Ended up with an American Spirit Arms ARA15 in a purchase from a neighbor. Anyone have any good or bad. Google and not many folks have good to say on the gun. Guy is out of business as well from what I can find. I am not an AR human. Real limited knowledge as I am a bolt action human. Thanks
American Spirit Arms AR question
- Thread starter JRnAZ
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A friend of mine went to their table at the gun show right before Obama got elected the first time and wanted to buy some bare receivers, but no one had any in stock. The owner at ASA took his money for the normal price on 3 receivers, telling him he would have them in a month and he could come pick them up at their machine shop in Scottsdale. Then Obama won. The buying panic ratchetted up even more. When my buddy showed up for his receivers, the owner said the price was now different. To make a long story short, only after all kinds of threats to ruin him forever, my buddy got what he paid for. But many other people had similar stories about that no good swindler, so people stopped doing business with him.
Their is a couple iterations of American Spirit Arms.
The first is the worst, and where all the horror stories come from. The owner “Bob”, wasn’t a gun guy. He was a real estate guy. He owned the shopping center in N. Phx where the gun store was located. He basically took over from a previous tenant who rented a storefront from Bob.
At first (like 2 months), Bob ran the store with his step daughter and an actual armorer. They turned out decent stuff, even though Bob wasn’t always the friendliest guy to deal with. Eventually, Bobs attitude drove off the armorer and he started just hiring anyone off the street to put together his stuff.
This is when the big problems started. QC went out the window. Lots of barrels that didn’t have gas ports drilled, barrels that weren’t properly rifled, and lots of other problems. Bob just started buying any rejected junk from manufacturers and slapped the parts together and shipped them out. It was a gamble if you got anything that worked or not.
Eventually Bob moved the shop to Scottsdale near where Scottsdale Gun Club is today. He had a revolving door of people he hired to assemble his guns. His people skills were so bad, most didn’t last a month. The reputation for ASA was that the lower receiver was usually good. The upper receiver could be good but sometimes had issues. The barrels and lower parts were almost always junk. Bob developed a habit of yelling at customers who brought their stuff back for issues. He was known to throw the guns back at them, unrepaired, when they came to pick them up and tell them to never come back.
After a couple years in Scottsdale, Bob got really sick. He sold the business to others who tried to salvage it. They tried to innovate, with side charging uppers, and improve QC. Sadly the damage to the brand had been done. Nobody was wanting anything with American Spirit Arms name on it. After struggling for a while, the new owners closed the store for good.
The first is the worst, and where all the horror stories come from. The owner “Bob”, wasn’t a gun guy. He was a real estate guy. He owned the shopping center in N. Phx where the gun store was located. He basically took over from a previous tenant who rented a storefront from Bob.
At first (like 2 months), Bob ran the store with his step daughter and an actual armorer. They turned out decent stuff, even though Bob wasn’t always the friendliest guy to deal with. Eventually, Bobs attitude drove off the armorer and he started just hiring anyone off the street to put together his stuff.
This is when the big problems started. QC went out the window. Lots of barrels that didn’t have gas ports drilled, barrels that weren’t properly rifled, and lots of other problems. Bob just started buying any rejected junk from manufacturers and slapped the parts together and shipped them out. It was a gamble if you got anything that worked or not.
Eventually Bob moved the shop to Scottsdale near where Scottsdale Gun Club is today. He had a revolving door of people he hired to assemble his guns. His people skills were so bad, most didn’t last a month. The reputation for ASA was that the lower receiver was usually good. The upper receiver could be good but sometimes had issues. The barrels and lower parts were almost always junk. Bob developed a habit of yelling at customers who brought their stuff back for issues. He was known to throw the guns back at them, unrepaired, when they came to pick them up and tell them to never come back.
After a couple years in Scottsdale, Bob got really sick. He sold the business to others who tried to salvage it. They tried to innovate, with side charging uppers, and improve QC. Sadly the damage to the brand had been done. Nobody was wanting anything with American Spirit Arms name on it. After struggling for a while, the new owners closed the store for good.
Wasn't this the company that had the 4ftx4ft jail bar style cage just inside the front door of their first scottsdale shop?
I remember the owner losing his absolute shit when I reached through and opened the gate as he was walking over to let me in lol.
They were always the last resort when needing parts asap. Shitty owner attitude and high prices but otherwise average products.
As to the op, I've never had any issues with their products, they pretty much self imploded due to reputation/management issues afaik.
I remember the owner losing his absolute shit when I reached through and opened the gate as he was walking over to let me in lol.
They were always the last resort when needing parts asap. Shitty owner attitude and high prices but otherwise average products.
As to the op, I've never had any issues with their products, they pretty much self imploded due to reputation/management issues afaik.
I went to their brick and mortar store once and was unimpressed. Their stripped lowers had a reputation for being rather well made by a private labelling type contractor who also made lowers for many other companies, so the key part of your rifle is most likely good. The complete rifles ASA made were hit and miss, with many horror stories out there for years. So, what you picked up could be just fine as-is or it could need a bit of TLC, but is likely salvagable at worst.
You could have an AR smith take a look at it if you're worried or use this for some hands-on learning. A lot of AR work can be a pretty simple parts swap if you have the basic tools. I would function check the rifle, check headspace, then clean it, lube it up, and see how it shoots. Here's a pretty decent function check video if you need a refresher: and one on checking headspace:
Let us know how it turns out!
You could have an AR smith take a look at it if you're worried or use this for some hands-on learning. A lot of AR work can be a pretty simple parts swap if you have the basic tools. I would function check the rifle, check headspace, then clean it, lube it up, and see how it shoots. Here's a pretty decent function check video if you need a refresher: and one on checking headspace:
Let us know how it turns out!
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