Buddy of mine had the bolt break in his radical complete gun. Super over gassed gun. Already had the castle nut go awol twice. Once factory fresh from radical and again after being returned to radical for warranty repairs. He has finally awoken to the buy once cry once mentality and will be investing in a new Bravo company bcg. Figured I'd put this out there. Buyer beware. Still ashamed that these are made in Texas

Only wealthy men can afford to buy cheap things.

Did they get the barrel extension loosening issue fixed?

When I look at the price breakdown, I'm thinking parts kits from Asia is the only way to meet those points.

I just don't see how someone hits a pricing like that without offshore sources.

He hasn't had an issue with the barrel extension yet. That's probably next. I tried to convince him to buy a complete upper from bravo company. I have no idea where the parts are sourced. Apparently not from reputable folks.

Sounds like he got what he paid for.  But really, what do people expect from a company that has been known to build and sell rifles under their name on other manufacturers lowers?

Excellent.

Except seems to mostly be poor people keeping themselves poor.

How do you lose a castle nut? Did the buffer tube fly off or did it just get loose?

I think he means it was loose, he's just using terrible terminology.

He's right. It came loose and the buffer retainer went for a ride

Save money and get a decent rifle the first time.  A quality rifle can last a lifetime. Buy once, cry once.

Stake the castle nut or use thread locker on the buffer tube threads. Don't use the wrong tool such as a reaction rod to do muzzle device work. Buy a quality bolt.
Then shoot the piss out of it. Quit crying about minor problems that could happen to anybody??

Don't matter who makes 'em. Machines are going to break down once in a while. Made a good living all my life because of it.

Yeeahhhh I kinda lean that way too.  The overgassed part is sort of a bummer, but there are adjustable gas blocks
and buffer/spring combo's that'd make it reliable without much grief or money.  If it's accurate enough it'd still be
cheaper, and dramatically more educational, to make it work if it's just a play gun.
Everyone should have a crappy AR from time to time to learn how to deal with such.
They should also own a good one, so they know the difference.  Preferably at the same time.

How much was that rifle or upper btw?  I haven't paid much attention to radical.

BOCO

Gee, offshore production of the M16 and variants. A little discussed subject and yet openly acknowledged on the internet: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/M16_rifle#Production_and_users

A simple examination lists not only DIemaco and Norinco, but also Daewoo in Korea, Elisco Tool and Manufacturing in the Philippines, ST Kinetics in Singapore, And? Because I've read about a plant in Israeli, too. Check Brownell's AR catalog - they mark every known US made part, but a lot are not, nor is the country of origin mentioned.

Why, after 45 years and 62 nations using M16's, do we think that there are only American makers, and that only American makers get it right? Do we need to be reminded again Colt was not a successful bidder on a contract which was handed to a company headquartered in Belgium? A state owned company which also owns US Repeating Arms - Winchester - and Browning? We may respect FN but they are ultimately keeping the profits in Belgium.

I'm going to suggest that more than 25% of the market isn't US made - and that there is NO guarantee that the imported parts are universally junk. They are likely produced in those plants overseas to Military Specification because they contract they have per Colt requires it, and their government demands it. After all, if they wanted something less, they could make AK's. They don't - they drop forge uppers and lowers in other countries for their own use.

What they do between contracts is make some to sell in the biggest free arms market in the world, the US of A. How someone assembles them here is on American shoulders.

Section 922(r) and further detailed in
section 27 C.F.R. § 478.39, limits the
amount of imported parts that can be in
a semi auto rifle to a maximum of ten.

Feel free to Google it.

Stainless.

Damn I forgot 922r was still a thing.

I always chuckle when I hear this. You do know that, in order for a buffer retainer to "get loose", the RE (receiver extension/buffer tube) must rotate enough to allow the disengagement of tube/detent interface (which involves the castle nut loosening, AND the end plate backing off, as well as the RE/stock rotating quite a bit), right? That means the stock/RE would have to rotate quite a bit (not just the end plate, which is locked to the RE and castle nut). BS is screaming here.
So many newbs thing that simply a castle nut loosening is enough to launch a detent... it is not. The tube must rotate enough to allow the detent to come free (which means the caste nut back off, back off the end plate, rotate the tube/stock in order to free the buffer detent. Not exactly easy and certainly not unnoticeable. This is one of those "tales" that is told over and over but just isn't true. Didn't happen that way.

Does that have anything to do with rifles built in the US?

Nice! I bet it only cost tree fitty to fix.

 
This. I was kind of laughing to myself thinking about the whole stock rotating around while the guy was shooting it. The only way I could see this happening is maybe if it was an AR pistol?

I should add something here. The RE was also incorrectly machined. Therefore the retainer was barely held in to begin with so any slight movement of the RE allowed the pin it's freedom inside the gun

Mods, can we move this to GD where I'll be able to say what i really think?
I'm having a hard time with the story.

OP, this won't end well.

I can tell.

That's the spirit

Your post is misleading.  That is 10 parts (OF THE 20) specified on ATF's list.  You can have over 100 imported parts in the gun, just not more than 10 of those that are on ATF's top 20 list.

Tony

Mine was way under gassed and the receiver extension came loose.

Stay. Away.

It does happen on A1/A2 stocks.

Yeah but ask a person or judge what a reasonable gun part is to them. That's why it will never be enforced by the feds. The ATF would crap themselves with that definition.

But at what point is it responsible for the owner to give his rifle a once over for loose items or parts that are wearing/not fitting correctly?  Did'nt he ever clean it and notice this problem before it got out of control?  I clean my rifle after every use and check things like this. The castle nut is known for loosening if not staked down, and I don't stake mine down in case I want to change the stock later.  I put a small amount of blue locktite on the threads near the end.

This is as much an owners fault as the manufacturers.

Which don't use castle nuts...

OP.

Have your friend buy a complete BCG with the adjustable gas key from Rubber City Armory.
This will get him a quality BCG and solve the overgassing in one simple drop-in solution.

Are we sure Radical is not actually Blackthorne/Vulcan/Hesse renamed?

Instead of paying $180 plus shipping for a BCM BCG, how about spend $80 on a PSA or AIM surplus or ToolCraft one, then spend the other $100 on a brand new Ballistics Advantage barrel that already has the proper gas port size, and is a good quality barrel to start with.  

Just because something is cheap doesn't mean it is bad, Ballistic Advantage is a good example of this, as well as the BCGs listed above.  But you do need to do research on what actually works, and decide for yourself if you want to spend $80 or $180 on a BCG that will work the same for 99.9% of people.  If I have the money to spare I will pick up Colt/FN/BCM BCGs over the others.  If I am working minimum wage and money is an issue I will pick up the PSA etc, but in no way would I still buy stuff that gets negative reviews just because it is cheap like RF products.