AR Brands- opinions requested

[NorthBorder]

I'm looking for a fat caliber AR-15 (probably 450 Bushmaster) and would be very grateful for your opinions on some AR brands. Specifically:
GLFA
Radical Arms
Bear Creek Arsenal
Pro 2A
Anderson
Thee brands are pretty prolific on Gun Broker. I really know nothing about these brands. If I saw one come up for sale with the name Ruger, PSA, or Bushmaster I would feel confident in the purchase. But these others I know nothing about and would like to avoid bottom shelf products.
Thanks in advance

 

[Bartojc]

I have an 18" upper from BCA in .45- Bushmaster. I've only got about 100 rounds through it. Its reliable, and accuracy seems decent so far. Depends what you are looking for. I was looking for a low priced reliable upper that I could deer hunt with in areas with straight walled cartridge rules. The BCA upper fits my criteria. I used it on a Ruger upper.

-Jeff

 

[BreechFace]

If you want someone who knows big bores and don't mind spending extra then:
Tromix
This has a 1:24 twist so wouldn't be suitable for the real heavy 400gr+ loads, but will do well all general use 450BM ammo.


If you want affordable value with a good twist rate (1:16) than it's hard to argue with a Ruger.

What are your plans for it?
Supersonic Only?
Suppressed?
Subsonic?

If you are wanting to go subsonic for really quiet suppressed use then twist rate should be a big point to consider.

For heavy 400gr+ bullets a 1:16 twist will be necessary/optimal if just supers than the standard 1:24 twist found on most uppers will be fine.

 

[BreechFace]

Just wanted to say, the 450BM is a fun cartridge, so many options for anyone that reloads.

 

[NorthBorder]

I do reload. Plan wold be for bear hunting, but whether I would use it or my .270 I don't know. Really not interested in suppressors or subsonic.
I think I would like it basically because it is the AR version of a 45-70.

 

[InTheSwamp]

I also got the BCA in 450 BM. Haven't shot it much, but so far so good. I put it on a PSA lower.

 

[BreechFace]

I do reload. Plan wold be for bear hunting, but whether I would use it or my .270 I don't know. Really not interested in suppressors or subsonic.
I think I would like it basically because it is the AR version of a 45-70.

It would make for a dandy bear cartridge. There’s some good factory SP factory loads or reloading opens up a lot of options.

 

[dogtown tom]

I'm looking for a fat caliber AR-15 (probably 450 Bushmaster) and would be very grateful for your opinions on some AR brands. Specifically:
GLFA
Radical Arms
Bear Creek Arsenal
Pro 2A
Anderson
Thee brands are pretty prolific on Gun Broker. I really know nothing about these brands. If I saw one come up for sale with the name Ruger, PSA, or Bushmaster I would feel confident in the purchase. But these others I know nothing about and would like to avoid bottom shelf products.
Thanks in advance

Then avoid those on your list. Not a one makes a complete rifle that I trust.
Build your own.
I would choose an Aero Precision complete lower and then source whatever complete upper from somewhere else before buying one of those. Heck I would rather have a PSA than those.

 

[LimaCharlie]

I went with an Alexander Arms AR-15 in 50 Beowulf with a Burris prism sight.

 

[CraigC]

I've got an Aero FDE receiver set that I'm thinking about using for a .450 build. I try to avoid the low end AR's.

 

[GunnyUSMC]

Anderson makes some really nice rifles. They are also a large supplier of parts for many other companies that build ARs.
I avoid Radical Arms. They may have gotten better over the last few years, but every one I know that had one of their rifles, had trouble with them. I have a friend that owns a LGS and he carried Radical Arms ARs for about six months. So many of his customers had problems with the rifles, he dropped them.
I built a 458 SOCOM rifle and love it. But 450 Bushmaster is a better choice if you hand load.
Since you’re not interested in suppressors or subsonic, I would recommend the only muzzle brake that really works. It’s called the BIHM Brake, made by Aklys Defense.
I have nerve damage in my neck and shoulders from radiation treatments and heaven recoil makes it hard for my to shoot more the four or five rounds. My friend Zach at Aklys design and built the muzzle brake for me.
You can see that I have the prototype on my rifle. And let me tell you, it really works.


They decided to add the muzzle brake to their regular lineup and named it after me.

 

[Megawatt maker]

Avoid Radical and Bear creek. I've read nothing but bad about Radical. Not that everything you read on the internet is true...but still, I've yet to see any raving reviews for Radical. The best I've seen was.."It's ok!"...but plenty that say their QC is lousy.

I've seen Bear creek fail in the flesh at the range. The bolt carrier jambed tight halfway back during extraction. No amount of force on the charging handle could get it to move. Because it was half way back and into the tube, we couldn't open the receivers. In a word, the guy was just screwed. He had bought it not long before, said it had a few mags through it, and it even jammed up a lot. He called where he bought it, they told him it just needed to break in a bit.

Ya..just avoid those two.

Anderson is just fine. People hate on them because they are cheap...but the dirty little secret is they produce many of the parts for the big names, they just stamp those names on the side, but they are the exact same thing.

