V7Weapons Parts Review:
V7Weapons sent me some AR parts to T&E, because I asked them about testing and evaluating some parts. The reason I am interested in V7Weapons is that they specialize in making lighter versions of parts to shave off unnecessary weight in ARs.
I built an ultra lightweight carbine for my wife and named it Project Featherweight a few years ago, and made it as lightweight as I could with what was available at the time. I posted pictures and specs of it on www.m4carbine.net and I got it down to just over 5.25lbs. It’s a 14.5" Mid length Rock River Arms stainless 1x8 twist barrel with permanently pinned Battlecomp 1.5 compensator, which makes the barrel the legal minimum of 16". I had the barrel turned down to .565" profile forward of the gas block and in the middle of the barrel between the chamber and gas block. Drew at www.warriflesonline.com did the barrel profiling for me. I used a Troy 11" TRX rail (lightest at the time). I shaved the front sight base down into a ultra low profile pinned gas block, cut it in half and only used the rear portion of it with one pin securing it to the barrel. On the receiver I left off the dust door assembly and replaced the forward assist assembly with a delrin plug. The pistol grip is a K grip from Magpul Industries. The bolt carrier is a 6.25 oz. LMOS AR15 carrier (w/o forward assist notches) from JP and it uses a standard BCM bolt. The receiver extension is a VLTOR A5 and I made its buffer, an A5 length buffer, 3.8 oz. by switching out its tungsten weights with steel ones. It has a Colt ‘old school’ Fiberite carbine stock. I used an Aimpoint H1 Micro optical sight with a Daniel Defense Aimpoint Micro non-QD mount, and I used Daniel Defense iron sights and a Streamlight TLR3 light mounted in front of the DD front sight mounted on the 12 o’clock rail.
The parts V7Weapons sent me to evaluate included their lightweight aluminum castle nut and QD end plate for carbine stocks, lightweight aluminum mag catch and button, titanium pivot pin, takedown pins, lightweight dust door, titanium .750" low profile gas block, inconel mid-length gas tube, and their 57 degree safety. These parts are very nicely machined and nicely finished and fit well.
The mag catch is excellent and the quality of the piece is something you might see on a B2 Stealth Bomber. It is made from one piece which is unlike USGI two piece steel units, it uses a standard mag catch spring. If built properly, the two piece USGI design works fine for the life of the rifle. On non-MilSpec guns, I’ve seen these fail and come apart during use.
The V7 aluminum safety is nice and has a 57 degree throw which works great and is very nice for reengaging the safety from fire to safe. Other companies use 45 degrees or 60 degrees safeties. For me, 45 degree safeties work fine with a lever that’s a bit wider than a USGI style safety and I don’t care much for the 60 degree throw safeties. The V7 safety is thinner and lower profile than a standard safety. It has very positive clicks which I like a lot. It’s lever is removable with a screw so they might be making/designing levers of different sizes and I believe they do offer an ambi-safety as well.
Their pivot pin and takedown pins work well and are about 1/2 the weight of steel pins. I think because they’re made of titanium and or because they have a brushed like finish they feel a little differently when pushing them out for disassembly. It’s not a problem and I think it’s just because the titanium reacts differently across the aluminum detents vs steel pivot and takedown pins. There are no issues, it just feels different.
In the past I’ve always stayed away from gas blocks made of any material other than steel. This is because I’ve seen so many that leaked and caused the rifles to malfunction as the barrel heated up, because the different expansion rates of the aluminum gas block and barrel steel. I’ve also seen where aluminum gas blocks erode away at it’s gas port on 7.5" barrels and carbine length gas system rifle barrels, which also leads to a malfunctioning rifle. I haven’t used their titanium gas block on a pistol length barrel, but did try it on a 12.5" carbine length gas system and on a 18" rifle gas system and got both hot enough from shooting where barrel was hot enough to easily cause burns to the skin. The gas block worked well and the rifles functioned 100%.
On my BCM 14.5" Mid-length SBR, I’m using the inconel V7 gas tube and aluminum dust door. The inconel gas tube has worked 100% thus far in over 1100 rounds of 5.56mm ammo and I don’t foresee any issues anytime soon. It’s a great idea, and I’m surprised that someone hadn’t made one before especially for suppressed and full auto use. Mil-spec standard gas tubes are made of 17-4 stainless steel and typically hold up well, but they do wear out especially if the barrel nut isn’t perfectly aligned with the hole in the upper receiver or the person who installed the gas tube bent it slightly. When they do wear out you’ll see this excessive wear on one side of the gas tube where it enters the bolt carrier key and it doesn’t seal well. The standard gas tube is hard being 17-4 stainless but it’s not as hard as the the hard chrome which is inside the bolt carrier key.
The aluminum dust door works, and locks closed and opens properly. My only issue that I don’t like about it, is that when the upper and lower are separated (field stripping) with the dust door open, it springs open even further than a standard steel dust door. Where this can cause issues is upon reassembling the lower on the upper while the dust is still open on the upper receiver, when the upper receiver assembly is mounted onto the lower receiver assembly, and you don’t close the door or only close it slightly, it will smash into the lower and scratch up the lower receiver and cause a little damage to the dust door. The standard steel dust doors have a metal tab on the middle outside of it which limits over extension.
Their aluminum mag catch has performed 100% without issue. Their aluminum castle nut and end plate are very nicely designed and also feature the notches which allow staking of the end plate into the castle nut. Lots of people will probably think that an aluminum end plate and castle nut and end plate would perform more poorly than steel version. These people will likely forget that the carbine receiver extensions and lower receivers are also made of 7075 aluminum. GLOCK has a similar theory in how their pistols are assembled “polymer against polymer and steel against steel”. Take the frame for example: The polymer trigger housing is held into the polymer frame with a polymer pin. The steel locking block, trigger bar and slide catch assembly are held in by two steel pins. In the slide: the steel extractor depressor plunger is pressed against the steel extractor, the extractor spring has a polymer bearing and the striker/firing pin polymer spacer sleeve both rest up against the polymer slide cover plate.
I really like the aluminum castle nut and end plate it handles the required torque and takes staking just fine. The QD socket end plate is just as low profile as a standard USGI steel end plate.
