I have to be honest, this is the main development from SHOT that is sticking out in my mind. I spent significant time looking over each of the GII rifles and carbines, and I have to say DPMS knocked this one out of the park.
Just so everyone knows, I'm not exactly DPMS's fanboy, and I have come to view them as barely shelf-grade minimum plinker capable guns that cut a ton of corners to make price point and visual similarity to real AR15's. The GII is a different animal I think, and is lighter than the SCAR-17.
It feels like an AR15 in weight and balance. The GII Hunter is really the configuration that interests me for a light mountain rifle, but chambered in .260 Rem. I have zero interest in anything .30 bore, but for those that like .308's, 7mm-08, .260 Rem, and .243 Win, this gun is going to clean the other large-frame offerings' clocks for hunters and action shooting competitors.
My comments are entirely my own, not simply a re-hash of what the DPMS guys told me at the booth. Basically, they shortened the receivers, and are using a carrier with the same OD as an AR15 carrier, but it is a bit longer. At first glance, the carrier looks like one from an op-rod driven design, but it is not. It is a new evolution of the Stoner floating internal bolt piston system, commonly referred to as "Direct Impingement". Instead of using fasteners and staking a carrier key onto the carrier, there is a gas key tower as you can see above the carrier, and is integral to the forged carrier body all as one piece.
The longitudinal tubular section of the carrier key that articulates with a standard gas tube inserts into the housing, and is retained by a roll pin, with a very tight fit and gas seal.
The bolt itself is not a standard LR308 bolt, but a new design with radial lugs in the cross-sectional aspect. They reduced the size, while increasing the strength with radial lugs, which is also easier for machining. This is reminiscent of the Professional Ordnance Carbon 15 bolt design. Since Bushmaster engaged in a hostile takeover of Professional Ordnance back in the early 2000's, I suspect Bushmaster owns the intellectual property and patent rights for the radial lug design that Professional Ordnance introduced. Bushmaster and DPMS are both owned by the Freedom Group.
Dual ejectors are obvious. Ejection port is enlarged. Port door design has been re-visited. There is a separate steel feed ramp insert for the upper receiver, so you no longer have an aluminum-to-steel hand-off as the meplat transitions upwards across the typical M4-inspired design used in the larger frame guns.
Barrel nut is different. The upper receiver thread for the nut had to be larger to fit the new barrel extension, but they made the free-float nuts compatible with existing DPMS tubes. Here are the models I held and thoroughly looked over while on the show floor:
GII AP4
GII Recon
GII SASS
GII Hunter
GII Bull
By far, the GII Hunter was the most impressive in terms of overall weight, balance, fit, and feel. Just a beautiful rifle all around. My feeling and reaction is that this receiver set makes the predecessors basically obsolete, and those words resonated in my mind without any prompting from the DPMS staff, although you will hear similar statements in their video for it.
I think what they're doing with the gas system, the receiver, the bolt, the ejection area geometry, and even the extractor culminate in series of parts that make the whole genuinely greater than the sum. When you pick the rifles and carbines up, it literally feels like an equivalent AR15 carbine from their line-up. That combined with the innovative features in the critical areas of the gun really sets the stage for a new standard in the Stoner AR15/AR10 family in my opinion. Like I said, I would have never expected this from DPMS.
As I spoke at length with Adam Ballard, the Product Manager for MSR's, I asked him what their posture is for guys like me who are going to want to have access to the receiver set and BCG, since I will be sourcing my own barrel and go about a custom build process. He said that DPMS has always been a parts company, and will continue to follow that trend. My response was that selling rifles is their priority, and he said that components will be available for us.
