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Posted: 4/14/2017 8:47:53 AM EDT
How was/is the quality of Coonan receivers?
Link Posted: 4/14/2017 12:16:44 PM EDT
[#1]
It has been a few years since I have purchased a new production receiver from Coonan inc. The most recent was well made. Coonan customer service has gone south and I will not do business with them again. 
They are quite clear on their website regarding current receiver quality. If your parts don't fit, they don't give a damn. 
Link Posted: 4/14/2017 12:55:02 PM EDT
[#2]
Is that what happened?  I was away from falfiles for a bit and saw the don't bother feelings.   DSA had that problem.  I think they,DSA , was
God awful slow fixing some Bad receivers but they eventually did fix them from what I read.  
My Coonan was a bit too tight in the magwell but it works.
Link Posted: 4/14/2017 3:17:14 PM EDT
[#3]
DSA's CS has been tops for me. No big issues- just a locking shoulder dogleg hole that was a hair too small- and they took care of it lickety split with no trouble. I was considering buying a Coonan a while back, but their "tough shit, fuck you" approach to QC problems is a great reason to stay away.

Most of the issues seemed to be with their British-cut receivers. The metric models appear to be fine with an occasional defective ejector block.
Link Posted: 4/15/2017 10:26:42 AM EDT
[#4]
I recently built an Argy on a Coonan and had zero issues. Don't know if it was an early receiver or not. SN 5100##
Link Posted: 4/15/2017 5:49:04 PM EDT
[#5]
I built an Argy kit on a Coonan receiver as well.  Been about 3 years ago, i think.  It's worked great for me, and they were nice enough to do a custom serial number for me to match my kit.
Link Posted: 4/15/2017 7:10:22 PM EDT
[#6]
I have a Coonan Type I I bought eleven years ago; solid and no problems
Link Posted: 4/15/2017 9:02:43 PM EDT
[#7]
Coonans have always been a bit out of spec, but not in a way as to affect function (the most obvious one was purely cosmetic, i.e. the gap between the bolt carrier and the receiver, due to the different way they machined that area compared to OEM receivers).  From what I understand, more recently, as in the last year or two, their QC has gone downhill at least as badly as DSA with their in-house cast and forged receivers, and that has been combined with a refusal to make anything right for any defect; basically, no customer service once the sale has been made and the receiver delivered.  

Sadly, there are no longer any manufacturers offering new FAL receivers for sale in the U.S. that are of high quality and fully in-spec.  LMT could do it, but they would need legitimate blueprints and cannot legally use what DSA provided to them when they were contracting LMT to make them (Steyr blueprints which utilize the specs provided by FN; DSA bought them from Steyr); at least that's what they told someone who inquired about having some made.
Link Posted: 4/17/2017 12:22:18 AM EDT
[#8]
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Quoted:
Coonans have always been a bit out of spec, but not in a way as to affect function (the most obvious one was purely cosmetic, i.e. the gap between the bolt carrier and the receiver, due to the different way they machined that area compared to OEM receivers).  From what I understand, more recently, as in the last year or two, their QC has gone downhill at least as badly as DSA with their in-house cast and forged receivers, and that has been combined with a refusal to make anything right for any defect; basically, no customer service once the sale has been made and the receiver delivered.  

Sadly, there are no longer any manufacturers offering new FAL receivers for sale in the U.S. that are of high quality and fully in-spec.  LMT could do it, but they would need legitimate blueprints and cannot legally use what DSA provided to them when they were contracting LMT to make them (Steyr blueprints which utilize the specs provided by FN; DSA bought them from Steyr); at least that's what they told someone who inquired about having some made.
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Well there goes my plan of getting one of those forged R1s they just advertised.
Link Posted: 4/17/2017 4:18:16 AM EDT
[#9]
If it's for the parts kit you brought over, an IMBEL is the best option, anyways.

There are unused DSA R1s from when they still sold good quality forged receivers that pop up for sale from time to time if you need one for a project. I'd like to do a nice Rhodie R1 build myself. An older Coonan R1 might work as well.
Link Posted: 4/17/2017 2:47:54 PM EDT
[#10]
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Quoted:
If it's for the parts kit you brought over, an IMBEL is the best option, anyways.

There are unused DSA R1s from when they still sold good quality forged receivers that pop up for sale from time to time if you need one for a project. I'd like to do a nice Rhodie R1 build myself. An older Coonan R1 might work as well.
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I'll stay away from this batch, then. I had heard that the Imbel was the best option for my parts kit on the Files. Why is that?
Link Posted: 4/17/2017 3:21:29 PM EDT
[#11]
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Quoted:
I'll stay away from this batch, then. I had heard that the Imbel was the best option for my parts kit on the Files. Why is that?
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Quoted:
Quoted:
If it's for the parts kit you brought over, an IMBEL is the best option, anyways.

