The week before Thanksgiving I was invited to the Patriot Ordnance Factory (POF) facility in Northern Phoenix as part of a small media contingent (something that POF had not done before). This was not some fancy junket, it was actually a pretty down-to-earth event that started with a presentation and a factory tour, transitioned out to Cowtown to play with some of their new products, and culminated in beer and pizza at Mellow Mushroom, with the small number of media invited to attend.

DI Revolution in .308 Win

The star of the event was their new DI Revolution. The original Revolution was, well, pretty revolutionary in that it brought a full-size 30 caliber round to an AR-15 platform. Utilizing AR-15 components, such as the charging handle, bolt carrier, cam pin, and buffer, along with their patented E2 Dual Extraction system, this piston driven gun certainly demonstrated some impressive engineering (some of which was honestly lost on me prior to the presentation). Even after the presentation some of the deeper engineering concepts were hard to grasp, and I don’t want to do a disservice by misstating here. Suffice to say the final package is super clean and runs very well.

Without starting a religious war, one point most can agree on is that piston guns are a tad bit “snappier” in the recoil department, meaning slightly slower followup shots and the greater potential for reduction in accuracy (yes this is a generalization). Take a lighter AR-15 platform and put in a fat 30 caliber cartridge pushing over three times the mass and you have the potential for much greater recoil (and all of the downstream effects).

The DIctator 9-position adjustable gas system

The DI Revolution takes that same core system and associated quality and changes out the gas system to direct impingement, creating a much softer shooting rifle. Seriously softer. I will caveat that I really didn’t find the piston driven to be unmanageable at all, and there was no way to really “objectively” measure the felt recoil between the platforms.

Which one goes to the new DI Revolution in .308???

While out on the range we had a demonstration by a couple of competition shooters, (Keith Garcia and Naim Saiti). They did a six-round dump from both a .223 Rem and the DI Revolution in .308 Win, with shot timers running. You can see Keith’s set in the below video. The take away here is that there was no reduction to speed with the heavier round. You can also see that the muzzle did not move appreciably.

The Revolution was run hard enough to melt the fore grip to the handguard. (Not during our visit; you can see this torture test below by IV8888).

If the above wasn’t enough of a proof of concept, they also had a couple of full-auto variants that ran perfectly (though they eventually got too hot to hold, even with the barrel nut heat sink). It was easy to forget you were shooting .308 Win. We did not do a failure test—you can see one on a Revolution at IV8888’s channel (of the piston version).

Those are serious heatsinks on the barrel.

I can personally attest that it is a superb shooting gun. I’m nowhere near to competition levels like some of the other attendees, but I was able to repeatedly hit plates out to 100 yards while standing with no fatigue. Try that with your massive AR-10 (yes, I know some of you ninjas can do this, though COD does not count). We also had some friendly shoots against a dueling tree. It was easy to forget you were shooting .308 (until the whole rack got knocked down).

The worst part of shooting that much is loading the mags. Thanks to POF staff for keeping us topped off.

They also have the platform in 6.5 Creedmoor, though I didn’t have the opportunity to “burn it down” with this variant, though we did do some plinking out to 1200 yards. Given that it follows the same pattern and core components as the .308 model, it is no surprise that it is great shooting as well, as well as gaining the much better ballistics of the 6.5 Creedmoor (POF has accounted for the barrel length and twist rate).

