A lower either works or it doesn't. I can tell you from experience you will be a lot less disappointed sending back a lower priced lower than a name brand reputable one the internets promised would be a golden nugget of awesomeness.
A lower either works or it doesn't. I can tell you from experience you will be a lot less disappointed sending back a lower priced lower than a name brand reputable one the internets promised would be a golden nugget of awesomeness.
That's BS. You can have various levels of problems. I listed earlier where a friend had a gunstore special(as in it was branded with their info, no clue who actually made it) that seems to work fine with 5.56 uppers but wouldn't work with a 22 upper due to the bolt catch machining being a little off. You can also have things with tight magwells that work with mil spec mags but maybe not so well with polymer ones(or maybe they just don't drop free). You end up with stuff that mostly works but isn't completely right. What about those KAC lowers that work fine with stock trigger guards but wouldn't fit their own extended ones? I have two of those btw, just used a normal trigger guard on one I put together.
I remember people posting issues with someones lowers online where they bought some and the channel for the selector spring and detent was drilled off. The lower worked but the selector rested at an angle or something. To be fair a lot of people wouldn't have cared but it was wrong, even though it did still work.
Now anyone can have QC issues and put out a bad lower. If the PSA is in spec(and most should be) then it isn't a problem.
I have a few PSA lowers that have been GTG, I’ll buy more. I’ve had 8 complete KAC ambis that were GTG but shit does happen and KAC have had a good share of problems with their stripped lowers. Guy on TOS has an out of spec magwell on an ambi KAC lower right now actually. My point is that all these manufacturers will suffer from tolerance stacking and shitty products from time to time. At this point for me I like cheap lowers cause it works the same basically.
Last edited by trauma; 05-11-18 at 18:39.
This describes my predicament in a way. Right now the gun safe is full of AR's and I have 5 partially built uppers and lowers laying in a locked job box. The problem is that the $120-130 you have tied up in the upper and lower requires all those other parts - LPK, FC, BCG, Charging Handle....you know. When you get finished you have at least grand into it, and currently the market for one built by a guy in his shop doesn't really bear that price. Plus, there is the legality of building them to sell w/o an FFL. I've pretty much ran out of relatives and friends that are interested. But dang, I really enjoy putting them together, much more than I should for such a simple task.
Another problem is that if you have numerous personal AR's, it is hard to put any kind of round count on any of them, especially if your primary emphasis is pistol.
This might seem a little odd, but there might be a functional place for cheapos like PSA and Anderson, as dedicated training rigs where malfunctions are expected--though I'd want some kind of distinctive "Exercise/Training" marking like a blue band. Put enough rounds into a new top-tier to validate it and then periodically "recertify," then put it in the Ready Rack and wear out the expendable "near twin" in regular training use.
Just spitballing an idea... take it with a grain of salt, my last rifle session of ANY kind was fifteen years ago in college and I'm long overdue.
<><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><>YOU IDIOTS! I WROTE 1984 AS A WARNING, NOT A HOW-TO MANUAL!--Orwell's ghost
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I read his post as sarcasm...
As for the point of the discussion...no surprise, but I think docsherm is right on. If the lower works, it works. Doesn’t matter who made it. I have some Aero lowers that work just fine and in fact their fit and finish is on par with my LMT and KAC (not stripped lower but SR15). I too have a DPMS lower (and upper)that came from a full gun that is now my highest volume receiver set, somewhere around 10k and it works great and is buttery smooth.
As said somewhere else in this thread, when you put out the highest volume, you will have a higher number (not percentage based) of reported tolerance issues. Statistics.
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