Good luck getting PSA to warranty anything in a timely manner. A friend purchased a lower and upper from PSA that is slam firing. They said they'd ship a new BCG and trigger to him. It's going on three weeks and no new parts.

He releases the bolt, it chambers a round and it just goes off?

And the hammer is still back? Sounds like an out of spec firing pin.

There are a lot of parts guns at the range with serious assembly flaws. I see lots of fuckery at the range. The guns are only as good as they are assembled.

I am of the opinion that if you are going to use it for defensive use then buy a built rifle OR know what the hell you are doing.

I have AR's that I have bought.
No real need for anymore.

I have never built one but seems like it should be enjoyable.
Bought my first stripped lower last week.
Lower parts kit, stock and trigger will be here this week.
Eventually would like to learn how to apply Cerokote.
It's not about saving money, it's about learning something new for me.

Right now, I prefer to build. I've only ever purchased one factory rifle, my first AR-15. It is a Colt 6721 HBAR. Purchased in 1/2009.

In the past 6 months, I've added 3 pistols & 3 rifles to my stables, and helped friends build 2 pistols & 5 rifles. I'm pretty picky when it comes to components, and I can't stand having a bunch of parts just lying around that I took off a factory build.

Case in point, I'm pretty fond of ALG EMR-V1 M-LOK rails. I like Magpul MOE+ grips. Currently the pistols sport PSA's EPT triggers etc. I hate "buying" the parts from standard LPK's or complete lowers, just to have them collect dust, as odds of my getting any money for them are slim. I also don't like front sight posts on some rifles, or I'm looking to build a gun with a specific purpose.

I also like to support local companies, and it doesn't hurt when I can get a good deal as well. 2 of the pistols are on PWS lowers, got a good deal on their 10.5" barrels (223 WYLDE & 300 BLK), you get the idea.

I assembled mine with an Anderson lower, CMMG LPK, Magpul buttstock and a PSA upper. I wanted to assemble my own upper but for $299 shipped I decided to go with that deal. First day out, 60 rounds through it without a hiccup.

I did this for the same reason that I bought a low end Springfield 1911. I wanted to go through it, change it, improve it all at the same time while learning. With the 1911 I did not save any money, with all the Wilson Combat and Novak parts added I could have bought a "more refined" one. But I would not have learned anything though.

I decided it was worth it. I researched for months trying to find an AR that fit what I wanted. Looking at $1400 M400 or $1850+ MCX, and knowing I'd want a trigger, ambi selector, extended mag release, sights!, optics, etc... It just didn't make sense to pay $1000-$2000 just for a starting point to the gun I wanted.

So I put together an AR Pistol exactly like I wanted, for less cash than the M400, (that actually has sights and magazines...), and of much higher quality components than the MCX. Calber change? Jesus, instead of waiting for vaporware to materialize and a list of procedures on MAC like, "First simply do this... followed by this. Now you're here. So, simply take this off, simply slide this over here, make sure this one is first, simply take this out, and then you're almost done. Then, simply put this here, one stup to do this, simply slide this one next, followed by this simple step..."

My word. Take off the hand guard on my M4E1 from Aero, undo the barrel nut on my .300, put on the .223 Wilde Barrel , screw the barrel nut back on, attach the hand guard. Ta, freaking, da.

In the end the only thing that recommends the MCX is the lack of a buffer tube. I'm pretty sure that's not worth $1000+ and all the bullshit from SIG.

The platform itself was much less than the M400, and tricked out with every accessory I wanted, including the optics and all the tools I needed to start from scratch, I was under the MCX retail.

Works for me.

I don't understand the allure of a quick change barrel for caliber swaps on the AR platform.



Is the optic going to stay zeroed? I don't see how. Maybe close but it isn't going to be something that I would trust.


For all the added expense of the engineering behind a quick change barrel, I can have another complete upper ready to go. With an optic already zeroed.

Doesn't get much quicker than 2 push pins......

quote:

Originally posted by IndianaBoy:
I don't understand the allure of a quick change barrel for caliber swaps on the AR platform.
....
Doesn't get much quicker than 2 push pins......

+1

For me it's more of a stop over on the way to a second upper. This build is significant expense for me, while another BA is not that big a deal. Eventually, yeah, it'll be on its own upper, but until then I'm just a couple minuted between plinking and house defense / hunting.

Again, works for me.

quote:

Originally posted by fritz:

quote:

Originally posted by IndianaBoy:
I don't understand the allure of a quick change barrel for caliber swaps on the AR platform.
....
Doesn't get much quicker than 2 push pins......

+1

Especially when changing the upper also changes the optics whereas changing the bbl alone (which usually also changes your zero) does not. I always thought "So you changed the bbl (and sometimes even the caliber), now you have your 5.56 zero'd optic on top of your 9mm/7.62x39/.300 BLK bbl. Does your optic quick change as well? And how is changing your bbl and your optic/rezeroing the optic faster than just swapping uppers?"

Desert Tech actually had a very novel solution to this on their first MDR prototypes that they did not carry through on the latest version. The front sight was mounted to the gas block on the bbl, so when you changed your bbl, your front sight went with it and stayed with the bbl it was zero'd to. This didn't solve the issue of "What if I switch bbls, but use a rail mounted optic?" but it at least shows that they were thinking about the issue.

QC bbls make sense on a belt-fed machine gun where the sights and caliber stay the same and precision isn't a goal. But on carbines it doesn't make a lot of sense.

The Build/Buy equation hasn't changed that much. AR parts are also down in price, generally speaking.

And while it would be cheaper to buy a bone-stock M4-ish gun, it has always been so because manufacturers have always benefited from economies of scale over buyers of singular parts. The difference is more pronounced now, but it's not as if a paradigm shift has occurred.