[John in AR]

Came across a new one at the gun show this weekend; an AR lower marked "Eagle Arms - div. ArmaLite, Geneseo, IL."

Never heard of Eagle Arms, but if it's a division of ArmaLite, my first assumption would be that it's quality stuff.

Anyone familiar with these or have input on their quality...?

 

[TODD 3465]

Good Lord No!!!

If it were not for the Carbon-15 that I'm stuck with the Eagle Arms AR-15 carbine I owned would have been the biggest POS AR I've ever had.

1). The barrel was not properly torqued down to the reciever. :hot:

2). The telescopic stock broke. :hot:

3). The POS went full-auto on me. :hot:

And after all my great luck with other brands some wonder why I only buy Colt ARs.

 

[mrostov]

If you get a stripped lower receiver marked 'Eagle Arms' it's OK and quality.

The original, very early 1990's guns from Eagle Arms had some problems. I had to hone out the chamber on one because of rough machining causing cases to stick in the chamber when it got hot, stuck hard enough to rip off the rim of the casing during extraction. Stuck casings often had to be knocked out with a cleaning rod and a mallet. A homemade 5.56mm chamber hone and a bit of automotove valve lapping compound solved that problem.

BUT the original Eagle Arms lower receiver forgings were good, it's just that some of the parts Eagle Arms used on the rest of the rifle were not the best.

After a rough beginning, Eagle Arms bought the Armalite name, made that the primary name of their company, and then got their act together.

Armalite now uses the Eagle Arms name only on the stripped lower receivers they sell; they do not build guns on receivers with that name. Buying an Eagle Arms stripped lower is the same nowadays as buying an Armalite.

Such a receiver will say, "Eagle Arms a division of Armalite".

If you see any complete AR made in the last several years with the Eagle Arms name on it and it also says 'a division of Armalite', then it was probably built from parts by someone other than Armalite. If there are problems with an Eagle Arms rifle built with an Armalite era receiver, it's because whoever put it together used cheap, non-milspec parts, or they just didn't know what they were doing. However, the lower receiver forging itself is good, unless the money doing the assembly damaged it.

If you can score a smoking deal on that Eagle Arms stripped lower, then snag it and buy an M4 kit from J&T Distributing.

This rifle I put together before the ban ended on a 'post-ban' stripped Eagle Arms receiver made by Armalite. I paid $90 for the brand new receiver at a gun show. It was a top quality, forged receiver.

 

[RIKA]

Handsome rifle Mike. Are you going to put a real flash suppressor on it or leave it as it is?

RIKA

 

[TODD 3465]

If it is a stripped lower I could see getting it.

My experience with Eagle Arms (Beagle Arms as I call them.) has made me hesitate in getting an AR-10; though I've yet to hear of any problems with them.

I wish some companies would consider their future when they start cranking out junk at the begining.

 

[John in AR]

Thanks for the input. I wanted to get some opinions of them, before I mentioned that I went ahead and bought it.

It was right at the last aisle of the show, at a table with a couple used AR's sitting there. The guy behind the table clearly didn't know much about AR's; he was more interested in reading some paperback book. When I tried to explain to him that I was really just looking for a used, private-party-sale, lower receiver to build a new carbine, he dug around under the table for a few seconds, pulled this out & said, "Would that work?" It was a complete, assembled lower, with all internals, as well as a tele-stock. Looks absolutely new, no wear marks on even the internal surface areas that get scuffed by just the first few rounds thru a gun. It was exactly what I was looking for, except for being new. I really wanted a private-party (i.e., paperless, yet still legal) sale.

Anyway, when he brought it out, it caught me off-guard enough that I automatically asked "How much?", even though I wanted a used one. He seemed embarrassed to be asking money for "just part of a gun" (his words ), and said "Two hundred OK?" Naturally, the response was "Ubetcha", even though I didn't want a new, papered receiver.

I pull out my wallet & hand him 2 hundred-dollar bills, figuring if he doesn't mention tax, I wouldn't, either. So he takes the money, and just says "thanks" and sat down. Expecting a 4473 needed to be filled out, I asked, "Is that it; are we good?". He said, "Yep, thanks" and went back to his book, so it turns out it was a private-party sale after all. (If he's a dealer, which I have no way of knowing, the responsibility for getting paperwork filled out is his, not mine. If he's not a dealer, there is no responsibility for paperwork on either of us. Either way, I did everything I was supposed to do, so I'm good to go with it; so I just went home with my unfired, private-party-sale CAR-15 lower assembly.)

This lower doesn't have the mark I've read about on the front of the magwell, that Eagle arms sometimes has, that's supposedly somehow related to government inspections for government-purchased Eagle Arms weapons; just the eagle emblem and Armalite logo on the left side. I don't know if that means it's an older one, a newer one, or what.

