Plumcrazy firearms

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TexasPatriot.308

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has anybody checked out these lower AR15 parts by Plum crazy firearms...they selll for just over $100 and I have heard some talk about them..., kind of hard to believe I know the old saying you get what you pay for. you could build a decent cheap AR if you put a mid price upper on it. just a thought. a friend of mine said he got one and it was great. just want some input before I go out and spend some money, but then again for that price wouldnt hurt the gamble.
 
If I remember correctly they do not use standard AR trigger parts and will only accept their Accu Group fire control system.
 
TexasPatriot.308 -
I agree. Just bought two of them ($119 each) and the trigger on the first was great. The trigger on the second was unbelievable... light, crisp and no creep. But that's only my opinion and I've only been shooting for 45 years...

I got mine to match with a Model 1 Sales Varmint 20" upper ($375). That, with a standard finish bolt carrier assembly and a couple of pins, will get me a nice casual shooter for just under $600. I'll use one of the many scopes I've tucked in my basement over the years, and I'll be off to the range. :D

My neighbor/buddy/FFL guy - is the head of our local SWAT team and in charge of weapons and ammo. They've had 3 of them for several years and use them just like any other - they stand up to all the shooting they want. On an average shoot day, they put 2-3,000 rounds through each gun, with no problems.

For any non-combat situation, I can't see where they won't work just fine...
 
so what was said by the company? All I saw was the guy staying it was the buffer tube with the buffer hanging inside of it and then later saying it was not the tube but did not like the buffer? And then does not want to contact the company?

One thing I do agree on is that I have not seen one of the alum. ones break there.
 
I believe this just happened within the last week, and I haven't heard whether he contacted the company or not. I'll follow up.

And you're right; I've never seen an aluminum receiver break like that.
 
thats kinda scary, was thinking of putting a low end upper like Olympic arms or so for a low end AR. I got enough AR15s and 10s, just curious...what was the deal with thal lil blowup?
 
my father bought 2 of them and fitted DPMS lightweight uppers on them. i've shot them both no issues but neither have over 100rds on them. yea there probably fine for a casual shooter or for a bench gun?
 
Read the last three pages of the link above, he highlights what happened. Something about the buffer binding during shooting.
 
Reminds me of a Glock Kaboom.

Either way something was not right. Time will tell if this type of failure keeps happening. But it's nothing an engineer cannot fix. Just like polymer pistols in the 80's were knocked on the polymer rifle will certainly catch some flak till the bugs are worked out. Our kids will end up shooting polymer rifles that weigh 5lbs and are just as reliable as the old school stuff.
 
jpwilly said:
Reminds me of a Glock Kaboom.

Either way something was not right. Time will tell if this type of failure keeps happening. But it's nothing an engineer cannot fix. Just like polymer pistols in the 80's were knocked on the polymer rifle will certainly catch some flak till the bugs are worked out. Our kids will end up shooting polymer rifles that weigh 5lbs and are just as reliable as the old school stuff.
Click to expand...
That might be the case, but I'll just stick with forged aluminum receivers, and know that I'll never have a problem like this.
 
The failure above was a buffer tube problem, not a receiver problem. If the buffer binds, your aluminum receiver will be damaged too. It probably will not look like that, but it will damage it.
 
Ithaca37 said:
The failure above was a buffer tube problem, not a receiver problem. If the buffer binds, your aluminum receiver will be damaged too. It probably will not look like that, but it will damage it.
Click to expand...
Again, this might be true, but in 19 years of handling the AR/M-16s, I've never once heard of this happening. Am I Pat Rogers, of course not. But I try to keep up on things.

All things considered, is it not worth it to spend just a little more, and have the confidence that your rifle isn't going to have this problem? Since PC lowers are sold complete, that tells me it is still a PC problem.
 
Actually, the more I look at that the more curious I become.

