I am looking at buying a preban Essential Arms AR15.  I have no experience with the company.  I was wondering if anyone had an opinion on their quality.  Anyone know any info about the company itself (ie their history or story).  Any help is greatly appreciated.  Thank you.

If I recall correctly E.A. only made Receivers. Not completed guns. So I think you are looking at a kit gun someone assembled.

BTW all E.A. Frames where made prior to the AWB but that is no guarantee that the gun was assembled preban (but most likely).

They were cast lower receivers only, out of Krotz Springs, LA...good quality..all kinds of heinz 57 finishes on them. All were preban. Company was bought out by DPMS in 1993. Most assembled from various parts kits, quality of which should be verified. Some "gunshow" dealers misleading people to believe EA was Eagle Arms..complete lie.

I would stay away from Essential Arms stuff. Buy a quality name lower. Just my opinion.

srt205

Essential Arms made good quality stuff.  He made lowers only and bought parts kits to assemble the rest of the rifle.  He basically sold all rifles as two separate pieces to get around the 11% Federal Excise Tax.  ATF forced him out of business in the early 90's.  His tooling equipment was sold to DPMS.  Essential receivers are noted by their raised lettering intsead of the unusual "pushed" in stampings on most companies' receivers.  Some of the older DPMS receivers had this same raised lettering.

I had one with a GI upper and it functioned perfectly. I only used GI mags with it so I can't comment on the use of Thermolds or Orlites. A friend has one converted to select-fire and it functions flawlessly with all MILSPEC parts in the lower. If you can get it at a good price don't worry about the naysayers.

I have to agree with the favorable comments on the Essential Receivers.  I built one up about 1990 and it worked and functioned fine until the day someone wanted it more than I did. As I recall it was light grey in color.  I promptly had it re-anodized to black so it would match the A-1 upper I used complete the firearm. I also saw one at a DCM/CMP match a couple of years ago.

Thanks for all the advice, I grabbed it up before it was gone.  

Anyone know about what year Essential arms started manufacturing?  The serial number is in the 7,700's.  I thought I would try and figure out the manufacture date for curiousity's sake.