Poly Lower

[tech96]

Went to the gun show today and found a vendor with a complete poly lower for what seemed to be a good price. Has anyone heard of or had experience with these? I am familiar with the poly handguns just never heard of it for an AR platform.

 

[Brian Shaffer]

I have a couple of really inexpensive New Frontier Armory lowers. A group of us got together and bought several with the price was $109. It has a lot of plastic parts, but works fine. You can (in my case) change them out for standard parts. I don't know about other polymer designs.

The earliest I heard of them was with Bushmaster years ago. All in all, they have a pretty good history. I would not want to put a .458 socom on one, but I have friends running 6.5 Grendel and 6.8 SpcII with no problems. Bushmaster calls theirs Carbon 15s.

 

[tech96]

This one is $149 and has all metal insides. I want to put together a 6.8 SPC.

 

[Brian Shaffer]

Assuming it is properly made, it should work fine.

 

[FrankT]

I love the New Frontier Poly lowers, never a problem, better than a mil spec trigger and never a problem...Of course I shoot Glocks so...depends on the brand

 

[TEXASLAWMAN]

I almost bought one but then I found that scratch and dent sale palmetto state armory had going on their lower so I opted out. But from what I could find they seem to be very tough.

 

[FrankT]

As cheap as the lowers have gotten it is hard to go poly now. I was buying them when there was a 2-2 1/2 price point spread. Given equal pricing I would go metal...for resale never go Poly.

 

[Itsazonik]

I have a few, one is on my 338 spectre. I use regular parts kits but the poly lowers hold up well

 

[Hard_ware]

Bought 4, several years back from plum crazy mfg $99 ea (out of business now). Set up with uppers (2) 5.56mm, (1) .223, (1) 300BO, Still working, good triggers and light weight. But for SHTF the aluminium lowers would be better .

 

[pruhdlr]

I'm no engineer,however I am wondering if the makeup of a New Frontier/Plum Creek lower is different(in hardness,in brittleness,in molecular makeup,in durability,in wearability,etc,etc)than the poly makeup of a Glock,and/or the multitude of other handguns produced nowadays --- ???

In parts that move together,hinging on each other,seems that two dissimilar materials......uhhhhh.....just ain't right. I own Glocks....I will not own a poly AR lower. --- pruhdlr
Edit To Add: I bought stripped Spikes lowers several months ago for a little over $100.

 

[Itsazonik]

They seem to be close to pistol frames . I have had a metal parts kit in my poly lower on my 556 for a couple years. There's probably 10,000 rounds through that gun and the lower is still perfect. I even had a slide fire on it for a while. I would run 60 and 100 round surefires all the time with no problems. All pins are tight. I have the anti rotation trigger pins so I'm sure that helps a lot. I wouldn't use it to pound down doors or pry open walls but I'll shoot it all day any day.

 

[FrankT]

The new frontier polys are probably stronger than an aluminum and instead of bending or dimpling with a trauma will flex and return to original shape, metal will not do that.

 

[Itsazonik]

i have beat on mine quite a bit. no problems. only issue i have ever thought of is where the buffer tube mounts. any hard sideways force on that could snap it easier than metal i think. i have not seen it but have seen reports of it. as for price, i got a complete lower before the insanity for $78 shipped

 

[hdfireman]

Just a heads up but we will not engrave poly AR lowers. We have found that the makeup of the plastic does not do well with the laser. It melts and runs together and we have tried numerous brands. All other poly weapons do just fine.