Maybe time will have to tell; I couldn't pass up that price for a new, assembled complete lower with telestock already installed.

I put a couple mags of .22lrs and a half-magazine of .223's through it last night, with no hiccups. Keeping my fingers crossed...


To complete the build, I called ArmsTech this morning about their progressive-gain, polygonal-rifling AR uppers, as they generally give velocities equivalent to a 50% longer barrel; i.e., their 9.5" SBR upper gives the same velocity with the same ammo as a normal 14.5" M4 upper. So a 16" version should give velocities roughly equivalent to a 22-24" AR barrel. Unfortunately, they only make LE and Class 3 stuff, nothing civilian-legal length (they said it'd be at least a year), and I want to keep this a completely civilian-legal rifle, so no Arms Tech upper for me.

I figure to order a new lightweight CAR upper for it this week out of Shotgun News (or possibly off AR15.com), and put AAC's flash hider on it, so it can use the AAC suppressor.

This is fun.

 

[John in AR]

What's really strange is that I posed this same question on AR15.com (sorry if it's bad etiquette to name another board in a post), and got nothing but positive comments about the Eagle Arms brand.

Weird; maybe another day or two of gathering opinions will lead to some kind of consensus.

 

[TODD 3465]

John- Hope you have good luck with it.

Just keep an eye on the 2 areas I mentioned that apply.

I should add that Eagle replaced/fixed everything under warranty with no hassel.

Too bad I didn't know there was a show down there. I was off this weekend could have zipped down there. Of course I didn't know I'd be off 'til the last minute though.

 

[mrostov]

Handsome rifle Mike. Are you going to put a real flash suppressor on it or leave it as it is?

RIKA

Probably, not in that big of a hurry at the moment as I'm kind of busy with other stuff. That Cavalry Arms CavComp muzzlebrake looks a lot like an A2 and it actually works. It's also been blind pinned and silver soldered.

The barrel is a 16" Bushmaster lightweight and the furniture is Cav Arms coyote brown with an A1 length buttstock and a Houge pistol grip. Had to carefully file down the back of those M4 hanguards at the top so the ARMS #38EX would clear it. Instead of cutting off the bayonet lug I de-milled it by carefully cutting off the two small locking teeth in the front and then re-blued those small spots. The muzzlebrake is a CavArms.

The upper and lower mate together very tightly. It's a tack driver.

 

[John in AR]

I went ahead and ordered a "kit" from Model one sales. Only costs $125 more than the upper/barrel assembly, and for that $125, you get everythign ubt the stripped lower.

So it means a complete bolt and carrier assembly, stock, spring, buffer, and a bunch of little odds & ends as well. Dust cover, forward assist guts, mag catch, etc. Around here, a new bolt and carrier assembly costs that much by itself, and it'll be nice to have a complete spare carrier assembly, in addition to the two AR's.

 

[andy]

The poorest of the commercial lowers is probably better than the best of the cast 80% lowers sold by the Tannery Shop. Man, voids, pits, non-filled out corners, etc. Try to Tig weld them, all you get is a "glass" substance that cracks exactly like windo glass, and there's OFTEN areas that need to be "built up with weld".

 

[RIKA]

Who is the tannery shop so I can avoid them. In fact how can they sell such crappy stuff.

RIKA

 

[mrostov]

I just go with a Milspec forged lower.

I'd also avoid anything that says 'Hesse' on it. Hesse is now called 'Vulcan Arms'. The name change was probably made due to the fact that Hesse became synonymous with the term 'horrid [email protected]'.

 

[andy]

tannery owner is ok, he just cheaps out on the

material and who he has do the 80% machining. He guarantees that they can be "made-servicable". If you want an 80% AR lower, you are way ahead to pay the extra $60 and get one from KT Ordnance, with lots more of the techical work done, and the locations of the cross pin holes marked with a "dimple" on both sides of the lower. Finishing a Tannery Lower is an unbelievable PITA. Finishing a KT lower is simple, if a bit tedious. You need a MINIMUM of $200 worth of specialized tools to finish a Tannery lower, and you really should have a lathe, with which you can cut the threads for the buttstock. That requires a special jig to hold the lower, etc. The KT lower comes already threaded.

 

[RIKA]

Thanks for the explanation.

RIKA

 

[Aslan]

I just go with a Milspec forged lower.

I'd also avoid anything that says 'Hesse' on it. Hesse is now called 'Vulcan Arms'. The name change was probably made due to the fact that Hesse became synonymous with the term 'horrid [email protected]'.

thanks for the heads up - I saw a for sale on a vulcan arms AR and I was wondering who they were...

It's getting hard to track all the players, Bobcat weapons (formerly special weapons), and Now Vulcan (formerly Hesse).

Thanks again.

:devil: