View Full Version : "Unbranded AR"
ViniVidivici
02-04-20, 15:50
Anybody know anything about them?
Seem new to the retail scene, sources say they're affiliated with a company that makes OEM parts for certain manufacturers, and this is the retail outlet.
Prices too good to be true? Any knowledge/experience with these guys from anyone?
everready73
02-04-20, 18:01
They are a sponsor on TOS. There was a thread about some suspect lower parts kits I remember. Some people report their stuff is ok but I don't know why someone would risk it with all the known quality options for not much more
I would say PSA level or lower work no track record. At least if you get something from PSA and it isn't right, they will take care if it. Not sure how unbranded operates.
These type of threads keep popping up. Why not stick with what has already been vetted?
If your shopping for price and don’t care of quality, well, that has been covered to death here as well. DPMS/PSA/Bushmaster.
These pop up companies are more often then not hawking Chinese garbage they got from alibaba.
The_War_Wagon
02-04-20, 19:19
These type of threads keep popping up. Why not stick with what has already been vetted?
Or come back with a review. I'M not buying one, and unless a review from some of our SME's comes back, that tells me they're 10x better than Knights Armament, at one tenth the price... than I doubt there'll be any great rush for them from this board.
I bought their basic mil-spec LPK, a pins kit, and a springs kit, marked down pretty cheap for Black Friday to add to my spares and oops pile. Haven't done anything with them other than add them to said pile, and look at them a bit in the process. So I got nothin', but, they shipped what they said they would, quickly, and everything was there, so, there's that
These type of threads keep popping up. Why not stick with what has already been vetted?
If your shopping for price and don’t care of quality, well, that has been covered to death here as well. DPMS/PSA/Bushmaster.
These pop up companies are more often then not hawking Chinese garbage they got from alibaba.
I agree on going with a company that has earned a good reputation. Its worth saying that dpms and bushmaster appear to be dead.
These guys are a machine shop, I thought they were making 80% lowers for some places. Not sure how much of the rest they are making in house. Machine shop is zrodelta.
richiecotite
02-04-20, 22:23
I’ve ordered a few parts from them; a lpk with the elg trigger, a couple of buffer tube kits and a 2 rails.
The lpk went together in an aero lower fine. The elg trigger was very nice for a mil spec style trigger.
The buffer tubes are advertised as 7075 and made in the USA, again went together on the aero lower fine. Installed one rail on a pistol, seems pretty decent, no movement or flex, but I haven’t “run it hard”, just a few hundred rounds at the range and a few drops onto concrete floor from the safe.
Far as I know they are the retail branch of critical capabilities and produce many of their components in NC
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
I wouldn't be so quick to judge these people. You have to remember that very few of these so called "Vetted" companies manufacture 100% of their parts in house. Zrodelta is a big outfit.
I agree on going with a company that has earned a good reputation. Its worth saying that dpms and bushmaster appear to be dead.
These guys are a machine shop, I thought they were making 80% lowers for some places. Not sure how much of the rest they are making in house. Machine shop is zrodelta.
IF, and that is a big IF, the machine shop is ZRODELTA, they should be good to go. These are the guys who bought Warsport IIRC, as well as do a large amount of machine work both for themselves and others.
I wouldn't be so quick to judge these people. You have to remember that very few of these so called "Vetted" companies manufacture 100% of their parts in house. Zrodelta is a big outfit.
I would agree, I don't know of any company that does 100% in house. That being said, there are still standards that need to be kept. I was sent a link to TOS where a guy worked for DPMS and commented they had at one time supplied parts to almost everyone including BCM. Now, the less than intelligent groups will take that info and say BCM=DPMS. That is simply not true, not only was the comment made that it was in the past, but there was no mention of what parts. DPMS made LPKs which were very heavily used in the industry, and I would be stunned if the majority of companies hadn't used at least some of those LPK components at some point. I think we all know that BCM was not satisfied with the level of quality they were getting, and moved to get their own castings created. You can tell if you have real BCM pieces as they are all clearly marked
I'll tell a quick story here without violating any NDAs about being in an AR15 manufacturers shop, and everything was in boxes. The individual pieces like triggers, safety, discos, springs etc came in large boxes filled with thousands of parts all oily and ready for use. Each box held a large bag so the oil wouldn't leak out, and each held a large amount of the same parts. The assemblers would take a part, drop it in, and if it doesn't fit or feel right, they would just toss it back and grab another one. Tolerance stacking wasn't an issue, and neither was QC, because they had a massive amount of pieces to grab, and one would almost always work if the first didn't.
