Exodious,
The weak point for most plastic receivers is the buffer tube attachment area. This one is just very rigid in that space. I was able to put the receiver on the corner of a door way with one hand on the front of the hand guard and the other on the end of the extended stock and there was not much more flex than an aluminum gun.
You can buy a stripped receiver for something like $35. Which is a decent deal but not great in this era of $50 anderson lowers. But they've also developed an entirely plastic lower parts kit. I was skeptical, I'm sure you are shaking your head. But here is the crazy thing. This gun has the best non-match trigger I've ever felt in an AR. It measures at a hair over 4 lbs on my Lymann gauge and is very very smooth. Its so nice that I feel no need to purchase an aftermarket trigger.
Time will tell if it lasts, but the owner of the company told me they spent 2 years developing the trigger. The trigger is really the only unknown that I can't fully endorse at this point. But so far so good.
Finally, they will sell you a fully COMPLETE lower with buffer, spring, tube, stock and LPK for $119.
My thought is that I usually spend $120 just on the trigger on most guns I build. So I thought I'd give it a shot.
So far I've got about 120 rounds through it; mostly .223. And its doing fine. Hardly a torture test but it is very intriguing.
The company is Starlos firearms.
I'm also going to be pocketing out this lower to accept a M16 fire control group, so I should have something running full auto in a couple of weeks. At that point, I may put out a call to NES for help in a torture test. (I am 07/Class2 so its all legal)
Either way, its very intriguing. My goal here was to build a compact, light, suppressed gun in .300 blk without spending a lot of cash. So far I'm into this for less than $600.
Don
p.s. A friend of mine has a lightweight .458 socom upper and we ran about 20 rounds of that also. But the ammo is so expensive we limited its use.
If anyone is either made of money or reloads 458, you are welcome to shoot .458 through it full auto once its running.
