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Dpms panther 308
- Thread starter Famaya94
- Start date
I had one when they first came put. At the time, I wasn't a great AR shooter, but could keep the 168 Amax under an inch at 100 yards.
Haven't tried Hornady match,but I had one box of Superformance 165 GMX that shot really small (less than .50 moa ) 44.4 grains of SuperF 168 vld ......is slow but it shoots small for me ,along with 42.0 IMR4064 and about any 168 bullet I load.
I’ve had a lot of experience with them since they debuted in 2004 with the original LR-308, up to the present. First one I saw was through the FFL I was working at in 2004 when they came out and were still limited with 10rd translucent magazines due to the Clinton/Biden/Feinstein Assault Weapons Ban.
Biggest problem was they never had good reliability, and that’s coming from the mouth of their own Product Manager who I spoke with about all this at SHOT when they introduced the GII to solve those problems and make it smaller/lighter/reliable.
But you basically went through:
LR-308 2004
LR-308 AP4 Carbine 16"
LR-308 20"
LR-308 SASS Rifle
LR-260
GII series (totally different gun)
GII AP4
GII MOE
GII 20” Rifle
GII SASS
GII Recon
They offered different calibers for a while, basically under-cut the pricing of ArmaLite Inc. (1990s-era Eagle Arms rebranded, not the original ArmaLite), and cranked out mediocre-at-best rifles. The BCGs were generally good, barrels hit-and-miss, receivers 6061, and small parts close to the bottom of the barrel for mass production.
For the heavy guns, they went P for plenty of OD on the barrels, which made them boat anchors, even heavier than a SAKO TRG .338 LM bolt gun. They actually went through 3 different rail heights within the LR-308 series even before the GII, so the rail on the upper could be really high (called Lo-Pro) on uppers with no FA and no port door, then two others that looked the same but had different heights. It made finding handguards a PITA with matching 12 o’clock rail heights.
Pressure containment on the Bolt and Extension was good though, never heard of any issues, so the core of the gun was at least safe. They tried to make them accurate by skimming barrel blanks, profiling the gas journal and forend, and calling it a day. Reamers were run ragged as typical in low-quality production/lack of attention to detail, so you would get FTExtract on enough guns for it to show up regularly with customers.
My first one folded the extractor within the first 20 rounds, didn’t completely break off, but I noticed it when it FTExtracted, so I called them and had them send me a replacement. Not inspiring at all.
Magazines were a little shoddy and sourced in large batches to support the product with volume, not quality. Until Magpul came out with their SR25 7.62 PMAGs, getting them to run reliably was hit-and-miss just from a mag feeding perspective.
For the carbines, they used a tiny little 2.9oz buffer and longer spring inside of an AR-15 RET, which is a known failure formula. ArmaLite did it right when they made their 16” AR-10 carbines with a longer RET and standard AR-15 carbine length buffer that is heavier. That became known as the A5 length RET.
What I ended up doing was just buying the receiver sets and BCGs, sending them to GA Precision and having George and crew cut beautiful barrels, mate them to extensions they tested, bed them into the upper, polish the feed ramps, set the gas port and gas tube correctly, bed the gas block to the barrel with matching OD to the shoulder, and doing an overall reliability/accuracy work-up on the rifle.
I did 2 like that, first in .308 set up for 155gr Scenars with an Obermeyer pipe, then another in .260 Rem with a Bartlein. Both are freaking lasers, always reliable, point-and-shoot type hummer rifles.
I basically look at the DPMS LR-308 and early AP4 guns as project platforms for gunsmiths to build off, not ready-to-go blasters. Some were, but enough weren’t.
If I came into possession of one, I would go over it thoroughly and replace the known failure points if I wanted to keep it. Personally, I have the GAP-built .260 still and an 18” SASS 7.62x51 heavy fluted 18”. I don’t shoot them.
Biggest problem was they never had good reliability, and that’s coming from the mouth of their own Product Manager who I spoke with about all this at SHOT when they introduced the GII to solve those problems and make it smaller/lighter/reliable.
But you basically went through:
LR-308 2004
LR-308 AP4 Carbine 16"
LR-308 20"
LR-308 SASS Rifle
LR-260
GII series (totally different gun)
GII AP4
GII MOE
GII 20” Rifle
GII SASS
GII Recon
They offered different calibers for a while, basically under-cut the pricing of ArmaLite Inc. (1990s-era Eagle Arms rebranded, not the original ArmaLite), and cranked out mediocre-at-best rifles. The BCGs were generally good, barrels hit-and-miss, receivers 6061, and small parts close to the bottom of the barrel for mass production.
For the heavy guns, they went P for plenty of OD on the barrels, which made them boat anchors, even heavier than a SAKO TRG .338 LM bolt gun. They actually went through 3 different rail heights within the LR-308 series even before the GII, so the rail on the upper could be really high (called Lo-Pro) on uppers with no FA and no port door, then two others that looked the same but had different heights. It made finding handguards a PITA with matching 12 o’clock rail heights.
Pressure containment on the Bolt and Extension was good though, never heard of any issues, so the core of the gun was at least safe. They tried to make them accurate by skimming barrel blanks, profiling the gas journal and forend, and calling it a day. Reamers were run ragged as typical in low-quality production/lack of attention to detail, so you would get FTExtract on enough guns for it to show up regularly with customers.
My first one folded the extractor within the first 20 rounds, didn’t completely break off, but I noticed it when it FTExtracted, so I called them and had them send me a replacement. Not inspiring at all.
Magazines were a little shoddy and sourced in large batches to support the product with volume, not quality. Until Magpul came out with their SR25 7.62 PMAGs, getting them to run reliably was hit-and-miss just from a mag feeding perspective.
For the carbines, they used a tiny little 2.9oz buffer and longer spring inside of an AR-15 RET, which is a known failure formula. ArmaLite did it right when they made their 16” AR-10 carbines with a longer RET and standard AR-15 carbine length buffer that is heavier. That became known as the A5 length RET.
What I ended up doing was just buying the receiver sets and BCGs, sending them to GA Precision and having George and crew cut beautiful barrels, mate them to extensions they tested, bed them into the upper, polish the feed ramps, set the gas port and gas tube correctly, bed the gas block to the barrel with matching OD to the shoulder, and doing an overall reliability/accuracy work-up on the rifle.
I did 2 like that, first in .308 set up for 155gr Scenars with an Obermeyer pipe, then another in .260 Rem with a Bartlein. Both are freaking lasers, always reliable, point-and-shoot type hummer rifles.
I basically look at the DPMS LR-308 and early AP4 guns as project platforms for gunsmiths to build off, not ready-to-go blasters. Some were, but enough weren’t.
If I came into possession of one, I would go over it thoroughly and replace the known failure points if I wanted to keep it. Personally, I have the GAP-built .260 still and an 18” SASS 7.62x51 heavy fluted 18”. I don’t shoot them.
The current DPMS/Panther Arms was purchased by JJE Capital, parent company of Palmetto State Armory, in the Remington Outdoor bankruptcy sale. If the DP-10 was made since 2021, or the lower is marked as made in West Columbia SC, it is based on the PSA PA-10, and those uppers and lowers are interchangeable. Compatibility issues with the PA-10 receivers and other manufacturer's DPMS pattern receivers are known, but most of the other build components, like the barrel and BCG, would be interchangeable with any DPMS pattern component. I would expect performance of the current DPMS/Panther Arms DP-10 to be the same as a PSA PA-10.
FWIW, I had a DPMS GEN 1 Recon with a stainless barrel and it was reliable and shot tight groups.
