Who has the best stripped lower for the money?

Should I go with a DMPS lower kit, RRA, ?

CMMG, Doublestar, Spikes have that darker "glossier" look and are great lowers in my books.

RRA and Stag are good too but their finish has a duller grayish look.

I would avoid the DPMS lpk, my last build consisted of their lpk and their rear take down pin was out of spec.

For the money, it's hard to beat the Spikes at 89.99

Mega Machine Shop for $99.95.  They are they best looking lowers I have ever seen; perfect finish, and not a tool mark on them.

Ask ten people this question and you will get ten different answers.

There are many good lowers out there. Pick the one that you like. I happen to like RRA as I like their color and have never had an issue with them. They put out some "seconds" where they had installed an insert to correct an out-of-spec hole. No big deal for function, but some didn't like the way it looked. These were sold cheaply as they were sort of seconds. Normal price range for good lowers where I live is $79 up.

spikes

Liked them so much I got 5 of them.

MEGA Machine gets a vote in my book.

My vote goes to AGP Arms.... Flat black milspec finish, Pmags frop free everytime(EDM magewells). Love the new U.S. flag engraved on the front of the mag well too. Has both Pito and regular "SAFE/FIRE/AUTO" marking available andd adjustable trigger set up that is pretty cool. Site sponsor too. I own 3. I have used DPMS,Rockriver and Doublestar LPK's with ease. Not too shabby for a $99 lower.

Spikes for 89.99 or the doublestar for 110.00, i own 6 of the double star and one spikes, both are great!!

+1 - my first AGP lower arrived today, a custom .22LR marked one.  It looks fantastic!  Good people, too.

Megas are the tits.

I say Spikes.
Well, I counted seven different answers out of ten people.

How about $109.99 WITH a DPMS LPK.  The Aero Precision may be IMPOSSIBLE to beat.

I am hooked on it, might as well be called Brown Sugar.

ETA:  If you like Spikes keep in mind Aero Precision is one of their suppliers for lowers.

I have only used 2 types of stripped lowers so far and i can't see a big differance in the RRA or Spikes, enought to concern me.I do prefer the caliber marking of 5.56 on the RRA
and not to crazy of Multi. For price its got to be the Spikes for $89.Once they have been rubbed down with CLP a few times the RRA appears smoother finish to me and the color the same.
I have tryed RRA and Spikes lowers on RRA,and LMT uppers and they fit great, a lttle tight at first but settle in nicely.


RRA upper/RRA lower below...

+1 Great lowers; Surplus Ammo is great dealer. Link to article about Aero Precision

I used to get Stag lowers in CT, They are made in New Britain CT, for 80 bucks a pop.  I'd get a CMT M4 upper and I have never in any one of seven builds with this set up seen or felt any play in between.  In one setup, you actually have to push down and hammer the take down pins in.  Super Tight!

Mega's are great too.  

Rock River in my opinion, and don't get mad, have a LOT of play in them.  I bought a complete lower with their two stage, and It slops around every upper I have.

Stag, Mega, I have not built Spikes but everyone I know with one loves em.  I just hate, and I know it's sacrilige, that silly spider, almost as much as I hate that stupid Deer's head on the Stag! But, it's not about looks, it's about what works.

I've never had any play issues in 3 RRAs I've built mated to 3 different RRA uppers.

Yeah its usually the oposite at really tight...then lossens up after a while.

Yep...I put an LMT on top of it, and had to force the rear down.

New lowers are really close in quality (except for a few). Ask ten people here what to do and they will give you nine different answers.  What makes a difference is if and when you decide to sell the rifle. If you are selling to the general public you must remember that they will not know some names. I was in a big shop last week and a guy some a couple of ARs marked "LWRC". He looked at his buddy and said, "No way would I pay this much for some rifle I never heard of". So, to them that name meant nothing other than they DIDN'T want that "overpriced" rifle. On the other hand, they looked at Bushmaster, Rock River, ArmaLite and Colt and considered them.

