Anything man made can break...Airliners fall out of the sky, Firestones blow out.  It's Oly's resolution to this that will show if its a quality company with a quality product.

Oly's offer of rebuilding the Plinker with forged receivers sounds like a pretty fair deal.  You not only get your gun fixed for free, as you should, but you get better components than what came with it in the first place.  That's like taking your car to the service department for warranty work, and them actually putting in BETTER parts than what your car originally had.  I think that's a pretty fair shake there.

I'm no fan of Oly, but this sounds like a pretty good offer to correct a problem.  I'd take it, and then you'd really have a better warm and fuzzy feeling about selling it to someone else, or a good foundation to build that M4-type.  In the end it's like trading your cast (and broken) POS for a forged gun.  

Ross

Originally posted by Lumpy196; Anything man made can break...Airliners fall out of the sky, Firestones blow out. It's Oly's resolution to this that will show if its a quality company with a quality product.

Ain't that the truth, I do Warranty repairs in my line of business, and for every 50 people who just accept the fact that things break, I will have that one pain in the ass that raises hell, usually ruins my whole day.
Given a chance, most repuatable companies will make good, it is, after all, a promise they made as part of the sale.

original post by Ross; Oly's offer of rebuilding the Plinker with forged receivers sounds like a pretty fair deal. You not only get your gun fixed for free, as you should, but you get better components than what came with it in the first place. That's like taking your car to the service department for warranty work, and them actually putting in BETTER parts than what your car originally had. I think that's a pretty fair shake there.

I think that is more than fair too!

Quoted: Oly is the new Hesse, dont hope, Sue.

Yep, Liberal mind set at work..........

I think the real asshole in this whole deal was the dealer you bought it off of, they should have exchanged it over the counter and been done with it.

If you have ever worked around castings, (I have for 15 years) or any metal for that matter, you learn that the world is not a perfect place.

I will be surprised if Oly doesn't do a straight up exchange, or maybe a little better, but I sure wouldn't expect a whole new better model as part of the deal.

And last, I thought that only a couple (non gun)company's did all the castings and forgings that all AR-15 manufactures use?

Does Oly actually do on site aluminum casting?
If not, it certainally wasn't a Q.C. problem that they caused, IMHO.

Rancid Lance

Quoted: What were you doing when it broke in half? IE where you loading it? Aiming? It looks to me like the upper may have had some sort of defect in the highest stress area of the upper receiver, that repetative stress of the bolt slamming into the barrel caused the upper receiver to basically disntergrate.

Just finished pullin the charging handle and was raising the barrel to aim, then I had a piece in each hand and the live round fell out the back of the chamber.

Quoted: it appears some of the details were left out of this story Why is it whenever someone posts about a problem with an Oly, people come out of the wood-work to bash the poster?  It's bad enough having trouble with a gun without having people here flame you for it.z

One thing I have learned here is that asking about certain brands always yields the same response.

"I have a Professional Ordnance that has never misfired, jammed, etc" yields: you are a liar and a .

"I have a problem with OLY" yields: you are a liar and a

LOL, I love how otherwise well informed people will be so biased. Yeah it broke in half in my hands but no big deal. LOL

Quoted: Also, im not caling you or 82ndAbn a liar just saying you may have left out something from your history with this rifle that couldve caused this.   And as to this crack you mentioned, are you just assuming this or did you physically see one?

It looks like a casting flaw.  That is a problem with any cast part.  Cast aluminum is hard on tools.  Bottom line is cast is not as strong as forged.  If it is not a crack that propagated, what is you theory on the failure mode?  

Yikes, I knew there was a good reason that I never bought an Oly.

Why aren't there more posters saying that this has happened to their rifles also?  Oly has made and sold many of these rifles, and this seems to be the only one that failed??????????

Lets collect more data on failed Oly Plinkers before we condem the plinker series and/or Oly products in general.

OSA

I think the history of Oly problems around this board is well known, this happens to be a new one. It is always iffy to buy the lowest quality product from a company that has been known to sell some crappy guns.

If they make it right good for you.  I am thinking they will say you shot non-factory ammo from a non-approved magazine at an unapproved target and voided the warranty.

