All posts tagged Lightweight Upper receivers

All of those gas piston guns out there….

There are many guns popping up that are now piston driven, everything from Ruger, Adams, POF, and many more.  One of the best levels of advice I’ve given to people when they ask about a certain firearm is to not be the first  one to buy it because you’ll be the first one that has to send your gun back when they find out there is a design flaw or an upgrade.  This happened with the Beretta 92F and we ended up with the Beretta 92FS, and even the LWRC M6A1 had some major internal changes after the gun was first fielded and this is considered the Cadillac of AR15 piston driven guns.

We’ve sold a lot of the LWRC M6A2 guns in the last year or so because they still are the kings of the piston guns.   Recently we’ve also sold a  lot of the Adams gas piston upper receivers which are different in design but I can’t tell you which is better or if they are worth what they are selling for until they have been fielded and  used on the ranges  long enough.   I’ve seen many minor issues with guns from spring flaws, weak pistons, making the bolt carrier group a one piece and eliminating the screws that keep the gas key in place.  These were sheering off on the guns after a  few thousand rounds but anyone that purchased these about 2yrs after they came out got the better version.

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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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Have enough guns? How about more upper receivers for your AR15?

I don’t think you even need to worry changing calibers if you want something different than a 556 upper.   I’ve seen guys turn an M4 Carbine into a varmint rifle with a snap of two pins on a lower receiver.  The real thing to look out for is changes in calibers, namely to a 5.45×39 upper.   Many times I’ve seen guys skip the hammer spring change and end up with a light strike issue with Russian ammunition. We sold a ton of the Smith & Wesson 5.45×39 uppers a few years ago but for some reason they just don’t seem to be available.

 

The LWRC M6Ak was a one off novelty deal which died a quick death and no word if it’ll ever happen again.
Right  now the biggest selling upper receiver we have are the Adams 5.45×9 uppers.  I had a customer take apart his gun side by side to my AR15 complete upper receivers and compare the piston differences.  There is a difference and I still love my LWRC M6A2 but this gun was a next best thing and a best thing for a 5.45×39 upper.  You still can’t beat the cost of ammunition for these guns and the  caliber does have a better reputation than the 30 caliber AK.   I’ve known guys that took hits from the AK it has so much energy that it just zips through you and the Russians finally caught on that the 5.56 was a better combat caliber.

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Hard to find an upper you like?

We get a lot of window shoppers at our store and the one thing we pride ourselves on is that we are already very competitive with online sales that when people walk out of our store and look it up on Google or Yahoo, there is a really good chance they see our store listed there.  For many gun shops they tend to not make much money off of guns and ammunition that they really need to make money off of other things.  Some of those things like gun accessories, optics, holsters can be marked up 10-15% beyond what an online dealer might have but people are getting frugal with this economy.

Wilson combat magazines are one of those things that you don’t see in many stores but we are one of the best sources online for those.  When it comes to AR15 uppers the Noveske complete uppers are our recent hot sellers and the standard models are flying out the door.  There are many things like this that people want to hold in their hands before they lay their money down and gun grips, rifle stocks and gun accessories are not all that common in a fishing and hunting store.   Stop in our new Broomall PA location for the best source in tactical gear.

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Now carrying the Noveske Uppers

What’s the difference between all of these AR15 rifles that are coming out these days?  The differences is that they are all huge improvements over the AR15 rifles that were around even just 10yrs ago.  Don’t let anyone tell you they aren’t the same.  It’s not all about the Vietnam stories over chrome chambers and ammunition.   It’s not just about lubing your gun right and keeping it clean.  With all of my experience running AR15 rifles, I have never seen one go down because it was dirty.  I’ve seen plenty of handguns go down because they ran dry after about 500rds and the operator claimed it never happened before.

There have been major changes to the way that people operator the M4 Carbine and lighter is the trend as it should be.  The Noveske upper receivers are the newest AR15 Upper receivers in our inventory and these have a very different feel and contour.  Each manufacturer like the Daniel Defense Uppers, LWRC Uppers and the Spikes Tactical have different bolt carriers, different finishes, and even though some are better than others, they are all better made than the early AR15 guns we use to have.

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Do you want a plinking gun or a combat durable firearm?

I am still a big fan of SWAT magazine even though print magazines seem to get written off as gun rags, but I find this to be utter bull shit.   Not all gun magazines the are the same and I for one mostly follow about a dozen gun writers because I want to hear their opinions on some of the products out there.  Yes, the gun industry is full of materialism and novelties, but there is a real world out there and I want to hear from real world individuals about hardware that can cut it.   Much of the firearm industry is about preference, whether it’s tactical pants or firearms.

There is cheap crap out there, although I’d say it’s not so bad anymore because gun acceessories like Magpul have pretty much buried the competition.   Everyone and their dog is putting out a gun or AR15 upper receivers with the Magpul acessories on them.   They are not that expensive and they hold up.  Proper mounting is always a big deal with gun accessories but I’ve already cracked quite a few gun parts and none of them were Magpul accessories.

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Gas piston guns, are you going to get a good one for under $1000?

I have some very wise friends and when we first started to see the piston driven AR15s show up on the market “again” about 7yrs ago, it was mostly debates about the AR18, the LWRC piston driven firearms and the POF guns.   I think POF did a good job of staying in the market up until about 2yrs ago.   Now everyone and their dog is making one but I would still caution anyone from jumping in the fire and expecting theirs to be up to what LWRC is making.   The only argument you can make against LWRC guns is probable the H&K 416 variants.

Even with some of the earlier LWRC M6 rifles, there have been some changes, modifications and uprgrades.  I was fortunate enough to have been able to go to the LWRC factory and upgrade on of my LWRC AR15 upper receivers and get the new bolt carrier group without any altering of the firearm I have.  My LWRC M6A2 is a much older version compared to what is out now the barrel life is about 4x’s more.   There are still large variations in piston driven uppers and I got to shoot a Ruger 556 last year and was very impressed with the quality of the firearm, there may be more choices in 2012 and many of them look nice, but will there be modifications or changes to them and getting parts for yours might become harder and harder in 2-3yrs.

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Fall Special on LWRC Upper Recievers

The news coming from LWRC this Fall is that the new Lightweight Stretch upper has replaced the older M6 LWRC rifle.   There is very little different about this upper than the M6.   The LWRC Lightweight upper comes standard with the Magpul MOE Handguard.   It took me awhile to figure out what the big deal was when all of the MOE stuff started showing up.   Sometimes it’s a royal pain to have to research all of the new products that come out around this time of the year because we know that people are going to call about them and we try to look as smart as we can.   If you haven’t know it by now, gun accessories, primarily for the AR15 fill the void for the guys that grew up and stopped playing with LEGOS.

Some of this stuff really does improve the fit and feel of a firearm and lightening your Carbine without weakening it a great thing.   As anyone in the military if they could change something on their M16 to take off 8 oz and they will tell you it’s a good thing.   We recently got in the new LWRC uppers for sale that is the lightweight stretch upper.  This gun comes with the New Magpul MOE stock which is all stock with rail attachments.   There is an aweful lot of un-used weight on many M4 Carbines and the Quad rail thing is great if you are using it, but most people don’t.

 

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