All posts tagged Gun Parts

Did you have your Star Wars and G.I. Joe stuff taken away from you and replaced with Magpul Accessories?

Scout MOE Mount M4 rail coversMagpul PRS AR15 StocksItMagpul Stocks and accessories AR15 trigger guard‘s often a line I use when we deal with the “I’m building a rifle” because it’s often the case.   Children from the 70’s and 80’s all remember all of the Action Figures and accessories and the TV Commercials that posted all of the cool new Desert Trooper accessories that he came “Dusty”.  Watching some of these guys shop for their AR15 accessories and having those Commercials play in my head I can always profile which of those Action Figures they were into.   You pick this stuff watching those with certain mechanical skills use different approaches to basically were tastes.   While we know we’re dealing with deadly weapons now, there is so much science and skill with being a proficient marksmen that there is nothing wrong with having fun with your firearms because it’s a National Heritage.

The AR15 is really the modern musket and there are entry level guns, usually A2 sights and fixed stocks which Magpul has lots of options for modifications.   The vast majority of our customers are very happy with Magpul Stocks and Accessories and although we move a considerable amount of Troy and Tango Down pistol grips and stocks,  the modifications you may choose for your M4 Carbine are going to be as vast and the shoe sizes of everyone that owns this style of rifle.    The Magpul CTR stocks are the first option when moving from a Fixed stock to a varying position but knowing how to get a good cheek weld and not thinking you’re going to have to put risers and over think the gun is the way to start from.  If its not working you can always figure it out, just take one thing at a time.

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Some thoughts on what happened after a year of the panic buying

Spikes Tactical Upper ReceiversWe don’t get the phone calls from the panic buyers anymore because things seemed to have calmed down.  The thing we dealt with a year ago were all the people price gouging on Magpul Pmags and on AR15’s.   Some people were completely off their rockers and lacked the foresight to know the political climate we were in, that no major so called “assault weapon” bill was going to pass.   I know some many people that were buying 2-3 guns, sometimes for their sons because they thought they might not get them in another year.   Well, that’s not going to happen without a revolution in this Country and considering how many people just armed themselves, it’s a little too late to try and pursue new gun laws when everyone practically owns everything.

We always dealt the the customers that were very particular about what they wanted and when you are dealing with the “gun build” guys or gals you will get specific product numbers.  One little gem that we found in the AR15 complete upper receiver sales are the Spikes Tactical Upper receivers.   All of the upper receivers we sell are complete uppers because that’s  how most people are going to want them.  Sure you can save some money buy doing parts kits, but you gotta know what you are doing otherwise the “Franken Gun” term will apply.   There are still plenty of customers buying A2 style uppers with standard plastic handguards, but the real high demand with spikes are there STU5025-R2s with the QD sling attachment points and the very lightweight rail systems.

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If you want an AR15, better talk to us soon!

AR15 Upper receivers in stock We have never seen the AR15 parts dry up like they have in the last 7 months but I’m sure we don’t need to explain why.  Last month we started to get word that some of the gun manufacturers were starting to take orders for upper receivers, so anyone doing a build party might be able to do one sometime in the Fall or if you are lucky, maybe sooner.   Some manufacturers like LWRC were only making complete guns and no parts unless you kissed somebodies ass and begged them for it.   Even the lower parts kits we sold from Spikes Tactical have been absolutely no where for almost a year, and there was already a run on those.   Windham and Bushmaster upper receivers have been at a total zero for over 8 months.   So what can you get now if nothing is in stock?

On our website we stock a lot of tactical gear and accessories and there is a email me when back in stock option for all of our items.   There are good number of Spikes tactical and Smith & Wesson AR15 Uppers Receivers in stock in the coming weeks.   There are several CMMG 9mm and 300 blackout coming in as well as a few 22 Caliber complete upper receivers.   Good luck trying to find 22LR ammunition though.  It seems like these all become available in waves based upon caliber so I’m sure it’s a production thing.  5.56 uppers are the ones people are the most concerned about, but considering the number of new gun owners and competition shooters that are out there, there is going to be high demand for AR15 firearms for a long time to come.  Gas piston uppers and direct impingement alike.

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Gas piston uppers instead of a new gun?

Put me down as someone that didn’t have a clue as to what the differences were between my LWRC M6A2 upper I purchased in comparison to what else is out there, I basically just went by word of mouth and looked up a few sources online for reviews.   The notion of having a cleaning running rifle was appealing to me and for the number of times I’ve seen AR15 rifle jam and go down, I was always looking for something better than what is out there.   The truth of the matter is all machining, lubrication and quality control for AR15 guns has dramatically improved.  The DI guns that are being made now are not the DI guns from 15yrs ago.  Magpul Pmags have greatly improved the reliability of the gun and there just aren’t the problems that there use to be.

LWRC is still the cream of the crop although they have evolved from their original designs for a short stroke piston gun.   The machining of the Noveske uppers and the Daniel Defense are also outstanding DI guns but the new competition for piston uppers isn’t POF pistons, it’s the Adams AR15 complete uppers that are for the most part under $800.   The Adams 556 upper receivers are a really nice gas piston upper and if you already have a lower, this is probable the best step up if you’ve been running a Bushmaster or a Olympic arms guns for the last 15yrs.  We recently have been testing the Slip 2000 product line with these guns so stay tuned.

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Are you having a hard time finding the AR15 upper that you want?

After seeing about a 4yr increase in sales of firearms, we’ve pretty much come to the conclusion that certain .380 pistol magazines, gun holsters and firearm accessories are going to be hard to get for a few more months.   Much of what is going on is an increase in firearm sales due to the social and political problems we are facing.  We have elected individuals to higher office that do not have traditional patriotic values and seeing them gain power is disturbing to anyone that understands the Constitution. Runs on emergency food storage and ammunition were the next things to go prices have increased with the demand.  We’ve seen more sales of higher end firearms and accessories because the cheap stuff was all gone.

