Also, forged are much better than the cast lowers and well worth the slightly extra money. The cast lowers are more prone to breakage than are the forged units. On the thread "I crushed an AR today" on the main AR discussion board, the man mentioned that it was a cast lower he crushed and it just crumbled. If you were to, let's say, break down the weapon by pulling the rear break down pin and the upper got away from you as it fell open, the cast uppers are much more likely to snap off the pivot pin holes than would a forged. Now, you are not supposed to let the upper swing down like that anyway, but as we all know, stuff happens. The forged lower is much more likely to let you get away with an oh-oh like that once, but the cast is likely to send you to the store for a new lower. Like they say, spend a little more now or a lot more later. Go with the forged.