Actually, that question has been asked on CGN. No bans were instituted.
I know because the discussion occurred in my thread, where I started talking about the NEA guns, back before the project was common knowledge.
I commented on this exact issue myself, and said that I had a hard time taking 6061 when 7075 was the standard. I consider it a step down in materials strength and whether it matters or not, I don't like it.
And nobody gave me a hard time about it at all.
And Greentips (owner of the site for those who don't know) talked about it extensively, and said he'd rather have 7075. He did not seem interested in banning himself afterwards but it is difficult to say for sure.
At any rate, I am interested to hear continued debate on 6061 vs 7075, but I don't think there is all that much of a debate. 7075 is preferred. 6061 is probably adequate and I believe that older Colts were made of 6061.
But I would take 7075 if I could. There is always the option of swapping out the upper, of course.
But it frustrates me that NEA has chosen to go with 6061, even if their reasoning is correct. Their position is that their engineers have determined that 6061 is a good material for their demands, and that 7075 is unnecessary and I don't doubt that they have a point. But I have a hard time taking a step down in materials strength, necessary or not.
Full disclosure: I'm the editor of Calibre Magazine, which is Canada's gun magazine. In the past I've done consulting work for different manufacturers and OEM suppliers, but not currently. M4C's disclosure policy doesn't seem to cover me but we do have advertisers, although I don't handle that side of things and in general I do not know who is paying us at any given time.
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