IMO, as long as PSA makes decent guns under that brand and provides good warranty service, that is what they are obligated to do. I bet if you look at the paperwork with the gun, you can see who makes it. Other brands in the past have shut down domestic production and farmed out everything overseas. At least these are made in the US.
Frankly I don’t think that the majority of consumers have the perspective that you do. The reality is that it was JJE that ponied up the dollars to buy the brand, it’s their property and I hope they are able to use it to succeed. I strongly believe that any property related to Remington will continue to put a bad taste in your mouth due to whatever personal issues you have with the leadership. Companies change hands and exchange leadership over time. Anyone who simply believes in a product line due to some name recognition that exists due to decades old reputation I think will find themselves disappointed at some point in the future.
DPMS has had a piss poor quality for years. Literally had one shedding piece at a range day. If anything, PSA will greatly increase quality.
It’s the 74s that PSA just can’t get right. The 4.5 folding trunnion that PSA sells in a POS, so the folders they been selling have that going for them.
You quote and reply to my post that starts with, "Quality, good or bad, of DPMS or PSA has zero to do with my objections to this marketing move by PSA to brand their AK's with their newly acquired DPMS brand." with comments on quality...
It actually makes a lot of sense from a marketing move. I think PSA will move lower quality ARs, and lower quality AKs (GF3) over to DPMS. WHile nitrided freedom line ARs and all forged AKs will be under PSA. Historically speaking, DPMS was the bargain brand of AR-15s unless you want to go to their very beginning.
Yes, exactly. It’s an extremely common marketing practice to help maintain the value of your brand. Basically, the “Ford, Lincoln, Mercury” model where you use a common DNA sold under different brand names to help set expectations with your customers of the level of features/quality/etc. This is used by other firearms companies such as Beretta/Benelli/Stoeger. You spend your R&D in your top end brand and release them first in your premium brand along with premium fit, finish and QA. Then over a period of years when you have reduced the cost of the new features you begin to introduce them into your mid, then economy brands with less fit, finish etc as you continue to introduce the newest features into the premium brand.
Well, lemme say this. I can't say anything bad about their ARs. I've built several and my go-to rifle is a freedom middy with a nitrided 4150 barrel from them. It has cerro forged receivers, a tool craft carpenter steel bolt, the gas key is staked properly and I haven't had a single issue in the now over 3k rounds i have put through it. The other 3 AR-15s I still have from PSA are likewise well built, and the AR-10 I bought this year so far is reliable. For the money, nothing else comes close. Easily the equal of Colt, or any basic, Uncle Sugar issued M4. Unfortunately, I can't say the same for their AKs.
Marketing gimmicks don't offend me. I like PSA and will keep buying their products. DPMS was always a low tier budget AR15 brand. PSA owns the budget AR15 category. There really is no point in PSA bringing DPMS back as a budget AR15 company when they already have that covered. The DPMS GII was a neat light weight AR10. It would be nice if PSA brings it back or uses the barrel profile on it's own AR10's. I doubt they will bring it back to DPMS though. No reason to.
Good to know. The time to buy 74's was back when cans of corrosive Rusky 5.45 ammo could be bought for next to nothing - early to mid 2000's. I still have a can but wouldn't buy another 5.45 AK.
In my opinion, DPMS ceased to exist when Remington bought them. Remington did little to nothing to improve what DPMS built, and in fact, made it worse. We all know Remingtons post 1999 reputation..so..... PSA, in all my experiences with them, short of some really laggy shipping sometimes, has been nothing but stellar. They are hardcore gun people...not bankers (Like post 1999 Remington was), not accountants, not a hedge fund (like those that destroyed Colt)....just a bunch of good old gun loving Americans. That said.. whatever they do with the DPMS name...which is all thats left in reality (blame Remington for destroying it), will only be an improvement. Im sure they have plans for it...but if they dont...so what. PSA currently makes under their own name a whole line of ARs that are far superior to anything DPMS turned out in their prime. So, if you think about it like that...makes perfect sense to use the brand name on a line of AKs...fresh start. If it works...great...if it doesnt...oh well. DPMS was dead anyway. Hating on PSA is misguided. Like I said, at this point they can only improve the DPMS name...because the alternative is dead.
Time will tell. Kalashnikov rifles have never been particularly popular in America due to myths of them being inaccurate and crude. In reality, companies like Arsenal and WBP Fox have made some nice ones, among others. They have good combat accuracy out to 300 meters and while the manual of arms is much different than the AR15, it can be adapted to.
I have a pre-Freedom Group DPMS lower. It's nicer than the current Anderson and PSA offerings, and it's also a lot nicer than the NOS surplus* Colt A2 upper that is on it. (* It was advertised as surplus, but there is no documentation for it.) Of course, the sample size isn't significant, and it's from 15 years and a couple of owners ago, so the relevance to current offerings is nil. I just bring it up to say that I don't think DPMS was always low-tier.
“At least they are made in the US”. Being made in the US didn't prevent tbe “late” IO brand from having serious durability problems. —Their AKMs are No Longer Manufactured — And many of the AKMs produced, from scratch, in the US by Century, along with those which are --no longer produced by IO--, are found to have low-grade steel components.
I have hopes PSA will figure out how to build a proper AK..but I won't be shocked if they fail. For some reason...we Americans just can't quite figure out AKs. It could be we are too hung up on tight tolerances...or the fit and finish...or how to use cheap, but still very serviceable steel... AK is a commie gun...much as I hate to give Commies credit for anything...I grudgingly admit, they are pretty dang good at building AKs... It may be better to just admit that to ourselves...and let them keep the share of the market...
Am pretty sure Americans can figure out how to build AKs, we put a man on the moon for crying out load. The problem is that they are building them to a price point. The rest of the world is building AKs to equip an army.
Megawatt maker: I'm not familiar with the PSA versions, which have been discussed for years on the AKfiles. Whichever PSA generation tends to be viewed rather harshly on " the 'Files". Many of those private builders/members demand reliability & durability. Whether or not modern imported AKMs qualify as Commie or not - that's for other people to decide to decide. Many people forget that Modern-day Serbia, Romania, Bulgaria, Poland and Hungary tend to be described as constitutional republics, or something other than 'commie'. This includes the Czech Republic with their excellent CSA VZ-58 (the "Non-AKM"). My interest is in owning, comparing guns which are Not a "roll of the dice".
You are propagating miss information which is quite typical for those posting on the Internet. I have had a Psa AK 47 for several years and it is a high-quality AK. It is more accurate and better put together than many of the COM block rifles. I doubt that I got the only one that’s made that way.
They don’t. That’s the point. Many companies offer two product lines, one retail, one consumer direct. It’s a marketing and distribution strategy which is time and market proven. PSA has not had a retail vehicle for complete rifles, now they do. Don’t have to like it, don’t have to buy it. I bought DPMS products for many years for the same reasons I buy certain PSA products today - sufficient quality for the task at hand, at an acceptable price point. I don’t buy retail AR’s, and I don’t buy AK’s anymore, so I likely will never buy another DPMS product out of the nature of the mechanism. I don’t buy products for brand names, didn’t buy DPMS in the past just for the brand name either, so buying PSA/JJE parts today, for the purpose I buy them, has nothing to do with their marketing strategies.
