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Still finding my way |
I have a couple of PSA premium mid length rifles that have been 100% reliable over the last 10 years or so. | |||
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Don't sleep on ADM. They have one of the best designed ambi lowers out there. IDPA ESP SS | |||
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BCM is pretty good for the money and a few others. Some prices of a few brands, are just priced insanely to me. | |||
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Colt is still great. Bartocci has a major axe to grind with Colt. His video shows that Colt has outsourced a number of parts, but this has been going on for a very long time. I have semi and fullauto Colts from the 60s, 70s, early 90s, late 90s, early 2000s, up to recent production. The current guns are absolutely up to par. Colt QC is still generally excellent. The OEM line is my favorite, as it allows you to add your preferred handguard, stock, trigger guard, sights. Colt barrels are quite accurate, including their run of the mill 6920 m4 profile. Their SOCOM barrels are my favorite of any general purpose AR barrel. The Colt M5 is very intriguing. It’s $1700 from AU. The FN15 Tac3 seems great on paper. It’s just a smidge more then $1500. BCM is always a good option. Centurion is too. I’d avoid S&W ARs. If you want to go cheap, buy a PSA with nitrided barrel. --------------------------------------------- "AND YEA THOUGH THE HINDUS SPEAK OF KARMA, I IMPLORE YOU...GIVE HER A BREAK, LORD". - Clark W. Griswald | |||
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In the $1500 range the FN Tac3 is pretty solid for what you get. About the only thing I would do to it is put a Schmid two stage trigger in it, as noted earlier it already comes with the controls I like to use and a pinned gas block. Building isn't any cheaper, I mean you can. My cheapest one was about $460, then $1200, then $1400, the next one will be in the $1500 range. If you're not in a hurry wait till stuff goes on sale. | |||
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| Peace through superior firepower  |
The experience I described with the unmarked Colt BCG would seem to validate Bartocci's claims. It's my understanding that Colt has now gotten wise and has started laser etching their carriers. Used to be, Colt OEM BCGs were sourced from LMT and Checkmate IIRC. I bought a Colt BCG from Specialized Armament (now there is an outfit you can trust) back in 2012 and if it's not an LMT, I'll eat my hat. The part I sent back to AU- who knows where it came from? By the way, it's all coming back to me now. With regards to Arms Unlimited, I ran across the email that caused me to disallow any mention of them. Dated April 16, 2017. It read, in part: "The item you ordered was not a replica it was in fact a Colt product. You sent it back to us used it was filled with white grease in the pin holes. Even though you sent it to us back in terrible condition we still gave you the refund. If you look at our website our return policy clearly states must be returned new this was clearly used." That is a flat-out fucking lie. As soon as I received the part and found it missing the usual Colt markings I put it back in the package and contacted AU to begin the return process, and I mean the very minute I found that it lacked the correct markings, I was already composing an email to them. If they had just been honest and said 'Look, Colt is no longer marking their carriers as you would expect because they are being sourced from other vendors'. But, no, they withheld that information and then they accused me of running a part which I had no desire to possess. That's chickenshit and I am almost inclined to once again disallow the mention of their name in this forum. I had forgotten about that, but it's all coming back to me now. | |||
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Sheesh - sounds like quite the shit show occurred. I too, had a bad purchase experience with them a few years back. I've also had a handful of great transactions with them to keep me at least watching what they have to offer. They do seem to have an in with Colt's, as they often have guns in stock before anyone else, usually priced about as good as you can get, etc. I do remember my sour transaction with them as well and it always comes to mind as it was frustrating. Not trying to slide the conversation here off topic, so I'll let AU die off. I wouldn't go so far to ban the mention of them though, as being able to read about them here is just helping readers be more informed. Without it, we wouldn't get a chance to learn both sides for future consideration. When I close the house down for the night, I'll go dig through that video you linked. | |||
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| Peace through superior firepower |
Oh, one last thing about AU- the CC dispute. This is their logic: They told my CC company that of course the part they sold me was genuine Colt, because if it wasn't, they couldn't sell it. No, really.  It's magic!! So freakin' ridiculous. The idea is that a lack of exposure lessens their chances of gaining new sales, and I'm fairly confident that I was successful to a degree. It may have been only one or two sales but I felt that their behavior was less than honorable by falsely accusing me. Mind you, this was after they had received the part in return, and had refunded my money. Now, just what purpose did their accusation serve, especially since it was a flat-out lie? | |||
