"Unbranded AR"

[ViniVidivici]

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]

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.

[John W]

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]

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.

[Warp]

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

[ccosby]

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]

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


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[GH41]

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.

[Stickman]

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.

[Stickman]

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.