The above company did the same thing with receivers (upper and lower), but each receiver was vetted first by a person who did a QC check for putting, machine marks, anodizing etc. This was done on a white background with very good lighting to show off any flaws. If the receiver failed visual QC, it was put in a reject box. The items which failed visual or functional QC were tallied up at a certain point, and were returned to the vendor to get credit towards the next purchase. If the QC level hit a certain point, this manufacturer would cease dealing with that supplier. The items made in house went through the same QC checks (plus the ones done during mfg), with the end goal of having a quality weapon at the end.
The reason I bring this up is that we continually see people say that all AR15s are the same and that costs don't matter. However, the end cost DOES matter. Chrome lining matters on barrels. MPI and proof testing matters (I know there are arguments to this), correct fasteners matter and the list goes on and on. Each of these things has a cost. Those costs add up.
In the case of ZRODELTA, their ability to run a machine shop allows them to make and sell parts cheaper than companies which do not actually machine anything. Mega Arms was another great example of a shop which did this. All of this is just something to think about. As already posted, I wouldn't discount these guys if they are an offshoot of the same company. If not, all bets are off.
I would agree, I don't know of any company that does 100% in house. That being said, there are still standards that need to be kept. I was sent a link to TOS where a guy worked for DPMS and commented they had at one time supplied parts to almost everyone including BCM. Now, the less than intelligent groups will take that info and say BCM=DPMS. That is simply not true, not only was the comment made that it was in the past, but there was no mention of what parts. DPMS made LPKs which were very heavily used in the industry, and I would be stunned if the majority of companies hadn't used at least some of those LPK components at some point. I think we all know that BCM was not satisfied with the level of quality they were getting, and moved to get their own castings created. You can tell if you have real BCM pieces as they are all clearly marked
I'll tell a quick story here without violating any NDAs about being in an AR15 manufacturers shop, and everything was in boxes. The individual pieces like triggers, safety, discos, springs etc came in large boxes filled with thousands of parts all oily and ready for use. Each box held a large bag so the oil wouldn't leak out, and each held a large amount of the same parts. The assemblers would take a part, drop it in, and if it doesn't fit or feel right, they would just toss it back and grab another one. Tolerance stacking wasn't an issue, and neither was QC, because they had a massive amount of pieces to grab, and one would almost always work if the first didn't.
The above company did the same thing with receivers (upper and lower), but each receiver was vetted first by a person who did a QC check for putting, machine marks, anodizing etc. This was done on a white background with very good lighting to show off any flaws. If the receiver failed visual QC, it was put in a reject box. The items which failed visual or functional QC were tallied up at a certain point, and were returned to the vendor to get credit towards the next purchase. If the QC level hit a certain point, this manufacturer would cease dealing with that supplier. The items made in house went through the same QC checks (plus the ones done during mfg), with the end goal of having a quality weapon at the end.
Damn. I need to start consulting in the firearms industry. Forget this oil and gas stuff! I'm available for QMS implementations. :lol:
Diamondback
02-05-20, 11:31
IF, and that is a big IF, the machine shop is ZRODELTA, they should be good to go. These are the guys who bought Warsport IIRC, as well as do a large amount of machine work both for themselves and others.
They appear to be, Stick. The Unbranded website says "Copyright ZRODELTA" at the bottom and phone numbers are same.
Check this out. She could probably ice to an eskimo! https://www.wideopenspaces.com/military-spouse-travels-u-s-promote-ar-15s/
Diamondback
02-05-20, 14:59
So Unbranded = Critical Capabilities. Unbranded and ZROD are both based out of NC (Rutherford College/Connelly Springs respectively) while CC doesn't post their location.
From Unbranded's TOS: "unBrandedAR is a dba of ZRODelta, LLC, a North Carolina Limited Liability Company." https://www.unbrandedar.com/terms.asp All of CC's wbsite crosslinks to Unbranded, so that tells me that CC, Unb and ZRO are all related much like Kley-Zion to Botach.
IF, and that is a big IF, the machine shop is ZRODELTA, they should be good to go. These are the guys who bought Warsport IIRC, as well as do a large amount of machine work both for themselves and others.
As others have confirmed it is what I though. The unbranded site contact says they are a DBA of zrodelta and if you look at zrodelta's website it points to unbranded under contract manufacturing.
https://zrodelta.com/contract-manufacturing/
I would agree, I don't know of any company that does 100% in house.
The only one that I know that was 100% in house, at least for a while was olympic arms. They even made their own small parts like springs. Now from a quality side......
