Good quality lower?

[Shadow9mm]

From what I understand most lowers are all forged in the same couple factories and sold to the manufacturers who do most if not all of the final machining work.

I'm wanting to steer clear of budget tier lowers, Anderson, PSA, and the like.

I'm also wanting to steer clear of proprietary systems but don't have issues with billet as long as standard parts/parts kits work.

For me Colt Went out the window when I found out about the "sear block" in their lowers.

What would you buy if you needed a good quality, solid, duty ready lower?

 

[rickyrick]

I like AeroPrecision stuff, they have m16/m4 clones and all.

That said, I’ve used several anderson stripped lowers with no issue at all, but I don’t care for their parts kits.

I can’t answer about anyone else’s lowers. I only used stripped lowers and put nice triggers in them.

 

[MarkCO]

I have a few stripped lowers and a few built lowers still on hand. But, when I wanted to buy one, the first spec was always Forged 7075. It costs a bit more, almost twice as strong.

Here is the huge kick in the nuts to the "Boutique" high end forged 7075 lowers...PSA makes dimensionally accurate, forged, 7075 lowers and sells them for $50 to $100.

If you just can't do it, Icon, Stag, Aero, JP are good places to start. Some of my personal favs are Firebird (no longer made) and Noveske (when John was alive)

 

[jetinteriorguy]

I like Aeroprecision, great quality and I love the fact the lowers have the ability to adjust out any looseness so they are more solid.

 

[tangolima]

I only have 3 lowers; a $60 famco, a $75 blemish aero, and a fancy (forgot the brand) one that's on a rifle I bought.

The 3rd one (fancy) has features like belted mag well and machining for accommodating ambi bolt release. Other than that I don't really see and feel difference. Durability? I probably don't need to worry about it.

I have more uppers than lowers. The fit between them bugs me. I just bed the uppers to fit one lower with epoxy putty. The famco is for all AR-15 uppers. The aero is for all AR-10. The fancy stays with the 6.5mm Grendel upper that it came with.

-TL

Sent from my SM-N960U using Tapatalk

 

[davidsog]

I'm wanting to steer clear of budget tier lowers, Anderson, PSA, and the like.

Any of the above are:

good quality, solid, duty ready lower

A Forged 7075-T6 aluminum receiver is the strongest AR receiver available. Only advantage to billet is you can carve a skull into it or customize controls. That is not say billet receivers are not good receivers.

So do not deny yourself some guilty pleasure by saving a few bucks and acquiring the strongest, most durable, and duty ready receiver you can buy.

Pros
The strongest aluminum lower available
Most resistant to direct impacts and wear
Easier to machine than billet or cast aluminum

A forged lower receiver is the strongest of all lowers. Surprisingly, it's also the easiest to cut and drill. Metallurgists agree that the forging process results in the aluminum having continuous grain characteristics with incredible density and uniformity. It is also this consistency in the metal's structure that makes cutting and drilling a forged unit easier and less prone to tooling issues than a billet or cast unit.

Cons

None
Forged lowers are generally considered "the best" of the three choices. A forged receiver is tougher, harder, easier to complete, and less expensive than a cast or billet aluminum option.

https://www.gunbuilders.com/blog/cast-vs-billet-6061t6-vs-forged-7075t6/

 

[rickyrick]

:The Anderson lowers are advertised as being forged 7075 T6 with an M16 pocket.
I have no way of knowing the material really.

If I find myself butt-stroking a pig or a coyote… things have gone way wrong

 

[FrankenMauser]

I have had a few things.
Currently, I have one DPMS and one Troy lower. The rest of the aluminum lowers are all Aero Precision (standard and blem). And there are four two polymer lowers - a TN Arms Co TAC-15 and a KE Arms KP-15. (I also have two EP80 lowers, but they were early variants, out of spec, and are not in use.)

The TAC-15 is low grade garbage, had to be modified in multiple ways just to function, and only used on less serious uppers. (I have owned 9 of these and this was the best of 9. )

The KP-15 is nice and light, but uses non-captive, proprietary takedown and hinge pins, and came with the worst 'mil-spec' parts kit populating it. I threw a different parts kit and different trigger in it, and do quite like it now for light applications.

Aero lowers are just basic, good lowers. Populate with the parts of your choosing, and it'll be fine.

