I installed one (of my two) of AIM Critical Defense melonite ($39) LPK's today in an Anderson lower receiver. My thoughts on it:
I LIKE this kit. It is a fantastic bargain! I always change the grip anyway, and use lowers with built in trigger guard, so this kit is by FAR the best value out there for someone like me.
Pro's: Everything was in the kit (NOTHING was missing. I hijacked a take down detent from spare parts because I couldn't find one, but later found it hiding in the buffer detent plunger).
Everything works as it should.
Trigger is good (not great, but very decent for a "mil spec" trigger).
Con's: I don't know which parts are supposedly melonite... but NONE of it looks melonite to me. I've used numerous melonite parts (barrels, RE plates, FH's, Castle nuts, etc) and ALL of these
parts look parkerized to me. It not bad looking, but has the usual dry/scratchy look of park (Trigger, rear take down pin and selector lever in my pic are representative of ALL the parts in
this kit).
Safety spring (and/or lever) is unusual. It operates smoothly and crisply, but is above the normal tension (force required to operate). I use the same MP K2 grips on ALL of my builds, so I
know it's not a grip spring hole depth issue. Either the spring is a tad long, or it uses a slightly different selector lever divot set up.
Magazine release button has cosmetic flaws (minor chips and silver color spots( which I touched up with Alumablack.
This brings me to oddity #2.... the selector (safety) lever itself. It is not the usual "mil spec" that I'm used to. I'm used to levers that have the serrated grip section cross the entire pivot
(well actually more like 3/4 across the round pivot section).
This lever has a "post pivot" lever (the serrated grip portion starts AFTER the pivot area.
Pic of selector lever and it's "off hanging" grip section (unlike any lever I've used before. Almost looks like a very old design):
Pic of the cosmetic blems in the mag catch button and the obviously parked (not nitride) hammer (actually, as I've said, NONE of the parts appear to be nitride):
I may wind up clipping a few coils off the selector lever spring, but all in all, this kit is one HELL of a deal! Although I was expecting a shiny (or flawless deep black) nitride/melonite finish (which this does NOT have).... it's still GTG. Basically a low cost, quality, minimalist LPK that WORKS and has ALL of the parts in it! I give it my approval
Nice job AIM! Thank you for offing this!
ETA: This is what I mean by what I'm used to (for selector lever). Notice the grip area extends to the center of the pivot point. This is a PSA selector lever (same as any other lever, other than AIM's CD, that I've used):