I have the opportunity to purchase an Essential Arms complete lower with a Stag Arms upper for $650.00.

I know that Stag is good but what about Essential Arms?

Their lowers are good to go.

+1,  I have one of their lowers also, it is good to go.

+2 Their lowers are GTG

Hi All,
Don't mean to hijack the topic but I recently bought an Essential Arms build from a friend.  He said it was a pre-ban lower and upper.  The rifle has some wear on the finish but nothing beyond what I would consider as normal wear and tear for an older build.  The upper and lower lock up tight with no wiggle at all.  The lower is a model J-15 with the old style markings of E.A. CO., KR. SPR.. LA. above the trigger.  The upper has the permanently attached carry handle, old style rear sight, no forward assist and a triangular carbine hand guard.  It seems to have a commercial buffer tube as my mil-spec butt stocks won't fit it.

So I have a couple of questions.  What is the worth of this rifle if it is pre-ban?  It also has the 1 hole castle nut.  What would it take to switch the buffer tube to a mil-spec unit?  Will I only need to replace the castle nut, buffer tube and stock?

I got the rifle for 6.  Thanks in advance for the info.

EA makes good lowers. I built two rifles from stripped lowers. Good finish and clean markings.

EA is local to me. Good lowers. I need to grab a few more actually.

That was my question as well, to verify pre ban.

Note that the pre-ban raised lettering J-15 Essential Arms lowers are CAST aluminum.
They had the castings made for them by Ruger's Pine Tree casting facility and they finished the castings.
The new Essential Arms uses forged lowers.

I owned a carbine built in the mid-1980's by Quality Parts Corporation, which is what later became Bushmaster.
It had an Essential Arms cast lower, Colt upper, and "no name" other parts.
Other than the casting being a little porous looking, it seemed to work well, and most parts fit properly.
The safety was a little loose.
There was no drain hole in the front pin spring tunnel so I drilled a hole to add one.

Check to make sure the rear takedown pin is engaged by the detent in the closed position.  I bought 3 lowers in 2009 and have found that 2 of them don't engage it properly.  I found a fix detailed here but it was a hassle.

ETA:  I called and was told I could ship them in and they would get them fixed in "a few weeks".  They couldn't replace the lower though as they had no lowers available.

Yep.

I have 2 one is a 5.56 casrbine and the other is on a 458 socom . I have been using these two since 2007

their lowers are fine. i got one, no complaints.

Same here. Would buy again.

Yes, the lettering is raised on the lower receiver.