Offered a steal

[Dr.Rob]

A buddy of mine just offered me a steal of a deal on a pre-ban ar-15.

It's an Olympic arms lower and a Colt upper, all the pre-ban goodies a bunch of magazines and a can of ammo. 16 inch heavy barrel, flash hider, lug, collapsable stock, scoped too.

Thing is, I really know didly squat about AR's.

Is there anything to watch out for on an Oly? Are there problems mating these two brands together? I recall some discussion about the "fit" of the take down pin between brands...

Anyway, please chime in if you know anything about Olympic Arms lowers.

Thanks,

Rob

 

[Bartholomew Roberts]

The only problem I can see with fit is that some Colt uppers use the front hinge screw instead of the standard takedown pin. However, the newest Colt uppers have the same size pins as the Olympic lower.

If he has already assembled the rifle himself, probably not an issue.

You might also check to see if the Colt upper has M4 feedramps that extend into the lower receiver. If it does, and the Oly lower does not, that can create the occasional feed issue as well.

Olympic offers a lifetime warranty on their lowers and has pretty good customer service (my first AR was a 1989 Oly). The Oly cast lowers are going to have a lower resale value than a forged lower, so you might want to take a look at that.

Also there is the impending ban sunset which will affect the value of any preban pretty dramatically; but I'm assuming you were already aware of that one.

 

[Dr.Rob]

I'm well aware of that... but truthfully I'm not terribly optimistic about the "sunset".

And he's only asking $900.

If it was all Colt I'd buy it outright, just to have a rifle in my Colt collection.

 

[spacemanspiff]

why the little scoundrel!
okay, heres what you should do...call your buddy up, tell him hes way out of line for asking so dang much for upper/lower parts that arent of matching make.......
no wait, i'm sure you dont want to ruin your friendship, gimme his number and i'll call him for you.