imported post
I've been doing research on AR platforms for about the last 18 months.
Here are 2 truths I have come across.
#1- If it's too good to be true, it probably is.
#2- Patience is harder to maintain than anything else.
The reason these two things have become truths is because I've been jumping all over myself to find the best deal.
I'm cheap as all get out. I hate spending money. Just hate it.
Every time I found what I felt was an awesome deal, I'd do some research and then some more, and finally come to terms with the reality that all these super deals weren't so super.
Here is what I have found out about Atlantic Fire Arms.
LUCK is the key factor in buying a fire arm from Atlantic.
Olympic arms isn't a poor manufacturer, BUT they will allow lower tolerance variations out the door than many other manufacturers.
That's the key, they have a wider window of error that they will let out the door.
So Atlantic buys from the bottom, from companies who already allow a larger margin of error.
A ChromeMoly Barrel is NOT the same as a Chrome Lined Barrel and Bore.
The Chrome molly steel barrel is just the stainless steel.
Chrome Lined means the barrel and bore have been plated with metallic chromium. Chrome lined lasts longer, stays cleaner, and gives less resistance to the bullet. It also generally costs more.
The olympic has a NON chromed bore. Which means it has to be cleaned better and more often.
Something else is that it is an A2 stock with a CAR grip. Meaning it is probably left over parts. The configuration as shown is not standard. It's two different kits slapped into one.
Usually a car grip gets a car stock, or an a2 stock gets a triangle or disipator grip.
I'm just sayin.
And before you accuse it, I am NOT a gun snob. I own high points and kel tecs as well as Smith and Wesson and Charles Daily Defense.
My very first carry pistol was a High Point .40 It wieghs 900 lbs and looks like a lego gun. But I love it.
What I decided to do for my AR project was to start at the very bottom. Just buy an AR stripped lower.
Since CCD just went out of business 2 weeks ago, I decided to buy one of their "Unclassed" virgin AR-15 lowers in 5.56. Cost me $86 bucks, and 40 for shipping and FFL transfer.
The best part of buying a lower marked "other" is that you can turn it into an AR pistol and then into a rifle, and then back into a pistol again whenever you want without breaking any laws, as long as you build it as a pistol first.
Lots of research told me that getting an unclassed lower gave me more options, more resell ability and a greater level of safety in the amount of money I was spending by buying the stripped lower FIRST, and then buying the uppers and kit parts that I wanted next.
In this way once I get this AR built, I will have an AR-15 rifle upper, an ar-15 pistol upper, and a kit set up as an M4 rifle and a 9" barreled pistol.
If I decide to sell it later to finance some other project, then I sell the whole kit in one big gun case for more than I paid for the entire set up.
Someone else will be willing to pay for the convenience of all the work I did getting this kit ready.
I'm not saying you should do it just like this. But you can pay $100 for a top of the line stripped lower, then $400-$600 for a Full rifle kit with a Chrome LIned Bore, and Barrel, and you can choose between standard 1x9 twist or the more versatile 1x7 twist and really customize the gun.
That's the benefit of the "erector set rifle" that is the AR-15 platform. You get to build the exact gun you want.
When you buy one of those bottom of the barrel cut throat priced guns, you should not be expecting to modifiy it much.
If you just have to have a 5.56 rifle as fast as possible for the lowest possible price, go for it.
But you should at least understand that those types of rifle really are just going to be what you get in the box and not much more.
I'm sure someone will make the argument that you can do whatever you want. And they are right.
But they won't tell you that the amount of headaches and potential for serious and expensive errors are significantly reduced when you buy a component gun design as components, versus a component designed gun that has been slapped together from the lowest common denominator of lowest cost parts.
