Clearly not a .308, but my Noveske Chainsaw in 300 Blackout at 10.5" plus my DeadAir can is an awesome weapon with a bunch more punch than 5.56. At least out to the 150 or so yards I would use it for with subsonics.

quote:

Originally posted by RogueJSK:
I decided to go the more versatile route and picked up the 16" Revolution in Burnt Bronze.

Nice.
Understand that shots will be quite loud with the brake.

Yep.

But not as loud as the 13" version with a brake I was initially leaning towards would have been.

As mentioned, I don't plan to suppress it at some point, once Congress decides whether we have to pay $200 for the privilege or not.

quote:

Originally posted by Voshterkoff:
Rogue I await your range report. I have been considering various.30 caliber rifles for a general purpose rifle. The Revolution DI peaked my interest.

Here it is:

I finally made it to the range today, to sight in and test out my POF Revolution DI.

I first made sure it functioned, then dialed in the adjustable gas block up from fully closed to where it functioned reliably and ejected cases at ~3:00. Then I worked on sighting in my 1-6x SLX Nova optic at the recommended 1" high at 100 yards, beginning with a custom calculated and printed target at 25 yards to get it most of the way there, followed by fine-tuning it at 100 yards. And then some general plinking and further accuracy testing. Altogether, 100 rounds through it today.


The Good:

-Recoil is surprisingly minimal. A bit more than a 5.56 AR, but noticeably less than any other .30 caliber battle rifle I've owned or fired. Likely due to a combination of the adjustable gas block and the chunky three port muzzle brake.

-Concussion isn't bad at all. I expected the 16" .308 with a huge muzzle brake to have a hefty thump, but it wasn't as bad as expected. (At least for the shooter... If there had been others on the range perhaps they would have felt differently.) Granted, it was an outdoor range with a covered shooting area, so not as loud as an indoor range.

-Trigger is a nice short and light single stage trigger, although I do wish it had a slightly more tactile reset.

-Primary Arms knocked it out of the park with this newest generation SLX 1-6x LPVO with Nova reticle. It punches way above its price, and I see now why it gets such rave reviews and endorsements, even compared to pricier LPVOs. Great quality glass, especially for the cost. Lighter weight than many of its competition at that price. And the Nova Fiber Wire center dot is just as advertised: "Red Dot Bright". Even on a blazing sunny day in direct sunlight, the red dot at full brightness is too bright, and needs to be dialed back. (A far cry from many of the other LPVOs I've tried, where the illuminated reticle is more just moderately red colored, rather than being a bright red dot like an Aimpoint.)

With that red dot bright center paired with its true 1x bottom end, it gets you 90% of the capabilities of a reflex sight plus the higher magnification capabilities and BDC, at the cost of some extra weight and more limited (though still fairly generous) eyebox compared to a red dot alone. It's good to see low-to-mid-range LPVOs continuing to innovate and improve in quality, with Primary Arms leading the pack yet again. A far cry from the last time I seriously delved into trying sub-$500 LPVOs a decade or more back, and was disappointed with most of the options.

(And if PA's ~$300 SLX version is this good, I can't wait to see what their ~$1300 PLX version is like!)


The Neutral:

-Accuracy is fair but not amazing, so far. I don't have any true match ammo on hand yet, but I was getting ~1.5 MOA with 168 grain Gold Dots, and ~4-5 MOA with Prvi and HXP 147 grain M80, when shooting off a bag rest at 100 yards. Good enough for hunting and self defense purposes with that particular Gold Dot load, but not necessarily an overly precise rifle. (Definitely falls short of the proverbial "sub-MOA all day long if I do my part" like every other rifle on the Interwebs... ) I'll try again at some point with some MatchKings and perhaps a legitimate bipod, to see what it truly can do. And play around with some other loads to see if there's one that it really likes. But the 16" barrel may be the overall limiting factor here.

-The gun is *tight*. So tight that it's a pain to get it apart and back together for field stripping. So tight that it initially didn't cycle very smoothly when working the charging handle by hand. So tight that when shooting with the gas system almost completely closed at the beginning of dialing it in, the bolt locks up so hard that you have to mortar it to eject the case. This has already improved over what it was like straight out of the box, and will likely improve further with more use.


The Not So Good:

-On two occasions today, I ended up with a dead trigger. Fired case ejected. New round loaded. Trigger didn't reset, likely due to hammer follow. POF recommends a 200 round break-in period for the rifle, so perhaps that includes their drop-in trigger packs too. I personally think that break-in periods on firearms are bunk most of the time, but I'll withhold final judgement on this until I have those couple hundred total rounds through it.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: RogueJSK,

Thanks for review Rogue, I hope it ends up being reliable for you!

quote:

Originally posted by KSGM:
That is a good real-life example, Brett.

I suppose the capacity on-board, the overall ammo weight, and the recoil isn't a hindrance, in that particular application.

And, playing off that other thread, would you opt for the shorty .308 in a general purpose combat context?

That's hard to say since it's so dependent on the situation.

If I were somehow forced to rely on a single rifle that had to cover everything a rifle needs to do, such as hunting, longer range shots, barrier penetration, home defense, close quarters, etc., while still being light and nimble enough to carry some distance, then I would certainly pick the SCAR 17S in .308.

But if my neighborhood had to defend itself from a big invading horde, then I would want to carry as many rounds of 5.56 as I could. The ammo/mag compatibility of 5.56 with my neighbors would be important as well. So I think it's awesome we have so many good options.