kwelz
Member
Oh boy. Here we go again.
In the interest of saving time I am going to copy and paste one of my replies to an old thread asking me the same thing.
So to answer your question. Yes. Not only have I owned them, but I used to have the displeasure of selling them as well. So I wasn't just dealing with a sample size of one or two. I was dealing with a sample size of hundreds. I also attend Carbine training classes almost monthly and shoot between 400-1000 rounds per month. In all that time I have seen 1 quality AR have problems. On the other hand I have seen a number of issues out of companies like DPMS, BM, Doublestar, Etc.
In the interest of saving time I am going to copy and paste one of my replies to an old thread asking me the same thing.
I used to own and sell DPMS, along with BM and others. No more. I no longer work in the Firearms business but if I did then I would only sell quality stuff. My guns now consist of DD, BCM, Colt, Noveske, and similar level quality parts. Do I spend more per gun? Yes a little. However the extra couple hundred bucks is worth the peace of mind knowing that the parts and guns have been properly built, tested, and inspected. Can these steps eliminate failures? Of course not. However they can help minimize the possibility.
Just so that people don't think I am making stuff up here are a couple examples of problems from DPMS carbines.
This first photo is the first round fired from a DPMS AP4 purchased in early 2005.
I had near identical results from another rifle purchased less than a year later.
These next photos of of a couple lowers shown to me by a dealer friend of mine. They were both part of a complete lower kit. He fought with DPMS for a year to get them replaced and finally gave up. He instead now uses them for examples of why he won't deal with DPMS.
As you can see in these photos the anodizing goes into the crack, meaning that this happened at some point in assembly and was missed before it went out the door. This is something even a cursory inspection should have found.
I also used to have a photo of a broken FSB from one of my guns but can't find it anymore. On top of that I had numerous guns I sold break in shipping. Stock and handguards routinely would arrive at my dealers with cracks in them. If these guns can't take bouncing around in a UPS van then why would I ever rely on one to shoot when I need it too.
Sorry for the mini rant but we as shooter deserve better than this. There was a time when it could almost be argued that the problems DPMS had were worth the difference in price for a non-serious shooter. However with 6920s selling under 1K and DD/BCM/S&W going for even less, there is no excuse to even look at DPMS.
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So to answer your question. Yes. Not only have I owned them, but I used to have the displeasure of selling them as well. So I wasn't just dealing with a sample size of one or two. I was dealing with a sample size of hundreds. I also attend Carbine training classes almost monthly and shoot between 400-1000 rounds per month. In all that time I have seen 1 quality AR have problems. On the other hand I have seen a number of issues out of companies like DPMS, BM, Doublestar, Etc.