Quoted: it appears some of the details were left out of this story Why is it whenever someone posts about a problem with an Oly, people come out of the wood-work to bash the poster?  It's bad enough having trouble with a gun without having people here flame you for it.z

I agree with this statement Zoom, but I'm still going to have to disagree with you, and JetLag's opinions about the strength and quality of CAST receivers.  Re:www.ar15.com/forums/topic.html?b=1&f=74&t=154336

This is not a problem necessarily with OLYARMS CAST receivers, but ALL CAST receivers have lower strength tolerances.  Of course this varies depending upon what particular machines are used in the casting process.  I'm certain there are good cast receivers out there, and Zoom has a good one as well.  I just don't like the increased chance of breakage.  Some people claimed that trigger guard roll pins have broken their lower receivers when gently trying to pound them in.  CAST lowers simply MIGHT have strength concerns.

Quoted: Quoted: it appears some of the details were left out of this story Why is it whenever someone posts about a problem with an Oly, people come out of the wood-work to bash the poster?  It's bad enough having trouble with a gun without having people here flame you for it.z I agree with this statement Zoom, but I'm still going to have to disagree with you, and JetLag's opinions about the strength and quality of CAST receivers.  Re:www.ar15.com/forums/topic.html?b=1&f=74&t=154336 This is not a problem necessarily with OLYARMS CAST receivers, but ALL CAST receivers have lower strength tolerances.  Of course this varies depending upon what particular machines are used in the casting process.  I'm certain there are good cast receivers out there, and Zoom has a good one as well.  I just don't like the increased chance of breakage.  Some people claimed that trigger guard roll pins have broken their lower receivers when gently trying to pound them in.  CAST lowers simply MIGHT have strength concerns.

Without getting into the metallurgy, the mechanical properties of forged aluminum are greater than cast.  Is a cast receiver bad?  Not necessarily, again it depends on the application.  There is a reason why cast is cheaper and there are strength considerations that are traded off.  Think of it this way; name the number of manufactures that advertise their top of the line rifles with cast aluminum receivers.

looks like someone slung this bad boy around a tree with the bolt in the locked back position.bolt forward locks ,steel to steel bolt to rear just aluminum. my2

we take one of these into battle and by the grace of god we come out alive.(JOHN WAYNE,MOVIE GREEN BERET.)

I've jumped M16 quite a few times, and bent barrels enough that you can't see the hole in the other end of the barrel.  If it was a design weakness, seems like we'd see some breaks during airborne ops.  By the same token, I've heard lots of goofy stuff about Oly, but never this.  Seems to be an anomoly.  Take them up on their offer, and get the forged parts.  You'll be ahead of the game.

If the front half of the rifle was able to rotate independant of the back half, once the bolt was in battery, it would have been able to fire without the bolt lugs being locked.  This would have created a situation which in technical terms is known as really, really bad.

Still, you're OK, get your new parts and be done with it.

This is the first I have ever heard of the upper breaking like the poster has said.  

I have seen forged lowers and uppers break in various places.  In all the cases I have seen, it was a bad forging.

If one has been around the industry long enough you will find EVERY manufacturer has failures.

It sounds as if Oly is doing more than fair to upgrade the upper.  That is good customer service and they know it.  If they did otherwise, then the "Oly sucks, because I heard a story how bad they were" crowd would have something to crow about.

Anyone who has been around metal long enough and seen the usage of forged/cast knows that cast is used in MANY highly sensative areas of places, etc.  Of course there are different methods of casting.

Oly has shipped a couple thousand Plinkers and this is the first breakeage I have seen.

Last but not least, even the low end Olympic has a lifetime warrenty for their products.  Most others have a 1 year warrenty.

I bet if you held the pieces together real tight, all lined up, it would still work ok.

Does anybody know if Oly does the actual casting?
Or do they buy raw castings from someone else?

Rancid Lance

Duct tape.

Aw come on... that ain't broke...

Stop bein a girl and shoot it you sissy...

Well, yeah, I guess it is a little broke.

Screw it.

AR stands for Armalite

WOW! I was just getting ready to buy a "Plinker" myself!!

NEED EVERYBODY's HELP....

Called my local dealer and I can upgrade to an Oly Arms PCR-5 for about $120 extra ($689 + tax).

Is the PCR-5 a decent model and worth the extra?

-SteelHunter Out!

Didn't you know that you are only supposed to TAP the foward assist?!?!?!?

