Cavalry Arms, Olympic Arms, and Vulcan Arms Ar-15

akman434

Hi,

I am trying to save money on a new AR-15. I noticed that the Cavalry, Olympic, and Vulcan Arms are REALLY cheap, so I began to wonder if they are any good. I was wondering if anyone could give me any feed back on the above brands.

Thanks

GreenLantern

Vulcan = Hesse = stay away! My buddy has an Olympic Arms AR15, nice rifle.

You might want to look at getting something like a stripped lower. A Rock River Arms one would do quite nicely, roughly $100 + , let's say $25 transfer fee.

Then get a full kit, everything but the lower, from J$T Distributing for about $510.

So right about there you've got $635 invested and you'll have a pretty good gun.

Mobuck

The Olympic forged receiver rifles are pretty good. There is a model called The Plinker that is cast and is not considered to be as good. The other brands I can't comment. I guess it depends on whether you just want something to shoot a little on the weekend or your's planning on heavy usage.

Mobuck

phxtravis

Owned a Cav Arms and had no problems with it, light weight one-piece polymer lower. Comes with a comp perminately attached. I paid $650 for mine but sometimes cav arms has sales and sells them directly for $550, try http://www.ar15.com/forums/forum.html?b=2&f=61 for more info.

Spring 1911-A1 Mil-Spec
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wm69

Not even gonna comment on the vulcan/hesse again. I will second the JT kit (www.jtdistributing.com). They make a very high quality kit that has mostly colt and FN parts with a shaw barrel. Stay away from ASA; they have horrible quality control and no customer service (similiar to Hesse/Vulcan). Rock River does have a very good reputation so there's another place to look. A coworker just built a 20" hbar with an oly forger lower ($100) and a JT kit ($450) so with shipping he has under $600 in the gun. The upper comes assebled and headspaced and the lower takes less than 1 hour to assemble even for a 1st timer (see www.ar15.com for directions). Finish matched and JT's customer service was great (lost some parts by launching them across the room and they replaced them free of charge). Oly has a lifetime warrenty on all their stuff so no worries there either (stay away from the plinker, but all their PCR rifles and forged lowers are good quality). Some other kits to look at are Model 1 Sales and M & A Parts. Both have had a few issues with out-of-spec lower internal parts but both also have a very good customer service reputation. I'd go with the JT kit on a RRA or Oly lower. A local guy who shoots the full auto stuff recommeded those to my coworker and his rifle is a nice piece.

gap1916

I have heard good things about Rock River. Bushmaster is Mil Spec but a little more $ than Rock River. It they say it is Mil Spec then it should be OK. My 2 cents [8D]

Greg
Former Marine
A N G L I C O

wm69

Originally posted by gap1916
I have heard good things about Rock River. Bushmaster is Mil Spec but a little more $ than Rock River. It they say it is Mil Spec then it should be OK. My 2 cents [8D]

Greg
Former Marine
A N G L I C O

Bushy is now probably considered the best out there by most AR guys, but they are a little higher pricewise (they are filling the void left by colt). They have a chrome lined bore if you are so inclined, where a lot of the kits don't (JT doesn't). Greg's right on the milspec thing, but check them out regardless. My ASA said it was milspec and the parts were fine, but whoever put it together did a horrible job, and as I said earlier, no customer service. Had to move the rear site all the way to one side cause they screwed the barrel in too far, and when they drilled the gas port they didn't use a stop and drilled into the rifling in the bottom of the bore. Definately don't get anything that's not milspec, but do make sure that the compenents are assembled by someone who knows what they are doing (bushy, RRA, oly, JT to name a few).