The lower on an AR-15 is an unstressed part. There shouldn't have been any forces there strong enough to do that. Even if the buffer binds, there's not that much force once the bolt is unlocked. I've had buffer's bind up and they didn't damage anything. It just stopped the bolt carrier and the rifle failed to cycle.

Think about it, the only time there's any pressure at all pushing the bolt carrier back is when the bullet is between the gas port ant the muzzle. By design, the bullet has to have cleared the muzzle and the pressure dropped before the bolt unlocks or you'll have problems. Once the bolt is unlocked and the carrier is moving into the receiver extension the only force is inertia of the bolt carrier, and that's not much at all. I don't think that inertia is enough to crack that polymer like that. There's just not much force there at all.

In fact, about the only way I can see that break happening is if the bolt carrier caught the lower receiver at the vary beginning of it's travel. It would have to hit the lower before the bolt unlocks, the bullet clears the muzzle and the pressure drops. Then it would have several thousand PSI available (for a short time) and THAT could crack just about any lower. So somewhere in the first 1/4" or so of travel the bolt carrier bound on the lower. I'd bet it was the lower itself too, because if it bound in (or on) the receiver extension it should just strip the threads out and dump the extension. Which makes this whole thing very interesting because there's normally nothing there to bind on.

If I had to bet, I'd say the carrier tilted down and caught the threads in the lower, or went sideways and bound on the lower that way and that's what ripped the lower apart. I'd be very interested in seeing pictures of the carrier, receiver extension, upper receiver and the inside of that lower. I'd bet there's marks in there of the carrier moving around prior to this malfunction.

Either way the owner should send at least pictures back to Plum Crazy, so they know this happened and can try to figure out why. It might be a lower issue, or it might be some of the upper parts were out of spec, or some combination of both, but they can't fix it if they don't even know.
 
While interesting, it doesn't exactly hold to what I'm stating. So, to further qualify my statement, I'll never purchase a lower that isn't made to spec with 7075 forged aluminum. Most people are aware that Vulcan/Hesse are complete junk, and don't even come close to being built in spec.
 
i am aware of this occurance... i also use a plumcrazy firearm as a defense contractor....never had this issue.... some of you are stating bolt tilt...take your ar apart, look at the upper....it is PHYSICALLY IMPOSSIBLE for the bolt to tilt inside the upper and even remotely reach the lower....as to to mil spec question, YES the plumcrazy's are built to spec and everything including the trigger group is interchangeable with regular a.r. parts.... how do i know? i've had to do it overseas. to the issue at hand, plumcrazy has a LIFETIME warranty. they state their lowers are ONLY rated for 5.56 rounds and all pistol caliber uppers, but not 7.62x39 uppers or .50 beouwolf or .50bmg uppers. buffers cannot bind in the buffer tube as it is an aluminum commercial tube they use, made by tapco. the gentleman in question when it came to plumcrazy's attention WAS contacted by THEM and he never responded even though they were offering a full replacement at no charge... the real question would be A. did this ACTUALLY happen or is he one of the "aluminum" only crowd that deliberately damaged the receiver, or B. did he ignore the statement by plumcrazy about NOT putting 7.62x39, .50 beowulf, .50 bmg uppers on it, and did he possibly put on of those uppers on, WHICH would have exerted more pressure than the polymer was engineered to take....also C. why did he not respond when contacted by the company (who reached out to him first). simply put, i have had my plumcrazy in central america, afghanistan and iraq (both places it has been in sandstorms), and have used it in combat environments as a contractor.....i've never had any issues other than parts wearing out (which happens on the aluminum ones too guys). if it's approved by a.t.f. for manufacture it now has to meet certain criteria so there's too many unknowns to blame it on the polymer receiver OR the company. for a company that has a LIFETIME warranty, and has sent me replacement parts when i got stateside, with no charge (even though they had simply worn out) i find it hard to believe this happened without some form of misuse or deliberate help.
 
I have one and it works great, no problems at all.... If I need another lower, no problem with me buying another one....+
 
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