After buying an Ion Bonded Super duty bolt from Denny, I decided I wanted to mate it with a nickel boron bolt carrier for what I consider the best of both worlds. However, Spike's doesn't sell the carrier separately, and I wasn't too keen on spending over $150 for just a carrier from Fail Zero. Enter R guns. They sell just the carriers, or just the bolts, and at only $70. I wasn't too familiar with the company, so I asked them to tell me about their carriers. Well, I was told that they make their carriers in house, make them to mil spec, and stake them the proper way. They have WMD (the guys that split off from Fail Zero) coat them with the nickel boron. I wasn't too happy about that smiley face design that they stamp on their carriers, however, and I inquired about the availability of a carrier without it. I was told that all of the carriers are stamped that way now, and that was the way it was going to be.
I wasn't too happy about that, but I figured for $70, the price of a normal carrier, I couldn't really go wrong.
Well, when it finally came I was very pleasantly surprised. A couple of things caught my eye. One was that the staking was VERY deep and looked like the staking on my old colt carrier. The staking was deeper then Spike's gas key staking very well done. Also, the gas key screws were nickel boron coated as well, where as Spike's uses regular parkerized screws. Not a huge difference, but it does match better and I thought that was a nice little touch. The smiley face was was barely visible. It was stamped so lightly, that the top portion didn't even indent into the metal. The rest of the stamp was very lightly indented into the carrier and only noticeable upon close up inspection. It doesn't even show up in the photos. That was truly a nice surprise!
How does the carrier and coating stack up to Spikes?
The first thing I noticed was how slick and smooth R Gun's NiB coating was. This is the second NiB BCG I have owned from Spikes. The previous one got sold with the upper I bought it with. This newer NiB BCG from Spikes had a shinier, more polished finish than the old one I had from them. However, the R Guns finish is even slightly shinier and more polished than that. Running my fingers over each companies respective BCG, I could feel that both were very slick to the touch. The R Guns carrier was just as slick, if not slightly slicker than Spike's. Like I said, the fact that it was a bit more polished may have been the reason for that, which you can notice in the pictures.
The Staking on the R Gun's carrier was much deeper and better than the Spikes. I hate to reiterate this topic, but I was slightly disappointed with the staking on my current Spikes BCG. It doesn't nearly seem deep enough. Wasn't nearly as deep as my last carrier from them. Not sure why the staking is the way it is, if it is slipped QC, or if someone else staked these carriers for them, etc. All I can say is that I was more than impressed with the staking of the R Guns carrier. Very deep and very secure looking.
One thing that surprised me about R Gun's carrier is that it has a lot fewer forward assist notches than a standard AR carrier. You can see that in the comparison pictures between the two of them. I don't think this would really effect performance much, but it is interesting to note.
Test Fire: R Guns NiB carrier test fired great. It was very smooth operating, and didn't collect much grime at all. What little it did pick up was easy to wipe off.
Final Thoughts
All in all I am more than impressed with the quality of this carrier, especially at the price point. I would whole heartily recommend this carrier and I personally think it gives up nothing to Fail Zero's / Spike's in fit and finish or performance. The staking of this carrier may even pull it ahead!
The two Contenders: Front R Guns, Back Spikes
From the Back: Front R Guns, Rear Spikes
Top View: Note the Staking - Botton R Guns, Top Spikes
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