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Arma Lite AR-10: An 18 Month Test

Five years of adaptation and evolution finally rested in the middle of an AR-10A4, as the ‘almost’ perfect predator hunting rifle.

My instantaneous love with varmint calling put me through a grueling test of patience and I don’t even want the bride to know how much money, looking for the best all around shooting platform.  I had started out with your basic prairie dog rifle, you know, fat barrel, big laminate stock, and scopes that could tell the sex of a flea at 400 yards!  This big bulky combination worked well in my novice years of calling because my so called ‘calling’ was so bad no respecting coyote would come within 150 to 200 yards of me.  I would see the little dot with ears, swing the turret around, dial it in and release a projectile.  But when my screaming got better I had a difficult time finding my furry target in a 6-24 power scope at a distance of 20 to 40 yards.

A temporary solution was found in carrying two guns to every stand, rifle and shotgun.  Daylight to dark calling stands had me wanting only one overall shooter that had to be carried.  A better description is this, at the end of a two day hunt would find me going to the last stand of the weekend in my underwear and a knife in my teeth!

Dozens of guns were tried by fire in the field but none of them had that ‘right feel’.  Long hours were spent in talking to hundreds of other callers and hunters in what would be the perfect rifle.  Well I asked a hundred people and got a hundred fifty answers.  Out of all the experts I interviewed only two guys seemed as crazed as I was in this quest, Kyle and Ted (both are AZOD.com writers now).  Mini-14s came and went then Remington 7400’s awkward inaccuracies put then on the bench, even an old Remington in .35 Rem. was tried and retired.  Then our problems were solved with the testing of a Colt AR-15 in .223 topped off with an old Redfield 1-5 power scope.  It was fast.  It was light (16” bbl.).  Just call with the scope on one for close stuff and up to five for the more wary yotes.  This brief love affair came to an end when out of no where the coyotes became immune to the .22 cal. loads.

Once again my search was on.  Where is that one shot, one humane kill rifle?  Now mentally dark and despondent my compadres and I drug into Randall’s Firearms after another magic rifle failure.  Then it happened, through the front of the store a beam of light burst in and shined towards the rack of rifles.  In the middle of it all was a AR-10 16” Flat top in .308!  “I’ll take it”, was the desperate childlike cry.  Oh, it was beautiful to behold.  With just a flick of the wrist it would jump to my shoulder and reek with accuracy.

The new family member was quickly measured and found to be even shorter than a Mini-14 Ruger.  The AR-10A4 Carbine arrived without sights so a set of glasses was in order.  For the frames we chose the sturdy B-Square mount ($75) and had the small screw holes opened up for larger case hardened bolts.  Optical lenses were in the form of a Leupold Vari-X III 1.5-5 x 20, with a Leupold dot ($425).  Of course all load testing was done with a Tasco 6-24 x 44 AO Target TS with target turret knobs, 1/8” click and 1/16” target dot scope.

The cheapest military ball ammo, 147 gr. FMJ, was used to fire the 50 round break in period.  I really don’t believe it was all that necessary since Arma Lite had already chrome lined the bore.  Even with the bottom of the barrel grade ammo I was impressed with the AR-10’s accuracy.  No groups were over 2 inches (not bad for cheap stuff).  The primary use of this rifle was for predator hunting, so a light bullet was my desire (see loads below for details).

What?  What?  You better speak up.  I have just shot my AR-10 with the loudest muzzle brake in the world.  I use to be able to hear!  Sixteen inches of barrel is bad enough but with that permanent mounted brake it was seriously deafening.  The unbearable blast would send other shooters at the range scrambling.  Some people would just quietly load their stuff, go to their truck and leave.  My oldest son fired three quick shots and stumbled his way over with the AR-10 held out towards me, as I took back the rifle I realized that it had somehow slipped by me that his eyes naturally rolled  in his head.  Mmmm, must be from his mother’s side of the family.

All kidding aside, the noise had me taking it down to the gunshop to sell it.  Then an idea hit me, or I just returned to conscienceness, why not make a thin sleeve and have it pressed, silver soldered and screwed on.  The brake could not be removed because it would make the barrel to short (16” minimum).  My son quickly volunteered, and in a few days I had a very nice titanium sleeve.  The boys over at A-A Gunsmithing installed it for me and it was all cured.

FIREARMS STATS:
Manufacturer - Arma Lite, Inc., P. O. Box 299, Geneseo, IL 61254
Model - AR-10A4 Carbine
Caliber - .308 Win., 7.62 x 51 mm.
Barrel Length - 16”
Stock - Synthetic (Green)
Weight - as tested with scope and loaded, 11 lbs.
Overall Length - 37”
Magazine Capacity - 10 rounds, blocked to 5 for hunting
Sights - picaninny rail, scoped
Action - gas semi-auto
Trigger Pull - factory 7 lbs. 11 ozs. With trigger job a clean 4 lbs.
Twist - 1 in 12 inches
Safety - left side thumb select safe-fire
Suggested Retail Price - $1383.00  Actual price paid $1189.95 plus tax.

LOADS:
Ammunition - reload - I could not find any factory loaded ammunition that had the light bullet weight I was searching for.  Hornady 30 caliber VMAX .308 110 gr., 100 count box #23010 $17.95 per box. 
Case Manufacturer - Winchester - Win. Had the most pliable brass which is desperately needed when using small base dies.  Of course the softer the brass the more often you will need to trim your cased.  But after sticking PMC, Federal and Lake City brass in my sizing die and the chamber of the AR-10, trimming was not a problem.  An order of 250 Win. brass from Randall’s Firearms set me up for further testing.
Case Length - 2.005”
Case Overall Length - 2.7160 - This was the farthest I could hang the 110 gr. VMAX out there and still fit it in the magazine.
Bullet Diameter and Grains - .308, 110 grs.
Primer - CCI Large Rifle Standard #200, mfg. #50011
Powder - Varget, mfg. Hodgdon, www.hodgdon.com
Velocity - 2991 fps to 3009 fps, a deviation of approximately 20 fps, which is not bad.  The various loading manuals gave listings around 3200 fps with a 24” barrel.  With a ‘shortie’ 16” bbl. I was happy to achieve the 3000 fps level.  I just like the magic of any bullet weight that travels at 3000 fps for hunting situations.
Number of Shots - give or take a couple of dozen or so I have fired around 1000 rounds through my AR-10.  Three shot groups as well as 10 shot groups produced the same results.  The number of shots did not change the AR-10’s accuracy over all.
Group Size - Once the specific appetite of the AR-10 was found (48.5 grs.) it has consistently shot groups of ¾” standard deviation.

PERFORMANCE:
Reload
Bullet Weight - 110 gr.

Muzzle Velocity - 3000 fps average
Ft. Lbs. Energy - 2200 ft. pnd.
Target Distance - 100 yards
Group Size - ¾” average

KEEPER OR SELL IT:
Keeper baby keeper!  This has got to be the best rifle I have ever put through the paces, bar-none!  Fantastic accuracy, compacted and hits like a freight train.  Being president of the Phoenix Varmint Callers, Inc. gives me ample opportunities for predatation control and the AR-10 has allowed me twenty-one one shot kills.  I have even taken my AR-10 to a couple of informal shooting contests and walked away with top honors.  Ted from AZOD.com Off Road purchased one of these rifle and also sings of its glories.  It’s just simply FANTASTIC!

Gary
AZOD Shooting Editor
Shooting@azod.com