Looking for 6.5 CM AR-10 Build Advice

[BigNate]

My son and I have started down the path of building AR-10s in 6.5 CM. We've both built AR-15 platform guns in the past - nothing super high-end but good shooting reliable guns built with decent to good parts. I have some baseline parts that I've picked up over time that I expect will be used... (Aero Precision M5 lowers, SSA-E triggers in particular) and I'll probably use these unless they present a problem.

We want to build precision semi-auto rifles for distance shooting (possibly CMP stuff) and I've been looking for writeups on this topic and have found some - but I'd like to hear from folks who have done it and any advice about what to do and not do before we dive in. In advance - No - we don't want to build bolt guns... yess I know that MOA/$ can be better - but we want to build AR-10 based guns this time.


Anyway - we'll be buying parts in the "very good" - to - "almost the best" range - although I'm not interested in paying 400% more for something that is only nominally better than the next thing down and cool factor does not carry much weight - I'm a function over form guy. For example, we'll probably order barrels from Kreiger, Proof research, etc - but I'm not likely to have a truly custom barrel built.

So - with that - advice? Do's? Don'ts?

Thanks!

 

[dread_scott]

Tagging as this will be relevant to me in the future.

 

[QuietM4]

1. Make a few more posts about it in different forums.

2. A gas gun will not be as accurate as a bolt gun. The 6.5 AR-10 platform can be tricky to tune correctly. But you already know that.

3. If you reload, the deflector tends to ding up case necks a little.

4. You might be better off buying a semi-custom gun from someone like GA Precision. They’ve already done all the trial/error for you, and it might actually be less expensive than buying all the parts yourself.

 

[QuietM4]

Double tapping seems to be a popular issue for some reason...

 

[BigNate]

Double tapping seems to be a popular issue for some reason...

I got an error when trying to post - so I tried in a different forum... I came back later and found that they both had gone through. I've asked the moderator to delete one. Apologies if the double post bugs you.

 

[BigNate]

2. A gas gun will not be as accurate as a bolt gun. The 6.5 AR-10 platform can be tricky to tune correctly. But you already know that.

I'm aware that on average, bolt guns are going to be more accurate than semi auto guns. I also know that semi-auto accuracy has come a long way.

I'm interested in any pointers to information on tuning the these in 6.5.

3. If you reload, the deflector tends to ding up case necks a little.

Good to know - thanks

4. You might be better off buying a semi-custom gun from someone like GA Precision. They’ve already done all the trial/error for you, and it might actually be less expensive than buying all the parts yourself.

The build is part of the adventure. We could go buy a built gun - but we'd learn a lot less, build fewer skills, and have less to be excited about when we manage small groups.

 

[QuietM4]

I'll take small groups with no tuning (except ammo), thank you very much.

I know 10-12 people that have built 6.5 gas guns. Half of them were tuning nightmares...gas blocks, gas ports, buffer weights, buffer springs, etc....too many variables. The half that ran 100% were out of the box, factory guns.

Every gun was sold for a bolt action. YMMV.

Double tapping seems to a site wide issue, right now...

 

[BigNate]

I'll take small groups with no tuning (except ammo), thank you very much.

I know 10-12 people that have built 6.5 gas guns. Half of them were tuning nightmares...gas blocks, gas ports, buffer weights, buffer springs, etc....too many variables. The half that ran 100% were out of the box, factory guns.

Every gun was sold for a bolt action. YMMV.

I hear you... We understand that there can be some challenges - right now we are looking at dealing with those things as part of the fun. Perhaps we'll give up too - but until then we're looking for details.

Double tapping seems to a site wide issue, right now...

The site is throwing an error when posting. When I saw the error I assumed that it meant that the post was not published - so I tried again... and then again in a different forum... I was wrong - they got posted before the error screen...

The error looks like this:

 

[samnev]

I also have been getting error messages when posting. But right after the error message the post appears.