Technical Specifications

.308 Win

• CALIBER: 7.62 x 51mm NATO (.308 WIN)
• CHAMBER: E2 Dual Extraction Technology
• ACTION: Semi-auto, direct impingement
• WEIGHT: 6.81 lbs / 3.09kg (empty)
• BARREL: 16.5” / 41.91cm match-grade nitride heat-treated, with heat sink barrel nut
• RIFLING: 1:10, 5/8×24 barrel threads
• LENGTH: 34.0” / 86.36cm (collapsed)
• FINISH: Black anodized
• GAS BLOCK: 9-position adjustable DIctator gas block
• HANDGUARD: 14.5” M-LOK Renegade free-floating rail with four integrated QD sling mounts
• MUZZLE DEVICE: Triple port muzzle brake
• TRIGGER: 4.5 lb POF-USA drop-in trigger system with KNS anti-walk pins
• FURNITURE: Mission First Tactical
• ACCURACY: MOA with proper ammo and shooter ability
• FIRE CONTROL: Gen4 billet lower receiver, Ambidextrous bolt release, Ambidextrous safety selector, Ambidextrous bolt catch, Ambidextrous magazine release
• MAINTENANCE: Standard receiver/carrier group field strip procedures
• INCLUDES: 6-position anti-tilt buffer tube, Magpul 20-round magazine, One receiver Teflon tension screw

6.5 Creedmoor

• CALIBER: 6.5 CREEDMOOR
• CHAMBER: E2 Dual Extraction Technology
• ACTION: Semi-auto, direct impingement
• WEIGHT: 8.6 lbs / 3.9kg (empty)
• BARREL: 20” / 50.8cm match-grade nitride heat-treated
• RIFLING: 1:8, 5/8×24 barrel threads
• LENGTH: 41.0” / 104.14cm (collapsed)
• FINISH: Black anodized
• GAS BLOCK: 9-position adjustable DIctator gas block
• HANDGUARD: 14.5” M-LOK Renegade free-floating rail with four integrated QD sling mounts
• MUZZLE DEVICE: Triple port muzzle brake
• TRIGGER: 4.0 lb EFP POF-USA drop-in trigger system with KNS anti-walk pins
• FURNITURE: Mission First Tactical grip, Magpul PRS Gen 3 Stock
• ACCURACY: MOA with proper ammo and shooter ability
• FIRE CONTROL: Gen4 billet lower receiver, Ambidextrous bolt release, Ambidextrous safety selector, Ambidextrous bolt catch, Ambidextrous magazine release
• MAINTENANCE: Standard receiver/carrier group field strip procedures
• INCLUDES: Magpul 20-round magazine, One receiver Teflon tension screw

POF Manufacturing Facility

The tour of their “newish” facility (they finished construction and moved in a little over a year ago) was also quite impressive. I’ve been on a number of factory tours. This was definitely one of the most well laid out. Separate areas were set up for different parts of the build process and a central unifying feature was the ability to track individual components. They also have a fully self-contained test firing area giving them the ability to fully function check each firearm in controlled conditions prior to shipping (or in the case of warranty issues).

Frank DeSomma giving an animated discussion about the engineering problems they had to solve. Which by all accounts they have done.

POF tags every single component with a lot number and date (right down to the extractor), bringing in a number of aerospace QC concepts (from their roots as an aerospace engineering firm). All of this is managed by custom in house software that they developed. What this allows them to do is really have a great grasp on every facet of their products, from the creation of parts all the way through shipping. In fact, they were recently certified as an ISO 9000 facility, which is a pretty impressive feat for a smaller company in the firearms space.

Finis

I am generally impressed with their facility and processes. I know that a number of readers on previous articles had expressed issues and problems with POF in the past, and I cannot speak to those issues (I don’t know the backstories and was not privy to a resolution). What I can affirm is that their new facility is state-of-the-art, and, arguably, should be a model for other manufacturers. With the setup of the facility and the management of workflow, I can’t imagine they would have significant production issues with any products coming out of the facility (and if problems were found they have the ability to rapidly respond and identify issues right down to the individual part).

Not bad for a .308 with scope and rings…

The POF DI Revolution was pretty amazing when you consider the engineering problems that needed to be resolved during the buildout of that platform. The end result was an amazingly soft shooting .308 Win rifle, housed in a svelte AR-15 body. And as shown by Keith Garcia, it can be run just as fast as an AR-15 shooting .223 Rem rounds, with no loss of accuracy.

If you have the ability to test shoot one, I strongly recommend you do so, especially if you can compare side-by-side to an AR-10 (or even an AR-15 with similar dimensions). If you are in the Northern Phoenix area, you should reach out and see about doing a tour—they are a very gracious and friendly company.