If you’re anything like me, you might agree that the early GWOT era had a timeless and unique aesthetic flair that rivals any other period in our military’s history.
Far from being skin deep, the weapons of the era matched old-school machining with rapidly progressing technology to produce weapons and gear that are simply iconic. One has to look no further than the burgeoning cloner community, slavishly attentive to every detail, and willing to pay astronomical prices for parts. $2,000 for a KAC URXii? Yep.. all day.
So, when Palmetto State Armory released its Sabre line of firearms, the Sabre-10 being today’s subject, many budget-oriented collectors were thrilled at the “inspired by” lineup.
Today we’re looking at the Sabre-10, a near-clone of the iconic M110 rifle. While approximating the design of KAC’s wunderbeast, the Sabre-10 lacks a couple key components. Let’s cover what the Sabre-10 does bring to the table, before contrasting it to the m110 and finally getting to hands-on shooting.
Sabre-10 Tech Specs:
- Barrel Length: 20″ Fluted
- Gas System: Rifle-Length
- Barrel Steel: 4150 CRMOV
- Barrel Finish: Nitride
- Muzzle Thread: 5/8×24
- Chamber: .308
- Twist Rate: 1:10
- Diameter at Gas Block: .750
- Gas Block Type: Picatinny Adjustable Gas Block – Pinned
- Muzzle Device: Sabre Compensator
- Receiver Material: Billet 7075
- Receiver Type: T-Marked
- Hand Guard Type: 12.5″ Quad
- Bolt Carrier Group: Sabre AR-10 BCG with Sprinco Gas Rings, Sprinco Ejector Spring, Sprinco Extractor Spring, and OCK’s Gas Key Fasteners
- Bolt Steel: 9310
- BCG Finish: Hard Chrome Finish
- Charging Handle: Radian Raptor LT
- Lower Material: 7075 with Built in Ambi-Bolt Release
- Takedown/Pivot Pin: Battle Arms Development AR-10
- Trigger: Sabre Two-Stage Black DLC Coated
- Buffer:Rifle Length AR-10
- Buffer Spring: AR-10 Rifle Length Spring
- Safety: Radian Talon 45/90 Safety
- Pistol Grip: Sabre Grip
- Stock: A1 Stock
- Finish: Black
- Furniture Color: Black
Where To Buy
So, a couple points of note. The Sabre-10 is offered in FDE and black, .308 Winchester and 6.5 Creedmoor, and in billet and forged varieties. The billet (my version) has an SR-25 style receiver rear cut, while the forged has a more typical rounded rear cut. The Sabre-10 uses a proprietary height rail, differing from the DPMS low, DPMS high/SR25, and the Armalite AR-10 height rails. The Sabre-10 does use a DPMS Gen 1/LR-308 standard barrel extension.
The gas block, while visually similar to the authentic m110 piece, is different in two ways. First, PSA’s gas block is adjustable, having a handy knob to change the 7 gas settings. Second, the true m110 gas block acts as a suppressor mount as well, in conjunction with the m110 flash hider as a second point of contact. Conversely, the Sabre-10 has a three pronged compensator, with each prong a different length to prevent the tuning fork effect.
A few features worth mentioning: The Sabre grip is aggressively textured, and very comfortable. The Sabre trigger is a two-stage affair, and I like it as much as any Geissele I’ve owned. The takedown pins are from Battle Arms Development, and make breaking the receivers apart easier than ever. The charging handle is a PSA branded Radian Raptor-LT, an excellent ambi-lever design.
While lacking in full ambi-controls, the Sabre-10 does have an ambi-safety, and bolt release (but not bolt stop!).
The Sabre-10 comes in at over 10lbs of heft before you’ve added an optic, suppressor, or a full mag. If you’re expecting a lightweight gun, adjust expectations.
