Ar Stripped Lowers

[dovedescending]

Are they all created equal? Buying an AR outright would be dropping almost a month's pay for me, but I'd love to own one... so my thought was, buy a stripped lower, and as I can tuck money away, purchase parts and assemble as I go.

I'm seeing price ranges for stripped lowers that go all over the place. What's the difference? If I get a cheaper stripped lower, and put better-grade internals in it... wouldn't that make the difference I need?

 

[wally]

As long as you stay away from Vulcan/Hesse/Blackthorne (and whatever the most recent name change dodge might be) you should be OK.

At gun shows around here you can usually get DoubleStar stripped lowers for about $90, which is a safe bet IMHO.

--wally.

 

[dakotasin]

when i built my ar-15's i went w/ stag arms lowers. they have been very good for me.

i got mine at the awb sunset ban, so lowers were a little scarce then, but at the time i solicited feedback on several brands and stag received good feedback from other users, and were available, and were inexpensive.

 

[briansmithwins]

Usually spending a little more gets you a better finish or the animal (or lack thereof) of your choice.

Other than that they are all pretty much the same. BSW

 

[bpl]

when i built my ar-15's i went w/ stag arms lowers. they have been very good for me

This has been my experience with Stag as well.

Usually spending a little more gets you a better finish or the animal (or lack thereof) of your choice

This is true as well.

 

[smartshooter.45]

i have a doublestar lower on my .223 and the fit/finish/function is great. it is also inexpensive. the finish on it really is nice.

this pic is a bit fuzzy but you can still see for yourself. i also really like the doublestar logo

 

[Tirod]

Don't let some of the lesser know brands escape attention. I bought an AGP, which is machined by a turbo parts supplier to the aftermarket car industry. Nice logo, trigger set screw, beveled mag well, and very clean machining. The roll marks are CNC'd and even, not the uneven stamped look prevalent on old school versions. Nothing wrong with that, just a point.

Most lowers are forged by half a dozen companies and machined by them and a half dozen more for all the different makers out there. Check the arfcom stickies for more info than you might need for details. Lowers come with and without forgemarks on the edge, with tight or loose magwells, high or low walls that determine if full auto parts could be made to fit, and will run tight or loose when attached to an upper, which is not an accuracy problem and easily cured. One other difference is large or small pin which is a Colt issue, most others don't mix and match.

Building is a great way to assemble on a budget, but has one or two problem areas: Fully assembled groups are often the same price, as buying in bulk drops the per part prices so low the labor can be added and it's still competitive. The other is shipping, the bane of the internet shopper these days. $20 to ship less than 14 oz of furniture from AZ to MO sucks a lot of money out of the builders budget, and causes one to think about it a lot more. Do that 5 times and a $100 upgrade for a better part disappears. The actual "on the doorstep" price is often not figured into a lot of expense posts, and it's misleading to ignore it. Maybe we all want to be a little uninformed, but when you sell something else to pay for AR parts, it starts to hurt thinking a nice item you used to own was blown on shipping.

Once the the process starts, then the decision making gets interesting, and things often accelerate to get it done. I think I might get it done by October to hunt deer, but the pressure will be on when I order a long lead item like a barrel and find what I want vs. what is in stock or even on discount that can ship sooner.

Stick to a precise recipe and it will turn out exactly the way intended. Then it will be a great rifle or a dud, but you'll know why.

 

[APIT50]

Spikes Tactical is selling lowers for $85 I built a lower recently using theirs and was very pleased. Lowers for the most part are a lot less important in quality than the upper. STAY AWAY from polymer lowers. RRA two stage trigger is possibly best bang for the buck "match" grade trigger. You can find these online included in lower parts kits.

 

[salazar44]

wow... thats an excellent deal on lowers for today!

 

[greyling22]

I hear good things about aero precision lowers too. https://surplusammo.com/index.php?main_page=index&cPath=33&zenid=5f8731fa67a9c90784c21ac19abfaaa3

if every nickel counts, the cheapest I found was to buy a lower, (I went with a DSA blemished for $66 delivered, mine was out of spec, they're swapping it out now but most people got fine ones)then a add delton complete kit(465+shipping no mag). also, the cmmg bargain bin guns (600+shipping and ffl no mag) and the doublestar star-15 at buds guns (650+ffl w/ 1 mag). cdnn also has a good deal on the smith and wesson complete guns+about 15 mags for about $800 I think.

 

[Tirod]

Match triggers are a good example of what to carefully consider in building. If it's a range gun, or the user has experience with them, OK. Lot's of builders will pick out items like that as being part of a upper tier build, and the result may not really be needed. If it's a HD?hunting rifle, or a project that will be sold, a standard trigger with the Bill Thompson job on it is a great value for the extra $35.

The point is that top grade parts have an exponentially higher cost, compare the $35 cost of a stock trigger job to the $250 for a match grade adjustable competition trigger. The return on the dollar for less than 20% improvement is just like barrels. A $200 barrel will do just fine, a $600 barrel will only shoot 1 MOA better - the rest comes from load selection and all the small details of assembly, plus user experience.

For a hunting rifle, the extra $650 for a precision trigger and barrel might mean something to the owner, but not much to the target. If it can be hit, it will probably go down anyway, 2-3" variations in group size are effectively meaningless.

Researching stuff like that is what makes a build interesting and cost effective, otherwise it's just a collection of high priced parts. I see those guys at car shows, but not at the drag strip.

 

[dovedescending]

Hmm, really what I'm looking for is a basic AR platform that may or not gain nicer parts as time goes by, thus transforming it from "an AR" to "a varminting gun" or "a target gun" or "a zombie killin' weapon o' doom."

My question really was, if I start with an inexpensive stripped lower, assuming that all other parts may end up being ridiculously awesome, is the cheap lower going to limit the rifle to a POS in the end, no matter how nice everything else on the gun may end up being?

In terms of a basic platform, I think greyling22 has the best option. Cheap lower with a Delton kit attached. $600-650 in the end, maybe including FFL and shipping, plus having the fun of putting it together myself. I've got a friend who assembled one, pretty sure he has the tools, so that'll help.

 

[kwelz]

No all are not created equal. However Lowers tend to have the fewest number of problems. I have seen a couple DPMS and Doublestar lowers that were out of spec but never personally owned one. Olympic and Hesse are the only companies that consistently have problems with lowers. ome other lower quality companies like DPMS have one very very infrequently and with better companies like DD and BCM it is pretty much unheard of.

Heck one of my favorite lower suppliers is RRA. I may not like their complete guns but they make damn nice lowers.

 

[dovedescending]

What would be an example of an out-of-spec lower? As massive a problem as holes drilled 1/8" off? Or simply a little too tight or loose around the edges?

 

[kwelz]

It can be any combination of things. I have seen holes drilled slightly off from where they should be. Outer dimensions slightly off, over tight mag wells, etc. It is very uncommon even in lower quality companies but it does happen. As I stated earlier, my personal favorites are RRA and S&W, although I would love to get my hands on a couple DD lowers.