What do you look for with AR-15 Lowers?

Favorite Vice Gas Rifles
29

You have the jolly roger edition ,right?

30

LOL

No silly, Calico Jack.

https://www.spikestactical.com/products/stripped-lower-calico-jack?variant=32734019532

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31

Thats what I meant lol. I like Spikes finish alot.

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32

Now a Jolly Roger edition would be fucking badass though!

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33

I want a 3%er roll mark but nobody makes them that I know of.

34

A bit expensive, but I like it. Sharps brothers.

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35

What about something like this:

https://www.gunbroker.com/item/776144611

36

My only hang up is where the parts they istalled where made, Taiwan?, USA? Looks like kind of a gamble. No mention of tube aluminum type, 6160, 7075, or commercial/ mil-spec tube.

I guess this is my take on it. It would be nice to know the company that made it just Incase you experience a issue. My .02 cents. Good luck Brother.

37

Theres alot of cheap ‘made in China’ LPK coming out lately, I would just go for a blemished PSA lower if on a budget.

38

$130

https://palmettostatearmory.com/psa-ar15-complete-classic-lower-5165447829.html

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39

I gotta go with Joe on this idea.

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40

Thanks for the idea @Caw! I do want to see what my stores have in stock first, but if they don’t have anything, then I’d def order that one. Very in my price range.

Ideally, I would like to go with something like this:

https://fightlite.com/collections/scr-lower-receiver-assembly-kits/products/ares-scr-lower-assembly

No pistol grip to contend with, making it so I could use a sight on the rifle.

Just that price tag, makes that a difficult proposition.

41

https://2ahawaii.com/index.php?topic=216.0

Remember each company has a specific quality of items they get regardless who makes it.

Lmt makes a lot but Barret and even kac will have different ideas for quality.

Same with aero who makes psa and psa will have a difference in opinion of what they want for quality.

I have seen psa barrels without rifling, I have seen psa guns rock with the best of them but I would at minimum buy a spikes.

Yes a poverty pony or aero will be good for many but yours may be off where the more expensive spikes will always be in spec.

Cmt makes good lowers and almost all companies they make lowers for will be in spec.
Colt, noveski, s&w, rra, stag are all good.

I went for a spikes crusader from the lgs because the rra lower they had had extremely shallow rollmarks all over including the serial number which to me is no bueno.

Many will say it doesn’t matter but when you are building for a life saving tool you don’t want to cheep out.

So far my first with a spikes lower works great but from now on I will buy from son’s of liberty gun works.

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42

PSA’s premium brand has better materials and QC, unless theyve changed it. PSA is definitly more of a budget brand though. Ive had issue with Spikes uppers but they seem to have straightened their act up a couple years ago, their qc was not the best back in the day either. I like Colt,BCM,SOLGW,FN ,lmt and sionics for hard use type rifles but Spikes should be ok now too.

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43

For lowers I can attest to the quality.

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44

They have always been gtg for lowers, I like their nickle boron coated triggers. The big issues before were Unstaked or improperly staked as keys and over torqued barrels. Last few ive seen were all gtg and it seems they improved Qc according to what ive read.

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45

Is that above linked lower, mil spec?

For the pistol conversion idea, for me, I’d like to get something like this:

But I have no idea how to check if something is or isn’t mil spec. Also mil spec = military specifications? Thats what I think it means, but I’d like to be sure.

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46

Yea thats what it means. The one in the link is mil spec and PSA also sells pistol lowers for around the same price and Pistol caliber lowers for cheap.

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47

Honestly, my dream rifle would be able to have a couple different uppers I could swap out as needed.

Quick question, how much would a complete build cost? Start to finish. I’m looking online, and I’m seeing like a thousand dollars. And most of that is concentrated in the uppers I’m seeing.

Edit: Also that site says that “Complete AR and AK receivers will NOT be shipped to the following states:” with my state being listed. So it seems I can’t get a pre-built AR-15 lower shipped here…So that stinks.

2nd Edit: place where I have that info: http://palmettostatearmory.com/customer-service#CaliforniaNotice

48

This is as cheap as I’d go, but I trust Del-ton.

Food for thought.