Glad nothing more serious happened.

...but I'm still going to have to disagree with you [zoom], and JetLag's opinions about the strength and quality of CAST receivers.

After seeing this problem with a cast receiver, I stripped mine and showed it to my friend that works with Al.  I guess you could say that I was curious and a little more concerned.  In his opinion, he said that for the price point ($70 for the cast vs $120 for the 7075 T6 forged), he could make a much better cast part than forged.  He looked-up the price they paid for a 7075 T6 forging nearly the same size, and it was $31 each in quantity!  That doesn't leave much left to pay for machining, overhead, anodizing, and BATF paperwork.  I don't know what type of Al Oly uses on their cast lowers, so he couldn't give me a good estimate, but he said he wouldn't be surprised if they could get a passable (as in you might have to toss a few after machining) cast for $5 each.  He showed several casts that they paid less than that.  I asked his opinion concerning the strength question, and I heard the exact opposite of what I expected.  He said he'd definitely not buy the 7075 T6 receiver, because they had all but abandoned using that type of Al because it was too brittle.  Keep in mind, this was an informal opinion from someone that doesn't work with parts for guns.  He does however make plenty of parts for prototype cars and machinery, some of which do get pretty hot from being near a brake rotor.

I'm more concerned about my cast lower now, but not too much more since this is the first and only time I've seen this type of failure.  iNuhBaDNayburhood, I understand your opinion, but I think the "casts are always bad" attitude is a little simplistic.  Besides, when I bought my receiver the forged one was over 70% more expensive.  I'm definitely convinced forged isn't worth that much more.

SteelHunter, I like the rough finish on the Oly cast receivers, so personally I would stick with the plinker.  If you don't have an opinion either way on the finish, I'd suggest going with the PCR model.  It's got better sights, and the receivers are probably stronger.z

Update to What Olympic is going to do for my busted plinker.

I am going to get and M4 flat top for an additional $200.

The offer was replace the plinker at no charge.
Upgrade to forged recievers for $1xx.00 don't remember the exact amount.
Or get the M4 for my busted gun and $200.00

All in all not a bad deal.  I get the full value for my gun and am getting the M4 and can tell my wife I had to spend the money I had no choice! LOL

Quoted: Update to What Olympic is going to do for my busted plinker. I am going to get and M4 flat top for an additional $200. The offer was replace the plinker at no charge. Upgrade to forged recievers for $1xx.00 don't remember the exact amount. Or get the M4 for my busted gun and $200.00 All in all not a bad deal.  I get the full value for my gun and am getting the M4 and can tell my wife I had to spend the money I had no choice! LOL

And a sweet-ass EOTech 2D sight to slap on that puppy!!

Now I'VE GOT to have one!

And a sweet-ass EOTech 2D sight to slap on that puppy!!

Now I'VE GOT to have one!


Do you want to come over and hold the sight for a while? Hehehehehe.

Interestingly enough when I read the instructions for the other languages it refered to the site as a bushnell holo sight.  Looks like you can save yourself some money by bying the bushnell.  The pictures look the same.  Probably made me EOtech

The Armory in Va Beach is a good shop with great cust service.
If Oly would fix it why should they do the refund ?

I think you are getting a good deal if you can get an upgrade from Oly.

I have never liked the plinker model and I know 2 people who have them and they have run fine for about a year both have less than 1000 round down range.

good luck and it looks like it could have been a very bad day

Quoted: The Armory in Va Beach is a good shop with great cust service. If Oly would fix it why should they do the refund ?

I think the author was referring to the Olympic Arms 60-day money back guarantee.  Olympic will refund price paid by dealer if customer wants a refund.  The dealer who sold it has to be willing to do this and some are not.

