LMT .308 MWS

I had previously gone down the route of the Heavy Buffer (10 oz buffer) and Wolff XP spring to try and alleviate the excessive recoil from being over gassed. They helped somewhat, but the result was still not as good as with an adjustable gas block on an AR-10 platform.

There had been one mention in this thread of the Black River Tactical "EZTune" gas tube, so I decide to give that a try (I have no affiliation with them, and was not familiar with them until reading the post). You tell them a bunch of variables and they come up with a recommendation or a custom tube: the barrel length (20"). caliber (.308), buffer (stock H3), spring (stock mil-spec), BCG (stock LMT), and suppressor (Gemtech), and mixed use or suppressor only use.

Looking at the their drop down menu, gas port inlet on the gas tube would range from 0.081-0.095 for 20"/.308 depending on the factors.

Gas tube came shipped in a cardboard tube with an included roll pin. Gas tube had the normal/large inlet on one side, and a smaller inlet 180 degrees opposite that. Installed it small inlet down, so that restricts the gas coming off of the gas block, and the normal inlet is doing nothing, as it is being blocked by the top part of the gas block.

Mine tube was "tuned" for suppressed use only. Cycled fine with M80 ball and M118 clone loads with the can installed. With the can removed, the spent rounds would eject, but the bolt would not lock back on an empty mag. Seems like they have it figured out! In the end, I think recoil and vibration is much less that with the 10oz heavy buffer slamming around and excessive gas.

So outside of going to an adjustable gas block, restricting the gas entry via the smaller port on the gas tube seems like the best solution. Instead of buying a second one from them for a 16" barrel, I may just buy a few gas tubes and a handful of numbered drill bits and experiment in making my own custom gas tube. YMMV.
 
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Can someone tell me why LMT stopped making 24" barrels for 6.5 CM, and now only offer 20"?
From what I understood, I thought the round was designed around a 28" barrel, so why go so much shorter. Is there really no performance gain? Velocity gain not enough to justify the cost?
Is it worth $800?
 
Can someone tell me why LMT stopped making 24" barrels for 6.5 CM, and now only offer 20"?
From what I understood, I thought the round was designed around a 28" barrel, so why go so much shorter. Is there really no performance gain? Velocity gain not enough to justify the cost?
Is it worth $800?

Probably didn't sell well. I have a 24" barrel for mine and it's like swinging a boat oar. I think they started with 20" barrels only.
 
V1 tactical has them on "special order", which means they have to order it from LMT. They're $700


I'll be honest, I legitimately thought that LMT had completely discontinued the 24" barrels.
I talked to the V1 Tactical folks and they seemed unaware. They said they called LMT about it, and called me back to tell me what they heard. They told me that while LMT is not currently producing those barrels, they are not permanently discontinued. And they will be making more, despite the barrels not showing on their website.
I now feel less rushed to obtain one, but I do still want one.
I am sure I saw many people in multiple places saying that LMT was only making 20" barrels moving forward.
While I didn't personally talk to LMT, I doubt that the people at V1 Tactical were BSing me.
I'm glad to hear it. I can take a breath and wait on the barrel if I know they aren't going to become unicorns.
It's not that I don't have the money to buy that one, at $800+ shipped.. but, there is a certain person who isn't very happy about my spending $2500 + $1600 + $950 on a gun, scope, accessories and ammo. All within a month.. … … .. . . . .
…...…. . . . . . .

Holy shit.

I didn't want to know.
I seriously, purposely, didn't think about it.
That's a lot of money! I'm out of control!
I didn't even buy my SSA-E trigger or Pelican case yet. And I'm already looking at a secondary $700-$800 barrel???
Somebody stop me!!

On a side note, I decided that I really don't like the Knights Armament mount I bought. It is bulky and ugly to me. Not to mention the fact that it doesn't make much sense on a monolithic upper. I think I am going to get Nightforce Ultralite rings.
Oh yeah. I just bought a DMR buttstock on a whim too.
Man. I really am out of control. Hopefully I can find someone who wants to buy the Knights mount. It's just a $300 paperweight to me..
 
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I recently (last fall) got the MWS in 6.5 CM with a 20 inch barrel and got a 16 inch .308 barrel beginning of the year. Paired mine with the Minox ZP5 5-25 on a spuhr mount. I've only gotten to shoot it a couple times so far and I love it! Two questions for fellow fans:

I have the 7.62 OSS Helix Ti in jail right now after some pretty extensive research and talking to the guys at Mile High, which is what they recommended. Is anyone else here using this supressor and how are your results?

Secondly, I'm considering going to the 3 day long range shooting class put on by Mile High and am wondering if anyone here has taken, if so what was your experience, and is this rifle is appropriate for this class?

Thanks for any input

Chris.
 
