Int Milspec Trading Co. sells properly stamped (NOT engraved) GM and H&R M16A1 semi auto lowers and the quality is top notch!

The retro market is really two sub markets, Concours and restomod. The Concours group is not anything after market every non original part gnaws at them until the effort of their searching bears fruit and the substandard non original part is replaced. That just leaves the restomod folks who compete with he Concours folks for original parts seemingly driving demand but they are more interested in the look and much less interested in highest original detail. That's the aftermarket. An exact part is still a repro, not acceptable to the original folks and probably overpriced for the resto folks so corners have to be cut to keep cost down. Tooling up costs far outweigh the profit motive, the after market demand is way too small to justify to the effort. I applaud Brownells and hope at least they were able to break even, in my limited manufacturing experience I know how hard that is.

I agree with this.

They didn't get out of it because they made too much money and too few critics for precise replicas.  They at least tried and brought some money to the table and perhaps didn't make much or lost some in the gamble.

I wish I had bought more AR10 parts however and wish there was more interest in the aftermarket retro and what-if AR10 retro products.
Portuguese AR-10 Squad Auto Replica or Carbines would have been nice.
I also wish the BRN-180 had some furniture that actually resembled an AR-180 (nope)

What exactly did Brownells get out of?

I'm still seeing their retro AR parts like A1 furniture, A1 receivers and barrels on their site and none of it has been discontinued. The parts are usually out of stock for long periods of time before it comes back in stock, but that's the case with everything anymore because of the fake covid pandemic BS that everyone's playing into.

Guys, I guess I’ll be the one to point out the obvious. The demand for weapons over the last 18 months has been extraordinary to say the least. Parts of every shape and sort have been hard to get, or unusually expensive. That’s just now starting to turn around for standard parts. What percentage of AR parts being produced are retro reproduction parts? I’d bet the answer is a pretty small number. So obviously it’s going to take longer for those parts to get “caught up” in a time where all parts are in demand.

Then add to that the manufacturing issues of retro parts. Barrels are probably the best example. It literally takes twice as much machine time to turn an A1 profile barrel of a given length as it does to turn an HBAR or even the M4A1 “SOCOM” profile barrels. So in a time when you’re going to sell every barrel you produce regardless of what it is, of course you’re going to go with what you can produce the most of. Think about it: how many companies actually produce retro uppers of any sort? And then how many make flat top uppers? Kinda obvious when you look at it from this angle.

To prove my point, look at the situation with Galil barrels. Galil parts kits(without barrels) have been relatively affordable through all of this. And people have been buying them. But there are very few, if any barrels available for them. As an indication of the demand, the “junk barrels” Sarco sold years ago as tomato stakes for a couple dollars each are bringing $100 or better if they’re remotely usable. Galil barrels have been produced in the US before, and prior to last year, weren’t terribly difficult to get. Now, they’re completely unobtainable. The reason for the shortage? The barrel makers that produce these are either a) unable to get suitable blanks because those are going to AR barrel production or b) have all their capacity tied up filling orders for AR barrels.

Early on in all of this, I’m sure there were people buying retro components for non-retro builds simply because the usual parts were out of stock. This ran those parts out of stock faster than normal. I remember looking at reviews on some of the parts Brownells sells and seeing reviews from people who obviously weren’t building retro models. I also believe there’s a lot more interest in retro type ARs, than there was in the past for a variety of reasons. I have had a number of people contact me about turning down other barrels to A1 profile for retro projects(which I am doing if any of you are looking, my turn around time is under 3 weeks at present). I think a lot of people got into ARs in the past, have already acquired or built the modern rifles/carbines they wanted, and are branching out into retro models.

All this means we have more people looking for a small number of parts(probably even smaller than normal), which obviously means availability of those parts is going to be an issue. The political situation continues exacerbate this issue. My suspicion is that the actual shops producing these parts are not able to give estimated delivery dates in a lot of cases. And by listing parts as discontinued, it avoids a huge number of phone calls and emails asking about expected availability dates.

Weird.  I thought it was to make sure that no one on any gun forum ever bitched about their product, price, availability, customer service, communication, shipping costs and free swag?

What's not to like pendejo?


The bare receivers are NDS.  The remainder is 95% Brownells.  Not fair to judge Brownells retro line based on one bum steer.  $hit happens.  I'm totally satisfied with Brownells.

I know a lot of people will talk about the markings and some of the aesthetics, I honestly just thing they can’t keep up with demand. I mean you can’t offer both built and parts and be sold out 90% of the time.
Also you’d be very surprised at how many people don’t know how to use iron sights, they go out and but a cheap AR with a red dot and that’s what they know.
It took me a while to get my 601 sighted in when I first built it because I was so used to making my adjustments on my rear sight which I know is wrong to begin with

My Brownell's XM16E1 rocks.  It's not exactly like the A1 I was issued back when hippies and dinosaurs roamed the earth but it just feels right in heft and balance.

Who manufactured A1 grips with only a letter D marked in them?

Sound like the FSB is for Flat top receiver. FSB is too tall for the upper receiver.

Orroe

I don't demand exact accuracy, but when the furniture which makes up 30/40% of the rifle visually looks like something from Model 1 Sales, I am not a buyer.  At least that is what I saw on green and black 5.56 retro guns.

I could literally be blindfolded and tell the difference between this "retro" plastic and the originals.

Also the milling on the aluminum parts clearly looked modern vs. the originals.  Or heck more CNC cut that most current AR lowers.

The furniture is disappointing and rather cheap-ish feeling and the coloring off a bit.   I believe its just one of those things that if you have to make it closer to the original nobody outside of collectors on this forum would pay for it - although I'd think it would be worth it.  I actually think if they had made battlefield pickup versions people would be into those - like the cowboy action community has worn finish Colt 1873's newly made.

I have a BRN-10 I am working on and furniture is indeed meh.  No liners and the machining is indeed too perfect - Never seen a real AR10 that was newish as most of the kits were worn so almost tempted to make a battlefield pickup look to hide its overly new features.  Can't complain, I'm just glad to have a BRN-10 to play with.

Perhaps they would have been  better off making some more key parts and kits for kit builders of classic retro rifles to personal tastes - but my ideas are sorted through my own personal prism, I can't complain too much about someone else attempting it but not hitting my personal mark.