The DPMS GII Recon - RIFLES - Prepper Guns: Firearms, Ammo, Tools, and Techniques You Will Need to Survive the Coming Collapse (2016)

Prepper Guns: Firearms, Ammo, Tools, and Techniques You Will Need to Survive the Coming Collapse (2016)

RIFLES

The DPMS GII Recon

Innovation and engineering have improved the AR-L rifle and made it an even better choice for preppers.

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There are far too many rifles on the market to cover them all. The best I can do is tell you about some favorites. Before this rifle came along in an AR-L, my first pick would have been my DPMS AP4. This is a .308 version of the M4 carbine. I have had mine for several years and have used it in battle rifle competitions as well as for hunting and a lot of training and practice. It’s the gun used in the test described elsewhere in this book when we pitted the .308, 6.8 SPC, and .223, all head to head in M4 style semiauto rifles. I still highly recommend that rifle, but now there is an ever better choice.

This is the one that broke the mold with AR-L rifles. The DPMS GII Recon is a gun that deserves a hard look from any prepper. It’s lighter, runs faster, and has backup redundancy built into problem areas like the extractor. The gun I tested ran like a well-tuned machine and was very accurate.

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The Recon in action.

The GII is almost as small and as light as the AR-15 rifle. Current GII models start at 7.25 pounds, with the AP4. There are two ejectors on the GII. The gun will operate with one ejector, so even if one were to break, the gun will remain in the fight. The extractor is made of some new high-tech metal. DPMS says that in testing it is almost impervious to failure. Instead of the standard wound-wire extractor spring, the GII uses an elastic, polymer button that has been nicknamed a “tactical Skittle.” Again, extensive testing has shown it to be just about failure proof and far less prone to problems than a conventional spring.

The lower receiver has an integral trigger guard and a beveled magazine well. The trigger is standard and can use any of the current AR-L triggers if you wish to upgrade. The GII rifles will, of course, take DPMS pattern magazines.

Currently DPMS offers six different models of the GII. The AP4; MOE; Recon; Hunter, Bull and SASS, in .308 Winchester. From a tactical standpoint the Recon model is pretty much a do-all gun, more than accurate enough for long-range shooting, fast enough for CQB and at 8.5 pounds it’s light enough for a prepper to consider it as a primary long gun.

The Recon has a bead blasted, stainless steel 16-inch barrel with a low profile gas block and a mid-length gas tube. The three-pronged flash hider on the end of the barrel is designed to accept a silencer from AAC, a sister company. The forend on the Recon is a four-rail, free-float tube so you can add all the accessories you wish. While the four-rail design has fallen a little bit out of vogue recently, I like the positive feel in my hand this forend provides and still think it is one of the best options on a fighting rifle. The Recon has an adjustable Magpul buttstock and a Magpul grip. My Recon features a DPMS two-stage trigger that breaks nicely at five pounds, five ounces and feels even lighter.

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DPMS GII Hunter

The Recon I tested was very accurate. With the NRA’s tough testing protocol of five, five-shot groups it ran just over one MOA across the board. It is not a fussy eater and shot well with all the ammo tested. The best group was with Fusion 150-grain MSR ammo designed for AR-L rifles. That logged in at 0.65-inch for five shots at 100 yards.

The GII Recon has proven that an AR-L rifle does not have to be big and heavy, but rather it can be light and responsive and still function flawlessly.

This is a gun that I think is worth a look from a prepper who is thinking of adding a .308 AR-L battle rifle or two to the gun locker.