for plinking or to trust yer life with???
Posted on 02/16/2013 2:00:47 PM PST by lafroste
I am interested in adding an AR-15 to my microscopic collection. My question is about the pros and cons of a carbon fiber receiver and lower vs. milled 7075 Aluminum parts. My gut reaction is that the carbon fiber parts are likely superior, but I also know that they have detractors. In addition the cost of using the carbon parts are substantially less than the Al parts. That makes me suspicious of their quality. Does anyone here have experience and may be willing to make suggestions on which way to go? Thanks very much, FReepers are the best!
An undocumented one
http://www.ar15.com/archive/topic.html?b=3&f=4&t=432545
Just depends on who makes it. Most are crappy.
Me, I agree with idea that there is nothing wrong with carbon fibre rifles IF engineered to be carbon fibre from the start. Using carbon fibre in place of aluminium and copying the original aluminium design without re-inforcement is a bad idea.
for plinking or to trust yer life with???
At this point you’ll be lucky to find ANY AR15 let alone have to make a choice on its construction.
That said, carbon fiber is very strong and light but it cannot handle the stresses in the same way metal does. Anything which causes deflection of the carbon fiber will damage it and the damage cannot be repaired.
There are some good comments on ar15.com.
You picked a bad time to go AR shopping.
Its a bad time for building them too.
You’ll be lucky to find parts.
The AR seriesupper and lower were designed to be made from aluminum and unless redesigned for composites, not tinkered with.
This is so true but if you want to spend the money you can find plenty of very expensive AR's just check out armslist.com.
I would stay away from anything but a forged aluminum lower and spend the extra money to buy a good one.
Carbon fiber is not for people that don’t pay attention to it all the time. When it fails it fails catastrophically and sometimes without warning. If you are an idiot bicyclist or one without teeth then you put a carbon fork on your bike because you don’t mind if it breaks. Smart cyclist still use steel or titanium. I would imagine smart gun owners do the same
I'm far from an expert, but based on my own personal (limited) experience you do not want a carbon fiber AR-15. I just cannot see how one could possibly stand up to the rigors that an AR-15 will likely be put through in the near future.
If you look at gun and ammo sales, this is a country that's (IMHO) preparing for civil war. Do you want something tried, true and reliable or lighter weight?
I'll go for reliable any day.
BTW: I HIGHLY recommend The Rock River Arms LAR-15 Series. A finer, more reliable AR-15 you won't find.
Disclaimer: NO, I DO NOT work for Rock River Arms. I am however one of their customers and a fan of their quality craftsmanship.
I bought a Core15 AR, but haven’t been able to shoot it yet.
My Cousin did that in a bike race! Ouch!!
The thing disintegrated in a corner.
Most of the plastic ones are polymer.
Pros: Might take a crushing incident better than aluminum because of its “memory.”
Cons: It will age and fault, eventually, especially in high altitude sunlight. And it will easily burn.
Aluminum:
Pros: Won’t age and fault nearly as fast. Won’t burn to the point of being out of spec as easily. Don’t crush it, and it will probably outlast polymer by many years.
Cons: Might not crush to being out of spec as easily, but doesn’t have the “memory” of polymers used in lowers.
Properly designed and engineered for the plastic material, carbon fiber lower should be fine. The problem is the manufacturers of these lowers try to make them look like the aluminum lowers. This does not work, and thee are many failures in the buffer tube area due to not having enough “meat” to support the stresses there.
The cost of the lower is small compared to the complete rifle, just spend the extra $80 and get an aluminum lower for your rifle.
Lost all mine in a tragic asteroid strike recently.
Why did you wait so long?
Nice rifle. I have on of their earlier Tactical versions with the factory quad rail. It’s direct impingement and has been a great shooter through 500 rounds or so. I have an Eotech XPS2 on it and at anything under 100 yards or so you’re mine.
J&T Distributing has a boat load of parts. They were at a local gun show and had at least 40 uppers on display.
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