I just read an interesting thread on the quality of AR 15s

which confirmed what I got crucified for a few years back.

I once said that they are all pretty good because anyone putting together junk would be out of business in short order.

Anyway a former employee of one of the bigger (now defunct) companies let the cat out of the bag. The now defunct company got bought up a while back by a bigger company.

The former employee went on to say that the basic parts were basically traded around to practically all of the other companies. He pointe out that none of the companies built all 120 parts of an AR on premises. They built some but not all of them and outsourced what they didn't make.

In short, with very few exceptions virtually all ARs made are built with numerous non in-house parts. The expensive makers in most cases use whatever they can get their hands on that basically pass speifications. In this day and age most do.

So what is the difference between a top shelf rifle and a run of the mill rifle? Most of the time It's the roll mark on the lower receiver. That's all. 

Of course, there are a number of custom builders out there that build competition rifles and things are a little different. They may use a better barrel and/or float tube. They might put in a specialty trigger but they generally use the same parts out there that everyone else uses.

I guess it's the same for custom homes. Custom homes all pretty much use the same basic dimensional lumber for framing and building. The sheetrock is the same.

What's different are the trims, appliances, cabinets and the non structural parts coupled with the design and layout.

I build both tract and custom homes decades ago and discovered this.

I am not in the least bit surprised it applied to AR15 rifles.

Unless you are getting a gun from a custom shop they are all pretty much the same.





To find out why the blog is pink just cut and paste this: http://piccoloshash.blogspot.com/2009/12/my-feminine-side-blog-stays-pink.html NO ANIMALS WERE HARMED IN THE WRITING OF TODAY'S ESSAY