7.62 Modern Battle Rifle Experiences?

[UnaStamus]

There are guys shooting 0.3 MOA with GAP-10 rifles in various calibers over on Sniper's Hide. It's a ridiculously accurate rifle. I wound up chatting with a guy at GAP and they said that the rifle in my configuration would have a dry weight of 11lbs and it would not be able to hold up to the punishment that I would be putting it through with 400-600rds per day for multiple days. Basically it's too heavy and not durable enough because it is a purpose-built precision rifle. It also would not be very reliable with the ammo I'd be using, since they do tune those rifles for specific match loads or load ranges and pressures. Not exactly a rifle that could shoot Mk316 Mod0 one minute, Hornady TAP 155gr the next, and XM80 sometime next week.

Realistically, I think that the options I have on the table right now are as follows:
LMT LM8MWS Chrome-Lined Barrel ($2991)
LaRue PredatAR ($2807)
PWS Mk216 ($2609)
Sig 716 Patrol ($1709)

[UnaStamus]

Got my hands on a Sig 716 today at Cabelas. Overall, it's a pretty nice rifle. It's put together very well and everything is pretty spot-on for build quality. The bolt uses gas rings, which I found to be odd. I'm going to have to call up Sig and ask some questions, but short of that one oddity, the rifle is pretty straight-forward. The barrel is pretty heavy duty, and likely the main reason why the weight is over 9lbs. Still, the rifle points and drives very easily and very similar to a normal M4 style rifle. My one beef still exists, which is that the rail is too short.

[johnlewjohn]

I was at Gunstop last night and they had one as well.
I like em,
They are a solid machine, not sure how they match up against an SR-25EMC but very fair price for what you get in my opinion.

[UnaStamus]

KAC is only selling one SR-25 now. The SR-25 E2 APC, which is the civilian version of the new M110K3. Still waiting to hear back from KAC's LE guy about pricing and when it will be available. Trey Knight still hasn't determined when to make the APC commercially available.

Does anyone definitively know if any place in the metro has a Ruger SR-762?

[Randygmn]

I have a question for unastamus- I'm fascinated by this thread. I have no LE or military experience. What I gather from the conversation, you are responsible for purchasing these rifles for a special division for a police department. Is that correct? I'm not looking for specifics or anything, but is this how its normally done? I'd think that once you narrow down your options to 2 or 3, you'd purchase those and run them and record your findings.

Again, this has been a fascinating read. I'd be interested in hearing more about the process from you, but without too much specificity.

Thanks

[UnaStamus]

Agencies who authorize rifles will do one of 3 things:
1. Buy rifles
2. Acquire DRMO/1033 military surplus rifles
3. Authorize officers to buy their own

In this case, my agency does both 1 & 2, but no officer is on the street with a .308win/7.62x51 battle rifle. We have an HK91 and several M14s that we acquired through DRMO. We have talked about getting these rifles into service with select officers, but the reality is that the M14s are very weathered and in marginal-to-poor condition. Getting an M14 through the door of a house would also be way too difficult and cumbersome. The HK91 is the next option, but we only have one, and it's a fixed stock with 18" barrel. For those familiar with the stocks on HK rifles and subguns, they're not made for people with short arms or big chests or body armor. Very long length of pull.

We have Colt LE6921 M4LE rifles with Aimpoint PRO sights in every squad car, so the department will not go out and buy heavier weapons right now. One of the SWAT snipers on our team (multi-county team) is in our agency and runs an AI AE MkIII bolt rifle for that. I'm looking for a rifle that will perform both tasks of patrol rifle and DMR/precision rifle. I am electing to buy a rifle with my own money to get the program off the ground. It's something that a lot of agencies out West and SW are doing. California Fish & Game issued all officers POF P308 rifles, which was a massive advantage for them when they had the shootout in the woods with Christopher Dorner. I think that in the next 10 years, we'll see a significant local increase in officers carrying precision ARs and accurate battle rifles. I want to be on the leading edge of that.

