[stanger1944]

Newb from south Arkansas.
Considering an AR build and was wondering if anyone has had any experience with the New Frontier LW15 Lightweight Polymer Complete lower.

[Dark Prophit]

Stay away from polymer, stick with forged or billet alunimum, waste lf money and not even worth tbinking about.

[stanger1944]

Stay away from polymer, stick with forged or billet alunimum, waste lf money and not even worth tbinking about.

Thanks, kind of what I was thinking. Polymer is nice for pistols but probably not so much in an AR15 platform.

[Dark Prophit]

You can get cheap priced complete lowers on bcm which are very nice, I prefer stripped lower and building buy I plan om getting a lmt complete as my "final" lower as a replacement for a mistake I made with the trigger guard.

[stanger1944]

You can get cheap priced complete lowers on bcm which are very nice, I prefer stripped lower and building buy I plan om getting a lmt complete as my "final" lower as a replacement for a mistake I made with the trigger guard.

I had thought about getting stripped lower but not sure about how to headspace.

[westview450]

Be careful in your selection out there, a lot of these random lowers don't even bother to designate where they are manufactured. always question, you would'nt want some casting made in China or something.

[Killer308]

I had thought about getting stripped lower but not sure about how to headspace.

Wait a minute! WHAT? The lower has nothing to do with the headspacing in the upper. As far as that lower you asked about you should just say Plumcrazy lower.

[stanger1944]

Wait a minute! WHAT? The lower has nothing to do with the headspacing in the upper. As far as that lower you asked about you should just say Plumcrazy lower.

brain fart sorry

[newbe]

Stay away from polymer, stick with forged or billet alunimum, waste lf money and not even worth tbinking about.

I agree.

[soleeagle]

Besides the fact I wouldnt want a poly lower its kinda fun building the lower yourself. You have a feel of how things work and the satisfaction of doing it yourself.

[skeletor6]

Newb from south Arkansas.
Considering an AR build and was wondering if anyone has had any experience with the New Frontier LW15 Lightweight Polymer Complete lower.

Agree with what everyone said, stay away from polymer. Try Anderson mfg stripped lower and lower parts kit. Then you can add the stock of your choosing and have a complete custom lower.

Or a complete BCM lower is another great option if you dont want to build.

Also, I'm not sure what your upper plans are, but some people prefer to match their lower and upper so take that into consideration as well. It is not necessary though. Good luck with your build!

Edited by skeletor6, Apr. 04 2012 - 02:22 PM.

[FinFan77]

brain fart sorry

It's all good, no dumb questions here. Mostly.

[stanger1944]

Regarding the brain fart I had earlier about headspacing. If I were to buy a DelTon rifle kit and use the supplied lower parts to assemble a Spikes lower would I need to have the barrel headspaced to my lower before firing.

[drck1000]

Regarding the brain fart I had earlier about headspacing. If I were to buy a DelTon rifle kit and use the supplied lower parts to assemble a Spikes lower would I need to have the barrel headspaced to my lower before firing.

Headspace is a function of the fitting of the complete upper receiver (upper receiver and barrel extension) and the bolt and BCG. Headspace gauges are used to check the proper/safe installation of the barrel in the upper receiver inconjunction with the bolt/BCG. It doesn't have anything to do with the lower.

Are you referring to the fitup between the upper receiver and the lower receiver?

Or are you referring to using one brand of LPK with another lower? If that's what you're asking, as long as the LPK consists of mil-spec parts/components they should work just fine in a milspec stripped lower receiver.

[stanger1944]

Headspace is a function of the fitting of the complete upper receiver (upper receiver and barrel extension) and the bolt and BCG. Headspace gauges are used to check the proper/safe installation of the barrel in the upper receiver inconjunction with the bolt/BCG. It doesn't have anything to do with the lower.

Are you referring to the fitup between the upper receiver and the lower receiver?

Or are you referring to using one brand of LPK with another lower? If that's what you're asking, as long as the LPK consists of mil-spec parts/components they should work just fine in a milspec stripped lower receiver.

That would be the info I'm looking for.

[nitehawk]

to the Armory ...

IMHO....I would not want to invest any $$$ in a polymer/composite type lower receiver.

[Killer308]

Regarding the brain fart I had earlier about headspacing. If I were to buy a DelTon rifle kit and use the supplied lower parts to assemble a Spikes lower would I need to have the barrel headspaced to my lower before firing.