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I own a complete BCM and several of their uppers. They are a good outfit and make quality products. They have some long term relations with some well known high round count trainers, so their guns are known to work. SOLGW, Sionics, DD, KAC, LMT also have good reps, but I don't own any, so I can't really comment on them. Centurion, mentioned above, has built a very good reputation, especially among MK12 cloners. I've got one of their rails and its good quality. The Colts I've handled recently have been decent. Colt really focused on the 6920 and contract guns for many years. They had a piston gun as early as 2007 (I held it in my hands at the Infantry Conference) but I never saw them sell it to civilians. The 901 was cool, but they didn't seem to put many into the market. They released their Mid-length, the CCU, well after everyone else did. | |||
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Was anything wrong with it other than being unmarked? I would have returned an unmarked carrier too. How can one know the provenance if it’s not marked? It was pretty widely known at that time that some uppers and carriers were coming out of Colt and were unmarked. I avoided buying any Colt parts that didn’t have a photo showing markings…and I still avoid them. I did roll the dice on a 2020 6920 OEM2. It has partial rollmarking, partial laser engraving on the lower, roll marked carrier, and dot matrix bolt. I got lucky. As for AU, that’s an unfortunate experience. I’d be pissed too. I’ve had nothing but positive experiences. I can say with certainty that their CS has gotten better in recent years. Pretty much everything is laser engraved at Colt now. I’m guessing their roll dies wore out. It’s easier and cheaper to engrave. I don’t like it and prefer my older roll marked lowers and carriers. --------------------------------------------- "AND YEA THOUGH THE HINDUS SPEAK OF KARMA, I IMPLORE YOU...GIVE HER A BREAK, LORD". - Clark W. Griswald | |||
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Scionics rifles are top notch for sure - we've migrated all of our patrol and SWAT AR's over to them. They are definite shooters. As for the Colt piston AR, they did roll out about 1200 or so of the 6940P(p for piston) rifles but then killed those off as well. A small flood of them being trade in DOE guns recently hit the market as well and are now being flipped for profit to collectors. | |||
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| Peace through superior firepower |
No. Other than lacking the markings, it looked perfectly fine. In retrospect, now knowing what was going at that time with Colt and its sourcing of vendors, it all makes sense. Notice, however, that AU said that I claimed the BCG was a "replica". I don't even know what that's supposed to mean. I told them it lacked proper markings and therefore appeared to be a non-OEM part. After corresponding with them a bit, I got the impression that the person on the other end did not have English as a first language. | |||
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Frangas non Flectes |
Same. I ran one over a thousand rounds of Wolf through my first PSA midlength without cleaning it or oiling it to see what kind of failures I could get out of it. One stuck case that I couldn't mortar, and pounded it out with a range rod around 700 rounds in. Kept going well past a thousand without any other problems, so I decided it was probably time to clean it. I inherited a another PSA midlength with a taper profile FN barrel and a dickmod rail, it's been fine, too. Bought a three pack of blem lowers this past summer and built one up. Everything fits fine, a variety of mags all drop free. Some people turn their nose up at PSA, but I've had real good luck with their stuff. ______________________________________________ Carthago delenda est | |||
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Do you have any information to share, or were you just stating a personal preference? ____________________ | |||
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As stated, a Colt 6920 was the easy answer. The good old days. I would say BCM hands down, especially for the price, but really at any price. Great guns and Paul B is a great dude. Centurion is also a great choice. ----------------------------------------- Roll Tide! Glock Certified Armorer NRA Certified Firearms Instructor | |||
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Because they laid off some employees to stay in business? ----------------------------------------- Roll Tide! Glock Certified Armorer NRA Certified Firearms Instructor | |||
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| Still finding my way |
I did the same but with 500 rounds each of shitty Tula ammo. No failures at all. I've since shot another few thousand of mixed ammo out of each. Their premium uppers with FN bbls are a great deal. I wish they made one with an 11.5". | |||
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| Get my pies outta the oven!  |
A Ruger AR-556 for around $700 and spend the rest on ammo! I have one and think it's great. | |||
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^^^^ What he said. Been quite happy with my cheapie Ruger. End of Earth: 2 Miles Upper Peninsula: 4 Miles | |||
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| Frangas non Flectes |
Nice. Yeah, since I only had the one stuck case, I attribute it to being steel and not brass. Both mine have the FN barrels, and in fact, the original that I put through that test got torn down yesterday to be built into something else I'll post about when it's done. If nothing else, PSA is a good way into an FN barrel for pretty cheap, and then you can do what you want after that. Which brings me to another point. If the OP is willing to be patient, cruise the secondary market, look for sales, and roll his own, it opens up a lot of possibilities. ______________________________________________ Carthago delenda est | |||
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