I have a model 1 upper hanging around and was wondering who makes their upper receivers.


Any ideas?

Bomber

Model1sales makes there upers.

Quoted: Model1sales makes there upers.

I agree they assemble the UPPER but I believe it is from parts made by others. The question is who makes the UPPER RECEIVER they use in their upper assemblies?


Bomber

FN

I've heard that bushmaster does, I have made about 5 kits using them, and have had fairly good luck.
Brian at model1sales is a nice guy, give him a call.

Quoted: I've heard that bushmaster does, I have made about 5 kits using them, and have had fairly good luck. Brian at model1sales is a nice guy, give him a call.

Bushmaster doesnt even make their own uppers.

I don't know - but their customer service training is done by Initek.

National Aerospace is the story I got from a M1S rep.

Quoted: Quoted: I've heard that bushmaster does, I have made about 5 kits using them, and have had fairly good luck. Brian at model1sales is a nice guy, give him a call. Bushmaster doesnt even make their own uppers.

No kidding. LAR does.

I would expect anything from model 1 to be second rate compared to anything else out there.

Quoted: Quoted: Quoted: I've heard that bushmaster does, I have made about 5 kits using them, and have had fairly good luck. Brian at model1sales is a nice guy, give him a call. Bushmaster doesnt even make their own uppers. No kidding. LAR does. I would expect anything from model 1 to be second rate compared to anything else out there.

Well if what Model 1 just told me is true, then what you said is not. I called Model 1 and they told me they get their uppers from CMT, National Aerospace and LAR. They went on to tell me these are the same manufacturers that BM, Colt et al get their receivers from.


Bomber

Quoted: Quoted: Quoted: Quoted: I've heard that bushmaster does, I have made about 5 kits using them, and have had fairly good luck. Brian at model1sales is a nice guy, give him a call. Bushmaster doesnt even make their own uppers. No kidding. LAR does. I would expect anything from model 1 to be second rate compared to anything else out there. Well if what Model 1 just told me is true, then what you said is not. I called Model 1 and they told me they get their uppers from CMT, National Aerospace and LAR. They went on to tell me these are the same manufacturers that BM, Colt et al get their receivers from. Bomber

Not exactly. I said that Bushmaster gets their from LAR, meaning that model 1 doesn't get theirs from Bushmaster. I never said they don't get them from LAR.

That said, LAR does make Bushmasters receivers, and CMT makes Colts.

Now, if Model 1 gets their parts from these subs, that doesn't make them high quality automatically. Each different company has their own QC, and technically the subs are building to the spec of the different company ordering from them. So, just because you have a model 1 upper made by LAR for model 1 does not mean that it is the same quality as a Bushmaster upper made by LAR for Bushmaster. Model 1 wouldn't ever say it like that though!

Also, if the model 1 receiver is good quality, it's one of the only parts you could expect to be from them (that and the barrels)...

I will warn you that their LPK's, bolts, and collapsable buttstocks are nothing but pure trash.

Not exactly. I said that Bushmaster gets their from LAR, meaning that model 1 doesn't get theirs from Bushmaster. I never said they don't get them from LAR.

No what you said was:

I would expect anything from model 1 to be second rate compared to anything else out there.

I think your reaching now. Lots and IFs in that scenario. Looking at the parts in question, I cannot see how any manufacturer could make these parts to different purchasing specs and still take advantage of the benefits of mass production. I'll be they make mil-std parts period. They have one line geared up to churn out very consistent parts and if they are worth their salt, they are not generating enough non-spec parts to feed a company as large as Model 1. This all assumes they would take on  the liability of selling out of spec parts.

Plain and simple, they buy the same parts from the same company (receivers and barrels) to the same specs. Who knows where their small parts come from but the receivers and barrels come from well known entities. These well know entities would not want to risk the liability of selling anyone a sub standard part.


Could there be cosmetic seconds, sure. I've built several kits for friends and there hasn't been any cosmetic issues with the receivers or barrels. Could be luck of the draw.


Bomber

They get the receivers from LAR, which makes them equal to Bushmaster.

The get their barrels from ER Shaw, which makes them equal to Colt.

Or the story goes.

I buy small parts from M1S.  I'd be very hesitant to buy anything critical from them, such as a barrel, bolt or upper assembly.  The quality issues that come up here make me very leary of anything they put together.

Quoted: They get the receivers from LAR, which makes them equal to Bushmaster. The get their barrels from ER Shaw, which makes them equal to Colt. Or the story goes. I buy small parts from M1S.  I'd be very hesitant to buy anything critical from them, such as a barrel, bolt or upper assembly.  The quality issues that come up here make me very leary of anything they put together.

If you're talking about their ability to assemble, I agree. The original question and topic of this post was where do they get their upper receivers from? The answer is CMT, National Aerospace and LAR. These happen to be the same manufacturers who supply most of the entire industry. They have the scale and processes in place to economically supply large volumes of product. Such ios the way of supply chain management. To the degree possible, the OEM fights to keep the materials and specs consistent from customer to customer to facilitate high volume manufacturing processes. Most companies involved in this type of volume create processes that have process limits within the lower and upper spec limits. In other words they don't "inspect in" quality but rather focus on process control. If one customer is getting "bad" parts, so are the others.

Bomber

Bomber,

you don't have to believe anything I said. I was giving friendly advice. Of all of the AR's I have seen, nothing has quite matched the lousy quality of model 1 sales. You don't want to believe me, fine. I don't have a dog in this hunt. It means nothing to me, personally. Have at it!

Quoted: Bomber, you don't have to believe anything I said. I was giving friendly advice. Of all of the AR's I have seen, nothing has quite matched the lousy quality of model 1 sales. You don't want to believe me, fine. I don't have a dog in this hunt. It means nothing to me, personally. Have at it!

I appreciate the warning but as my original post said:

I have a model 1 upper hanging around and was wondering who makes their upper receivers.

I already own the upper and frankly speaking, it has served me very well. I'm in the process of doing another build and planned to use it to save money and was curious as to who actually made it. It was that simple. When I found out that it was from one of the big name manufacturers (which is what I suspecred), I got the info I needed.


Once again, thanks fore the heads up.

Bomber

My thinking might be a little different on this than others.

And on the UPPERS (stripped) only....

But I doubt M1S are buying "Seconds" as they would probably run into supply problems very often as they would have to depend on items that fail to meet another vendor's specs.

For a part like an upper, most of the tolerances have to be kept fairly tight or else the thing will simply not work.  Model1 might have a lower rejection criteria than another vendor, but that might only be a small difference, maybe say a 5% rejection rate versus and 8% rejection rate.  From a production stance, you are going to try to keep the product as consistent as possible as rejects cost time and money.  Odds are a great many uppers they produce are on par with anyone elses, they might just have a few more bad ones than someone else.

For some people, paying a little less might be worth the possibility of getting a crappy part or two.  Others might not want to take the chance.  

By the way such shops operate, you could get an upper from M1S that is better than a Colt upper, though that would be less likely than getting a colt upper that is better.

I know I do not feel that model 1's stuff is sub-rate. The kit i got from them and then built seems to be on par with the armalites and bushmaster's i've tried. Everything seems to be machined correctly and i have no issues as of yet with the gun.

I purchased a Varmint upper from M1S and am very happy with it. I have read allot of trash talk about them and have to wonder how much is just folks repeating what they read and how many are folks with actual life experiences