So, the AR  boys here will have their favorite brands and will tell you how wonderful they are. That's all well and good. And, while you think you will have this wonderful rifle forever, you may not. I have been shooting for more years than most members here have been alive. I  have seen a lot of firearms come and go. I know that at my age that at some point in the future I will be selling this pile of AR's I have collected. When that time comes I want to have names on them that John Q. Public newbie AR buyer will be familiar with. So, I stick to name brand mainstream lowers. They work fine, never give me a moments problems and they are marketable when I decide to let go of them.

I watched dealers at gun shows this past year trying to sell AR's to the masses. Their buyers were Newbies that didn't know a lot. But, they knew some names and that was what they were sticking to. I heard one dealer talking to his buddy and he was telling him, "If we could just put Bushmaster or Colt on these rifles they would all be sold by now".  

If you don't care about resale, don't worry about it. Get the cheapest or the name of the week lower. I will make you a bet, however. Look at all the AR's people on this site have today. I'll bet you next weeks paycheck that 90% of them will be sold sometime. Some will go to people "in the know" and they will buy a Spikes or a LWRC, or whatever. But the majority of them will go to newbie buyers who may well have never heard those names. The well known name lowers will sell on average for more money. Its just the way it is.

Wow, that is a good price.

Aero Precision (why of course)

Essential Arms for me.

I just got this and an upper to match. Everything went together perfectly on both receivers, exact color match and there is almost no play between them    You can't beat it for less than $180 + upper parts.

Back when Obama was about to be elected, it was hard to find a good lower at a cheap price . Spikes to me took full advantage of this and jacked up the price and being a noob to the AR platform I was about to spend 260 dollars on a lower from them, this is after shipping and FFL fee's . That is when I went deeper into my search and found Essential Arms lower for $107 after shipping and ffl fee's. Ordered 2 and never looked back, now I am up to 5 Essential Arm's lower builds and will order more. They make a very good product, and the Stag lpk's I use in them fit nice  My vote is for Essential, not only for a great product and customer service but at a time when everyone else was taking advantage of the noobs flooding the market. They kept prices down on a Quality product.
.

heard alot of the same regarding spikes, wonder why they dont chime in on this  

Spike's will never see a dime from me for that reason. They may market a good quality lower, but they made every attempt to take advantage of people during a busy time. Its dealers like them that won't see any of my hard earned money.



But on to the subject of the thread, I'm a big fan on Sabre Defence lowers. Very nice and very minimal tool marks. But I would also like to add a Mega Machine at some point down the road.








 

+1 Got one at the Gun Show in Kenner today. i'll see how it goes, but it was $100 out the door.

Spike's was selling lowers at Fla shows for $65 recently, so what does that mean??





Could it be......
wait for it.....
um..........
MARKET CONDITIONS!!!!!!! We have a capitalist free market system!!!!!!(for now)
Please note.I do not own a Spike's lower, or AR.





 

Mega

RRA...$100

where'd you find an RRA stripped lower for $100? i wanted to get one, but they guy wouldn't budge on $170. on RRA's website, it's $170 as well. if i was going to spend $170, i'd get a Mega billet lower, so i just went w/ the EA for $100.

Their prices were marked up by just about the next morning.  I don't know the REAL reason (gouging or not), but it raised my eyebrows.

Capitalism also means that the buyer doesn't have to care what the reason for the increase is.  He took his money elsewhere.  The market has since corrected (in the other direction it seems).

DISCLAIMER: I like Spike's stuff, but I don't own any of it either.

Like toby said, I believe it was the day after the election that they changed their prices. Granted the market did change over night, but its funny that no other "manufacturer" that I know of doubled their price the next day, or even at all. I never said they were gouging. They're free to sell lowers for $10000 each if they wish, but I don't have to buy from them because there are other choices out there. And they didn't immediately change their prices after the election. I know that move cost them a few customers after they did it.