But, if you really want to sleep well at night...can't go wrong with Aero or PSA. The other big names too, if you don't mind paying a few bucks more.

 

[Random 8]

Anderson lowers, parts, rifles are fine, but I'd avoid anything Anderson on gunbroker as you're probably buying somebody else's build that may have issues. They are a very common foundation for home builds as they are value priced and of good quality. I don't know about you, but I tend to auction 2 types of firearms. Problem children, and too valuable to shoot.

I would look to a complete upper from a reputable manufacturer and "build" with your own lower assembly, or a complete rifle from a reputable manufacturer with warranty support. Hedge your bets! Or go old school and find a Rem 7600 carbine in 30-06 or .308 and really whack a bear.

 

[earlthegoat2]

An Anderson lower is fine as is just about any brand of lower.

Barrel, BCG, trigger, and maybe to a lesser extent, the lower parts, make the AR regardless of cartridge used.

 

[12Bravo20]

The only Anderson parts I will ever use is their lower and upper bare receivers. Their receivers are fine for a budget builder when you use quality parts.

And I will NEVER buy another Radical Firearms product again. The 10.5" upper I had shot patterns instead of groups. And others have had the barrels come out of the barrel extension on RF uppers.

Bear Creak won't see any of my money after the fiasco and major safety issues with their rimfire uppers. They sent out a lot of 22LR barrels with the extractor grooves cut too deeply which caused case ruptures. And they also sent out replacement barrels that were bad too. Some gas got 3 bad barrels in a row. Plus BCA's attitude about the bad 22LR barrels is another reason why they won't see any of my money.

Yes I know some have had good luck with both Radical Firearms and Bear Creek Arsenal and I am glad that thy did. But I won't buy products from either company.

 

[citizenconn]

Yes I know some have had good luck with both Radical Firearms and Bear Creek Arsenal and I am glad that thy did. But I won't buy products from either company.

I learned almost all of my AR gunsmithing skills back in the day from Radical and BCA. And not in a good way. I still have some of their uppers though because they make some excellent barrels at times. I sold my few BCA lowers as soon as I knew better though. YMMV.

 

[P Flados]

I would recommend buying a new complete gun (or the parts to assemble one) from PSA long before I would consider any used gun or off brand assembled gun off of Gunbroker.

A good assembled upper, the bolt and the appropriate matching buffer components are 75% of the items that make for good function. The working parts in the lower also need to be reliable, but this is not normally a problem area.

 

[wesmonster]

I have a Radical Firearms 10" 7.62x39 upper with an LMT bcg. Had it for at least 10 years, good shooter. Bought it on sale from AIM Surplus super cheap compared to a comperable PSA.
Have a Bear Creek 6.5Grendel 20" stainless steel upper & bcg, VERY accurate.
Have several Anderson lowers and had a 10" 5.56 Anderson upper with a PSA bcg. Only got rid of the Anderson upper cause I didn't care for 5.56 out of a short barrel, but had no problems.

From what I read RF customer service is terrible, when I bought mine I knew if I had problems it'd be on me to fix. Today I'd sooner gamble on a Bear Creek, at least their CS seems to be really good. BCA does have a good selection of different configs in different calibers. Anderson uppers don't seem to be as loved as their lowers but mine shot as good as my Bravo Company & Rock River Arms uppers.
Some other mid priced upper brands I own and recommend are Alpha Shooting Sports and Grid Defense/ Ghost Firearms. Although I have more PSA uppers and lowers than any other brand and that's usually the first brand I recommend. Although I will also admit that I've gotten a few PSAs that weren't torqued quite tight enough, same for my RF.

 

[Capybara]

I just did two AR builds with Anderson lowers I've had around here for a while. Build number one went fine. When I got halfway through build number two, it seemed that the safety detent hole was stepped and not drilled out properly. Not as in there were a few burrs, more like the hole had barely been drilled properly on the second pass. I researched and tried cleaning it out by hand with first a smaller sized drill bit, then a bit larger. I tried inserting the detent and it became stuck. I tried tapping out from the top, tapped it out with a punch, then took out a bit more metal to loosen up the hole a bit more. I tried the detent again and it seemed to drop in okay so I inserted the safety selector and proceeded.

Evidently my tapping with a punch had dented up the tip of the detent a bit as it became stuck in the hole and the tip became stuck into the safety selector channel and the safety wouldn't go back to safe from fire. I tried finessing it a bit but the detent became stuck in the hole and in the safety selector channel. I had to drill out the detent, it was a PITA. I am going to shelve this lower and am heading to my LGS to purchase another lower as I don't really want to have to get into metal machining to assemble an AR. I have done plenty of builds with all kinds of lowers and this was the first time I encountered a hole that was actually drilled incorrectly. I think I will be avoiding Anderson and the lowest priced lowers and may spend a bit more. The amount of time I wasted wrestling with this was annoying and expensive as this was on a work day where I had a couple of hours to work on a build.

I have a pistol built on a Spikes lower and have another rifle built on a Windham lower and both of these seems to be finished and made to a bit more refined standards than my inexpensive Anderson lowers so take that for what it's worth. I think what happened to this lower could have happened with any brand lower though, it's really more of a QC and inspection issue.