Home Forums Hunting & Shooting AR and Tactical Rifles Superior Arms Lowers

What's the word on Superior's lowers. Good,bad,indifferent? A friend has three he bought stripped, and I'm looking to buy one of them for a custom build. I see they have the trigger take up screw which may be a plus. Other than that, are they as good as Bushy,RRA,EA,ect....? Have y'all used any of their stuff?

Rugernut,

Have three uncompleted, and just completed a build for a buddy using the Superior lower.

Quality appears to be good, dimensions are good and spec out fine.

The finish however is a bit rougher than I like, but that's just me bieng fussy before the rattle can gets broken out.;)

The take up screw is a neat idea, but I see it as more of a liability than asset on a working rifle.

I'd put them up there with the better lowers.

Just my .02
E4E(A1)

Thanks E4E,

Since posting this I've read some good things about them on another forum.

Dimensions were the issue I was wondering about. Sounds good.

I'm not so concerned with the finish to much, as I was planning on possibly going with a coat of Green-T.

I'm thinking of trying out a JP single stage trigger and hammer. Any word on them? Seems like a nice set up.

The JP trigger ain't bad, and will negate using the pre-travel screw gizzie.

Ya might have to do some minor fussing, but not as bad as with an accuracy speaks, and later adjustments are easily done.

Best of luck to ya!!
E4E

I bought a Superior lower at the end of '06 from AIM Surplus. Price was good at $89 + ship. However I had to do a bit of metal work to make the bolt release lever fit correctly. Then an out of spec condition showed up after a range session to break in the new bbld upper. Seems I did not note that the buffer retainer detent bore was set back to far. Easy for me to overlook when the action was open. What was happening was the buffer would impact the detent "tit" and stop short not following the bolt carrier home. Rather than send the lower back to AIM or Superior, I relieved the outer edge (lathe)of the buffer to provide "tit" clearance but still have the correct buffer contacting surface area with the bolt carrier. I also had to face off the buffer tube so as to have the tubes shoulder seat against the mating surface of the lower. Other than this issue, the lower has been aok. I don't know if others have had problems w/ out of spec Superior lowers. Maybe mine was the only one?

TooDogs,

Did you check to see if the Bolt carrier was camming back the buffer on closing??

It isn't too unusual to find short/ out of spec Bolt carriers, and for a while(2004-2005) there was a rash of them on the parts market.
Many finding thier way to assembly houses/parts mongers with normally decent names.

As for out of spec lowers, I have seen them from several different makes.

With everybody getting into the game and the volume of sales right now, I don't think anyone is exempt from putting out a Dog or two.

E4EA1

Yea E4, I looked for that. BC was moving buffer back when upper was closed. I measured the hole location referencing the attached dwg. Ah chit, can't load a pdf file here. The ref dwg I have is a redraw of a Colt lower.

Anyhow, my Superior lower is aok otherwise. The trigger screw feature is a nice touch, but I did the spring and stone job to my stock parts. Works fine.

Yea know, really for what I want and will have in a custom build, the RRA Predator Pursuit or the Bushy Predator are looking pretty good for around $300 less. I've had really good luck with the 4 Bushmaster rifles I've had in the past (3 v-matches and 1 Predator). I hear the RRA's are as good or better for the same price. The only reason I am thinking custom is I really think a 18" fluted barreled rifle, around 7 lbs., for a coyote gun is about perfect. If custom I'll probably have Dtech put me one together.

What do you fellers think. What would you spend your money on?

Rugernut,

Have seen and heard nothing but good with RRA.

Personally I would suffer the additional weight of a White Oak SPR barrel, and twist it on myself for about the same cost.

Matter of fact, the last one I did got me putting parts and bit's aside for a dead of winter project.
But then I'm prone to swimming upstream because I can, and often for no other logical reason.;)

Happy new year!!!!
E4E

Thanks E,


Heard good things about White Oak also. We'll see what the new year brings me.


Nut