These are on sale for $900 at Recoil Gunworks. I haven’t been able to find too much info on them or on LMT in general. I know after years on various forums that LMT generally is well thought of as an “upper tier” brand. What says M4Carbine on these? Solid deal at $900?
https://www.recoilgunworks.com/spm16-ar15-carbine-p-40510.html
LMT has a pretty good rep, but they seem comparatively hard to find. That seems like a good price for an in-stock LMT weapon.
Would be a solid base gun. Very solid. LMT has never made Sporter trash guns. I dont expect they started now. Just tipping their toes in the over-crowded m4 market. And you cant come in at $1,300 anymore. Colt lowered the price bar on base guns.
Is it a solid gun for that price? Maybe. Here is my experience with multiple LMT products, including two of these rifles. For me LMT has never been hard to find. These rifles have a SA BCG and a standard buffer. I think they use straight pins on the front sight, not tapered. In my repeated requests over the years via telephone, email and in person at SHOT, I have asked them why they equip their rifles in this configuration. Specifically, I wanted to know if via their testing, they had determined that their set up was the most reliable as opposed to a FA BCG and H buffer. Remember, these are the weapons they were selling to Police etc some time back. The only answer I received was, “That’s how we do it.” As IG pointed out, it is to save money. On both of my LMT rifles, the staking on the gas keys were substandard in my opinion, but they are LMT, so it must be good–or so I thought. I had one at each of my homes as my goto HD gun. Each gun has at most, maybe 900 rounds through each rifle.
Whenever they are shot, I then clean, inspect and lube. The gas key came loose. The gas key screws were turning. I called LMT and after numerous messages, I finally spoke to someone who told me it was a “field fix and just tighten the screws and hit it with a hammer and a screwdriver.” When I asked him about proper torque and checking for a sheered screw and proper staking, he again said it was a field fix. I have the proper replacement parts and tools so I fixed it myself and staked the keys with the proper tool. If this was someones gun who wasn’t an AR15 guy with the proper knowledge and tools, they could have taken it to a gunsmith.
I bought a complete LMT lower. The bolt catch was loose, as if there was no spring under the plunger. When I removed the bolt catch the plunger was stuck down in the recess. You could see where someone had been scraping off the finish, down to bare alum, trying to get it out. I guess they figured no one would notice. It took me three hours of using every trick I knew of to get it out. I called LMT and left a message. I got a return call just after I got it out. They could have cared less. They didn’t even want to know who’s initials were on the quality card that assembled it. They then tried to blame the gun store.??? Never an apology, just an arrogant attitude. His closing remark was ,“We are LMT and we make mistakes.”
Hence, in conclusion, this is my very limited experience with LMT. I would recommend a 6920 over the LMT based on the buffer and BCG alone. I still have both of my LMT’s, however the HD role is via Sionics. I do buy, use and build LMT stripped lowers and have never had an issue, but I do measure and test fit all parts before I begin a build. I buy them on sale for $99.
YMMV
Cheers, Steve
Stack of LMTs with thousands of rounds of 5.56 each, no problems.
I have three complete LMT’s a mid length and two SBR’s they’ve been great. I had an issue with a trigger firing on reset. I called, sent it back, it was fixed and returned quickly. That was about 8 years ago. The people I spoke to were awesome.
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Mine has been an absolute dream for 10 years on now…thats an UNREAL bargain…GET IT.
Wow, that’s pretty crappy. It is interesting that they use straight pins and didn’t appear to stake the gas key well.
Just to be clear, the two rifles I have reflect the rifle you are asking about. I can’t comment on other LMT models. I was pointing out that this model has the SA BCG and a standard buffer and mine have the straight pins. I have owned them for many years. Except for the gas key and staking they have been trouble free. Since I fixed the key and the staking they have been trouble free. I do run them with an H buffer. I stand by my comment reflecting the 6920. (I do own a 6920.) The price for the LMT is good, but if both the LMT and the colt were available at comparable prices, I would buy the colt. ( FA BCG and H buffer) If not, the LMT is a good choice at that price point with the caveat that you might want to check the staking and change the buffer.
Cheers, Steve
"With exacting attention to detail, we’ve added in superior reliability and knock-down power. "
Ummm… what, LMT?
I picked up a new complete 10.5” LMT upper a while back. It came with a semi-auto BCG. I called LMT before I shot it and they said to send in the SA BCG and they sent me a FA one at no charge. Maybe I got lucky, who knows. My upper only had one failure, but I can’t remember if it was FTE or FTF.
Must have had an outside source write some of the stuff up for them.
I have seen the exact same thing, hence I can’t really get excited about them.
I seem to run across about a 50-50 mix of those who say they’d go Colt vs. LMT for around the same price. However, a $900 base LMT is more than a base 6920.
I might give that a try, you know because “operator”
I really couldn’t care less about straight pins and semi auto carriers bc there is no functional difference between them and their counterparts (unless you run FA lowers). That being said, I do run full auto carriers in all of my LMTs bc I don’t want to lose any internetz street cred :jester:. Colt and LMT tend to be my preferred brands, but I have seen a more consistent product come out of LMT. The LMTs also have seemed to be machined to more precise tolerances, but when it comes down to it I really don’t care if it is a Colt or an LMT. Relatively similar price… I’d typically buy the LMT, SA carrier and all, due to my Colts being a bit more inconsistent in the fit and accuracy department from one rifle to the next. But that’s just some rando’s opinion.
ETA: Wow, that is a pretty embarrassing “description” in the link listed in the OP haha
Non issue. Used to kinda be a way to separate questionable quality/material BCG’s, now you can get crap FA carrier.
Part of Colt’s QC involves dragging it behind a truck before shipping. It gets that battle worn look before you even get it. In all seriousness I hope the LMT arrives looking new and not dinged up like I’ve seen Colts. Yeah yeah it’s a Colt war gun or whatever, but come on.
Hell, the retail on the rear sight alone is $155 on LMT’s website. Street price they are still North of $100. I own a couple LMTs and they don’t skip a beat.
I’ve yet to see a dinged up Colt from the factory.
I agree 100%. Its amazing to me how things go in & out of “fashion”. When I joined this board several years ago…I lurked a long time before joining…LMT was the cats ass.
It “upper tier”, better than Colt, yes there were many posts saying that, was high up on “The Chart”, ect. Now, its just “meh”.
If I had the $$, Id buy a half dozen more at the $899 price OP linked to.
WHAT HAPPENED that now they arent hot shit? Im asking, not trying to toot LMT’s horn. Have they done something or dropped quality or what? Very curious indeed.