I'm happy to see this post as it is something that I have been wondering about for a while. I am currently slowly building a carbine for my son (he is only 11 months old so I have some time), but the object of this build is to build a simple but very high quality gun. As a result, I am very interested in the results of this discussion.
I have assembled 4 rifles using various parts kits. 1 back in 1994 with a Bushy kit, 2 about 4 years ago with Stag kits, and one last year with a DD kit.
I'm not the best at telling, but I really didn't have any real issues with any of the LPKs. The bushy's bolt catch was kind of loose, but I attribute that to the poor dimensional tolerances of the 1st gen DPMS lower it went in. The two Stags went together with no problems.
At that time, I was under the impression that parts is parts. After coming to this site and learning, I wanted to buy better parts for my next latest SPR build. I chose the DD kit on price and its good reputation. The kit went together well, the A2 handguard had far less flash on it than the previous three kits, and the Magpul trigger guard was nice, but the trigger was very gritty probably the worse out of any of the parts kits I have dealt with. It required some light filing with an emery board to smooth out and now it is smooth, but as has been mentioned, a little heavier that normal (it might just be springs now). The bolt catch has since picked up a little gouge in it which I have not noticed on any other rifles of mine. Function however is flawless.
The trigger however disappointed me as I was looking for a smoother trigger like what you get with new rifles. My M&P has the smoothest trigger out of the box of any stock AR or M16 I have used. My Colt is an old 1990s large pin so it may not be of the quality of the latest Colts, but I certainly consider Smiths stock trigger much better.
So this raises the question to me, do the manufacturers perform some sort of post machining on some parts when they receive them from their suppliers? Do they smooth out the trigger before they ship out the rifle? My DD fire control parts have the same "S" markings that the Colts on Grant's website have, but I assure you that most would consider the stock DD trigger unacceptable on a new Colt rifle?
“The ruling class doesn’t care about public safety. Having made it very difficult for States and localities to police themselves, having left ordinary citizens with no choice but to protect themselves as best they can, they now try to take our guns away. In fact they blame us and our guns for crime. This is so wrong that it cannot be an honest mistake.” – former U.S. Sen. Malcolm Wallop (R-Wy.)
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