I bought a stripped Stag lower for my last build because it was all I could find at a local gun show. Threw a DD LPK in it along with a BCM receiver extension. Everything went together smoothly. Pmags drop free every time.
I’m going to pick up a stripped Noveske for my SBR build next, mainly to match the Noveske upper :dance3:
IF everything is in spec, then yes IMO a lower is a lower. I’m not inclined to pay more for a prettier roll mark. Again, IF everything is how it should be, a lower is a carrier for parts. Sure, when I’ve got tons of money, I’d love to have a Noveske or KAC lower. For now, PSAs $50 lowers work just fine. For those that are curious, yes they are to spec and have mated without issue with 3 uppers so far.
You be the judge:
The ironic part is in this neck of the woods RRA and BM lowers at the local gunshops are more expensive than other brands
*Ok, BCMJunkie, fixed it for ya
Lol what is going on with the quotes???
I never said that ^
hahaha
Youre right I forgot about that.
While that definately sucks, I havent heard about bad experiences.
I dont agree with what they did by any means, but their Cust. Service is top notch as far as Im concerned.
Thats my opinion though. Sorry if anyone was done wrong by them, I know first hand how a bad experience can go and completely turn you off of a company
You must not remember a few years ago when Mega sent out a bunch of lowers with undersized magwells that wouldn’t take a mag. Lots of folks had to send them back to be re-machined. Anybody can send out bad lowers, only way to find out is to assemble it.
Lots of good shops and manufacturers have a bad batch go out at some point. We were just talking in Handguns thread about how S&W M&P had an early issue with their Meloniting process on the M&P’s, but then they fixed it and it hasn’t occurred again. Mega is making good stuff today by anybody’s estimation.
My Spike’s lower is good to go. Finish matches my DD upper perfectly, also no wiggle, movement at all.
I’m wondering about the general concensus on the cmmg lowers myself since I have one. So far it’s been gtg and my dd lpk has worked flawlessly sofar.
If you want a matching finish for your “purdy” weapon then buy one complete. If you want a super tight fit get an Accuwedge or other gimmicky piece of crap and put that in the lower.
What people should be concerned about is whether or not the lower will mate to the upper correctly and that the push pins are correct.
Make sure that the trigger and hammer pin holes are correct and of the proper diameter. Make sure that the other parts of the LPK, to include the pistol grip will install correctly to include the lower receiver extension.
These are the things that matter. Everything is else is wasted time and energy.
I have a S&W 15T lower and have used 3 uppers on it not including the one that came with it (BCM, DD, LMT) and they all fit perfectly. That being said as long as the company is known for being in spec and if for some reason it wasn’t, as long as their customer service is top notch then it should be GTG. Like stated above everyone at one time or another will have bad batches it’s how they handle the realization and fall out of their mistake that counts.
You can never go wrong with a quality LPK if ones not already on it.
The new Gen II Noveske lowers are amazing aren’t they?! 
+1 on this… I dont mind wobble in my lowers.
It does NOTHING for accuracy and I want my lowers in spec above anything else
Bingo. I was just checking out my friend’s CMMG upper a few days ago. I wanted to see the staking on the gas key but he had a damn accuwedge in it. it was so tight I couldn’t get the takedown pin out for the life of me. I had to use a hammer and punch :moil:
I have DPMS (GASP!) lower that has seen close 5000 trouble free rounds through it on various uppers, 2 BCM, 2 Spikes, RRA. I have configured it as a carbine and as a rifle. Never one problem, pins have never walked free. Nice tight fight on the BCM uppers and a little less tight on Spikes and less still on RRA. I got no complaints from the performance I got out of this lower from DPMS. Over the years I have had no problems from Stag, RRA, Spikes, Bushmaster. I did have one RRA lower on a factory 9mm lower that the Bolt hold open device broke consistently. This is more a problem with the carbine’s design than a fault with the lower. I have never owned a LMT or Noveske or a (insert ubber cool brand here)lower. I do have a Colt HBAR but that lower has always stayed with the rifle.
Agreed. As long as the lower is in spec you probably are GTG but won’t know for sure until you run it a while.
Good post and reminder that some movement between upper and lower is NOT something to worry about. I should have made that more clear in my previous post too. I said that the tensioning screw is a “nice to have” extra that I like, and that “some play is fine,” but the fact is, it’s easy to create misunderstandings in this area. Some new AR shooters think (and at one time, I did too) that a tight fit between upper and lower is a sign of quality builds, and they worry about having any movement at all. For instance, you see lots of questions from new shooters in forums, worried about the fact that there is some movement, or on the flip side, you see someone proudly say something like: there’s no play at all between my new upper and my Rock River lower. It probably ought to be a sticky on every site that discusses AR’s, that (a) the movement does not affect accuracy, and (b) a certain amount of movement is in spec and in fact, is actually a GOOD thing. On a related point, I’ve seen some threads here like the following one that show users how to measure your lower to determine if the amount of movement you have is in spec (in fact I think it was IraqGunz that made that post as well).
https://www.m4carbine.net/archive/index.php/t-17759.html
One last point: I’ve actually seen new shooters get kind of overwhelmed by having to think about what aspects of their new lower are “in spec”, measuring stuff with feeler gauges, and so on. For somebody getting a new lower, if you can’t or don’t want to get into all the aspects of measuring and checking the lower you want to buy, that’s why a lot of folks on this site recommend just getting one of the “proven” quality lowers to begin with. It saves you time.
I just finished up touring several shops that are producing lowers, uppers, rails, assorted parts and barrels. I am being patriotic here, so bear with me. Number one thing, American jobs are here, the shops all have some of the best CNC machines I’ve seen. Each shops I went to have clean rooms where parts are inspected and tested.
The shops have an IT guy who’s constantly checking the CNC machines and whatever software programs they use. My humble opinion is they all want above approach QC. Each phase of production there were guys running around with tools and a constant check. Why is this important?
From all this QC, one thing was very obvious, the shops all cared about their finished product because their products were going to our warfighters and crimefighters-lifes are at stake. With that said, the shops all took patriotic pride in their work. I wish POTUS would talk about these folks and how they are building American made products.
If you get a chance to tour any of these shops, I encourage you to do so, you will learn alot and see pride in the workmanship of the products being produced. So as an average joe buying a lower for recreational fun, HD, competition, or collection, you are buying some quality ware. Yes not all shops are that way but the ones I visited were. So in the words of “Ash”, Shop smart, Shop S-smart.
(I am with a video/photo crew)
well don’t throw out that Stag/CMT LPK as it’s a good bit better-than-average. and I have them in a couple of my guns…
I have 2 RRA lowers and 2 BM lowers still in use. One RRA is on my trunk gun. This is one of my go-to weapons and I take it’s reliability very seriously. The second RRA lower is a part of my 653 clone. It’s an early one marked “US Government” with no RRA roll mark. The BM’s are factory marked 6.8 SPC and sport 6.8 uppers.
My remaining RRA’s and BM’s were built by me with good LPK’s and I’ve been shooting them for years. They went together w/o a hitch and shoot just fine.
Like Mistwolf mentioned RRA and BM lowers are sold at a premium in many places. You can get a blem Noveske or BCM for close to what RRA wants for theirs.
Please do tell - when and where can we see the results of this production - assuming it’s going to be shown on some outdoor channel kind of network?
It would be awesome to get a behind the scenes look at the “horses mouth”!
RE: Lowers - another thing to consider perhaps is the upper you’re planning on using: having it come from the same source does help fit and finish, on all levels.
Other than that, when originating from a reputable maker, a lower is a lower is…(etc)