Polymer AR fire control group

willpgn

willpgn

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Took my wife, son and his buddy to the range yesterday and had a great day! My son and his buddy are into firearms, are very aware of all the current day BS and aren’t the typical teenagers (in some ways) that we see and hear about in today’s times. His buddy has his own AR and he even jokingly calls it his “just as good pew stick with $8 Amazon iron sights” 🤣. He’s very knowledgeable about firearms and even says he wants to gunsmith down the road. He’s very aware of what he has in his off brand AR and was a little concerned because he doesn’t (and hasn’t had the chance) to shoot it much. I can’t remember the brand...it was 24 hours ago after all...but I remember him saying the company was based in the lower part of SC or possibly in NE GA?

He was concerned about the gas block as it was slightly canted and I said that we’d give it a good test. The gas block is also a low profile with set screws and a taper pin! I’ve never seen such! It wasn’t loose, though one of the set screws did look like it was slightly backed off and I didn’t have a small enough Allen wrench with me to get at it. Anyway, we tested it enough that you couldn’t hold the hand guard anymore and everything ejected perfectly and consistently...so check on the gas block not having any issues, outside of the one set screw.

The whole post is about this though...we broke it down after and he said “check out the fire control group”...it was all polymer! I’ve owned and built quite a few dozen ARs over the years (BRD was bad at one point) and I can say that I was not aware that such a thing existed for an AR. I just don’t see how it will hold up over time...maybe that’s the point...cheap AR meant for light use??? Anybody ever run across this or have this setup? If so, has it held up?
 
That's a no for me. I'm ok with a lot of things being plastic but that just sounds like a bad idea. How did the trigger feel?
 
KMac77 said:
Wow never seen that one! If the young man desires a “milspec” FCG I’m sure I have one in the parts bin. Just PM me
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Thanks for the offer...I’ve got plenty of spares and have offered! Like I said, I’m recovering from BRD! Guess that’s the only good thing I’ve gotten from Ole Joe and the current gun market!
 
Anytime. I have a couple teenagers of my own and they are very similar sounding. I had a severe case of BRD myself! Keep em shooting!
 
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C-doodle said:
That's a no for me. I'm ok with a lot of things being plastic but that just sounds like a bad idea. How did the trigger feel?
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Agree with your assessment there and I think he feels that way too!

He didn’t say anything until after we shot it. I think he was waiting to see if I noticed anything. It felt very much like an average milspec trigger group. He did mention lubricating it and that he didn’t like the trigger pull much, but knowing he hasn’t shot it a lot and has had nothing to compare it to, I didn’t think about it much as we were setting up.
 
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If I recall the Styer AUG had a plastic fcg...
 
Ruger switched to a polymer FCG in the 10/22 over a decade ago. Supposedly the tolerances were tighter on the poly trigger than the MIM metal they had been using.

But yeah it's a no for me because I like to stone my mating surfaces in a milspec to get it nice and smooth.
 
Beretta CX4 has poly FCG. They seem to last fine.
 
I do recall seeing an LPK w polymer FCG. I think it was Plum Crazy and then a couple others did them. Never used them myself, didn’t see the point.
 
I have an early plum crazy polymer AR lower I used for a light weight rimfire build. It came with a plastic FCG. While I did not use it, it was a surprisingly decent trigger
 
American Tactical Imports (ATI) is in Summerville, SC. They create polymer ARs with almost all polymer parts in the upper and lower. I'm sure that's what you're talking about. I used to have one - it was my first AR. The first thing I did was replace the FCG and the takedown/pivot pins. I kept it for a few months, but only shot around 500 rounds through it. It's gone now and I'll never own a polymer AR again. The common issue with these is they'll fail/crack/break on the lower where the receiver extension screws in (the buffer tube). Depending on when it was manufactured, they've since reinforced several weak points with aluminum and used polymer to wrap over these areas such as the pin holes and the buffer tube area. ATI's polymer ARs are lifetime warranty though, so they can make decent plinkers, but I wouldn't trust my life to them or keep them for home defense. I've seen one catastrophically malfunction in a carbine class one time, and we were only 100 rounds into the day haha
 
HangingJudge said:
American Tactical Imports (ATI) is in Summerville, SC. They create polymer ARs with almost all polymer parts in the upper and lower. I'm sure that's what you're talking about. I used to have one - it was my first AR. The first thing I did was replace the FCG and the takedown/pivot pins. I kept it for a few months, but only shot around 500 rounds through it. It's gone now and I'll never own a polymer AR again. The common issue with these is they'll fail/crack/break on the lower where the receiver extension screws in (the buffer tube). Depending on when it was manufactured, they've since reinforced several weak points with aluminum and used polymer to wrap over these areas such as the pin holes and the buffer tube area. ATI's polymer ARs are lifetime warranty though, so they can make decent plinkers, but I wouldn't trust my life to them or keep them for home defense. I've seen one catastrophically malfunction in a carbine class one time, and we were only 100 rounds into the day haha
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That has to be what it is. Very familiar with the polymer lower histories of weak points/reinforcements. Never knew about the polymer FCG for an AR though...very interesting! 🤨
 
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