ID-shooting said:
know Oly Arms has a rather poor reputation. History of cast parts, shoddy construction, poor service, and such.
Did they go through a change recently?
It appears from looking through the responses here that Olympic has a hit-and-miss reputation right now at best.
As I said, my experience was that the Olympic I owned had a couple issues. To be fair, once I got the castle nut loctited, the rifle ran fine and I did enjoy it. I shot it quite a bit and it was a lot of fun at the range. As I recall, it did puff a bit of gas back through by the charging handle until it was a little dirty. I thought about buying a PRI gasbuster charging handle at the time, but sold the rifle instead. As I compared the rifle I had with other brands and saw the rough finishing marks, metal shavings present on the FSB and other places where holes were drilled, stuff like that... it became apparent that someone hadn't put much care into the rifle's assembly. Things that could have been smoothed out with a file in five minutes weren't addressed. If that was the QC they put into the parts I could see, how much went into the parts I couldn't see? I did peen the gas key before I sold it though. I think the buyer got a better rifle when I sold it than I got when I bought it, but I only paid $499 at the time, so it wasn't too costly of a learning experience.
Knowing what I know now, I know which brands turn out better products and which brands/models are pretty good products at lower prices. And I know which rifles are gambles. A gamble is still OK if you can get it cheap enough. I'd still consider Olympic Arms a gamble.
I'd consider PSA and S&W M&P Sport decent rifles at lower prices (with a few cost cutting measures that make them not the equal of a Colt or BCM). I'm not an expert or a gun writer - just a guy who likes guns.
If you were standing next to me at the LGS looking over AR's and you were holding an Olympic, I'd politely (and out of earshot of the employees) suggest you look at the PSA and the M&P Sport on the rack before you spent money. I try to tell it like it is, online or in person.
Sorry you were offended.