In my experience with my olympic, it is excellent quality, I dont own a low end ar so I would'nt know...
In my experience with my olympic, it is excellent quality, I dont own a low end ar so I would'nt know...
You have experience with one gun. You cannot base an educated opinion of a brand as a whole on one gun, or even ten guns. Olympic, as a whole, is trash.
Huh? This is not true - even now that Stag doesn't make Smith's lowers anymore, its not like Smithy's are a huge step up in any category of the chart (and I own an M&P 15).
... other than having a much cooler logo on the side of it (a damn Deer - who puts that on the side of a "Black rifle"?!?!?!?!?!? You might as well paint it yellow and green!).
Avoid the Olympic Arms rifle. There are several other choices out there in that price-range that are better. Also - avoid Double Star Rifles like the plague. They come with a bilboard of literature touting "Mil-Spec" even though there's almost nothing about them that is Mil-spec. These were $600 when they were over-priced before the election - there is no excuse to pay more than that for them now.
BTW - not all Bushmaster's have chrome-lined barrels (same is true of several different models of CMMG, RRA, DPMS, Model1, etc...).
Read the fine print on the particular model you're buying.
http://spreadsheets.google.com/ccc?key=pwswheghNQsEuEhjFwPrgTA
You mean having every bolt shot peened, MPI'd, and HPT'd, and having a correctly staked gas key isn't a step up?
Granted, I'm not sure how current this chart is, but I do believe an S&W is a better and nicer rifle than a Stag.
I think Spiff is right. The last few M&P's that have passed through here have also had the proper extractor springs/inserts/o-rings. So for an extra $150 or so they are a step up from Stag.
I'm not even going to argue about Oly with anyone anymore.
I'm not even going to argue about Oly with anyone anymore.
neither can u!
Of course I can only speak for the gun I own, I haven't owned a dozen of them! I do feel very fortunate, I must have bought the only olyimpic that was worth a damm!
OK, brother... You rock the Oly..
First off - I'll quote many a reviewer when I say that I have never heard (or been able to find on the web) of a bolt that failed MPI testing. I haven't necessarily done the research for high pressure testing, but I would assume its pretty close to the same as MPI testing as far as a failure rate.
That being said, I've not seen an updated version of the chart since it was boo'd off of ARFCOM for "inaccuracies" but for the sake of argument, I'll go ahead and trust the chart. I thought I remembered reading that S&W only batch HPT and MPI tested back when I was buying mine. The lack of shot-peen testing is probably more annoying than the MPI testing to be honest.
Either way - I wouldn't consider that a huge upgrade. The improperly staked gas key is kind of annoying, but again, I've yet to hear of a Stag rifle working the gas key loose from using it (but again - I understand the difference in having a properly staked key vs. not and I understand that a properly staked gas key is an upgrade).
Josh has a point with the extractor spring and insert, but again - none of these are high-failure points for the Stag rifles that I'm aware of, so again - in my opinion, not huge issues.
I don't consider any of the above issues to be more significant than the damn deer on the side of the rifle to be honest.
I'll admit that upon review of the updated chart, M&P is probably worth the $150 or so over the stag, but I'd say at least $75 of that is for me not to have to take a dremmel to that God-awful logo on the Stag.
The M4 Feedramps weren't available back when I got my M&P, so I feel kind of slighted to be honest.
I run LMT BCG's in all of my ARs. After that you don't have to worry about the top half of the chart. Keep the "take-off" BCG as a backup. $130 well spent.
4150 steel? As long as the barrel is a decent manufacturer and you aren't running full auto, I wouldn't worry too much. 1/7? Necessary or desirable? Not if all you shoot is 55gr. & 62gr. For a fun gun, I'll take 1/9" any day of the week.
4150 steel? Do I need it? Unless you have an M16 lower and plan on dumping 5 mags as fast as you can, it shouldn't make a difference to you.
I have found that most of the problems in my cheapo AR's (i.e.: kit guns) to be the bolt group's fault.
So basically, take the chart with a (several) grain(s) of salt. Understand how the gun operates and what your requirements are. Then buy something that does what you want it to do.
Just as important as the specs is how you treat it, anyways.
ETA: Go stag.
4150 steel? As long as the barrel is a decent manufacturer and you aren't running full auto, I wouldn't worry too much. 1/7? Necessary or desirable? Not if all you shoot is 55gr. & 62gr. For a fun gun, I'll take 1/9" any day of the week.
4150 steel? Do I need it? Unless you have an M16 lower and plan on dumping 5 mags as fast as you can, it shouldn't make a difference to you.
I have found that most of the problems in my cheapo AR's (i.e.: kit guns) to be the bolt group's fault.
So basically, take the chart with a (several) grain(s) of salt. Understand how the gun operates and what your requirements are. Then buy something that does what you want it to do.
Just as important as the specs is how you treat it, anyways.
ETA: Go stag.
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