Cracked upper? Replace or shoot and forget?
It looks like a scratch, but may be a crack. Its an Armalite, and I'm not the original owner, so there's no warranty. Given its location, it may not be a safety issue, but then again, I'm not really an AR guy and would not want to make that call without some expert advice.
Tech support at Armalite couldn't tell without manual inspection, but thought it looked like a manufacturing artifact. My armorer will inspect it later this week and tell what he thinks.
Q: break it up for parts and demil the upper, replace the upper with something like a BCM blem flattop, or shoot it and forget about it?
http://i33.photobucket.com/albums/d8...Armalitex1.jpg
Probably not a crack, but now I'm on notice that...
...it might be dangerous and I'm liable to serious damages if it ever fails and injures anybody (tort law was a bitch).
I'm anxiously waiting to get it back in my hands. This is the M-15 A2 rifle I sold recently and the buyer returned it for a full refund because of the cracked upper. I'm certainly not going to argue over the return under those conditions, and sent him a full refund, including return shipping.
I don't want to put it back up for sale until I'm sure of its true condition, so it'll go to my armorer for an inspection when I get it back.
Even if he says its GTG, because of the potential liability, I think I'll just put on a new upper receiver, put this 'cracked' one in the SHTF spares box, and put the rifle back in the rack until the next buying frenzy hits and I can double the price of the rifle!
Quote:
...how could they tell?
Yes, but I'd know the difference. Isn't there a quote to the effect that "ethics is what you do when nodoby's looking"? Its one less bad thing I will have to answer for some day...
Clearly a scratch under the anodizing
The armorer gave it a thorough going over and a clean bill of health as a scratch under the anodizing. I'm not even going to pick it up (so no follow up pictures - sorry); its going straight to consignment.