Any love for the lightweight ployimer ARs ??

[Shooter McNasty]

https://www.brownells.com/rifle-part...rod132660.aspx. I like my rifle

[slingshot77]

Shooter McNasty

I can't comment about that particular Poly AR lower but I have an AR-15 Omni poly lower on a built up AR .22 long rifle trainer carbine gun and I am really impressed with the Omni fit & function. It is the tightest fitting (trigger pins & fit to the upper) of any of my AR-15 lowers (that includes some high dollar premium lowers).

I'm not sure that I would use a Poly lower on a real hard duty fighting gun but for a trainer or general range work it has been just fine with no problems what-so-ever for years now.

[Fuel Fire Desire]

I can’t say anything for that style of lower, but when the Bushmaster Carbon-15 came out I was working at a high volume FFL. We saw many come back with cracked receivers. They all seemed to fail in the same place. The pic rail on top of the plastic upper was aluminum and bolted/ screwed to the upper. Cracks would form around the forward screw hole, and spread to the ejection port, usually removing a chunk of plastic about the size of a dime. The plastic used was a very hard but brittle fiber reinforced plastic. If it were a more traditional Zytel, or a softer more flexible nylon I’d feel a lot better about it. The lower also sees much less stress than the upper too. I’d feel comfortable with that lower for a range blaster.

[Puc]

I grabbed a Plum Crazy plastic complete AR-15 lower receiver for $47 a couple years back and dropped a complete Wylde chambered 16" flat top upper on it that came with a Nitride BCG. The upper also came with the bump button and full length Keymod furniture,, it was gorgeous and for $260 it was a steal at the time. I also watched Ebay and found a brand new Franklin Binary that I won for under $200 (someone bought it but got scared so resold it).. Wondering just how close to Mil-Spec my Plum Crazy actually was and whether or not the Binary would function therein I grabbed the Franklin.. Guess what,, that Franklin fit PERFECT in the plastic Plum Crazy and functioned absolutely perfectly too. I also purchased one of those Korean dual drum drum feeds for the contraption and it would run thru 100 rounds of .17 cent per round ammo quicker than you could say "WOW THATS FUN". When the panic hit I got an offer of $1600 for my AR "build".. With the joy of shooting it completely gone because of the price of ammo going sky high I went ahead and sold it but gotta say, if I EVER get another shot at "building" the same for the same money I would not hesitate for one second in doing so. Personally I would have no problem trusting my life to another Plum Crazy polymer lower receiver..

[dice]

I built my own version of the WWSD rifle with that lower. Less than 5.5 lbs with optic. It's an amazing rifle.
The problem most people have when they hear polymer lower is they think it just a plastic stripped lower, which is prone to failure. The monolithic lowers are designed to eliminate the weak points. There are several videos showing how durable the KE Arms unit is. It's a quality piece.


Dice

[dwcopple]

I run a New Frontier polymer lower. It has run flawless. Avoid the ATI junk like the plague though.

[Garymac]

The KE arms one piece polymer lower appears to a be similar to the original Cavalry Arms lowers. I have two of those for a decade or more and they work well.

In fact I built an ultra light AR (about 4lbs) on one. It is really light and fun to shoot. I have thousands of rounds through it .



That's a slab sided upper, pencil barrel from Aim Surplus. and a carbon fiber fore arm. The bolt is a skeletonized from Aim Surplus, light weight carbine buffer, and mostly plastic internal lower parts from New Frontier. It even has light weight plastic cross pins from GWACS Armory who was making CAV Arms receivers for awhile.

[BMT85]

I have heard great things about the KE Arms lowers, and I really would like to get one to play with. Looks like it should hold up better than a regular plastic lower like New Frontier have. I had a New Frontier lower years ago. I bought it on sale when I was placing an order for another lower. Figured why not try it. It was so undersized I couldn't even get an upper on it. I filed and sanded different points to loosen it up, got it to a somewhat snug fit. Apparently that was even too much pressure for it because one day I noticed that it split at the seam at the front of the receiver. Didn't even fire one shot with it.

[thedonn007]

How much weight does it actually save?

[dice]

How much weight does it actually save?

I saved over a pound and a half with my build. Doesn't sound like a lot until you realize the average AR is around 7 lbs. Side by side the weight difference is amazing.
I used parts specifically to get a very light rifle. If you just slap a factory built upper on, you won't see nearly the same difference.


Dice