Which lower?

[dhnut1973]

Last year I built a 6.5 Grendel upper and presently it shares time on my Armalite lower with my 5.56 upper. I want to build a dedicated lower for my Grendel and later might add a BCM upper as well. My LGS only carries Spike’s and Anderson stripped lowers. Does it really matter the name on the lower?
I want this lower to be milspec so I am prepared to do it right, l just would prefer to buy locally if possible. Any suggestions and insight would be greatly appreciated.


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[THORN74]

Just my $0.02.... but a mil spec lower is a milspec lower ... Buy the cheapest one u can find ...as long as it truly IS milspec. That said if your looking for a specific fancy feature then all bets are off. For example aero has a set crew in thier lowers that help tighten the upper to lower fit also their new lowers have a set screw to hold in the bolt catch, instead of a pin. Man I can NEVER not bugger up the finish when I put that same bolt catch in.



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[redpillregret]

Just my $0.02.... but a mil spec lower is a milspec lower ... Buy the cheapest one u can find ...as long as it truly IS milspec. That said if your looking for a specific fancy feature then all bets are off. For example aero has a set crew in thier lowers that help tighten the upper to lower fit also their new lowers have a set screw to hold in the bolt catch, instead of a pin. Man I can NEVER not bugger up the finish when I put that same bolt catch in.



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I have had many “milepec” lowers that Colt lower parts wouldn’t fit and bargain brand lowers that were very out of spec. With today’s blem BCM lowers and Colts from Brownell’s, I can think of no reason to assembly my own lower. You won’t save much of anything and won’t improve on quality.


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[HeruMew]

Just my $0.02.... but a mil spec lower is a milspec lower ... Buy the cheapest one u can find ...as long as it truly IS milspec. That said if your looking for a specific fancy feature then all bets are off. For example aero has a set crew in thier lowers that help tighten the upper to lower fit also their new lowers have a set screw to hold in the bolt catch, instead of a pin. Man I can NEVER not bugger up the finish when I put that same bolt catch in.



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No, just... No.

I know this your 3rd post, welcome to M4C, I will be polite about it:

That's not accurate. Far, Far, FAR, from it. Please make sure to read the commentary that follows in this thread. I am sure you will tagged in many replies. Hopefully none are bad. But, that's not usually the case.

ETA: Also, on the topic of hammering in the Bolt Hold Open pin, I take masking tape/painters tape (electrical tape has worked well but it's not as wide as the blue painter's rolls) layer it on the side of the lower, set the lower on it's nose, use needlenose and hold the pin. Give it a few light taps til it starts, and whack it in. If I hit the tape, no harm no foul. Any residue is taken off with a little solvent, if even needed.

[HeruMew]

Last year I built a 6.5 Grendel upper and presently it shares time on my Armalite lower with my 5.56 upper. I want to build a dedicated lower for my Grendel and later might add a BCM upper as well. My LGS only carries Spike’s and Anderson stripped lowers. Does it really matter the name on the lower?
I want this lower to be milspec so I am prepared to do it right, l just would prefer to buy locally if possible. Any suggestions and insight would be greatly appreciated.


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I have run a few different types of lowers. Anderson is considered one of the lowest grade "Mil-Spec" but you will have a failure rate in some Andersons. I have built out 4 and none of them had issues, but I know a couple friends who did have issues with their pins. One had out of spec takedown pin holes, another had an out of spec Bolt Hold Open slot to far back.

Aero has been known to give good products, with decent customer service at a competitive cost.

BCM, Colt, DD, Noveske, all great options but pricing tends to be high with these ones.

I had seen brownells has complete Colt "M4" lowers at times for around 239-250 shipped; at least I see Mike at Mr.GunsnGear posting them occasionally.

Overall, just make sure you go with something quality if you don't want to run a slightly higher risk of something being out of spec. I know Buds had some AR57 stripped lowers. They stripped out all the guns, sold the LPKs, uppers, and mags separately. They have a ton of "open-eared" lowers marked with the 57 that work just fine. Last time I checked they did anyways.

