Current LE 10.5 M4 Carbines

[Gray Ghost]

I have an LMT 10.5" upper that I bought in about 2003. It has always run like a sewing machine with a standard buffer. I have often run it suppressed with a Gemtech HALO can I bought about the same time. That said it probably has less than 3k rounds on it. I am promiscuous about owning and shooting other guns, and I don't have the training tempo of the cool guys. I doubt the motorcycle officers in question do either.

I also have a complete DD factory Mk18 that I bought in 2020. It runs very smoothly, and I would not hesitate to recommend it. I bought it as a braced pistol, but I think I am going to eFile a Form 1 this weekend to make it an SBR.

[BWT]

I think people identify with their barrel length too heavily.

Re-reading the posts the only thing that could be a negative light is folks are saying it wears faster and relayed data.

Nobody is saying your DD or LMT are bad - but it does wear faster with a shorter barrel length. Just adjust your maintenance interval and expectations and drive on.

https://danieldefense.com/barrels/11-5-inch.html

https://lmtdefense.com/product/11-5-5-56-nato/

DD and LMT both offer 11.5” barreled AR’s. Even the new HK’s are 11.5”.

https://www.heckler-koch.com/en/prod.../overview.html

I just don’t get it. Anyway, I’ll shut up and go back to my corner.

[ASH556]

I bought my 10.3 DD MK18 as a Form 4 gun in 2011. I ditched the DD barrel about the time I got my suppressor and went to a Colt. I've had 2 barrels in the gun that were Colt SOCOM's cut to 10.3 by ADCO. Various reasons around switching configurations and trying new things sent both those barrels down the river. In both cases I had ADCO port them at .070 when they did the cut and thread. Currently I have a Colt factory 10.3 in the gun with a verified .070 gas port. All of these have run 100% suppressed and un-suppressed using a Colt factory action spring and H2 buffer (actually it's the DD factory "H" buffer, but I swapped a steel weight for tungsten. I mostly shoot .223 pressure ammo for practice as my go-to ammo is .223 pressure 62gr Speer Gold Dot. That said, I have fired 5.56 pressure M193 and M855 ammo with no issues.

Total round count across all of these combined is probably in the 4K-5K range with probably 40-50% suppressed. If I'm shooting a match or doing range work with others without suppressors, I see no reason to put the wear on mine.

The one place I have observed real "premature" wear is in the action spring. Now, I'm only going by spring length as that's what's prescribed in the TM and what was taught to me by Will Larson. Theoretically you could somehow measure spring output force across compression and come up with a real "life" measure, but I'm not equipped to do that. Action springs are below their min length at about 1,500 rds. I did recently add another tungsten weight to my buffer, thus making it an H3 to hopefully solve this issue.

I measure the effectiveness of this in the fact that it's slowed the bolt speed enough for 20rd Colt mags, which used to have issues in this gun, no longer do. 30rd Pmags, which are my go-to, have always been fine.

[SLUZENE]

11.5" upper with a lower with the LWRCI UCIW Stock Kit? https://www.lwrci.com/LWRCI-UCIW-Stock-Kit-_p_38.html

[SW CQB 45]

Since the concept of this post was the "shorty" needed to fit in a Harley Police Bike hard bag and the maker of the gun lock said a Commando 10.5.

What we found out through another PD.... an 11.5 will work with mods to the bag.

Worst case scenario, we can add a folder or mod a stock or get one of those fancy short stocks before we would grind on a Harley bag.

With this info, the options OPEN UP!

I am not sure what Admin :l will approve.

thanks everyone.

[andre3k]

Since the concept of this post was the "shorty" needed to fit in a Harley Police Bike hard bag and the maker of the gun lock said a Commando 10.5.

What we found out through another PD.... an 11.5 will work with mods to the bag.

Worst case scenario, we can add a folder or mod a stock or get one of those fancy short stocks before we would grind on a Harley bag.

With this info, the options OPEN UP!

I am not sure what Admin :l will approve.

thanks everyone.

Harley guys have it easy. Try getting any SBR to fit into the trunk of a Goldwing.

Sent from my SM-G965U using Tapatalk

[HCM]

Since the concept of this post was the "shorty" needed to fit in a Harley Police Bike hard bag and the maker of the gun lock said a Commando 10.5.

What we found out through another PD.... an 11.5 will work with mods to the bag.

Worst case scenario, we can add a folder or mod a stock or get one of those fancy short stocks before we would grind on a Harley bag.

With this info, the options OPEN UP!

I am not sure what Admin :l will approve.

thanks everyone.

If the bags are full enclosed the LAW folder is an option (if not too thick folded.

The LWRC compact stock kit takes an inch off the OAL. Depending on how your bags are configured it might allow y’all to run 11.5”

https://www.lwrci.com/LWRCI-UCIW-Stock-Kit-_p_38.html

[Default.mp3]

The LMT PDW lower also lops off 3" allegedly, might be worth a gander. At that rate, you could potentially fit a 12.5" in there (OAL would be 26.5"). Maxim Defense also has some options that would lop off length, though that would be still only be a 10.5", so meh.

[jc000]

OP, if you're looking at other options, Sionics Weapons Systems does a lot of work with LE and have an 11.5" option. I own a 16" and have been extremely pleased with reliability, accuracy, and their customer service.