HA!!! :-laf Yeah, there have been many improvments. Mostly with bullets and powder. The LMTs are not worth it to me, unless I were going somewhere into harm's way. The Armalite's are my personal favorite, but that's in the AR10s, . 308 or . 243. The Olympic . 243WSSM I traded for is wearing on me. I like the heck out of it, and I've been pretty lethal with it the last few months. It's on the AR15 platform, so it's lighter than the AR10s I've got... . Still lighter is the AR15 I just built, but not gotten zeroed, yet... . I think if you got your hands on one, you might enjoy feeding it.
LMT's end products have a lot to do with their customer's order. I think the material will depend on what the end use will be, and how cheap the customer wants to go.....
I'm not sure what they're using for their own rifles, but I've seen some that have been to Hell via Ramadi and Fallujah, and they've held up fantasticly. But then, I've seen some DPMS stuff that's been carried by Army and it's held up well, too, considering what it is. The internals make a lot of difference, as well as the assembly. The LMT labeled product is no doubt the best I've seen in mass usage as far as tolerances, but the Armalite products, while not as fine finished, they are fine weapons. The AR10 I carried under contract I still have, though it's changed quite a bit. I still have the shorter barrel and stocks, but it's set up as a long range . 260Rem right now.
At one point, we were given select-fire options in weapons, given you passed quals for it's use. Those were DMPS lowers mostly, but you might find anything inside. They were junk. I never had one fail, but I had very few engagements where I actually used it..... I'd hate to see our soldiers carrying anything that junky around. There were quite a few that came in trashed, mostly from lack of care. I tested mine every few days, checking zero and function, and cleaned it every weekend before I did ANYTHING else. Of course, we were mixed with our time, so when it was slow, I'd field strip and clean mine if it needed it. I finally got our boss to let me carry my AR10, and I felt a lot better. A lot of the guys would mention how they liked the fact I was carrying it, as well as any servicemen entering the rec centers or off-duty quarters. I think they just liked the fact it was a larger cal and they KNEW it would put down anything it hit... . maybe I was compensating for something :-laf Made me feel special, anyway.....
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