[THORN74]

No, just... No.

I know this your 3rd post, welcome to M4C, I will be polite about it:

That's not accurate. Far, Far, FAR, from it. Please make sure to read the commentary that follows in this thread. I am sure you will tagged in many replies. Hopefully none are bad. But, that's not usually the case.

Please enlighten me then. I don't claim to be an expert, but I have built 4 ARs. 1 franken gun on an rguns lower, one on a pro-fab set, and 2 Anderson sets. I didn't have an issue with any of them. All function well and do what I need them to do. I see no reason to spend $100+ for a lower when a $40 lower will do.

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[Tx_Aggie]

I have had many “milepec” lowers that Colt lower parts wouldn’t fit and bargain brand lowers that were very out of spec. With today’s blem BCM lowers and Colts from Brownell’s, I can think of no reason to assembly my own lower. You won’t save much of anything and won’t improve on quality.


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This has been my experience as well. When buying bargain basement lowers you are taking a chance and hoping they will be in-spec "enough" to assemble and function correctly. By spending a little more you are buying higher quality control standards and usually better customer service in the event there is an issue with the lower.

I've probably assembled or helped others assemble close to 70 rifles in the last couple of years. I've seen spec issues on Anderson lowers more than anything else, but also with Noreen lowers, Palmetto State Armory, a few Aero Precision lowers (all during the run up to the 2016 Election and they were quick to make it right, but they never should have been shipped to begin with), and even a few Alexander Arms lowers.

[HeruMew]

Please enlighten me then. I don't claim to be an expert, but I have built 4 ARs. 1 franken gun on an rguns lower, one on a pro-fab set, and 2 Anderson sets. I didn't have an issue with any of them. All function well and do what I need them to do. I see no reason to spend $100+ for a lower when a $40 lower will do.

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The difference is the 33% failure rate in my anecdotal evidence provided in the post above.

Just my personal experience with Anderson in general. It's not supported by just mine, but many others. If you're cool with your 40$ lower, that's cool. I am okay with mine as well.

But, I don't fool myself into thinking: "Anderson is just as good." With a witnessed 33% failure rate.

ETA: I should also add, it's the whole: "I don't see the reason..." argument that leaves newbies to M4C in a very booty hurt place after those who understand this concept start chiming in and we have 3-4 pages of people making arguments against you and wondering why you are combative about a simple concept: We're not saying your lower that is working sucks, or is bad, or doesn't work, or that you're a bad person for buying it. Again: We just don't fool ourselves.

[THORN74]

The difference is the 33% failure rate in my anecdotal evidence provided in the post above.

Just my personal experience with Anderson in general. It's not supported by just mine, but many others. If you're cool with your 40$ lower, that's cool. I am okay with mine as well.

But, I don't fool myself into thinking: "Anderson is just as good." With a witnessed 33% failure rate.

I'm not doubting you, and as I said I'm no expert. But beyond being out of spec what would you be including in a failure rate?

Again in my limited experience, I haven't gotten one that out of spec and they are all 7075 t6 aluminum. I really don't see the need to spend an extra $60+

Obviously if it's an out of spec receiver the retailer or manufacturer would take it back and give you a new one. If there is some other failure (catastrophic failure, etc) well that might be more diffult to nail down the cause....ammo, metal fatigue, some other part.

All I said was all things being equal and genuine milspec.... I see no reason to spend the extra money on some "name brand"

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[dhnut1973]

Thank you for the responses and keep them coming. I had already pretty much eliminated Anderson, but I’m still curious about people’s results with Spike’s. Even though I haven’t posted much here I am not a newb. I recently retired as an infantryman and have been a gun guy my whole life.
The reason I posed this question is because I’ve read that most upper and lower receivers are made by just a few suppliers and then company logos are engraved. Please correct me if this is false. Also I was hoping to avoid the hassle of buying online and finding an FFL to do the transfer.


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