Spike’s Tactical .308 Roadhouse

By Graham Baates YouTube personality, Graham Baates, gives us a video breakdown of the .308 Roadhouse from Spike’s Tactical.

USA – -(Ammoland.com)- After spending more than seven years abroad on active duty I was ready to own an AR-15.  My final tour off duty was in recruiting which embarrassingly enough ignored Army requirements to maintain basic soldiering skills such as rifle marksmanship.  I needed a basic AR-15 to practice on my own with and so bought what I could find.  The upper was from a gun show, and lower from the corner gun shop.  Once I got home I noticed the lower was of considerably better quality than the upper and so began my introduction to Spike’s Tactical.

That basic lower from Spike’s is still with me years later and proven itself a good purchase.  I thought it time to circle back to Spike’s Tactical and see what their more advanced options were.

The .308 Roadhouse is a beast of a rifle.  Everything is beefy.  All billet upper and lower with a flare of style announcing this rifle as one built for performance.  No detail is overlooked on the Roadhouse which features fully-ambidextrous controls, an adjustable gas block, and all the bells and whistles one could ask for on a custom AR-10.  Take an up-close look in the video below:

For those more interested in seeing the rifle by the numbers, the build specifications can be seen below as taken from the Roadhouse’s product page:

Gen II .308 Billet Upper Receiver

• 7075 T6 Construction
• Ejection Port Door
• Ejection Port Door Spring
• Ejection Port Door Rod

18″ CHF Barrel

• Cold Hammer Forged
• Chrome Lined
• 1/12 Twist Rate
• 5/8 X 24 Thread Pitch for Muzzle
• 7.62 Nato Chamber
• .750 Gas Block Seat
• M4 Style Ramped Barrel Extension
• Mil-Spec Phosphate Coating

15″ .308 M-LOK Rail

• 7075 T6 Barrel Nut
• 6061 T6 Rail
• Continuous Top Rail
• Free Floating 1 Piece
• Q.D. Attachment Points

Low Profile Gas Block

• Solid Billet Steel
• .750 I.D.

Proprietary Gas Tube

• Black Nitride Inside and Out
• Gas Tube Roll Pin

Charging Handle

• Radian Raptor-LT AR10
• MilSpec Type 3 Coating

Nickel Boron .308 Complete BCG

• Nickel Boron Coated
• Laser Engraved with ST Spider logo
• High Pressure Tested (HPT)
• Magnetic Particle Inspected (MPI)

.30 Cal R2 Brake

• Black Nitrite

Spike’s Gen II Billet Sights

• Sliding Rear Aperture

Gen II .308 Billet Lower

• Raised Spider Logo
• Raised Bullet Pictogram Selector Markings
• 7075 T6 Forged Receiver
• Multi Caliber
• MIL-A-8625F Type III Class 2 Hard Coat Anodized Finish
• Low Shelf, RDIAS Compatible
• Proprietary Ambidextrous Controls
• Built in Trigger Guard
• KNS Mod ST Anti Rotation Pins

Lower Parts

• Hiperfire 24 Trigger
• Ambi Safety
• Spike’s Pro Grip
• 6-Position .308 Buffer Tube, Castle Nut
• .308 Buffer Spring
• ST-T2 Buffer
• Magpul ACS Stock

(Rifle includes hard case and manual)

Everything about the rifle feels solid and built for performance.  Recognizing that AR-10s lack a true standard I hit the range with a variety of magazines to test fit and function.  I also wanted to see how such a beast of a rifle would preform with various loads.  Hot-barrel groups were shot with loads from Federal, Speer, and Nosler ranging in weight from 125gr up to 175gr.  See the results in the shooting impressions video below.

I’m impressed.  While the groups achieved are nothing to frame, they were also shot with a hot barrel, in low lighting, and sleet.  If a rifle can perform this well in poor conditions, we know it will do better in ideal conditions.  Recoil was negligible, and the Roadhouse just begs to be shot.  The Roadhouse is not the slimmest or lightest rifle available, but it is one of the most fun to shoot that I have experience.  Spike’s knows this and the price reflect the efforts that go into building one.  I can’t buy one today, but may have just opened a new savings account labeled “Spike’s Tactical.”

About Graham Baates

“Graham Baates” is a pen name used by a 15-year active Army veteran who spent most of his time in the tactical side of the Intelligence community including tours in Afghanistan and Iraq. Post-Army Graham spent some time in the 3-Gun circuit before becoming a full-time NRA Certified defensive handgun instructor and now works as an industry writer while curating a YouTube channel on the side. Visit Graham on Youtube .