DPMS is fine. Has given me no trouble. But you can't buy them any more, so it doesn't really matter.

 

[MarkCO]

It's more than that. Stiffness is a thing and the more accurate ARs have the barrel nuts torqued on the upper end, if not over 80 ft-lbs. With 6061, that can be a risk. My personal match AR is torqued at about 100 ft-lbs, and thermo-fit. Not something I'd try with a 6061 receiver.

 

[ballardw]

It's more than that. Stiffness is a thing and the more accurate ARs have the barrel nuts torqued on the upper end, if not over 80 ft-lbs. With 6061, that can be a risk. My personal match AR is torqued at about 100 ft-lbs, and thermo-fit. Not something I'd try with a 6061 receiver.

If someone is torquing a barrel nut to a lower they have other problems than metallurgy to worry about.

 

[MarkCO]

If someone is torquing a barrel nut to a lower they have other problems than metallurgy to worry about.

So true. I should have been more specific.

Receivers, upper and lower, I prefer 7075. The lowers don't take a lot of force, except blowbacks on the front pin if uncaptured.

 

[tangolima]

So true. I should have been more specific.



Receivers, upper and lower, I prefer 7075. The lowers don't take a lot of force, except blowbacks on the front pin if uncaptured.

Recoil force goes to the lower and continues on to the butt stock. You probably don't want the pins to take that force.

-TL

Sent from my SM-N960U using Tapatalk

 

[zukiphile]

I'm wanting to steer clear of budget tier lowers, Anderson, PSA, and the like.

It isn't for me to steer you toward or away from anything, but I'll observe that I've used several Anderson closed trigger lowers from when they were $40. Anderson does, or did, an odd thing with the threaded hole for the grip in making it slightly shorter than a normal grips screw, but they've otherwise been great.

I picked up some billet lowers because they have some of the newer features a lot of billet lowers have, a screw for the bolt catch and rear take down spring.

Billet lowers, the ones I picked up included, often have a lot of stylish but sharp edges. It isn't typically a big deal, but I've held a rifle by the magwell at my side just perfectly so one of those sharp edge hits just right and it hurts.

 

[kymasabe]

I've built many lowers with Anderson receivers and haven't had any problems with any of the builds. But if spending more gives you peace of mind, then Aero, Ballistic, or Spikes are good choices as well.

 

[FrankenMauser]

I picked up some billet lowers because they have some of the newer features a lot of billet lowers have, a screw for the bolt catch and rear take down spring.

The set screw for the rear takedown spring and detent pin is a 3 minute modification that anyone can do, once they have a tap and set screw on hand (1/8" 4-40, steel, cup-point preferred). Run a 4-40 tap into the hole - start with a taper and finish with a bottoming tap, if possible - far enough to provide full-depth threads for the set screw, but not so far as to potentially cause spring binding. Blow out any shavings. Oil or grease the threads and parts, as desired.
Optional, but preferable, with a 1/8"-3/16" set screw; and mandatory with 1/4" or longer: Clip the spring by the length of the set screw. (Put the clipped end toward the set screw, if so.)
Install just a hair below flush with the receiver face, and you're done.

*Yes, 4-40 is slightly undersized for the hole. But it works fine.

Even though I rarely swap stocks or buffer tubes any more, all of my AR lowers have had the set screw installed, except for one. That lower was assembled as a pistol in 2014 and hasn't been messed with since.

The bolt catch screw would be nice. But once nearly anything is installed, it doesn't really matter.
There are alternatives. The AR world is very standardized and there are a lot of basic expectations - like using a roll pin for the bolt catch, or a shoulder pin if 'fancy'. But plenty of other options work.
I ran a polymer lower for about 2 years, which had a cotter pin holding the bolt catch in place -- because I had seen dozens of people saying that their 'ears' broke when the roll pin was installed in that same generation of receiver. I used a split pin made from a piece of drill rod in another, for the same reason and to allow for easy 'deep cleaning' while experimenting with some powder that was leaving a tremendous amount of unburned granules.

I have seen nails, machine screws, wire, drill bits, any other "scrap" items used for the purpose; as well as a guy that was using little keychain-sized clips ("carabiners") so he had a handy place to clip things.

ARs are adult danger Legos. Assemble and use however you desire.