Fellow LEO in friends precinct bought one, only because it was the only AR available in his AO.
Anyone have experience with Dark Storm AR’s?
From their webpage
7075 Billet is interesting. NATO-spec is hard chrome, NOT, “nitride” still, no? Compensator looks like something from POF. And what replaced the “roll pins?”
They seem to specialize in ban-state guns, which is good for ban state residents, I reckon. More power to 'em.
Ok, I don’t want to bash on them just because they are an unknown. I don’t know anything good or bad about them.
I’m simply gonna put out there that an unknown entity, that appears to market primarily to “ban states” where competition is limited, is breaking out at the height of a panic buy situation, and can get parts to build with when known quality manufacturers are struggling to make/source parts in sufficient quantity… in gonna pass. Perhaps that is completely unfair of me to say. If I were your friend I would look that rifle over very carefully and inspect it regularly.
Looks like burnt fingers soon.
Any marketing guy would tell you a new AR model should be named “Dark Winter” in honor of the Usurper.
Probably things like an integral trigger guard and screw for the bolt catch like Aero and some others do.
Yep from their web page…
Allen screw bolt catch pin
Allen screw forward assist pin
The gas block still does (so I guess they’re liars :D)
https://www.dark-storm.com/parts/barrels/gas-blocks/dsi-micro-gas-block-steel-.750/
I bet the CH and ejector does too.
“Other” opinions.
https://www.ar15.com/forums/ar-15/Dark-Storm-AR-s/118-754247/
I’ve been seeing lots of “new” questionable brands lately. Here is another:
https://www.durkintactical.com/product/16-ar-15-premium-build-kit/
Keep in mind “new” and “questionable” doesn’t always equal poor quality (although a lot of times it does). Everyone was new at some point. Other time, we companies splinter off from existing well-known and trusted brands. One example of such would be Dark Hour Defense, which is a splinter company of V Seven.
And hence the reason I don’t belong to TOS. I’ll PRESUME there’s a thread in that morass… somewhere… regarding DarkStorm… but hell if I can find it!
It’s probably because TOS was kicked off their server for “inciting violence” or some garbage like that, so there is no direct access to any of their archived threads. Any link to any archived thread takes non-members to the general home page. It does the same thing if you click a link to them from a google search.
Checked on only 2 of their 556 rifles, both have 1:9 barrel twist. Odd.
Mark
They show a 3-6 month lead time for lots of rifles and parts, and probably are subject to the same supply constraints of other AR makers that don’t manufacture their own parts. So it seems like the lead time isn’t so much a few months as it is whenever another company supplies the parts. With that said…
A 1:9 barrel would work at any competitions (3gun) I shoot at. I’ve yet to see testing that shows 9310 is a plus or minus compared to C158. Nitride barrels are what I choose over chrome lined already. If I had to buy an AR right now, and they were actually in stock, one of their base models would be something to consider. IDK if I’d commit to a long wait without at looking at other options though.
My Colt 6721 HBAR is a 1/9 twist and pretty damn nice… I paid extra for that! 
Look them up on local firearms forums to see what people think. Longislandgunclub.com is good for opinions on them. They are mostly referred to as just DSI.
Unwise way to go about buying a firearm.
“Lets see, That is the only thing available in town. Sure, I’ll take one!”
No. Just no… Not wise.
I’ll make sure to avoid BCM if I can’t find a second option available to decide between.
I was actually in a store recently that had quite a few assembled lowers. BCM and KE with the KE at about $20 less. Guess which ones were going faster.
Yep, for ~$20 BCM’so were sitting while KE was walking out. I don’t know KE, they were forged and looked ok.
I was out of state, or I might have grabbed one (BCM flavor). I can’t recall the price. They were high, but not rapey high. I picked up some parts at reasonable for now prices.
There is usually a reason (or three) that she was the LAST girl left in the bar that night…
Or she could have left a few times already only to be brought back in a hurry cause stuff was not right. LOL!
Maybe she just wasn’t shot out yet!