MX5
09-06-08, 15:10
Understand right from the start that I'm not bashing or defending any particular manufacturer of weapons, parts, ammo or lube; just making first hand observations. Make no mistake, I prefer top grade parts & equipment, recommend same whenever possible & trust my life to Tier 1 products.
Out of various Noveske, Colt, Rock River & Armalite ARs I use, there are two guns that I built for the express purpose of testing various parts & components to see how well they fair under moderate to hard use. These two ARs are relegated to practice & training purposes only. They were built using a mix of quality parts & parts from manufacturers that many would say are less than ideal, inferior or substandard. I'm not going to enter into that argument. All parts are readily available from known parts sources, were visually inspected & properly staked, torqued, & assembled by me. The heresy, if any, is the mix of parts manufacturers, ammo & lube used.
I'm not making recommendations for defensive, security, LEO or military work. But, on the other hand, these are parts manufacturers that are within the reach & consideration of many people that own ARs. Often, better parts can be had for the same money or less initially. Generally, better parts cost less in the long run.
Both of these weapons get fed steel cased Wolf ammo only (gasp) & Mobil 1 lube has been used exclusively (horror). The lube is a 2:1 mix of synthetic motor oil & ATF. Over the years both weapons have sent thousands of rounds downrange in practice & training classes with the likes of Larry Vickers, Ken Hackathorn, John Farnam, John Benner, Dave Bowie, Lynn Freshly and others. They're run hard, receive minimal cleaning & liberal amounts of lube. Parts failures have been few, minimal malfunctions & no stuck cases.
They both have cast DPMS lower receivers, and an assorted mix of parts from DPMS, Rock River, Armalite, EGW, Yankee Hill, Midwest Industries, High Standard, EOTech, Millett & Bushmaster. Both barrels are marked 5.56 NATO, but a chamber reamer proved otherwise & brought them into spec.
The results of this ongoing, unscientific test are that the guns are accurate & keep running with boring regularity. I don't deny that others might have issues, but, I've seen many name brand weapons choke in classes with great frequency. Most problems end-up being related to lack of lube, magazines, reloaded ammo, loose gas blocks & bolts not staked.
Are there better parts & ammo? You bet there are & I use them as well. There are a lot of people reading this forum that purchased brand XYZ & are hearing that they have a pile of crap. Go easy on them, guide them - for their intended usage their choices might be perfectly fine.
If making your first choice, then read, ask questions & make an informed decision. If the choice is already made, then learn how to tighten, inspect, lube & Loctite accordingly & use it. Get some training & don't look back! I've made my choices & said my piece - make of it what you will. YMMV
Out of various Noveske, Colt, Rock River & Armalite ARs I use, there are two guns that I built for the express purpose of testing various parts & components to see how well they fair under moderate to hard use. These two ARs are relegated to practice & training purposes only. They were built using a mix of quality parts & parts from manufacturers that many would say are less than ideal, inferior or substandard. I'm not going to enter into that argument. All parts are readily available from known parts sources, were visually inspected & properly staked, torqued, & assembled by me. The heresy, if any, is the mix of parts manufacturers, ammo & lube used.
I'm not making recommendations for defensive, security, LEO or military work. But, on the other hand, these are parts manufacturers that are within the reach & consideration of many people that own ARs. Often, better parts can be had for the same money or less initially. Generally, better parts cost less in the long run.
Both of these weapons get fed steel cased Wolf ammo only (gasp) & Mobil 1 lube has been used exclusively (horror). The lube is a 2:1 mix of synthetic motor oil & ATF. Over the years both weapons have sent thousands of rounds downrange in practice & training classes with the likes of Larry Vickers, Ken Hackathorn, John Farnam, John Benner, Dave Bowie, Lynn Freshly and others. They're run hard, receive minimal cleaning & liberal amounts of lube. Parts failures have been few, minimal malfunctions & no stuck cases.
They both have cast DPMS lower receivers, and an assorted mix of parts from DPMS, Rock River, Armalite, EGW, Yankee Hill, Midwest Industries, High Standard, EOTech, Millett & Bushmaster. Both barrels are marked 5.56 NATO, but a chamber reamer proved otherwise & brought them into spec.
The results of this ongoing, unscientific test are that the guns are accurate & keep running with boring regularity. I don't deny that others might have issues, but, I've seen many name brand weapons choke in classes with great frequency. Most problems end-up being related to lack of lube, magazines, reloaded ammo, loose gas blocks & bolts not staked.
Are there better parts & ammo? You bet there are & I use them as well. There are a lot of people reading this forum that purchased brand XYZ & are hearing that they have a pile of crap. Go easy on them, guide them - for their intended usage their choices might be perfectly fine.
If making your first choice, then read, ask questions & make an informed decision. If the choice is already made, then learn how to tighten, inspect, lube & Loctite accordingly & use it. Get some training & don't look back! I've made my choices & said my piece - make of it what you will. YMMV