I was pretty impressed at what I got for the money, so I figured I would give my impressions of the new LE-M4 and Spikes / Samson Mfg BUIS from Spikes Tactical…
Bear with me on the photos as I’m not a photographic prodigy like Stickman or mfingar, but I’ll try my best…

So, I had a few bucks left over from my tax refund and I wanted to throw together an inexpensive carbine for the wife and kids to shoot. Since I was in the area, I decide to go see Tom at Spikes Tactical to see if he had any “blem” or “bargain bin” uppers that I could pick up at a discount.

He did not have anything like that, but what he did have was their new LE-M4 upper and he told me that right now they were taking $50 off of the normal $525 sales price…
I say ok, so that puts me at $475…  How much extra for the BCG and charging handle?
No extra he says… $475 is complete with the BCG, Charging Handle and a ST-T2 Buffer!!!!!  

$475 complete sounded good for all that, so I picked one up…
Then I see about getting a flip up rear sight for it and I was thinking about a Magpul MBUS because of the low cost, but I really wanted a Troy because I really favor sights constructed of metal over polymer, but I didn’t really want to fork over $130-$140 for a Troy flip up rear sight…
He then showed me the new Spikes flip up rear sight that was being made for them by Samson Mfg… it was very nice and the price was under $100 for just the rear or $179 for the pair… looking back I should have gotten the pair because it costs less that way in the long run and I could always use an extra font sight (I’m always building and reconfiguring… it’s a sickness) but I decided to just get the Spikes / Samson flip up rear, I figured it was more expensive then the MBUS but less expensive than the Troy and I still get an all metal BUIS… sounded good, so I paid for the upper and BUIS, thanked Tom and went on my way.


When I got home I took a look in the safe to see if I had anything else that I could throw on this upper to spruce it up… I had a Daniel Defense 7” Lite rail that I picked up in a trade a while back and an EOtech 511 that I picked up on line sometime last year on the cheap… this new upper seemed like a good home for both of these lonely items, so I went to work disassembling the upper in preparation for the DD Lite install…
(Pic of upper before I started)



First thing I noticed after removing the factory hand guards was that they had double heat shields… they were good quality and if I wasn’t going with the rail I would have had no problem keeping them.



I looked for marks on the barrel before I took the hand guards off and I didn’t see any, but once I removed the hand guards it was pretty hard to miss the very crisp engraving designating “ST 4150 CMV 5.56 NATO 1/7 CL MP”…
Well, I was pretty happy with that… those are pretty much the same specs as my LMT barrel… 4150 Chromoly Vanadium Alloy / 5.56 chrome lined chamber and bore / 1:7 twist / and magnetic particle tested… not bad for $475…

Removing the “F” marked front sight base took a little work as that thing was staked pretty well… (not that I’m complaining)… but once I removed it I was surprised to see that the barrel was completely phosphate coated under the sight base, which is a big plus in my book… not all manufactures do this and I fell that this is one of those areas that really needs the extra corrosion protection… glad to see they took the time to do it.
Also, I would suspect that these barrels are turned on the center line of the bore; at the muzzle the bore seems to be perfectly centered… I installed my cleaning rod bore guide into the muzzle and the outside diameter of the barrel appeared to be consistently the same dimension away from the edge of the outside diameter of the bore guide all the way around… I know this isn’t the best way to check for run-out, but I don’t have a lathe in my shop, so it’s a quick “eye ball” check that has worked pretty well for me so far.





After I removed the barrel from the upper I took a good look at the chrome lining in the chamber area… very neat and thorough… the chrome was uniform and coated the entire face of the chamber extending beyond the chamfer…   a good inspection of the bore revealed more of the same quality craftsmanship… again, very happy.
(Notice the oil… this thing came thoroughly coated in Bob Marvel’s custom gun oil, every nook and cranny was well lubricated)


I also took a minute to gauge the gas port hole size using the back end of a set of decimal machinist bits…  it gauged right at.062”.
Much bigger and it winds up being over gassed, too small and under gassing causes short stroking… .062” is about right for a carbine gas system. It might sound crazy, but I have seen barrels with gas holes way out in both ends of the spectrum, so I like to check before I go through the trouble of putting it all together just to save some trouble shooting later, but this one looks good.


The next thing that I looked at was the dry film lube inside the upper…
Not much to say about this other than it was applied in a very neat and uniform coating.
Just another good sign as to quality workmanship.


