I've read just about every thread on every forum over the last few years multiple times trying to decide if I should do a short .308. I've always liked the idea of a sbr ar10 but all the internet experts out there,who have never had one, will tell you it's just a loud .300 black out. They keep saying 16" is fine but the rifle magically goes to shit with anything shorter. I have also heard they are unreliable and will beat your rifle to death. After hearing all these negatives from all these experts I decided to try it anyway.
I took my lmt mws 16" cl .308 barrel and chopped, threaded, pinned, and welded an asr muzzle brake. The barrel came out to be just over 14 1/8".
So this is the same 16" barrel from the factory, meaning the gas port is in the same location, same size, same port pressure, only less dwell time. This actually helped with the over gassing of the lmt. The rifle now runs smoother, so now not sure how this would beat the rifle to death. As far as the noise goes on this short .308, it sounds like any other centerfire rifle going off. With a suppressor, I shoot it without ear pro just fine, just like on a longer barrel. Reliability? Can't get more reliable than running 100%.
Now the thing you guys are waiting for, velocity...... the day before I chopped the barrel I hooked up the magnetospeed and got an average muzzle velocity of 2587 fps with a 155 eldm and 45.0 varget in lc brass. This is with the 16" full length barrel. I chopped it and put a patch through to get the metal shavings out of it then hooked the chrono up and shot 10 rounds of the same load. It averaged 2554 fps. This is only 33 fps slower for almost 2" of barrel. That is a difference of .3 mils drop (about 8") at 800 yards and the same wind drift. This is with varget that produces pretty low velocities. I just used that same load for a before and after comparison. I'll try some imr8208 and bet I get some more impressive numbers.
2" of barrel might not sound like much, but it looks and feels much shorter and balances much better. I am very happy with this 14.1xx" barrel.
Take away from this is look at actual results from an actual rifle if thinking about going with a short .308. Don't listen to all the people that just keep repeating the same shit they read somewhere on a forum. There is nothing wrong with a short .308 and it is way more than a .300 blackout or
I took my lmt mws 16" cl .308 barrel and chopped, threaded, pinned, and welded an asr muzzle brake. The barrel came out to be just over 14 1/8".
So this is the same 16" barrel from the factory, meaning the gas port is in the same location, same size, same port pressure, only less dwell time. This actually helped with the over gassing of the lmt. The rifle now runs smoother, so now not sure how this would beat the rifle to death. As far as the noise goes on this short .308, it sounds like any other centerfire rifle going off. With a suppressor, I shoot it without ear pro just fine, just like on a longer barrel. Reliability? Can't get more reliable than running 100%.
Now the thing you guys are waiting for, velocity...... the day before I chopped the barrel I hooked up the magnetospeed and got an average muzzle velocity of 2587 fps with a 155 eldm and 45.0 varget in lc brass. This is with the 16" full length barrel. I chopped it and put a patch through to get the metal shavings out of it then hooked the chrono up and shot 10 rounds of the same load. It averaged 2554 fps. This is only 33 fps slower for almost 2" of barrel. That is a difference of .3 mils drop (about 8") at 800 yards and the same wind drift. This is with varget that produces pretty low velocities. I just used that same load for a before and after comparison. I'll try some imr8208 and bet I get some more impressive numbers.
2" of barrel might not sound like much, but it looks and feels much shorter and balances much better. I am very happy with this 14.1xx" barrel.
Take away from this is look at actual results from an actual rifle if thinking about going with a short .308. Don't listen to all the people that just keep repeating the same shit they read somewhere on a forum. There is nothing wrong with a short .308 and it is way more than a .300 blackout or
