Carbon Finer Lancer .308

Lancer Builds a Race-Ready .308-Caliber AR

Photography by Henry Z. De Kuyper

Lancer Systems got its start making seals, way back when killing Nazis was the national pastime. No, not those SEALs — we mean the rubber kind. So what happens when a company staffed by gun nuts steps way outside its lane of expertise and tries to make a modern .308 AR rifle? Awesomeness happens.

Lancer first came to the fore with the introduction of their L5 translucent magazine. The L5 features an injection-molded, translucent polymer magazine body with steel feed lips embedded into the top portion of the tube. This steel and polymer hybrid design offers the strength of steel magazines mated with the durability and significant weight savings of polymer, all in a translucent package that allows one to visually inspect the number of rounds remaining.

As a testament to the company’s desire to continually refine and improve existing designs, Lancer recently introduced its L5 Advanced Warfighter Magazine, which now incorporates constant curve internal design geometry, more color selections, aggressive surface texturing, and stainless steel magazine springs mated with a non-tilt follower. If a company is willing to expend this much time and effort to improve the performance of a box with a spring in it, you might wonder what they might do when taking a clean-slate approach to designing a .308 AR rifle. Well, wonder no more.

Starting Over
So what exactly did a company that specializes in sealant technology know about building an AR-based .308 rifle? Exactly nothing. And they wouldn’t have it any other way.

There were no preconceived notions, no boundaries, and no conventional wisdoms to follow. There was absolutely nothing that told its engineers what to do or where to start. There’s freedom in that kind of ignorance. The freedom to look at new technologies, ideas, and concepts and not say, “It can’t be done,” but rather, “Let’s find a way to do it.” Lancer didn’t fear wandering out of its lane. On the contrary, it embraced it.

Lancer’s first order of business was to develop the basic framework for what would ultimately become the L30 Modern Sporting Rifle. The L30 would be a large-caliber, precision semiautomatic rifle, suitable for any application — from the recreational shooter and hunter to the special-operations soldier, and all points in between. This diverse spectrum of applications required a new approach to the concept of modularity.