Bottom line, before I hit the range my impressions were pretty damn positive. Fit and finish looks excellent, from the choice of furniture and accessories, to the details like the OCK’s fasteners securing the gas key to the bolt carrier. I have high hopes going forward, but there’s work to be done before I trust a gun.
Range Days With The Sabre-10:
I figured a fitting optic for the Sabre-10 would be the 5-25x FFP (discontinued) PSA scope. With a variety of ammo and mags from three different manufacturers, I hit the range. I grabbed a quick zero at 25 yards, before getting some 5-round groups at 50 yards and 100 yards to see how the gun liked different brands of ammo.
Groups ranged from ~.6 MOA (Winchester 168gr Match) to 1.8 MOA. The bigger groups definitely happened when I started picking up the pace, but the gun hovered around 1 MOA all day long when I wasn’t rushing things. This is pretty comparable to my Remington 700 AAC-SD (Timney match trigger). The Sabre-10 absolutely loved the Winchester Match 168gr, less so the Norma 168gr SMK.
The trigger is definitely impressive. This should be sold as a standalone option.
I really like the gas block’s adjustment. When I pulled the muzzle device off and swapped in an AAC 51-tooth mount for my 762sdn-6 suppressor, it came in handy. I guessed at an additional 2 clicks of gas reduction, and the bolt kept cycling fine, and I wasn’t gassed out.
Recoil is very mild, owing in part to the significant weight of the gun, and also to the adjustable gas block for keeping bolt carrier velocity in check
Sounds like everything went great, but not quite. I had some failure-to-feed issues, but the round actually did feed. The extractor wasn’t grabbing the lip of the case, requiring me to slam the bolt home a few times before it did so. After firing, the extractor wasn’t doing its job well either, leaving brass in the chamber and causing a double feed.
I took the bolt apart for inspection. While each component looked proper and was assembled correctly, there was a brutal amount of tension on the extractor when compared to the two other LR308 bolts I had handy. I swapped in a Young National Match chrome plated bolt, and the gun ran flawlessly. I’ll be returning the bolt to PSA to be fixed/replaced.
Since then, I’ve had the gun out a few more times. I’ve burned through a couple hundred more rounds of match ammo, and some of my surplus M80 ball ammo. The gun does everything I want it to (with the new bolt). If I miss, that’s my miss and I can’t blame the gun. It’s a lot easier to train and to improve when you’ve removed the variables from ammo, optic, and gun as much as possible.
Epilogue:
But where do I go from here? Well, I bought this rifle with the intent of proving that an m110 semi-clone can be turned into an m110 mostly-clone. I have an m110 barrel from Rainier Arms on the way, with an HTX Concepts m110 gas block, as well as a Griffin Armament MGL-110 (m110 compatible) suppressor through the Griffin Armament/Capitol Armory “Silencers To Your Door” program. Along with adding an A2 grip, KAC panels, and a couple other details, this will bring the Sabre-10 to an even closer degree of authenticity. I even have a slew of optics inbound, looking to replicate the Leupold Mark 4 scope at a reduced cost. Stay tuned to see how it shoots…
The End, So Far…
The venerable .308 Winchester has been around for a long time, and is a known quantity. The PSA Sabre-10 is a relatively newer rifle, only a couple years old at this point. I like the rifle a lot, the issue with the extractor lip the lone blot on the Sabre-10’s record. If I didn’t have a spare handy, I’d probably be a lot more bothered by the wait to have it fixed. Palmetto State Armory is known for having teething pains after a new gun is released, and it looks like my years of dodging the few QC issues that pop up is over.
What I have right now though, is an effective .308 large frame rifle, capable of delivering solid accuracy out to distances I can seldom even see here in the mountains of NW Oregon. The reliability issue has been snuffed out and I’m happy with what’s left. The PSA Sabre-10 as pictured runs $1,249.99, and comes with one mag. I’m happy where it’s at, but I still have big plans for the rifle’s future modifications.
–Jens “Rex Nanorum” Hammer
@Rexnanorum
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