How Long Will a Forged AR Lower Last?

[No Bananas]

Wondering how these will hold up over time, with and without heavy use. What repairs and wear am I looking at? Will there be a big difference between the Forged and Billet lowers?

We SBR folk are particularly interested to know ;)

[GregoryJ333]

Forged lowers will last a long time with moderate use and normal care. Expect a forged lower to last your lifetime and then some. Full auto ones are still going strong from the 70's and 80's and those will have seen much more use than a new semi auto would. I would expect billet lowers to fare the same.

[dwhitehorne]

My Colt M16A1 at work is still going strong after 37 years. Built in the summer of 72 according to my serial number. I was issued it about 6 years ago. I wouldn' t say it has seen heavy use by me, but I do wonder who's hands it has passed through over the years. David

[markm]

Let's put it this way.

Any forged lower will outlast this nation. :(

[No Bananas]

Let's put it this way.

Any forged lower will outlast this nation. :(

So how long do you give us? 40-50 years?

[bkb0000]

billets generally have thicker material, but they're also generally 6061 aluminum, which is softer.

forged 7075t6 lowers are tougher, but not as thick.

7075t6 billet, on the other hand, is the best of both worlds...

i think any 7075t6 lower will probably last through the Second Coming, though. it's the lowest wear part on your gun.

[6933]

markm-Oh man! I'm upset that someone else may be as skeptical as me.

[markm]

So how long do you give us? 40-50 years?

Ah... you're an optimist!! ;)

[No Bananas]

Ok, the longevity of our nation aside. Would it last that long?

[rmecapn]

Ok, the longevity of our nation aside. Would it last that long?

I would suggest that a lower will handle at least 300,000 cycles of the action before one would see appreciable wear or elongation of the FCG pin holes.

[RAM Engineer]

So I can finally stop buying lowers and start buying barrels/uppers? ;)

[An Undocumented Worker]

I have never understood why people go gonzo over billet recievers, vs a quality forged unit.

It has been my experience with mountain biking that forged parts are always stronger than thier billet counterpart. While at the same time providing safe and predictable failure carachteristics should the part be stressed outside of it's design requirements. As the grain structure of a forged aluminum part follows the contours of the part. Where as a billet part is like carving something out of a solid block of wood, you deall with grain structures that may be out of line with the forces involved, and cracks tend to propogate along the grain.

In my opinion, if you are building a rifle for usage,vs a safe queen then forged recievers are typically the better, stronger alternative. That said, a lower reciever takes nowhere near the beating that a set of mountain bike cranks take. So in reality the strength difference between a billet vs forged reciever may never make come into play in the realworld, unless you have to slam the buttstock against an object on a regular basis.:p

[Detmongo]

i have a DPMS lower with over 30,000 rds. thru it no . this past fall i attended the
bw arm. course and found that my trigger pin had cracked in half, during the course i rebuilt the lower and since put a few thousand rounds thru it. i would change out the action spring every 7-10,000 rds..

[markm]

I have never understood why people go gonzo over billet recievers, vs a quality forged unit.

It has been my experience with mountain biking that forged parts are always stronger than thier billet counterpart. While at the same time providing safe and predictable failure carachteristics should the part be stressed outside of it's design requirements. As the grain structure of a forged aluminum part follows the contours of the part. Where as a billet part is like carving something out of a solid block of wood, you deall with grain structures that may be out of line with the forces involved, and cracks tend to propogate along the grain.

In my opinion, if you are building a rifle for usage,vs a safe queen then forged recievers are typically the better, stronger alternative. That said, a lower reciever takes nowhere near the beating that a set of mountain bike cranks take. So in reality the strength difference between a billet vs forged reciever may never make come into play in the realworld, unless you have to slam the buttstock against an object on a regular basis.:p

I completely agree. I'd never us a billet lower. Most shooters on this sight know the difference. If you go over to ARF, you'll get some goofballs that would argue these facts with you. They don't realize that they paid more money for a weaker part! :rolleyes:

[GONIF]

SECOND COMMING ?,I'm still waiting for the first . ;)
billets generally have thicker material, but they're also generally 6061 aluminum, which is softer.

forged 7075t6 lowers are tougher, but not as thick.

7075t6 billet, on the other hand, is the best of both worlds...

i think any 7075t6 lower will probably last through the Second Coming, though. it's the lowest wear part on your gun.

[kaiservontexas]

billets generally have thicker material, but they're also generally 6061 aluminum, which is softer.

forged 7075t6 lowers are tougher, but not as thick.

7075t6 billet, on the other hand, is the best of both worlds...

i think any 7075t6 lower will probably last through the Second Coming, though. it's the lowest wear part on your gun.

Who makes the 7075t6 lowers?

[Thomas M-4]

This is taken from stiller web site:
Our new Predator XT Billet AR lowers will be the state of the art foundation for your new gas gun project. We researched far and wide to determine what exactly the perfect AR lower should be, and this is what we came up with. First we determined that we had to go billet. That was going to be the only way we could offer the features we wanted to include. After a painstaking study, we found that the best combination of stiffness, strength and toughness was offered by high performance aircraft alloy that is used in military fighter jet structures. We found a California metals distributor to supply us with it. It is 7050-T7651. It is almost twice as strong as 6061-T6 and has better crack toughness then 7075. It was the best thing we could find, so that is what we used.

In reference to Stillers new billet lower By the way Stiller makes aluminum bench rest actions and is well respected in the bench rest community.

http://www.viperactions.com/

[d90king]

Can anybody actually answer this question? To many variable to answer the OP's question.

[CTBuilder1]

I completely agree. I'd never us a billet lower. Most shooters on this sight know the difference. If you go over to ARF, you'll get some goofballs that would argue these facts with you. They don't realize that they paid more money for a weaker part! :rolleyes:

I don't think I would go as far to say I would never use a billet lower, but I sure would not pay the premium for one. Some of the billet uppers on the market are pretty nice though. The Vltor MUR and Larue come to mind. I wouldn't mind using either one of those. Currently everything I have is forged.

I've seen some of the reasoning behind billet as being more dimentionally accurate than forgings. Not sure what kind of truth there is to this.

[bkb0000]

I don't think I would go as far to say I would never use a billet lower, but I sure would not pay the premium for one. Some of the billet uppers on the market are pretty nice though. The Vltor MUR and Larue come to mind. I wouldn't mind using either one of those. Currently everything I have is forged.

I've seen some of the reasoning behind billet as being more dimentionally accurate than forgings. Not sure what kind of truth there is to this.

those are uppers, though.. we be talkin lowers, dawg.

i cant think of any billet lowers i've had, but i've done a few uppers. they serve a purpose.. billet lowers serve no purpose but looks. and, as we all know, doing anything to your gun for style points is gay, right?

[TOrrock]

There are still Hydromatic M16 lower receivers that have seen heavy use still in use and still good to go after 40 years.

In a semi auto rifle, it's definitely something you'd pass down to your kids or grandkids.

[bkb0000]

There are still Hydromatic M16 lower receivers that have seen heavy use still in use and still good to go after 40 years.

In a semi auto rifle, it's definitely something you'd pass down to your kids or grandkids.

and those are probably 6061 aluminum with soft anodize. our soopertuf 7075t6/type III anodized modern receivers are twice as manly.

[tinman44]

Let's put it this way.

Any forged lower will outlast this nation. :(

awesome reply :D

[albatrossarmament]

A quality forged lower will last longer then this:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NqzFItaJ1uc&feature=related