I am a mil-spec lower kind of guy. I am not into the status symbol lowers or paying for overkill. One of my shooting interest is service rifle.
A while back a guy brought me 5 lowers. EA, BM. BRO & POF
Essential Arms - Front of magwell was rough - Was a lower serial number in the 4,XXX. Mine are much better in that spot. 50,XXX serial number.
Bushmasters x 2 - Front of magwell was rough
Black Rain Ordnance - May not be legal for use in Service Rifle -
http://blackrainordn.../custom_set.jpg
Patriot Ordnance Factory - May not be legal for use in Service Rifle -
http://www.pof-usa.c...werreceiver.htm
* I say may not be legal because they are not a Mil-spec pattern.
Just from an aesthetics view some are better on the machining. Mainly that is along the the centerline of the right / left half of the lower..
The anodizing can vary in appearance on some cheaper ones - not a big deal to me. I have seen uppers & lowers of the same brand vary when laser engraved due to variance in anodizing. Some anodizing will mar easier than others.
From a practical / functional standpoint I have heard of tight magwells and hole locations being off. I did see one guy on the net say his RRA trigger was acting up on a new build. He switched to a different lower and the trigger functioned correctly.
I have never had a lower be unusable personally. I have never seen a bad receiver in person. Some were not as pretty but not unusable.
I have done some others like Noveske, Les Baer, Stag, LMT and can't say they are better. On the Noveske the roll pins were excessively tight in my opinion, but blame could be on the LPK. The EA lowers have a good feel in that regard. I do see lowers on the net that have a trigger guard tab broken off.
I did have a bolt catch that was defective. So stuff happens.
I did 2 RRA's and a DPMS. The DPMS lower seemed fine. I wasn't too keen on the finish of the RRA's.