Quoted: ...but I'm still going to have to disagree with you [zoom], and JetLag's opinions about the strength and quality of CAST receivers. After seeing this problem with a cast receiver, I stripped mine and showed it to my friend that works with Al.  I guess you could say that I was curious and a little more concerned.  In his opinion, he said that for the price point ($70 for the cast vs $120 for the 7075 T6 forged), he could make a much better cast part than forged.  He looked-up the price they paid for a 7075 T6 forging nearly the same size, and it was $31 each in quantity!  That doesn't leave much left to pay for machining, overhead, anodizing, and BATF paperwork.  I don't know what type of Al Oly uses on their cast lowers, so he couldn't give me a good estimate, but he said he wouldn't be surprised if they could get a passable (as in you might have to toss a few after machining) cast for $5 each.  He showed several casts that they paid less than that.  I asked his opinion concerning the strength question, and I heard the exact opposite of what I expected.  He said he'd definitely not buy the 7075 T6 receiver, because they had all but abandoned using that type of Al because it was too brittle.  Keep in mind, this was an informal opinion from someone that doesn't work with parts for guns.  He does however make plenty of parts for prototype cars and machinery, some of which do get pretty hot from being near a brake rotor. I'm more concerned about my cast lower now, but not too much more since this is the first and only time I've seen this type of failure.  iNuhBaDNayburhood, I understand your opinion, but I think the "casts are always bad" attitude is a little simplistic.  Besides, when I bought my receiver the forged one was over 70% more expensive.  I'm definitely convinced forged isn't worth that much more. SteelHunter, I like the rough finish on the Oly cast receivers, so personally I would stick with the plinker.  If you don't have an opinion either way on the finish, I'd suggest going with the PCR model.  It's got better sights, and the receivers are probably stronger.z

Zoom,

I'm sorry to have probably bugged you in the past regarding this semi-dead-horse topic.  I really liked your additional research into this issue, and liked also hearing the results about the T6 Receiver.  Thank you.  I also would like to apologize for my text, which we all know can be very easily misinterpreted.  After re-reading my posts (which I think everyone should do to all posts), I realized that it does seem like I'm bashing ALL cast receivers.  This is not necessarily the case.

I am quite certain there are many great cast receivers out there that are perfectly functional, and make nice guns.  What I really don't like about cast receivers is that their quality varies from Batch to Batch of castings.  The variance is really quite subtle, but it does exist.  The slight chance of this variance in quality being too great, to an unsafe or unacceptable level, is what makes me WEARY of buying cast receivers.  I will not say that I personally would NEVER buy them, because I've given it SERIOUS consideration.  But in the end, I'm exactly as described in the "Are you an A$$hole" thread:  "I'm a PUSSY!"  I will most likely (after shooting other peoples' cast rifles) be subdued by my fear of potential problems that I'll wind up sticking with the T3 Forged Al that was pretty much originally intended for the rifle.

Sorry if I sounded like an A$$hole bashing cast receivers.  The truth be told, and I'm man enough to admit, I'm just a pussy not willing to take the chance.  I'm really glad to see you did your homework on the research though.  I liked your friend's findings on the T6 Forgings too!  I'm glad I checked back on this thread.

Quoted: Quoted: ...but I'm still going to have to disagree with you [zoom], and JetLag's opinions about the strength and quality of CAST receivers. After seeing this problem with a cast receiver, I stripped mine and showed it to my friend that works with Al.  I guess you could say that I was curious and a little more concerned.  In his opinion, he said that for the price point ($70 for the cast vs $120 for the 7075 T6 forged), he could make a much better cast part than forged.  He looked-up the price they paid for a 7075 T6 forging nearly the same size, and it was $31 each in quantity!  That doesn't leave much left to pay for machining, overhead, anodizing, and BATF paperwork.  I don't know what type of Al Oly uses on their cast lowers, so he couldn't give me a good estimate, but he said he wouldn't be surprised if they could get a passable (as in you might have to toss a few after machining) cast for $5 each.  He showed several casts that they paid less than that.  I asked his opinion concerning the strength question, and I heard the exact opposite of what I expected.  He said he'd definitely not buy the 7075 T6 receiver, because they had all but abandoned using that type of Al because it was too brittle.  Keep in mind, this was an informal opinion from someone that doesn't work with parts for guns.  He does however make plenty of parts for prototype cars and machinery, some of which do get pretty hot from being near a brake rotor. I'm more concerned about my cast lower now, but not too much more since this is the first and only time I've seen this type of failure.  iNuhBaDNayburhood, I understand your opinion, but I think the "casts are always bad" attitude is a little simplistic.  Besides, when I bought my receiver the forged one was over 70% more expensive.  I'm definitely convinced forged isn't worth that much more. SteelHunter, I like the rough finish on the Oly cast receivers, so personally I would stick with the plinker.  If you don't have an opinion either way on the finish, I'd suggest going with the PCR model.  It's got better sights, and the receivers are probably stronger.z Zoom, I'm sorry to have probably bugged you in the past regarding this semi-dead-horse topic.  I really liked your additional research into this issue, and liked also hearing the results about the T6 Receiver.  Thank you.  I also would like to apologize for my text, which we all know can be very easily misinterpreted.  After re-reading my posts (which I think everyone should do to all posts), I realized that it does seem like I'm bashing ALL cast receivers.  This is not necessarily the case. I am quite certain there are many great cast receivers out there that are perfectly functional, and make nice guns.  What I really don't like about cast receivers is that their quality varies from Batch to Batch of castings.  The variance is really quite subtle, but it does exist.  The slight chance of this variance in quality being too great, to an unsafe or unacceptable level, is what makes me WEARY of buying cast receivers.  I will not say that I personally would NEVER buy them, because I've given it SERIOUS consideration.  But in the end, I'm exactly as described in the "Are you an A$$hole" thread:  "I'm a PUSSY!"  I will most likely (after shooting other peoples' cast rifles) be subdued by my fear of potential problems that I'll wind up sticking with the T3 Forged Al that was pretty much originally intended for the rifle. Sorry if I sounded like an A$$hole bashing cast receivers.  The truth be told, and I'm man enough to admit, I'm just a pussy not willing to take the chance.  I'm really glad to see you did your homework on the research though.  I liked your friend's findings on the T6 Forgings too!  I'm glad I checked back on this thread.

