"New" AR quality questions etc

[grhmaniak]

I recently bought an Olympic Arms AR-15 and have a few questions about it.

First, what is the quality of Oly arms ARs, and how do they compare with other ARs such as Bushmaster, Armalite, etc.

Second, how can I tell who manufactured my upper? There are no barrel stampings as far as I can see. I have taken off the handguard and cleaned off the front of the barrel. Still no markings. It is an A2 upper.

Third, how should I go about cleaning the gun. Never cleaned an AR before and the upper looks pretty dirty.

Also, since the gun is chambered for 5.56 NATO, and the .223 round is a little bit smaller, do I lose any preformance in the shooting capability, say between my AR and a Mini-14? And what is the max effective range of a .223 shell?

grhmaniak-

[BlackKnight-33]

I served in the Marine Corps and have recently purchased an Olympic arms AR myself. After purchase I broke it completely down for cleaning. Its just as I remember from service experiance and I for one am impressed with its quality. Also as far as I can tell all the parts should interchange with other ARs. Take down pins are in the same place and every thing looks to be the same.I have as of yet to do these experiments so I can't say for sure but my best guess is that all should go well. One thing you should know though, and the info is posted on Oly arms web site. The Olympic arms ARs will only work properly with brass cased rounds. That means the cheap stuff like wolf will not function properly. But like they said on the site. Why would you spend a lotta money on a quality weapon and shot crap ammo through it. As to cleaning one,I suggest you get a manual or have a local gun shop owner show you how. Its really simple. Good luck.