Stripped Lowers

[jes3se]

I’m looking to start acquiring parts to put together a rifle build. Sportsman’s and others have some of cheaper Lowers advertised. Is there any reason I should avoid one of the budget lowers?

[TacMedic]

Not in my opinion. As long as it’s not polymer, I’ve never had an issue with the low cost ones. Palmetto, Anderson, they all meet the same specifications.

[Remow2112]

TacMedic is correct. They are all mill spec. Anderson works just fine.


Dan...

[Yugmoto1]

I have used quite a few Andersons and have had no issues either. I have had people tell me that they have found them out of spec, but when I ask how they measured them I did not get a clear answer from those individuals. Now I don't consider myself an expert, and I'm not a machinist, but I have taken some machining and manufacturing classes as well as a course in geometric dimension and tolerance. I also worked for fairly well known gunsmith in the valley for a while. The people that claim poor quality in an Anderson lower never could provide details, and I didn't see a surface plate or a set of gauge blocks anywhere in the vicinity of our discussions and real tools were never mentioned except by myself. I kinda prefer my Aero Precision lowers, but that is mostly because the finish appears a little more consistent between them and the uppers. But I have more Anderson than Aero lowers. The fit and function is fine and that is most important. Sorry to be a bit long winded on this one. Just my opinion.

[Yugmoto1]

I forgot, Palmetto works great as well...

[jes3se]

Awesome, thanks for weighing in everyone

[mtuck]

I love Aero Precision stuff. I usually just by the blemished stuff and can never tell what the blems are.
https://www.aeroprecisionusa.com/sale/blemished

[Tim McBride]

Mil Spec and built to dimensions as other lowers are not the same thing.
Most lowers are not built to a 'mil-spec' and it's irritating that so many in this business use that term.
Hell 'mil-spec' isn't even that great of a thing. A lot of the improvements in the AR15 are not 'mil-spec' and that is a good thing.

As for cheap lowers. 90% of the time they are fine for what 90% of the users out there will use the gun for. Nothing wrong with them, but lets not start acting like they are all made the same. Many of them cut corners in machining and QC to get the price down to the point they can retail at $39. One of the most notorious thing done is the FCG pocket is cut incorrectly. It will work for a standard FCG, but will sometimes cause issues with drop in units. Magwells are another area that is often subject to shortcuts and cost cutting. Finally many are not anodized correctly.

Now does that matter for most people? f*** no. I have guns built on everything from Anderson Poverty Ponies to LWRC lowers to one off billet lowers. For most applications what matters is that the lower is dimensionaly correct in a few key areas, and most lowers will fill that requirement.

As for plastic. Depends. The only polymer lower I would use is a CavArms MKII and I have a feeling that the KE Arms MKIII will continue that quality. These lowers are acceptable because they were designed to use polymer, and the design fixes the shortcomings that other polymer lowers failed to address. The biggest problem with other polymer lowers is that they did not make any changes, its just a 'standard' lower that is made from plastic. That doesn't work.

[Toy00taco]

Don’t think I could have put it any better than Tim did, great info there!