Hey I never KNEW for sure I was a PUSSY, I thought I might be one but I was never positive. I AM A PUSSY to, because I feel the same way about the cast receivers.

If I am a pussy, why do I seem happy ?

I don't know if you guys are still reading this but, I bought a Plinker.  Didn't know if I really wanted an AR so I opted for price on my first.  Here we go........10 round mag that came with the rifle had feed problems. Mag well was too tight and cheap mags, another mistake and story, one out of two would fit.  With a good mag though she fired fine with surprizing acuracy for a 16" barrel.

Final solution, bought one kick ass 24" upper, forged with chrome. Kept the Oly cast lower.  Now I have one hell of a rifle with two distinct different system configurations and still have under $900 in her.  Now I'm happy. Alot of guys on this site led me this direction.

I use cast parts all the time at work and out of every batch you will get a couple bad ones.  Forging which is a cold work increases the strength. With this in mind and the fact the lower doesn't see much stress, I'm not too unhappy with a forged upper and cast lower.  I'm not a name brand kind of guy and care more for the results than the image. Not knocking image, just not into it.    

As for Oly in general as an engineer, the rifles meet the spec and parts are interchangeable with other ARs.  Issues with the cast parts I would expect from any other manufacturer that uses similar manufacturing techinques. I guess that's a way of saying cast upper beware.

Did get a hoot out of The Riflemans story on cast parts after reading this post though.

The truth be told, and I'm man enough to admit, I'm just a pussy not willing to take the chance.

No need to apologize.  Fear keeps us out of a lot of trouble.  Well, some of us.  You have the feeling that a cast lower receiver isn't a good idea and have some experience to back it up.  My intention was never to give you a hard time over that.  I simply didn't like the generalization that all cast receivers were bad.  Of course, if you want to spend nearly 100% more on a forged receiver, that's your business.

speedwayrn, please let us know if you get the rifle Oly promised.  It will be interesting to see if they try to weasel out of it.z

Quoted: I simply didn't like the generalization that all cast receivers were bad.

It's not that they are bad, it is they are not as durable as a forged receiver.  Look at an automotive engine and look at how many OEM cast parts are replaced with aftermarket forged parts on high performance applications. Or how many forged parts are OE on high performance cars.  I can't think of any rifle MFG that use cast receivers on their NM or varmint rifles either.

Speedwayrn, please let us know if you get the rifle Oly promised.  It will be interesting to see if they try to weasel out of it.z

You bet.  Will keep ya'll updated.  Oly should recieve the broken weapon Friday.  I have no reason to believe that they won't honor thier words, at least at this point.

the pics arent working and i wanna see them!

Quoted: the pics arent working and i wanna see them!

Shoot me your email address, I'll send you copies.