We have backorders for AR15 uppers going back to November for Spikes Tactical, Daniel Defense, Smith & Wesson and many more.  The real issue is that many of the manfacturers are selling more complete guns and making AR15 upper receivers for sale is not something as important as selling a complete gun.  Many gun shops would rather sell guns than uppers.  If you having a hard time getting the uppers make sure you put your email in the “email me when back in stock” option on our website.  We do get in many uppers but the quantities are small and come in sporadically.   It’s a hard time for people building AR15s because there are some waiting periods if you know what you want.

 

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Spikes and Bushmaster Uppers

We’ve blown through a ton of the Spikes Tactical uppers in recent months but they have been so hard to get that some people working on a timeline ended up getting other things.  We’ve sold more LWRC uppers in the last year because so many of the less expensive products were all gone and it was like, spend another $500 and you got yourself a piston driven gun. And if you don’t want that, you’re not going to get your $600 Spikes Tactical upper.   Many people started out with Bushmaster AR15 and Colt AR15s but there have been so  many changes that i’d have to paint a broad brush on these guns and say they are all better than they use to be.

Even things like gun oils, MPro7 makes a darn good cleaning and gun oil and Its non-toxic which really adds up.  I have several Bushmaster upper receivers on my guns that I built and they are great guns especially for the price I paid.   The Standard A2 carry handle upper receiver is the 2nd firearm that I teach new shooters to shoot on.   First  it’s the Marlin bolt action 22LR and then I move to the Bushmaster XM15E2.   If you can’t get a hold of a Spikes Tactical Upper, the Bushmaster Upper receivers are probable the next best thing.

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The answer to what you want is to go to a store and hold it in your hands

I use to organize lots of gun club events and the best thing about it was being able to try out things that my friends would show up with.  We would even put out requests before hand and ask people to bring a certain firearm out if someone owned it.   It was very cool to have some of my requests fulfilled when I got to shoot a 5.45×39 AK next to a 7.62×39 one.   I did some long range testing with it and anyone with an honest mind will tell you that it makes sense that the Russians switched over to the 5.45×39 caliber.  Shopping for gun accessories online can be a pain and sometimes it’s always best to go back to the manufacturer and ask them.

We’ve had to sell off some of our high end upper receivers whenever we found out that a new version of this was coming out.  Sometimes a slight spring or finish occurs on the AR15 complete upper receivers and its all of a sudden an old version.   Just look at what Glock did with all of the Generations of Glock firearms and the infamous recalls.  I am never one to be the first to buy a firearm because ever since the XD45 came out, I saw guys send them back to the factory for improvements.   That never happened to me with my Sig Sauer pistols so it’s sometimes best to know you are venturing into unknown territory if you try something new.   Ask questions and try things out or put on your Lewis and Clark.

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Check out our new Deal of the Day

It’s actually getting fun learning all of these Social Store features but it’s also funny watching Facebook go public and then turn into a bust.  I have not idea why people just don’t learn from first hand experience.  It’s  one thing do a dumb thing twice but looking at the mistakes made with the housing loan, student loans, credit card loans when the heck do people learn?   When you are on a firing range or practicing with a firearm, you better not make mistakes because mistakes can mean injury or take lives.

Once  thing we have learned while growing our business is learning from mistakes.   Everyone makes them and it’s nice to know that if you send out a wrong size boot most people don’t mind it as long as you quickly resolve the issues.   We are going to be spotlighting some of our AR15 complete upper receivers on inventory and adding more and more tactical gear and accessories to this new feature.  You might want to bookmark our new deal of the day category or just monitor us on Facebook.

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Might need to rethink your grip

When it comes time to mounting a flashlight on your M4 Carbine you might have to rethink the placement of your grips.  If you  have a tradition A2 it might not be so bad, I have for several years not used pressure switches on my M4 Carbines because I’ve seen them snag or fail so many times.  Putting one more switch or screwed on attachment on my carbine means one more thing that can fail on me.  Considering the number of failures I’ve witnessed with guns, I don’t want to have to worry about getting a light on at a crucial moment.

Depending on your level of vigilance, you may be in the same camp as I am, but really want to add on those lights and switches.   Always knowing  how to deal with a failure is important and many have changed their magpul accessories out on firearms only to realize they can’t move the same way.   There are some very nice light mounts being made that actually sit very far forward and close to the barrel of the firearm which in all reality, is the best place for a laser or a white light. The magpul angled foregrips are something that I really feel comfortable using, but it’s hard to turn a light switch on and off without a pressure switch in this position.

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LWRC M6A3 now a thing of the past

We just got word that the LWRC M6A3 is on the chopping block but right behind it is the new LWRC M6A5.  From the early info we have gathered so far, the M6A5 has a 2 position gas regulator and that is the only difference.  Not sure about any other changes but I think this was just a simplicity issue.   There is nothing wrong with simplifying a design because some gun parts and accessories can wear out or be hard to place or are just a wast of manufacturing time and energy because it is not necessary.   We have seen LWRC stop the M6 rifle because it was just so old and the demand for something more on a carbine was there.

I still have my original LWRC M6A1 carbine and I love it although it isn’t the same guy it was when I first purchased it.   The thing about the AR15 upper receivers that I have held and shot, is that there are so many configurations and variations out there that sometimes the guns are just flat out not the same.   The AR18 is also know where near the same as an LWRC gun nor is it like the Sig 556.   There are differences between rifle grips and some are mil spec and some are commercial

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