New Polymer Lower on the market

[mjfast82]

mjfast, I just did that, $94 for the complete Frontier lower, $404 for a JSE surplus complete 5.56 upper(waiting for it to come in now), that is a budget AR...LOL

I think I could sell a sub $500 build to the wife

[martentrapper]

Held a Bushmaster carbon 15 AR today. Polymer lower on it looked just like the NF lowers I have seen. Had the Bushie logo on it tho. I'd bet the same outfit makes these polymer lowers.
I dropped a Mega trigger into a NF lower. It is better than the MF trigger but doesn't adjust as well as it does on a regular lower. Trigger pins were a little tight too.

[FrankT]

Well I did it again, had 3 Frontier lowers and as soon as I pinned a upper to them someone bought it from me, I have yet to fire a shot from one. Now I have to put in an order for more. I would prefer a metal lower but even at the new price of $110 you just cannot get a metal lower less than double or more. If reselling them with an upper it sure increases your money made. Everyone seems to like them and no one questions the poly.

[jdgilbert]

I bought a couple of the complete LW-15 lowers last week, finally got a chance to put a couple magazines through them yesterday evening. Other than weight, my favorite thing about them is the trigger. I don't know the exact pull weight, but it is very smooth and consistent, with a super short, positive reset. The reset looks to be about 3/16" on both lowers. It will be interesting to see how they do running more rounds through them, I am pretty tough on my gear so they'll get a good work out over time. With the MI SS 12" Gen 2 forearm, ARMS #71L sights, ARP lightweight 16" barrel and an empty mag the complete rifle weighed 6.1 lbs on the shipping scale. I put an M4gery upper on the other lower and weighed exactly the same, that's a good advertisement for the ARP barrels and MI handguards too!

For those who question the reliability and durability of the polymer lowers, they have done a whole lot of extreme testing to demonstrate how tough and reliable they are. For those who have seen the Arfcom pics of broken lowers, pay attention to the people who post them versus the people who claim to have had several of them and they all broke but they couldn't be bothered contacting NFA for a warranty replacement. The common thread with the internet ninjas is a low post count (indicating a fake username so they can post junk about people and not have it linked to their normal account), and a complete lack of proof. No pictures (or pictures they got from someone else, often of aluminum lowers, though they're too dumb to know it), no explanation of what went wrong and how it happened. I'll be the first to give a brutally honest review if something does not live up to its billing, but I don't buy into fanboy torch and pitchfork parties without any proof.

My hunting rig this season will be almost this exact setup, except with the ARP 6.8x43 barrel (adds about 3-4 ounces). With a 10-round mag and a 3-9X scope it will be a very comfortable setup for stalk or stand hunting.
SRA_MI12SSG2_LW15.jpg

[TexasGlock23]

I'm still liking mine, although I have maybe 100 rounds with it...never had an issue, and I agree with the trigger!

[breastroker]

I am up to about 600 rounds of 6.8 and another 200 rounds of 223 with my NF poly lower. Zero problems.

Did I mention how light it is??? It really makes a carbine much easier to carry.

[robsaun]

I ordered a lw-15 about month ago and a 6.8 stainless upper from sota arms. Upper came in on friday and I went out shooting saturday. Performed like a champ every bit as good as my buddies stag arms 6.8 only a hair less then 1/2 the price. My whole build cost me a hair over $500. Excellent build specially on a budget.

[Mark Twain]

I built a budget lower using a stripped polymer lower (1st build using polymer) for my brother. Since I had everything but an extra buffer spring in spare parts laying around it cost about $70. I had about 5 after market trigger guards laying around and none would fit the pin setting in the polymer. Off the top of my head I know one was Magpul and one LWRC. Finally used generic straight trigger guard. I have a pair of vise grips I use for all pin insertions that is padded and taped. I did brake off a small piece of the polymer on the edge of the trigger guard near the pin insert. This is my only complaint with the polymer so far, though I am a little paranoid about stripping the polymer threads. Tested it with only 60 rounds so not much volume yet. A little super glue and a little super black and my brother will probably never notice. I will personally probably stay with aluminum for my builds in the short term as there are some good aluminum receivers for not much more cost.

[Ratdog68]

Someone else posted up recently that they're finding an "out of spec" issue with their plastic lower. The holes drilled in for the spring/detent to keep the buffer in place. The buffer is slamming forward into the detent when cycling while being shot (chewing up the face of the buffer). Could end up with failure of the detent/spring... getting into the FCG and causing more grief. I'm sticking with aluminum.

[Nswish]

Which polymer lower did you use? I thought the new ones had the trigger guard built in?

I built a budget lower using a stripped polymer lower (1st build using polymer) for my brother. Since I had everything but an extra buffer spring in spare parts laying around it cost about $70. I had about 5 after market trigger guards laying around and none would fit the pin setting in the polymer. Off the top of my head I know one was Magpul and one LWRC. Finally used generic straight trigger guard. I have a pair of vise grips I use for all pin insertions that is padded and taped. I did brake off a small piece of the polymer on the edge of the trigger guard near the pin insert. This is my only complaint with the polymer so far, though I am a little paranoid about stripping the polymer threads. Tested it with only 60 rounds so not much volume yet. A little super glue and a little super black and my brother will probably never notice. I will personally probably stay with aluminum for my builds in the short term as there are some good aluminum receivers for not much more cost.