The AR-15 elitism I see circulating around is rather painful.. Especially once you educate yourself, and figure out that many companies are using the same manufacturers to make their parts. These are of course trade secrets and some of who makes what is indeed speculation. However when dealing with upper receivers, all you have to do is look for the foraging marks. You can build a very high quality rifle with very little money if you use due diligence.
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Just because two parts came from the same factory doesn't mean they have the same form, fit, and finish. Manufacturers make product to the specifications of the purchaser. The order specs control the tolerances and more.
You are largely right. And even though the finishing on some products can be a little bit better, I rarely see the price hike justification. I like simple, tough, reliable builds that get the job done. The hyped up, tacticool, guccification of so many builds is often nothing more than emotional attention and elitism. Thanks for showing us your great builds and your Spartan attitude.
I used to think very highly of Spikes Tactical until I witnessed the TRUTH of them 1st hand. I replaced my FailZero BCG with the Spikes and it was 100.00 more than the FZ. My complaint with the FZ was the same as my complaint no. The finish is HORRIBLE and even the finish in this video is horrible. FailZero will at least admit that they do not polish their NiB BCG's and Spikes "ADVERTISES" their BCG as polished but when you get it and find it is not and you call them they will tell you they do not have the time nor man power to meet the demands and polish every BCG. Yet they do not discount the BCG. You get the same crap quality of the FZ but at least the FZ is 100.00 and the sad part "THEY ARE BOTH THE SAME EXACT BCG except 1 is laser engraved with a spider and the other is FailZero. I have over 10k rounds through each BCG and only have replaced gas rings but no failures. I am a bit pissed that I had to spend 3 hours polishing both of these but for now on I will NEVER RECOMMEND SPIKES ANYTHING as they DO NOT MAKE ANYTHING OF THEIR OWN. They buy in bulk and re-brand with their name and mark up 200%. ST CHF Barrel is an FN barrel, ST UPPER AND LOWER are AERO PRECISION, Do not know who makes the handguards. They do not care about customer service at all. They only care about getting as much money from 1 person as possible.
My favorite receivers are the areo M4E1 sets
Good info man. Lots of people over paying for AR's and builds. Think you are smart cause you got a Danial Defense for 1700? You are not. You could have paid half that and built a AR customized for you that is equally operational.
i have a p-tac upper from palmetto and it has a sort of a or triangle mark is it forged
My Ar is a frankenstien all major parts are from diffrent manufacturers, runs great n was very inexpensive,.. my 2 cents
Smith and Wesson M P Sport 2 are $499… Get that and upgrade where u feel needed..
So how do you like the Anderson lower???? I have had good luck with them.
10/10 junk, lol what a joke
Buy a 5 dollar sticker that says BCA
This is why I was hesitant to get into ARs. There’s so many brands to choose from, and you really don’t know what you’re in for. The old axiom “you get what you pay for” doesn’t necessarily hold true. In the end I got a decent PSA and I’m happy with it.
In the end, isn’t that what matters? I like my rifle. I’m not going to convince you that mines better, and honestly unless your rifle is dramatically better than mine, I don’t care how much you spent on yours.
Quit being elitist fucktards and just go shooting!
Your camera work needs work
are DD barles good or is aero better?
Oil the gun much. Good god
Palmetto is straight trash. Don't skip on any parts. You don't need to spend a fortune to get good parts. Anderson ain't even built to spec
Yet no mention of barrel twist rate, gas impingement systems, red dots, etc, etc. There are WAY more things that go into the accuracy & longevity of an AR. None of which were mentioned. But yes…I get your point.
that square mark is in with FN & Colt
Dutch k has is right forged then milled at different machinist . I have PSA rifles with square , split A and some with no forge mark also have a mossberg mmr has a keyhole forge mark so yea its all over the place and companies wont say who the miller is. Also the ones from PSA I think are ones that are just outta spec for the colts and other top brands so PSA picks them up for a low price so they can pass it on just a theory
the same 4 companies make the vast majority of lowers for everyone else then sellers slap their high dollar name brand on them or their bargain name brand yet most are the same.
Can you show me how to install that shockwave on that phase 5 hex plz
I just bought a Daniel defense simple and top quality have no regret.
How about driving the point home and sharing what you spent in your AR's.
Buy cheap, stack deep. 4-8 years till panic time again
No AR manufacturer make their own uppers or lowers or BCG or even their internal parts groups and some don't even make barrels and some companies like DPMS don't make any of their parts they sub out everything and just assemble them. sostop wasting your money.
Ak47 for CQB and 308win bolt for sniping. Forsake the rest, that's all…
All the people who think they are tactical operators, oh i have this i have that shut the fuck up for going shooting a couple times a month who gives a shit if you spent 2 grand on a ar15. You think the ars the military uses are top notch wrong milspec is just a minimal standard. In case you haven't noticed ars have gone way down in price if you really want to invest money into something buy aks they have gone up substantially in price and will keep rising
Not entirely true. Yes there's only a few operational forging companies today, but a lot of companies are doing the finish milling and anodized. Thats why every psa upper I've had has been really rough on the inside, even seen them with no anodizing on the inside. And the couple of aero lowers I've seen dont drop plmags free, and require a hard tug to get them out. Also there's a huge variance in bolt carriers and bolts. There's semi profile and m16 profiles, there's different steels used. Is it hp mp inspected. Does the manufacturer use grade 8 screws on the gas key. Is your nickel boron carrier with in spec adter they add the coating, Are they lot tested or individually tested. Lots of variances in the ar15s quality.
You do realize that the forge mark is from the forger. Most companies end mill their own receivers. That's why in some cases there is a disparity between manufacturers. Anderson and the like has gotten better. But to say their all equals is not true. Same with LPK's and everything else. A friend had to send his PSA chf upper back to them. No gas port drilled. Finding out that PSA doesn't qa/qc the barrels they get from FN.
You can get good barrels at a affordable price. Ballistic Advantage for instance. lpks like Psa and Anderson use are MIM cast. Colt, BCM, Noveske, Daniel Defense and ALG use Schmid Tool investment cast. Higher qc/qa results in higher prices.
Speak that truth I'm glad I never bought into the whole name brand hype I just stick to the facts about the manufacturing process and materials. Good video and information.
Good to see you making vids.