by J. Scott Olmsted - Saturday, March 8, 2014
One of the coolest things I saw this year at the annual SHOT Show is the DPMS GII .308 Hunter. That’s right: It’s another AR chambered in .308 Win. But it’s not your typical AR platform enlarged and engorged to handle a decent big-game hunting cartridge. So it’s svelte, but built right for the .308 Win.
Overall length is just 39 inches. Weight is 7.76 pounds. The barrel is 20 inches long, target-crowned, Teflon-coated and features a 1:10-inch twist rate, ideal for the .308 Win. Extraction and ejection for .308 brass is ensured with a new, nearly indestructible extractor material and a patent-pending elastomer extractor spring. What’s more, dual ejectors reduce ejector-spring fatigue. Other features include a forged upper and lower receiver; a beveled magazine well; a steel feed ramp that permits a lighter, smaller barrel extension and receiver; and an enlarged ejection port for better, more consistent ejection.
I held it at SHOT, but I haven’t fired it yet. Count on that happening. And count on a full review in print as soon as we get our hot little hands on it.
