Stiller is supposed to release a matching billet upper receiver. I believe next year I would like to see what design changes he incorporates into his upper. Then I would consider maybe purchasing a set for a MK12 mod1 clone. Has the lower by its self it is interesting but as many have said it is the least stressed part of the rifle.
Neat…had no idea Jerry was getting into AR’s. He makes great turn bolts & hope this does well for him.
Yes, that was the biggest influence on the decision to use the XT lower.
I think the price point might be the biggest factor but it is a great lower.
Well, that is what the customer wanted. I don’t know anyone that is making a billet upper that is available right now.
I can tell you that the Stiller XT was chosen because of the precision machining, exacting tolerances and workmanship that Stiller Precision is known for. The upgrading in material and finish was a plus.
I don’t know about Stiller coming out with an upper. I can tell you that I’m on the list for a few of the Predator 25X rimfire receivers, in both single shot and repeater.
Do you have any info about the upper?
LOL! If Hi Point makes an AR it’ll cost $400, be die cast or pot metal and run nonstop for over 100K rounds w/o a failure of any kind.
The type of alluminum used and its heat treatment are more important. You will never, ever notice a difference in strength if they are the same alloy and same level of heat treat. Some billet receiver can be made thicker to be stronger than forged counterparts. Grain structure is NOT a point of failure for receivers so why wonder which part is theoretically stronger when neither would fail? Just dont get a cast receiver and you will be fine.
The finish is what will make them more or less resistant to wear… not the underlying 7075 T6 being machined billet or machined forging.
You are looking up all the wrong trees if you thing you can get a receiver that wont wear or you are going to make a “stronger” reciever that wont break or wear out where another would… its not going to happen. A .1% difference in strength does not mean anything if its just the carrier moving in the upper or if you drop your rifle from the roof off a 10 story building one will do nothing to your receivers and the other will destroy them.
A billet receiver is what you want for a “pretty” rifle… it has a more consistant surface. A forged receiver will have some surface imperfections on the unmahined portions… its the nature of the beast when you make mass produced items that are forged. For fuction you will be served perfectly with any quality forged upper be it Mega, CMT or whatever.
As far as finish you have milspec anodising like CMT, LMT etc and then there is the Mega, DPMS, etc teflon impregnated anodisation. It a little slicker and prettier and does not need to be holding CLP to look good in pics. Either will serve you just fine.
Some will say billet is more cinsistantly true and the rals in spec… thats an issue for your supplier, not you… you r supplier should be sending bad uppers back so if you buy from a good supplier like any of our board sponsers you will be fine.
Billet is used for low production or custom items. Forged is more expensive to get an inital die set up but its cheaper for high volume in the long run… for instance LWRC made a new .308 rifle the SABR. Prototypes and inital production are all billet. It was cheaper to do CNC programming than to set up for forging initally. To save money they went to forged for future production runs for higher volume. The inital billet is likely to be a bit “prettier” but both will be equal in funtion.
you’ve missed, entirely, the purpose of billet uppers as we know them today- receiver flex.
billets are machined beefier to keep long, heavy barrels from flexing the receiver.
Has bkb0000 stated the point was receiver flex. Been around long enough to know that any thing made by the hand of man will not last forever or be unbreakable.
I have not inquired about the uppers. Next time I talk to Jerry I will ask.
I’m not sure how much receiver flex comes into play once the bolt is locked up. I’m also not so sure on how much of that flex is “cured” by the use of a billet upper. ???
I would be more concerned about barrel “droop”. 