There are unused DSA R1s from when they still sold good quality forged receivers that pop up for sale from time to time if you need one for a project. I'd like to do a nice Rhodie R1 build myself. An older Coonan R1 might work as well.
I'll stay away from this batch, then. I had heard that the Imbel was the best option for my parts kit on the Files. Why is that?
IIRC, you have a Zimbabwe-contract IMBEL kit. It would match up with that rather nicely and you'd have a high quality receiver, too. Did you not get in on Terry's receiver group buy?

Best quality receivers are the LMT-made DSAs and imports like the IMBELs, FMAPs, and the occasional FN (I've seen a couple sold separately on the FAL Files). I think the old ABNI-marked Entreprise Arms ones are up there as well. Older Coonans were acceptable, but not the best.
Link Posted: 4/17/2017 3:37:01 PM EDT
[#12]
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Quoted:


IIRC, you have a Zimbabwe-contract IMBEL kit. It would match up with that rather nicely and you'd have a high quality receiver, too. Did you not get in on Terry's receiver group buy?

Best quality receivers are the LMT-made DSAs and imports like the IMBELs, FMAPs, and the occasional FN (I've seen a couple sold separately on the FAL Files). I think the old ABNI-marked Entreprise Arms ones are up there as well. Older Coonans were acceptable, but not the best.
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I have one of the Imbels from the group buy, so I was just going to use it, but then when I saw the forged receivers for sale, I was going to buy one to use as one of the 922(r) parts and keep the Imbel for another build. With questionable build quality, I'll just stay away, though and build this using the receiver I have.

I'm not sure about the kit. It has ZA prefixes but there was a touch of Rhodesian paint inside the hand guards.
Link Posted: 4/17/2017 4:05:49 PM EDT
[#13]
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Quoted:
I have one of the Imbels from the group buy, so I was just going to use it, but then when I saw the forged receivers for sale, I was going to buy one to use as one of the 922(r) parts and keep the Imbel for another build. With questionable build quality, I'll just stay away, though and build this using the receiver I have.

I'm not sure about the kit. It has ZA prefixes but there was a touch of Rhodesian paint inside the hand guards.
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Discussion ForumsJump to Quoted PostQuote History
Quoted:
Quoted:


IIRC, you have a Zimbabwe-contract IMBEL kit. It would match up with that rather nicely and you'd have a high quality receiver, too. Did you not get in on Terry's receiver group buy?

Best quality receivers are the LMT-made DSAs and imports like the IMBELs, FMAPs, and the occasional FN (I've seen a couple sold separately on the FAL Files). I think the old ABNI-marked Entreprise Arms ones are up there as well. Older Coonans were acceptable, but not the best.
I have one of the Imbels from the group buy, so I was just going to use it, but then when I saw the forged receivers for sale, I was going to buy one to use as one of the 922(r) parts and keep the Imbel for another build. With questionable build quality, I'll just stay away, though and build this using the receiver I have.

I'm not sure about the kit. It has ZA prefixes but there was a touch of Rhodesian paint inside the hand guards.
An R1 would not have been correct for what you have.  From what I recall, the barrel, bolt, carrier, and lower assemblies were all IMBEL.  It's actually unusual to see everything together like that; the Zimbabwean imports often got jumbled so that the kits were mixed up.  I had an IMBEL lower assembly with a different IMBEL bolt, yet another IMBEL carrier, and an R1 front end assembly plus a couple of oddball parts mixed up in mine.
Link Posted: 4/19/2017 6:28:21 PM EDT
[#14]
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Quoted:


Well there goes my plan of getting one of those forged R1s they just advertised.
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I have two. Get them while you can.
Link Posted: 4/19/2017 8:56:04 PM EDT
[#15]
I got a coonan R1 receiver about 3 months ago from the most recent batch and it has been excellent. I heard some of the complaints from about a year ago, but it seems like the problems have been worked out.
Link Posted: 4/20/2017 5:18:08 AM EDT
[#16]
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Quoted:
I got a coonan R1 receiver about 3 months ago from the most recent batch and it has been excellent. I heard some of the complaints from about a year ago, but it seems like the problems have been worked out.
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I didn't realize that they had started doing R1s again.  Are they still getting the markings right?  I got a receiver marked with R1 markings and it was the first one they ever did (Dan called me and talked about them with me for a while), but they didn't get them right, nor did they on some of the receivers in their first run, but later on in that run they got them spot on.
Link Posted: 4/22/2017 8:08:55 AM EDT
[#17]
Thanks fellas! I thought I subscribed to my own thread but I guess didn't.  

A local guy was wanting to trade a G1 kit built on a Coonan receiver for a SVT 40. It looks good by the pictures but I would want to shoot it first. And since I have 3 FAL's already..
Link Posted: 4/22/2017 9:46:44 PM EDT
[#18]
If it's at least a couple of years old, it should be gtg. Only newer ones are questionable.
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