Realistically, the agency could request T&E rifles from companies and most companies will loan out a single rifle for upwards of a month. Some companies like HK or FN will send out a rep with a truck full of weapons and ammo to your range and put on a demonstration and let you go hands-on until you run out of ammo or you have to leave. My agency won't go to the extent of doing this process for a weapon that is not yet authorized by policy. I'm working on getting an interim policy in place to allow the T&E, and hopefully get a rifle on the road. I want my own rifle anyways, so it would work well for me to get one and use it as a basis for developing a model policy that could eventually become permanent.

[Randygmn]

Agencies who authorize rifles will do one of 3 things:
1. Buy rifles
2. Acquire DRMO/1033 military surplus rifles
3. Authorize officers to buy their own

In this case, my agency does both 1 & 2, but no officer is on the street with a .308win/7.62x51 battle rifle. We have an HK91 and several M14s that we acquired through DRMO. We have talked about getting these rifles into service with select officers, but the reality is that the M14s are very weathered and in marginal-to-poor condition. Getting an M14 through the door of a house would also be way too difficult and cumbersome. The HK91 is the next option, but we only have one, and it's a fixed stock with 18" barrel. For those familiar with the stocks on HK rifles and subguns, they're not made for people with short arms or big chests or body armor. Very long length of pull.

We have Colt LE6921 M4LE rifles with Aimpoint PRO sights in every squad car, so the department will not go out and buy heavier weapons right now. One of the SWAT snipers on our team (multi-county team) is in our agency and runs an AI AE MkIII bolt rifle for that. I'm looking for a rifle that will perform both tasks of patrol rifle and DMR/precision rifle. I am electing to buy a rifle with my own money to get the program off the ground. It's something that a lot of agencies out West and SW are doing. California Fish & Game issued all officers POF P308 rifles, which was a massive advantage for them when they had the shootout in the woods with Christopher Dorner. I think that in the next 10 years, we'll see a significant local increase in officers carrying precision ARs and accurate battle rifles. I want to be on the leading edge of that.

Realistically, the agency could request T&E rifles from companies and most companies will loan out a single rifle for upwards of a month. Some companies like HK or FN will send out a rep with a truck full of weapons and ammo to your range and put on a demonstration and let you go hands-on until you run out of ammo or you have to leave. My agency won't go to the extent of doing this process for a weapon that is not yet authorized by policy. I'm working on getting an interim policy in place to allow the T&E, and hopefully get a rifle on the road. I want my own rifle anyways, so it would work well for me to get one and use it as a basis for developing a model policy that could eventually become permanent.

Thanks for the reply. It makes much more sense to me now. I didn't quite understand why an agency would come to a local forum looking for suggestions, regardless of how informed most posters here are. But looking for a personal rifle that you'd like to integrate into professional rotation seems understandable. I'd figure that when an agency has decided to officially consider a new weapon that they would dedicate a reasonable amount of resources towards that effort. And I'd also assume that the manufacturers would go out of their way to make it easy to evaluate them AND offer substantial discounts. But hey, like I said before, what do I know.

[UnaStamus]

Some manufacturers will bend over backwards to get their products in LE hands (i.e. FN, Sig Sauer). Some companies are not worrying about it (i.e. LaRue Tactical). Most offer discounts, and some offer substantial discounts. I've talked to some companies, and while some view it as a courtesy to LE, most others view it as smart marketing. Every time a gun company can claim "____ Police/Sheriff's Office uses our rifles", they view that as a way to drive commercial sales because it boosts the credibility of the product.
Some agencies will dedicate resources to the effort, but many won't. Most agencies won't think outside of the box, and many don't have a lot of knowledge or expertise on anything developed after about 2001. Most agencies are not all that forward thinking, including mine. A lot of agencies won't do anything if they don't have to. When you are able to get an administration on board, most gun and optics companies are more than willing to work with them. When I was working on a new SWAT rifle procurement process in 2012, I wound up talking to FN and they bent over backwards to try and get our business. We ultimately didn't go with FN, but that wasn't for lack of trying on FN's part.