Moving on to the bolt carrier group… I disassembled it and inspected the extractor, gas rings, gas key staking, gas key chrome and the chrome inside the carrier.
Everything looked good, chrome was uniform and in all the right places, the gas key was properly staked and the bolt was marked as having been magnetic particle tested.
Everything fit together well and the finish was uniform.




All in all I am very impressed with the quality of this upper, especially for the price.
All indications are that it is built to the same specifications as LMT, BCM and other top manufactures, but with a much more reasonable price tag.

Here are the specs from the web site:


And here is a pic after I installed the DD Lite rail and Spikes / Samson BUIS.



Weather permitting I plan on taking her out to the range this Sunday and putting her through the motions to see how she does… specs are nice, but range time tells a lot more… a range report will follow shortly.

Sweet.  How I wish they offered a 14.5" M4 barrel with a permanently attached extended A2.  Are you listening Spikes?

Bastard. UPS has mine and I wont get it till 3/3

That's a might fine upper and review

CONKLE73 - That's one way to raise the old post numbers.  

Why didn't you but the components you wanted and save yourself time and money reconfiguring the upper?  

Don’t take this as sarcastic, but all I did was throw an extra hand guard that I had sitting around in the safe on the upper,
that’s not exactly “reconfiguring” the whole thing…
And I don’t know how long a hand guard install takes you, but its about a 15min job for me, so time wasn’t really an issue,
plus I enjoy tinkering with AR’s, this might surprise you, but its kind of a hobby for me… crazy hu?

And for the price why bother picking up parts separately… equal quality barrel would run around $225, new upper $115, equal quality bolt / carrier at least $135, charging handle at least $20… just that alone puts me at $495 and that doesn’t account for the gas tube, flash hider, crush washer, delta ring assembly, double heat shielded hand guards or the ST-T2 buffer. And I can always use or sell the parts that I took off of this one. Also account for shipping charges if parts were purchased separately… I really don’t see how I could have done better price wise buying parts separately, I would have surely spent more for less.

And as far as the post count comment… I was having trouble getting everything to fit in the OP, so I spread it out over a few posts, then I realized that I had left out some of the [/img] tags from a few of the pics and was able to move it all back to the OP.

My intent was to have post 1 with my initial impressions and post 2 reserved for the range report… I wish that they let posters delete unintended posts, but they don’t.
sorry about that..

that complete upper for $475 looks great,, you did well. i have one of the spike's nitrided,, D.D.hfb uppers,, and it is a pure dandy. i like it better than my 6920, or D.D. m4––-dead-nutz accurate,, never a bobble.

Wish that they had one with an A1/A2 upper.

Thanks for posting this! I am currently staring out of my front window waiting for mine to show up. I'm interested in the Samson sight, but don't see it on the site for sale as a rear only.

Call them... Whenever you want something that you don’t see it on the site just call…
Chances are they have what you want…

Why did you bump this thread so many times on the same day you posted it.  Give it time, if people care about what you say they will read and post.  

Thats not a bad price for the complete upper.

I've got the same thing only with a DD CHF barrel and an A1.5 rear sight.  It was $660 on sale.  Quality piece of kit.  I'd buy again with no reservations.

From the above post...

Im going to have to buy one now :)

i've done got the hots for one of spike's piston uppers. this should be GTG, and includes a melonite finish, and enhanced bolt. but––-they say they won't be available until april or so. probably worth waiting for..

You could've got Troys for $180/pr if that's what you really wanted. They're all over the EE for $175-$185


That looks like an unbeatable deal and definitely one that rivals BCM & LMT IMO.

[Flame suit on for the koolaid drinkers]

+1

BUMP................................





Actually this is a tag for range report.  That's a sweet deal.

Great post and awesome rifle. I really want that rail on my M4gery, but I have a 14.7" with a pined FH.

I have always been very happy with Spikes products and service. $475 is a great deal for a complete upper of that quality and you get the buffer! They didn't have a booth at the last Jacksonville gun show which kind of sucked.

nice writeup and rifle

+1 again, I would actually get 2

Just ordered mine today so now I just wait patiently til it arrives! And yes, awesome review, thanks!

Is this a "call in" special, or is there a code for the discount?

On-line… the coupon code is:  M4LEUP

HERE IS THE LINK

Great review. Thanks for posting!

Nice review!  This is really helping me make up my mind.  Looking forward to the range report...

By chance is that the DD lite rail 7.0?

unmistakably

My guess was right? YEAH!!!!!!!!

Just received mine yesterday.Ask for Garrett,great customer service....