Guide to the Best of the 80% Manufacturers (As of April 18th, 2013)

Information is all over the map, opinions are high, availability is low, prices are skyrocketing, knock-offs and get rich quick guys are flooding the market. Folks are getting Rohged with bad quality and poor service. Casted parts being sold as forgings and general chaos is setting in. This guide is meant to help a new or seasoned AR owner in their quest to finding the right 80% to buy and build. We have collected information from manufacturer websites, the forums, gun smiths, the 80% community and others to aggregate the information in an easy to glance through guide that will aid in the decision making process. For things that are over the heads of the average buyer, we have tried our best to explain things like the difference between broaching practices. We even touch on the more controversial subjects like threaded roll-pins and integrated trigger guards. This guide has been collaboratively written by 2 gunsmiths, an 80% enthusiast, a machinist, a soldier, a marine and a weapons engineer. We have done our best to be as accurate and fair as possible, so forgive us for omissions and errors. We dont do reviews for a living and we dont mean to offend. Email us for adjustments. We didnt name winners. But we picked the top 5 in 2 categories. Forged and CNC in alphabetical order
Type Forged Forged Forged Forged Forged Billet Billet Billet Billet Billet Maker Advanced Rifles Colfax DIY Guns Filthy Tactical Tactical Machining Advanced Rifles Billet 80 CNC Guns KT Ordinance TR Enabling Website advancedrifles.com colfaxtactical.com diyguns.us hlfmanufacturing.com tacticalmachining.com advancedrifles.com billet80.com cncguns.com ktordnance.com lower80.com Online Prices $110-120 $99-168 $99 $120 $80-160 $110-120 $165-169 $250 $250 $115-124 Street Prices $300+ $160-220+ $250+ $300+ Delivery Date 4-6 weeks Feb 1, 2014 June next batch Batch Sales/3 months 3-12 months 3-4 weeks 3-4 weeks ? 9 Months-? Unsure - claims 2 weeks Accepting Orders Yes Yes / No Yes Limited No Yes Yes Limited Yes Yes Material R7075-T6 7075 7075 7075 7075-T6 R7075-T6 6061 6061 unknown 6061 Standard Design Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes No - Trigger, Roll Pins Yes Yes / No No - Trigger, Roll Pins Broaching Type Broached Broached Broached Broached??? ??? Broached Milled Milled ??? Milled Community Support Yes Yes No No No Yes No Yes No No Replacement Yes No ??? ??? No Yes No No No ??? Notes Makes own forgings, no supply constraint. All In-house production. Buys forgings, availability is dependent on forgings supply. Prices on secondary is the highest. Buys forgings, dependent on forgings supply. Not sure on production. Broaching outsourced. Buys forgings, availability is dependent on forgings supply. Sells out in two minutes Buys forgings, availability is dependent on forgings supply. In-house production. Has e-tailer feel to website. Not sure if actual manufacturer because we have spent time in Minden. In-house production. Leading contributor of support information. In-house production. Has e-tailer feel. Not sure about manufacturing capabilities, looks like the same source as Billet80's unit. Bad fit/Bad Milling in Mag well. Read on Calguns

Honorable mention Unknown Aries

aresarmor.com

$80-90

$200+

3-9 months

Yes

unknown

Yes

Unknown

No

???

Looks more like an online shop. Would not consider them, but they have Googles #1 position for search. Prices are very low, as well as information is very low. Prices on secondary market are screaming high.

Guide to Criteria Maker Type Standard Design Manufacturer list only - Various online retailers/custom shops are not included and have varying stock/price levels that make it impossible to follow. Knock-offs not welcomed. Forged Forging increase density and strength is better for numerous reasons and is why most of the major brands of rifles used forged receivers, not billet. Billet Billet is used for custom designs because it is easier to machine. Flatter sides leave for more engraving. Some styling differences. This may impact your ability to locate jigs and will lock you into proprietary jig systems which make it hard to resell those jigs, example integrated over sized trigger guard makes 98% of the jigs unusable due to trigger guard sticking out the bottom. Plus the trigger guard is a wear item and designed to be replaceable. Threaded Roll-Pins sound like a great idea, but may become both an availability problem as well as a threaded part will wear and loosen due to location and stress. If threads become damaged, lower can not be repaired. Maybe difficult to find replacements in a few years. Where possible, stay with original design to ensure longevity. It is not that hard to use the old school roll-pins. No respectable production rifle has threaded roll-pins. 6061/7075 7075 is the best T6 is heat treatment. 6061 is acceptable, we mostly see 6061 in the CNC world makers because of availability, cost, speed and ease of manufacture (you need a big machine for 7075) and we havent seen much in heat treatment and stress relief for most of the CNC guys. Broach Machining You want this Wire Cut Okay Process Milled Avoid if Possible Mag well has square edges, smooth flat areas. Production rifles use full broaching machine to produces the highest quality magazine wells to original specifications. Uses expensive, custom made cutters with big massive machines. Round edges, smooth flat areas. Uses a wire cut machine that uses electricity across a wire to erode the surface to cut it. Okay Process. Is not really broaching. Slow process and limits production capacity. Round edges, rough flat areas, cutting marks and has ridge in the middle. Uses the milling machine from two sides remove material, requires hand finishing to make it uniform. Corners will be round and could keep plastic mags (magpul) mags from ejecting properly. numerous complaints on forums. Requires hand filing to finish which may cause corrosion in the future if not done correctly. Not considered broaching.

Material Broaching 3-Types

Community Support

Provides support to the community beyond selling a paper weight. Less support equals more difficulty to finish. Many companies, beyond this list are online store fronts for people looking to cash-in on the gold rush market. Which is why they didnt make it to the list. Product quality is questionable. Dont get taken. Use the amount of information provided to gauge the seriousness of the company behind the product. The majority of the makers/sellers from the last 80% rush are long gone. Ability to get a replacement part without full purchase or getting into long wait. Good because you can make mistakes. 80% enables you to self manufacture an AR15 that does not have brand/model/serial number marks which can be easily banned by federal or state governments. While we are safe for now at the Federal level (until the next incident), 35 States have some sort of AR bans in-place or being considered which is modeled off the California laws which ban by name/model and by features. A self built rifle is harder to track, ban and otherwise be taken away. It is the fastest growing segment for existing AR owners as well as new owners.

Replacement For Neebs