After submitting my questions regarding the N6 receiver sets and availability of buying a complete .308 upper through Noveske's web portal three times over the last 2 months with no response, I took to Facebook.
Background: I bought a 16" non switchblock N6 last fall on a whim. I've wanted an AR10 for a while and this was a Noveske, so of course it'd be a winner. As I started researching, I though that having a second upper for the lower, a 12.5" switchblock, would be awesome and give me good reason to actually buy a 7.62 suppressor. So I began searching. Turns out Noveske doesn't sell complete .308/N6 uppers. They also don't sell just the .308/N6 stripped upper receiver. They do sell the 12.5" Leonidas barrel and switchblock setup (as well as the non-switchblock 12.5 barrel), and the BCG, and the rails with and without the cutouts, and the Charge Handle, and the flash hider... So I googled some more to see if any other vendors had the upper receivers or complete uppers. Nope. From there, I decided to submit a question through the online portal. That was 2 months ago. No response for a few weeks, so thought there might be a tech error, so I resubmitted. A few weeks, no response, so one more time. Nothing.
So after some googling yesterday, I see Noveske's Facebook page and it says if you message them, they usually respond in a few hours. Sweet. So I did. Here's the transcript:
Me: I was inquiring as to the ability to purchase the 12.5" Leonidas switchblock .308 as just an upper instead of buying the entire rifle
Noveske: Unfortunately no, we only offer the N6 as a complete rifle. The reason being is that even though the new N6 is built on the DPMS pattern AR-10, the receivers still have the 45 degree Armalite style cut, not the rounded style. You would not be able to match up our upper to a non Noveske lower. Our N6 receivers were meant to be mated together.
Me: I have a 16" N6 already, a Gen III, and I'd like to build a second upper for it, aka the 12.5" Leonidas. Which means I'd have to buy a complete N6 Gen 3 receiver set, sell the lower, buy the switchblock barrel setup, buy the corresponding switchblock rail, a charge handle, and a BCG, none of which you all ever seem to have in stock at the same time
Noveske: All of our receivers are matched together, we don't have them separated to sell just an upper. You also wouldn't be able to run a 12.5" upper on your lower without registering as an SBR with the ATF.
Me: I'm aware of the ATF process and that was part of my logic of buying the 16" N6 to shoot while paperwork cleared. So then if your receiver sets are matched together, how do you sell 5.56 uppers separately? And .300
and the variety of other calibers you sell?
Noveske: I'm sorry but the N6 receivers were intended to be sold as complete rifles and matched sets.
Me: So your manufacturing process for the N6 receivers has a level of variability that would potentially not allow one N6 receiver (upper or lower) to work with the complementary receiver from another set? Or are you just telling me that Noveske as a business has chosen not to sell the N6 receivers separately, only as a set, and has no intentions of selling complete N6 uppers, only complete N6 rifles?
Noveske: They would work together, but if we split a matched set, then we'd have a lower that we'd have to machine a whole new upper for. We intended to sell the N6 as complete rifles and matched sets only.
Me: Yea so you're not going to machine just the uppers is what you're saying
Noveske: We intended for the N6 to be complete rifles and matched sets only.
Me: Thanks for the information. I'd also highly recommend posting that on your website somewhere so folks don't buy an N6 16" like I did hoping to be able to easily buy or build a second upper for it.
Summary: So just be aware that if you want to build your own N6, just go ahead and buy the upper and lower receiver set and build both together. And don't plan on actually being able to buy a second complete upper or the components to build the second complete upper with shelling out the $750 for the set of upper and lower stripped receivers. I am supper bummed at the fact, but I guess that's what I get for thinking Noveske would do something smart for the business!
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Originally Posted by docsherm
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