I think I made a mistake. That DMR buttstock seems like it's gonna be useless to me..
I'll admit, I wanted it because I thought it looked cool, and I thought it would be more appropriate for a long range setup with my future 24" barrel. Now I'm thinking I just wasted money.
The cheek riser is too far back. If get a cheek weld on that, it feels like I'm a mile away from the scope. If I put my head where I normally would to take aim, my face is resting half on and half off the riser. Not very comfortable.
Another thing is, I don't really understand the need for a cheek riser.. My scope is at a pretty perfect height for my normal cheek weld.
Is it that people have scopes with massive objective lenses on their ARs? Is that why some people need a riser to get their head up a little?

Little bit disappointed. Now I have two nearly $300 paperweights; the knights scope mount, and the DMR stock. Yay! Lol.
 
I recently ordered a new lmt mlk mws battle rifle from v1 tactical. Great price, but just got sent an email saying it will not be shipped until october! I guess lmt is really behind on military contracts for it to take that long. I guess as long as it gets here before the election I will be fine...
For those who have ordered lmt rifles from v1 tactical, are the ship date estimates usually pretty acccurate?
 
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I recently ordered a new lmt mlk mws battle rifle from v1 tactical. Great price, but just got sent an email saying it will not be shipped until october! I guess lmt is really behind on military contracts for it to take that long. I guess as long as it gets here before the election I will be fine...
For those who have ordered lmt rifles from v1 tactical, are the ship date estimates usually pretty acccurate?

John is a solid guy. He puts in orders to LMT and waits like every other dealer as far as I can tell. Not sure about accurate ship dates-all I can fall back on is John is a solid guy and won't BS you.
 
I think I made a mistake. That DMR buttstock seems like it's gonna be useless to me..
I'll admit, I wanted it because I thought it looked cool, and I thought it would be more appropriate for a long range setup with my future 24" barrel. Now I'm thinking I just wasted money.
The cheek riser is too far back. If get a cheek weld on that, it feels like I'm a mile away from the scope. If I put my head where I normally would to take aim, my face is resting half on and half off the riser. Not very comfortable.
Another thing is, I don't really understand the need for a cheek riser.. My scope is at a pretty perfect height for my normal cheek weld.
Is it that people have scopes with massive objective lenses on their ARs? Is that why some people need a riser to get their head up a little?

Little bit disappointed. Now I have two nearly $300 paperweights; the knights scope mount, and the DMR stock. Yay! Lol.


Sounds like it's not set up right-or rather your scope is not set up to your stock. Basically get the stock set up the way you want it-then get the scope set up to match. Fine tune from there as needed. I didn't like mine at first either but once I got everything tweeked it's much better.
 
I recently ordered a new lmt mlk mws battle rifle from v1 tactical. Great price, but just got sent an email saying it will not be shipped until october! I guess lmt is really behind on military contracts for it to take that long. I guess as long as it gets here before the election I will be fine...
For those who have ordered lmt rifles from v1 tactical, are the ship date estimates usually pretty acccurate?

I’m guessing your wait will be about 70% the duration they’re telling you based on my experience. John has been proactive about keeping me in the loop without me needing to ask him for updates. It seems like there were some contracts that came up in early January and changes to the production facilities that pushed the dates to the right.
 
John is a solid guy. He puts in orders to LMT and waits like every other dealer as far as I can tell. Not sure about accurate ship dates-all I can fall back on is John is a solid guy and won't BS you.

Thanks. Yeah, I knew the site had a good rep from reading posts here, but it is always good to read first hand experiences. I think I was just surprised at such a long ship time. It will definitely be all that much sweeter when it gets here though!
 
I’m guessing your wait will be about 70% the duration they’re telling you based on my experience. John has been proactive about keeping me in the loop without me needing to ask him for updates. It seems like there were some contracts that came up in early January and changes to the production facilities that pushed the dates to the right.

That is also great to read! I will plan on it being October, and if it gets here earlier it will be a nice surprise. Besides, I definitely would rather support a business and thus indirectly giving tax revenue to a free state like iowa than a gun banning state like Illinois.
 
I own a 6.5 Long Range. The buffer tube on mine is 7 5/8 inches deep.

If you have the LMT DMR stock on the rifle, it's very easy to remove. No tools needed. Just pull down on the stock adjustment pin and slide the stock off of the buffer tube. You can measure the tube at that point.

If your buffer tube is 7 5/8 inches deep. This is the one that you need.

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Thanks very much. Have you done anything else to the rifle that you would recommend? I added a heavy duty muzzle brake and switched out the trigger.
 
My additions/changes are Magpul PRS GEN3 stock, XH Carbine Buffer, Geissele SSAE trigger and a VG6 Lambda Muzzle Brake, 20" Stainless Steel 5R 7.62x51 Barrel.

I'm using a VG6 Lambda Muzzle Brake on both the 6.5 Creedmoor and 7.62x51 NATO barrels.