That would be fine. In fact when Cold Hand Arms sell their complete rifle kits they are Del-Ton rifle kits w/ Spikes stripped lower.
Again headspacing has absolutely NOTHING to do with the lower.

[chris_32212]

There are a lot of negative opinions of polymer plastic lowers on this forum. None of them so far that I have read are from anyone who has owned the LW-15. I now own one and I am quite happy with it so far. Is it a better alternative to a quality aluminum lower? no it is not. As long as you know that going in, I don't see the problem owning a product like this. It is a low cost lower which is exactly what you get with this product. After getting my hands on it, it is easy to see why some people wouldn't like it. The fire control group, safety selector, and take down pins are all plastic and that definately does leave a little to be desired. But I don't pretend to be a soldier of fortune and this is not ever going to be a service rifle. My LW-15 was delivered with free shipping to my FFL dealer for $99. I now have a second lower for my extra DPMS oracle upper. That gives me a second AR-15 rifle for $500. As an added bonus, it made things a little easier to justify to the girl friend when my rifle purchase didn't break the bank. My FFL dealer contacted New Frontier Arms to find out how many of these they see come back with reliability issues and they told him they have only seen two come back. One appeared to have been ran over by a truck at least once and the other had been chucked into a vise and had weights stacked on it until failure. The biggest reason I bought an LW-15 is so I wouldn't necessarily have to share my bushmaster aluminum lower between two uppers. But a guy a guy could justify buying one just to keep his nicer stuff in the safe and keep the wear and tear off his high dollar riffle. The LW-15/DPMS Oracle combo fit together almost too tightly as it was a little difficult to mate the two but there is NO SLOP. No accuwedge needed. The mag changes feel a little weird in that they take more force to lock the magazine in place but that may imrove over time. So far, everything fits and feels very tight and I can't find anything wrong with how it functions. I also think it looks pretty sharpe with my upper mounted on it. I will get out and shoot it shortly and can report back with the results. I can also post pics if anyone is interested.

[Killer308]

There are a lot of negative opinions of polymer plastic lowers on this forum. None of them so far that I have read are from anyone who has owned the LW-15. I now own one and I am quite happy with it so far. Is it a better alternative to a quality aluminum lower? no it is not. As long as you know that going in, I don't see the problem owning a product like this. It is a low cost lower which is exactly what you get with this product. After getting my hands on it, it is easy to see why some people wouldn't like it. The fire control group, safety selector, and take down pins are all plastic and that definately does leave a little to be desired. But I don't pretend to be a soldier of fortune and this is not ever going to be a service rifle. My LW-15 was delivered with free shipping to my FFL dealer for $99. I now have a second lower for my extra DPMS oracle upper. That gives me a second AR-15 rifle for $500. As an added bonus, it made things a little easier to justify to the girl friend when my rifle purchase didn't break the bank. My FFL dealer contacted New Frontier Arms to find out how many of these they see come back with reliability issues and they told him they have only seen two come back. One appeared to have been ran over by a truck at least once and the other had been chucked into a vise and had weights stacked on it until failure. The biggest reason I bought an LW-15 is so I wouldn't necessarily have to share my bushmaster aluminum lower between two uppers. But a guy a guy could justify buying one just to keep his nicer stuff in the safe and keep the wear and tear off his high dollar riffle. The LW-15/DPMS Oracle combo fit together almost too tightly as it was a little difficult to mate the two but there is NO SLOP. No accuwedge needed. The mag changes feel a little weird in that they take more force to lock the magazine in place but that may imrove over time. So far, everything fits and feels very tight and I can't find anything wrong with how it functions. I also think it looks pretty sharpe with my upper mounted on it. I will get out and shoot it shortly and can report back with the results. I can also post pics if anyone is interested.

The problem is you can get a complete aluminum lower with all metal parts for $160 and then you don't have to worry about plastic parts wearing out or breaking. http://www.jsesurplu...ugh53111-1.aspx

[chris_32212]

The problem is you can get a complete aluminum lower with all metal parts for $160 and then you don't have to worry about plastic parts wearing out or breaking. http://www.jsesurplu...ugh53111-1.aspx

that is far cheaper than I was aware of being able to get an aluminum lower for but I still don't regret my purchase. Its 8oz lighter and comes with a very respectable feeling 4.5lb trigger. And I didn't have to pay shipping.