Home Forums Hunting & Shooting AR and Tactical Rifles Risks of buying cheap no name AR parts

Here's a great example of what junk looks like:

Unbranded is a brand name. I have 3 of their free float hand guards. They work. I only get Tool Craft BCG's.

kwg

Where can you buy those gages?

McMaster Carr or MSC.

Basically just pin gauges in size increments to make a go or no go with whatever tolerance you're dealing with.. The red/green thingies are pin gauge holders that can be purchased in colors to make your own go/no go gauge.

He's color coded his so he doesn't have to fiddle with read the size that's marked on them.

Bolt drawings.

The drawing with the red box shows the dimension for the bolt lugs for headspace control on the bolt.

MM

If you take one of his classes he'll give you all the dimensions so you can make your own set.

Thanks. I was able to find a pdf of that too.

I’ve never had an issue with the Unbranded AR parts I’ve used.

Sometimes you win at roulette, sometimes you lose.

MM

Great video

Correct, but the BCG in that video is not from the company Unbranded AR.

unbranded does not equal Unbranded.
Capitalization matters.

If you prefer, we can refer to it an no-name junk.

So if you buy a BCG and find a hole that is out of spec according to your gauges , What do you do with it? Send it back?

I think the point of this thread is that if you buy parts from a company with a good reputation, you don't have to worry about that.

It's all a matter of degree. The first question is "Does it work?"
Gauging on a less than perfect piece will give you an idea what sort of failure to look for. And the matter of degree applies to your uses too. How critical are your uses?

If the answer to Question 1 is yes, question 2 is "under what exact conditions (ammo, ambient temperature, amount of dirt, eieio) does it work?".

The devil is in Question 2. Have to admit there's some fun in trouble-shooting equipment that need not work every time. Cuz you can learn alot.

Get really pissed when I have to troubleshoot a tractor in January.

You can call it whatever you want. It doesn’t bother me the least bit.

In all the years and all the parts from who knows where, I have yet to have one that wouldn't run. Stuff happens, and junk gets made, but for the most part is just doesn't matter.

Cousin thought the same in spite of my warnings. Called me over one day as his new gun wouldn't run but as a single shot. I looked it over and he had tried two new BCG's so I got to looking and the gas keys weren't drilled through. Where did you get these? On ebay, they said they were mil spec...

I took one out of a known good gun and his new gun worked as intended. Bottom line, if you just gotta build a poverty gun, good luck.

I've watched some of his video's. He also does one on a fail zero BCG. I bought a Fail Zero BCG about 2 years ago and the NIB is wearing off of it like crazy. It's by far my least liked BCG. Funny thing is they get rave reviews. I'll never buy one again. I'll be spending my money on RCA, BCM, and Tool Craft. I have gotten lucky with RTBA NIB BCG's, but I also run the bolts that came with the barrels. Some guys say the carrier is the least likely thing to fail and you need a good bolt, but in the video this guy does on the Fail Zero BCG, it was the carrier that failed and he said the NIB coating and process may have been the culprit that caused "embrittlement".