You are correct on the rest. Its not just where the parts come from. The guy in the thread you were talking about mentioned that they were providing triggers for someone well known(I want to say JP) but that the vendor was doing the final finish and polishing work. That will make a huge different in the end product.
As others have confirmed it is what I though. The unbranded site contact says they are a DBA of zrodelta and if you look at zrodelta's website it points to unbranded under contract manufacturing.
https://zrodelta.com/contract-manufacturing/
The only one that I know that was 100% in house, at least for a while was olympic arms. They even made their own small parts like springs. Now from a quality side......
You are correct on the rest. Its not just where the parts come from. The guy in the thread you were talking about mentioned that they were providing triggers for someone well known(I want to say JP) but that the vendor was doing the final finish and polishing work. That will make a huge different in the end product.
Olympic Arms owned their own casting house, which allowed them to make most everything in house. In my dealings with OA they were not making springs, but they were making just about everything else. Things like springs, ball bearings and a few other parts just aren't realistic to make in house. The largest problem I saw with OA was their incredible unwillingness to throw out parts which were out of spec. OA was very capable to building a solid weapon, but Pops S just didn't want to see the money go in the trash. I still have one of their SUM barrels, and I think one or two other barrels from them which shoot well (all are SS).
Damn. I need to start consulting in the firearms industry. Forget this oil and gas stuff! I'm available for QMS implementations. :lol:
Hunter? Is that you?
Hunter? Is that you?Nah, I know what I'm talking about. [emoji28]
Sent from my Pixel 3 using Tapatalk
richiecotite
02-14-20, 14:55
A bit of an update...
A few weeks ago I bought a handguard for a new build using an aero upper. Unfortunately it didn’t fit correctly, the indentation on the barrel nut for the locking tab was a bit too far forward. I ended up buying a used MI rail and installing that one.
I emailed them about it, they told me to send it back for a refund. I’ve got another upper that I’m planning on trying a longer Unbranded on this one.
https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20200214/d3ed08ab3de3f80b56829e6085813d86.jpghttps://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20200214/d85c02f6b58e3744f0b1e6a9c7c0130a.jpg
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
ViniVidivici
02-14-20, 19:45
Yeah...they've got blem nitride C158 bolts for 20 bucks...I'm tempted...
Looks like you could put together your own BCG for about $64.00 plus shipping and tax. I like the idea. But not right now, too many projects, not enough money.
Yeah...they've got blem nitride C158 bolts for 20 bucks...I'm tempted...
Never hurts to have a spare bolt or three.
Here's some info via ar15podcast. Not sure if anything may have changed since:
https://firearmsradio.tv/ar-15-podcast/187
Sent from my SM-A505U using Tapatalk
ViniVidivici
02-21-20, 21:24
Got a bolt, couple sets of gas rings, an extractor and firing pin retaining pin from 'em.
Shipped next day, got here quick.
Bolt is a C158 blem. Looks fine, only blem I can find is a minor curved line on the surface of the side of the bolt, pretty insignificant, methinks. The extractor spring is copper colored, like a Colt. Thinkin' about emailing them to ask if it is.
The spare extractor looks normal too.
I'll probably put some rounds through one of the guns with this bolt, just to be sure. Don't see why it wouldn't run, though.
Got a bolt, couple sets of gas rings, an extractor and firing pin retaining pin from 'em.
Shipped next day, got here quick.
Bolt is a C158 blem. Looks fine, only blem I can find is a minor curved line on the surface of the side of the bolt, pretty insignificant, methinks. The extractor spring is copper colored, like a Colt. Thinkin' about emailing them to ask if it is.
The spare extractor looks normal too.
I'll probably put some rounds through one of the guns with this bolt, just to be sure. Don't see why it wouldn't run, though.
Thanks for the update.
richiecotite
02-23-20, 02:07
Also ordered a blem bolt, along with their v4 12” mlok rail. Bolt looks the same as the one in my PSA nitride c158 bcg https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20200223/d882a6684d5bde34b5b82bbfb4e97ebc.jpg
Rail went on fine like the first one I had. I’m really liking these, their well machined, feel solid, and inexpensive.
https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20200223/fdadfe33c7670adc11a823becd7462df.jpghttps://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20200223/b47befb75eb8095ec167f64fcd51e42d.jpghttps://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20200223/9d374c73b7d1fc09bee617a7f196e108.jpg
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
ViniVidivici
02-23-20, 13:05
I see yours is marked, I neglected to mention mine is not marked in any way. Maybe that qualifies as one of the blems.
Powered by vBulletin® Version 4.2.5 Copyright © 2024 vBulletin Solutions, Inc. All rights reserved.