 

NoDak.

You did say best stripped for the money, not the cheapest.


Sarge

Because it’s been beat to death…

Spikes paid a lot to secure uppers….
When everyone was out of stock they had stock…
Sure, there were venders that still had them listed for $89, but I’ll be damned if they had them in stock.
Spikes warehouse was just about bleed dry and their OEM suppliers charged them big time to re-up the supply, but they did re-up it and pretty much always had lowers in stock.

Its really fucking easy to keep your prices the same when you aren’t selling anything because you don’t have a single lower in stock and no way to get any more.

If you want to secure a good supply in a shortage it cost money, spikes actually had to buy one of the OEM suppliers a 4 axis CNC mill to secure the contract to the tune of about $250,000…

And I don’t ever remember anyone from Spikes putting a gun to anyone’s head and forcing them to buy lowers…

Also, those who have a big problem with it seem to forget that in the months leading up to the election Tom from Spikes was having huge group buys and warning people to get them while the price was low because it was going to be going up.
Why would he do that if he just wanted to screw everybody… he wouldn’t!

Some people just like to bitch…

maybe they were going for cheaper locally (or maybe the place he got it from over ordered stock)? I bought a RRA lower when they were $150 mainly cause that was the cheapest lower I could find in town at the time, the only other lowers I could find  would have cost me about as much in shipping and FFL fees.

$170 for a RRA lower?????

Screw them; they will never ever get a dime of my money…
They are cheating all of us!!!!
Now I officially HATE RRA FOREVER!!!!!!!

And to boot, I’m gonna tell everybody how evil and despicable RRA is because they are charging $170 for their lowers… it will be my life’s mission from now on!!!!!

Because that’s the cool, trendy, bandwagon kind of thing to do…

RRA wasn't charging that, it was a vendor at the booth. i just wanted to see what the markup was compared to what they posted on their website and sure enough, it's $170 on their website. i think i'm going to be happy with my EA lower though, i should have bought 2. it looks exactly like my S&W lower.

Essential Arms  for me ive got 4 now

So you must not travel anywhere do you?  I mean gas prices were changing the same day that oil prices did.  Meaning, the cost hadn't filtered down yet but they were still going up.  And what about the price gouging that started to happen and was stopped the first couple of days after 9/11?

As to the original question, right now I have a Spike's and an Essential Arms lower and am 100% satisfied with both.  I plan on at least one more and will maybe try one of those cheap billet ones just to see how they are.

+1  I am very happy with mine.  They are actually $15 cheaper now than when I bought mine six weeks ago!  I may have to buy another.

Is the question which is made better, or which will be worth more when you go to sell or trade?

RRA will bring more money if you resale on the open market as the general shooting  public (away from this site) gives that name more notice and positive attention. Same goes for Bushmaster.  DPMS Pather is OK too, nothing wrong with them.

AR fans here go for certain brands and that changes over time. LMT was hot, then BCM, Spikes, Etc. Its the name of the month club. To be fair and honest, all of these are truly good products and you can't go wrong with any of them. JT, and many others you will see mentioned here are all GTG.

this. i put together 2 so far. GREAT LOWERS! $15 cheaper now! my wallet is already in pain!

MEGA

spikes FTW

How long have they been making lowers ?  I may be interested in checking out one of these.

Also, anyone know which other lowers have the EDM magwell thing/process done ?

Tactical Innovations hands down. $99.99 from Rainier. Has EDM magwell, tapped rear takedown detent hole with setscrew, and a built in "accuwedge" of sorts. Not to mention an amazing finish as well. Best and cheapest lower I've ever owned.

Coming from an unbiased source, eh? J/k

Good looking product.

I went with TI because of the built in features and reviews from others.

ETA: edited for spelling

I have a bushmaster, a Spikes, and 3 Essential arms lowers.



The only significant difference I've found among the 5 is slight color variations and the logo on the side.