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are you happy with the magpul over the factory stock?
 
Does everyone who has a factory 13.5 inch model or 16 inch cut down barrel to 13.5 still like it? I was dead set on a 16 inch barrel until I read a number of older posts here and m4carbine about how it only loses negligible feet per second inside 600 yards or so and how much handier and lighter it is, so that is what I ended up ordering from v1 tactical.
 
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16” stainless 308 I bought used from the PX. The more time I spend running this thing the more I learn to appreciate just how different shooting a gas gun is. I was going to go down the rabbit hole and hand load for it, but with factory fodder shooting like this I think I’ll stock up imi and just shoot it.
 
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I have a 16" SS lm8. It is a good designated marksman rifle for sure. If I load the bipod and apply all the fundamentals I can keep it around 1 inch at my desired POA. If I don't load the bipod the groups open up and are consistently high about 1.25" @ 100. I want a longer barrel but would like something other than factory. Was thinking about having Marvin Pitts spin one up on a Bartlein blank. Maybe oversize the barrel sleeve a couple thousandths of an inch and tighten it up a bit? I'm open to suggestions.
 
Does everyone who has a factory 13.5 inch model or 16 inch cut down barrel to 13.5 still like it? I was dead set on a 16 inch barrel until I read a number of older posts here and m4carbine about how it only loses negligible feet per second inside 600 yards or so and how much handier and lighter it is, so that is what I ended up ordering from v1 tactical.

I just pieced together an LMT MWS with 8.5oz buffer over the past couple of weeks as my first .308 rifle. I have had a couple 5.56 ARs and wanted a "Battle Rifle" so I went with the light weight chrome lined 13.5" barrel and had it pinned/welded with a KAC 5-Slot QDC flash hider to get it to 16".

I don't have a frame of reference for the weight of one with a 16" barrel, but I have been loving it so far and don't see myself going for a longer barrel unless I wanted to turn it into more of a bench gun. I stick so much shit on it as is (LPVO, WML, DBAL) and the weight it's sitting at right now is a little on the heavy side, but still within the limits of what I'm comfortable with.

Only have a few hundred rounds through it so far, but it handles really well and shoots great. It is significantly more comfortable to shoot than I thought it would be, honestly. The only issue I've seen with it so far is that I've been experiencing scope slip with my Accupoint 1-8 (Quite a bit in my ADM Recon mount and only a little in my Scalarworks LEAP, both properly torqued to spec) but I have some powdered rosin on the way which should remedy that!
 
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I posted this in the px but figured it would do best here.

I have a cl .308 barrel that was chopped and threaded 5/8x24 with a silencerco asr muzzle brake pinned and welded. Barrel length was right around 14.125" and just over 16" with the brake. This barrel only lost 34 fps from the original 16" length and it really smoothed up the system but cutting back on the dwell time meaning less gas. 2" doesn't sound like much but it feels way shorter and lighter.

The reason I have this posted is because I am giving someone the opportunity to take advantage of the work already done. I am going to spin up a bartlein blank using an lmt barrel extension and once I do that, the rest of the barrel and muzzlebrake are trash.

The barrel has about 350 rounds through it.

I am willing to trade the barrel for any other mws barrel and asr brake or a barrel and $80 to buy a new brake. Also, will sell it for $500 obo.

Once again I could just take the extension off this barrel and scrap the rest, but I'm giving the opportunity for somebody to take advantage of the work that's been done on this before it goes in the trash.
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I put a BRT reduced port gas tube in my MWS yesterday it and made a huge difference with my suppressor on. I let BRT pick the port size based on the inputs on their site. I selected dedicated suppressed and it runs great. I may try a 50/50 use size to see how it compare or experiment with my factory gas tube.

If you shoot your MWS suppressed I highly recommend going this route vs the heavy buffer and spring.
 
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I've got a MWS Defender with 16" .308 barrel that I recently filed for a Form 1 to SBR with a 13.5" barrel. I also have a Surefire 300SPS on order that I was intending for the MWS to share with a future .300BLK SBR.

Does anyone run a 300SPS on their 13.5" MWS? Any reliability issues with the suppressor?
 
I've got a MWS Defender with 16" .308 barrel that I recently filed for a Form 1 to SBR with a 13.5" barrel. I also have a Surefire 300SPS on order that I was intending for the MWS to share with a future .300BLK SBR.

Does anyone run a 300SPS on their 13.5" MWS? Any reliability issues with the suppressor?

Not exactly apples to apples, but I run a 762RC on my MWS Defender with a 16” SS barrel. Zero issues.

Other than the SureFire 3 prong flash suppressor that is required to mount the can and a Geissele Hi-Speed trigger, it is stone stock.

Factory buffer and spring, gas tube, bolt carrier, everything.

It has been 100% reliable. Cycles very smoothly.

