The New Toy

[Outrider27]

Picked this up a few days ago and hope to shoot it in its final form, as pictured, soon. It was built by Kevin Neitzel (Accurate Sports, Arendtsville, PA) and he showed it as it progressed at a couple of gunshows I worked, so I spoke for it before it was done - then came the big parts/powder/bullet/primer crash last January and I couldn't take delivery on it for 6 months, because we couldn't get some of the parts necessary to build a replacement, and it was essentially his showroom model until he could build another one, in addition to being the AR-10 prototype for his ideas. After a little experimentation and modification (mostly in the area of available adjustment for length of pull), it's ready to go again; we settled on the final form you see here.

About the only OEM part on it is a bare DPMS AR-10 lower; everything else came out of the aftermarket or was fabricated by Kevin himself. We had fun with the feature list as he developed the concept, but it isn't, in this form, for everyone - it's primarily a prone firearm, though shooting it from a crosslegged sitting position with both elbows supported is not a problem - at a svelte ( ) 15lbs 15oz. with scope, offhand is doable for a few shots, but a bit of a chore unless you are standing and have an expedient rest available. With that teaser, here are the details:

Caliber is .308 Win
26 3/4" tapered (to 0.85" in at the muzzle) fluted barrel from a Kreiger blank.
2 stage Geissele trigger at 28oz.
Upper reciever modified to accommodate a side mounted bolt handle
Bolt modified to have a regular pull handle on the side rather than a charging handle
Extended bolt release (very handy in combination with the bolt handle)
Buttstock adjustable for length of pull, offset (cast-off or cast-on), cant, height of cheekpiece, height of buttplate and probably a thing or two I haven't found yet. Length of pull is 13 3/4" as pictured and can go to 15 1/4" with only the buttplate adjustment for length of pull; there is about 3/4" of further adjustment available by moving the main mounting block on the recoil buffer tube.

When you play with this baby, you understand why bull barreled AR-10s generally have 18" barrels, lol. It will eventually get my spare Sightron 6x24; for now it wears my "load development" scope. My apologies for the lighting in the photos; we'll work on that in the future.

That's better - we got an overall view shot with better lighting.

 

[jonbearman]

Looks real nice.I have an ar-10 that is pretty much stock but it shoots better than some of my hunting bolt guns.

 

[Outrider27]

Glad you like it, Jon. We're anxious to see if we can make it group any tighter with the buttstock modification that lets us get lengths of pull suitable for positions other than prone - like you, I already have some perfectly decent rifles that won't group as well as this did in its first iteration. We haven't really tried to obtain serious accuracy from an AR platform rifle before, but this one shows significant promise using regular Mil Spec ammo, so with a little experimenting and getting used to it, we're hoping it reaches out there nicely.

Mike

 

[jonbearman]

Personally I would refrain from using surplus ammo as it is loaded to cycle machine guns and alot of it is stout.Even the m1a from springfield ,I was told by their tech to refrain from using that type of ammo due to the abuse it has on the moving parts.Stick with carefully reloaded ammo using a small base die so it cycles flawlessly.

 

[butchlambert]

Is it a hunting rifle? For game I mean.

 

[Outrider27]

Not here in PA, unfortunately. We have an absolute prohibition on use of semi-auto rifles for hunting. I'd use it in Texas or elsewhere for boar hunting, but an 18" barrel version (like the one I sold to fund part of this one) would be much better for that. Right now it's just an experimental vehicle to see how accurate we can get it to shoot and to report back to Kevin how we like the "extras" and if any changes other than increasing the adjustability of the length of pull need to be considered. We hope to get it back on the range sometime in the next two weeks.