Dark Storm DS-25 .308 and DS-15 Lightning at SHOT Show 2022 Range Day (Look Back)

Channel fans and family, this one is a look back to SHOT Show 2022 (the video went up on January 28, 2022). Our first booth at Industry Day at the Range was our friends at Dark Storm Industries (DSI), and Brett walked me through two rifles: the then-upcoming DS-25, an AR-15-sized rifle chambered in .308 Winchester, and the updated DS-15 Lightning.

If you don’t know DSI, they built their name taking care of people stuck behind restrictive gun laws. They’re well known for compliant models, so no matter what state you live in, there’s a good chance DSI makes something you can actually own.

Quick note: this is a booth interview at SHOT Show 2022 Range Day, not a SlavGuns range test and evaluation. Everything below reflects what DSI told me in early 2022, and the DS-25 was still a prototype at the time.

TL;DR

DS-25: an AR-15 platform made to shoot .308. DSI modified only a handful of parts and the rest takes standard mil-spec AR-15 components. Brett said it weighs about 6 pounds 7 ounces.
Recoil: because of the lighter reciprocating mass, Brett compared it to a 5.56 or 6.5 Grendel more than a typical .308.
Five configurations planned: standard, fixed mag, post ban, featureless and non-NFA firearm. Four colors: black, tan, green and brown. It would also come as a builder’s kit.
DS-15 Lightning: the most-featured rifle in the DS-15 line, with the upgrades most people end up buying later already on the gun, tuned more toward 3-Gun for 2022.

DS-25: a .308 on an AR-15 platform

Brett called the DS-25 the first of its kind, an AR-15 chambered in .308. To make that work, DSI opened up the upper receiver’s ejection port and the magwell to take the .308 cartridge, and modified the barrel, the buffer tube and the bolt carrier. According to Brett, everything else on the rifle takes your standard mil-spec AR-15 components.

DSI planned to sell it two ways: as a complete firearm, and as a builder’s kit with just those modified parts so you can finish it with your own mil-spec AR-15 parts. At about 6 pounds 7 ounces, Brett said it would be the smallest, lightest semi-auto .308 on the market.

Why not just buy an AR-10?

I asked the obvious question. Brett’s answer: the AR-10 has had its problems over the years and everybody figured out their own way to make it work. DSI didn’t want to make an AR-10 work. They wanted to take the AR-15, which is already tried and true, and make it shoot .308.

The payoff is weight. The lightest AR-10 he’d shot was somewhere around nine pounds, so you’re shaving off roughly three pounds. That makes sense for a hunting rifle or a range gun you don’t want to lug around. And because the reciprocating parts are lighter, recoil comes back closer to a 5.56 or 6.5 Grendel than to a full-size .308.

That lines up with what I felt when Brett brought a DS-25 to our range before this show. On paper, a six-and-a-half-pound .308 should kick like a mule. In reality it shot really softly, a much more pleasant recoil impulse than a bigger AR-10. Brett said that’s the reaction they get from everybody who tries the prototype: a grin and “that’s a .308?”

Configurations, calibers and timing (as of early 2022)

Configurations: standard, fixed mag, post ban, featureless and non-NFA firearm, “whether you live behind enemy lines, so to speak, or you live in a free state.”
Caliber at launch: .308 only. Brett mentioned talk of a long-range precision version and a 6.5 Creedmoor, probably in 2023, but said they weren’t there yet.
Availability: DSI had been taking pre-orders since the previous March. Brett estimated about an eight-month wait once shipping started, and builder’s kits would ship after the first run of complete rifles was filled.

When I first saw this gun I was asking Brett where the hell the 6.5 Creedmoor was. But for an AR you’ll burn through a lot of ammo, and .308 gives you a lot more value-priced ammo options. Honestly, I didn’t think there was that much innovation left in the AR platform, but these guys did it, and they did it right.

DS-15 Lightning: the most-featured DS-15

Brett laid out the DS-15 lineup like this: the MOE is the price-point gun, the Typhoon is the best-value gun, and the Lightning is the most-featured gun. Here’s what he listed on the Lightning:

Billet, precision-matched receiver set
Free-float M-LOK handguard
Drop-in 4-pound single-stage trigger
Nickel boron bolt carrier
Ambi safety and ambi charging handle
Overmolded Hogue stock and pistol grip
Stainless mid-length barrel with a 1:7 twist
Competition stainless compensator

His point was that most of that list is stuff people normally buy as upgrades after they get a base-model AR: drop-in triggers, nickel-plated bolts, and so on. With the Lightning it already comes in the box. For 2022 DSI steered it more toward the competitive 3-Gun market, and the brake keeps it flat for double taps and follow-up shots. I’ve always liked DSI’s brakes. They’re stupid effective.

Brett also mentioned DSI had upgraded several components on its Variant One for 2022, but we saved that one for a separate video from the show floor.

How the story played out

The DS-25 did make it to market. Dark Storm’s own site lists the DS-25 Typhoon .308, and the platform kept growing. At NRA I later saw the DS-25 MFR in 6.5 Creedmoor, the caliber I was bugging Brett about here. Read that one: DSI DS-25 MFR at NRA: AR Fixed.

More DSI on SlavGuns:

My take

Looking back, this was one of the more interesting things at SHOT Show 2022. Everybody kept trying to make the AR-10 better, and DSI took the opposite route: make the AR-15 shoot .308 and keep the weight and recoil down. The Lightning is the “buy once” option for people who would otherwise upgrade a base AR piece by piece. Just remember this was a show-floor interview with a prototype, not a full review, so check current specs and availability with DSI before you buy.