

Thanks for the great write up and review...It sounds like maybe Spikes has gotten caught up in the flurry of demand for the ARs and their production line may have added a couple of employees without the thorough training that was needed to maintain their reputation for 'attention to detail'...

I'll be interested in the review after you get a chance to get it broken in and a hundred rounds down the tube...especially how the Adams Gas Block works out...I'm assuming (I know, dangerous) from the looks of it that it is adjustable and I've considered one for the last couple of years, but it's one of those situations where 'if it ain't broke, don't fix it'...

SWEET! Wish I could spring for that scope. Awesome gun pics
I have found the down fall of an AR..
There is no end to the amount of accessories a person can attach to these things!!!
(To my dear wifes consternation) The only miserable part of my DPMS was the trigger
and had the local gunsmith change it to a Geissele Match rifle Trigger. Huge difference.
Now have an accuracy problem..and it aint the gun. Thought my groups were whacked.
Shoots 3/4 inch at 100 yards..so I shot 200 yards (same) scratched my head and went to 300 yards...3/4 inch!
Now thats sobering. Guess a visit to the eye doc will fix it.
Or I could just wait till all my shots are long and whoop it up after every hit HA!
And the claim this is designed to fire 32-36 grain bullets only has proven to be off the mark in my case. Only thing it REALLY likes is 39 gr. BlitzKing in Federal loads. Havent started reloading it yet. Still stock piling cases. If DPMS has any quirks other than a crappy trigger and an endless list of accessories..
Well to each his own. I like it.




DPMS Pantherâ„¢ LR-204
Geissele Match rifle Trigger
Burris FULLFIELD IIâ„¢ TACTICAL 4.5X-14X SCOPE
Burris Extreme Tactical rings
Command Arms SRS - Sniper Stock
pistol grip with finger groves
Harris Bipod

For the scope mounting options on an AR, IMHO.....it is better to go with a one or two piece "riser" of the weaver/picatinny rail flavor and then use low scope mounts. Provides ample room to move the scope fore and aft for cheekweld and sight picture. The big bonus, if you use high type rings, your scope is kind of "hanging in the wind" - in other words, will get caught on things in the safe or when out hunting/plinking/etc.....AND....you are holding a 2-3 pound object off of the rifle...which translates to all of the shock energy wobbling the scope.

I have to agree with you there. The Burris AR-P.E.P.R. scope mount looks nice. Had a set of lower mounts on it that drove me nuts when I would pull it up. Would prefer the scope lower and more drop in the stock. Not sure why the disparity is built in. Figure the flat tops should have a different stock design to remedy alignment. Need a lift kit for the scopes in the mean time. Rings I have are sturdy and torqued to spec. doubt it will move without a hard impact. With a 24" bull barrel the recoil is non-existent, even my 8 year old can shoot it all day long. It is weird having rings so high they need their own zip code, but I'm not to the point of needing Sherpa's to carry my gaze yet so its all good for now. Would have the Burris AR-P.E.P.R. scope mount but I didn't know they existed till I saw em on this post!

Would prefer the scope lower and more drop in the stock. Not sure why the disparity is built in. Figure the flat tops should have a different stock design to remedy alignment.

Unfortunately, more drop in the stock would preclude the function of the action spring and there would be no more of the lovable "sproing" to listen to, to know the bolt carrier group has fully functioned ... ... When I don't get the 'normal' sound, I can pretty well tell the next round will have problems if they are going to exist..