I was wondering if anyone knows anything or has any experience with any products from Del-Ton. I know that they are a newer company but I have never come across them or know anyone who has. A friend is in the process of building an AR and was asking a few questions. Thanks Guys
I haven’t heard or read ANYTHING good about this company. Go with what is known…Colt BCM DD LMT Noveske et al. Why cry more than once? Just MHO
Danger Will Robinson!! Danger!
I own a Del-ton and my advice is go with a Colt or other great known brands that duece suggested a Colt and Del-ton are almost the same price if you shop around talk to Grant he can sell you Colt for about what some Del-ton’s cost. Mine is ok for plinking and thats about it. The ammo I have had the most problems with is anything steel cased. I have FTE and FTF with those. Brass cased ammo hasn’t been a problem and my rifle is cleaned after I shoot it even if it’s only 200 rounds.
Thanks for the responses guys. Like I said I was asking for a friend who was building an AR and found a deal on an upper with Magpul MOE handguards, pistol grip and buttstock, along with the lower parts kit. He was looking not to spend a whole lot and was only going to use it for occasional plinking and possibly the “Zombie Apocalypse”. I personally recommended a few of the better known brands and manufacturers as I have dealt with them all and have over 20+ yrs with the AR platform (shooting, building etc.). Thanks again and I welcome any more comments from anyone with experience with these.
Your rifle dosen’t like steel case ammo not because it is low quality but because the steel case stuff is typically loaded to lower pressure than military or commercial brass case ammo. Some ARs tolerate this, some don’t. It is related to the gas port, your rifle is marginally undergassed.
I have done a lot of reading on this subject on various AR15 based webs forums. Some sites love delton and say that it is awesome. This site not so much. From what I gather in my reading, if you are looking for a range toy that will see maybe a hundred rounds once a month from a benchrest then a delton is not a bad way to go. If you are going to shoot thousands of rounds in multiple hard core training courses and then trust your life to the same gun the next day then get a Colt or better.
Looks to me like the panic buying is in full swing! Buy a Colt or BCM soon while the prices are reasonable or you may have to settle with a $1000 Delton (not that they are priced at $1000 yet).
People are free to spend their money as they choose, of course, but I don’t really get the ‘occasional plinker’ logic anymore with this platform. For that purpose, there are a lot of other cool looking rifles that shoot .22LR. The guns are even cheaper than the ‘lower tier’ .223/5.56 pieces, and the ammo is WAY cheaper. They are still plenty of fun to shoot, too.
Can you tell me how you think its the gas port. Del-ton says not to use it as it will void the warrenty. I asked them why in an email I sent them and didnt get a reply why.
Good call Tim. There are a couple of reasons to stay away from Russian ammo and the sort. Underpowered and dirty, simply not worth it.
That is just 1 possibility. Another is steel cases do not expand like a brass ones do. Which means that when fired, the case (steel) does not expand in the chamber. Which is why you have to full length resize (watch out gettin into reloading ammo teaching/technique) your brass shells for auto loaders. Since the steel cased ammo doesn’t expand to fit chamber it allows carbon build up around chamber thats not normally there (because brass exp. it doesn’t leave room for build up nearly as bad), after awhile build up can lead to sticky/sluggish extraction (FTE)and insertion (FTF)due to build up in a tight space(chamber). I have heard that people that insist on shooting steel ammo will put a couple brass bullets at end of magazine to help clear out build up. So might not be a gas isssue. Sorry if didn’t do a good job of explaining.
Gas port is a little on the small size. Not a bad thing if you don’t shoot low pressure ammo.
I shoot more 5.45mm than everything else combined so I’m used to dirty. Right now I’m shooting some Tula because I want a couple of thousand reloadable steel cases to experiment with. I don’t find it oppressively dirty. I got a ton of brass cases and I intend to begin reloading and shooting them soon. I was out of the reloading business for three years. Now I’m back.
I clean the barrel of every center fire gun almost every time I shoot. If there was crud being deposited in the chamber that cleaning would get it out. If it is a cruddy chamber it will take a while to show up. If the gun is under-gassed the problem will show up immediately.
I rarely remark on issues I don’t have first hand knowledge of and this is one of the rarities as I have no experience with under-gassed ARs. I feel pretty confident in the diagnosis though. I invite folks with first hand knowledge to weigh in.
Agreed if AR doesn’t cycle steel after cleaning, Its prob gas issue. If it runs steel for a while(after cleaning), then it starts to act up it may be carbon build up. A couple of brass rounds fired rapidly might allow steel to cycle again.
It would either be under-gassed or ‘over-buffered.’ My 6920 w/H buffer cycles Wolf just fine, as does my carbine length 14.5 BCM with car buffer. (Not my normal choice of round, but makes great ‘guest’ ammo.)
The ‘voiding the warranty’ part seems odd. How would they even know? (Not that I would advocate lying.) Perhaps it’s just their way of making sure they aren’t tuning rifles for weaker rounds at their expense.
I changed out the FSB to a low profile block. Why would that change me being able to shoot steel.
If the gas port of the GB is not lined up correctly with the gas port of the bbl, you could be restricting the gas flow by covering part of the opening.
Here is the thread that talks about steel cases and stoppages due to carbon build up http://m4carbine.net/showthread.php?t=41483 does your stopages mimics theirs, randomly stopping after shooting for while?
Awhile back I had a Delton A4 upper receiver group I used for a plinker/whatever rifle. It did fine with a couple hundred rounds fired through it, but I never pushed it nor did I buy it to push it. The only thing going for it at the time was that the entire URG (upper, barrel, CH, mpi/hpt BCG, minus rear sight) was the same cost as a stripped BCM upper. I eventually sold it and invested in some quality gear.
But now you can get a much better product at similar prices from places like PSA or AIM.