I shoot left handed, so my face is right over the ejection port. I get no unpleasant face full of gas from this combination.

The people complaining about the MWS being “overgassed” are usually running high back pressure suppressors. Silencerco are among the worst for this.

I think that the 300 SPS has a different baffle design to work better with the lower pressure of the 300 BK round, while still being effective with .308 so it may have a little more gas out the ejection port.

I bet that you are going to be happy with it. I would definitely try running your rifle in stock configuration first, before throwing parts at it.
 
Not exactly apples to apples, but I run a 762RC on my MWS Defender with a 16” SS barrel. Zero issues.

Other than the SureFire 3 prong flash suppressor that is required to mount the can and a Geissele Hi-Speed trigger, it is stone stock.

Factory buffer and spring, gas tube, bolt carrier, everything.

It has been 100% reliable. Cycles very smoothly.

I shoot left handed, so my face is right over the ejection port. I get no unpleasant face full of gas from this combination.

The people complaining about the MWS being “overgassed” are usually running high back pressure suppressors. Silencerco are among the worst for this.

I think that the 300 SPS has a different baffle design to work better with the lower pressure of the 300 BK round, while still being effective with .308 so it may have a little more gas out the ejection port.

I bet that you are going to be happy with it. I would definitely try running your rifle in stock configuration first, before throwing parts at it.

That's great input, thanks. I'm somewhat concerned by the talk of the 300SPS being less robust than the 762RC – so I was considering getting the Form 4 started on a 762RC.

Just got the SBR Form 1 back in today, so does anyone have a line on a 13.5" barrel? Is it worth paying for the stainless 13.5" barrel over the chrome lined? My current 16" chrome lined barrel seems to be very accurate from the limited time I have behind the gun.
 
That's great input, thanks. I'm somewhat concerned by the talk of the 300SPS being less robust than the 762RC – so I was considering getting the Form 4 started on a 762RC.

Just got the SBR Form 1 back in today, so does anyone have a line on a 13.5" barrel? Is it worth paying for the stainless 13.5" barrel over the chrome lined? My current 16" chrome lined barrel seems to be very accurate from the limited time I have behind the gun.

Why not just have ADCO or someone else cut the barrel you have now?
 
Why not just have ADCO or someone else cut the barrel you have now?

That’s the likely scenario if I can’t find a factory 13.5” barrel.

I also had the idea of hanging on to the 16” barrel in case I need to go out of state. This scenario is highly unlikely, but overthinking things is very much a thing that I do.
 
That’s the likely scenario if I can’t find a factory 13.5” barrel.

I also had the idea of hanging on to the 16” barrel in case I need to go out of state. This scenario is highly unlikely, but overthinking things is very much a thing that I do.

I’d sell it and get a second bbl to better compliment your thirteen five.
...6.5 maybe?
 
Hmmm. Dang. I was wanting a mount lower than 1.5” because 1.5 just seems a little too high for me. I currently have an American rifle co 1.38” tall and even find that to still be a bit much
1.18 didn't work out all that well for me when I tried it on an S&B 4-16x PMII on an MWS flat top. I could still achieve a sight picture, but having 1.5 height is what I preferred and ultimately went back to. It might work out for you. Good luck.
 
1.18 didn't work out all that well for me when I tried it on an S&B 4-16x PMII on an MWS flat top. I could still achieve a sight picture, but having 1.5 height is what I preferred and ultimately went back to. It might work out for you. Good luck.
Yeah, personally I feel like the height will be comfortable but I’m worried it may not clear. Although I’ve seen pics of a 4601 which is 1.18” tall w/ 20moa cant and it clears but that was for a 34mm mk6 3-18. Not sure if the 35mm tube would affect a change in dimension. If it doesn’t fit I’ll probably go up to the 1.35” height, we’ll see. Thanks for the info I appreciate it
 
Just ordered the L129 Reference Rifle from V1 tactical. Great people to deal so far. Been given a ETA of mid October for the rifle though.
I am not in any hurry to get the gun and now i have months to ponder what glass to get for my new LMT. But i have heard lots of great things about these rifles so I look forward to getting some trigger time with this one.

cheers!
 
Just ordered the L129 Reference Rifle from V1 tactical. Great people to deal so far. Been given a ETA of mid October for the rifle though.
I am not in any hurry to get the gun and now i have months to ponder what glass to get for my new LMT. But i have heard lots of great things about these rifles so I look forward to getting some trigger time with this one.

cheers!

Nice. I've used V1 also-all went great. I got my Sharpshooter at Brownells a few years ago-paid much more $$ than V1. Baller rifle. It will give you time to stock up on FGGM 168/175gr cause it will love that. Also Global Ordnance is selling Australian Outback 168gr it loves. Come to think of it-cheap 1980s Korean ball ammo shoots well in it. It's the least picky about ammo gun I've ever shot.