Hey everyone.  Just a little feedback on the LAR Grizzly lower receivers offered by JOEKEN and the 20" kits offered by SARCO.

I'm a cheapskate by nature, so saving a few bucks always appeals to me.  I saw the SARCO kits for $286 in the Shotgun News and thought it was a great deal.  By the time I ordered, everyone else had decided the same thing and SARCO went up to $386.  Not nearly as good a deal, but I still ordered a couple.

The SARCO kit is a mixture of refurbished parts and new parts.  The new parts seem to have been made in Vietnam according to their packaging.  One kit was missing the charging handle.  The other had some rust problems in the gas tube opening in the front sight base.  SARCO was quick to replace the missing part.  A little work with a drill bit, Qtips and rust remover solved the other problem.  The finishes were a mixed batch.  The upper receiver was a fairly shiny black.  The barrel and some other parts were the old grey-green.  Some parts were a more matte black.  The hand guards are the old triangle sort.  The butt-stock is quite old and does not have a cleaning kit trap-door.  The lower receiver internals fit and functioned fine with the exception of the trigger guard roll pin which seemed a little large.  Kinda odd.  Oh yeah, the upper was completely unassembled, unlike the Model 1 and most others.

Overall, I enjoyed the assembly of the upper and didn't mind that so much.  I had never done it before and lacked instructions, but it was really simple enough to figure out.  I was dissappointed in the quality of parts.  There was rust on several.  For the difference in quality, I think I will return to the Model 1 kits I have used in the past.  At $286, they were a good deal.  At $386, I would pass.

I had intended the SARCO kits for a September 13th celebration.  It is, afterall, my birthday.  I didn't plan well, however.  I had no lowers on hand.  I ordered some of these LAR Grizzly stripped receivers from the JOEKEN website at $70 each (3 or more).  After shipping and taxes at my dealer, they were still below $80 each.

I assembled three of these lowers last night.  No problems.  They appear to be very close tolerance.  Some parts had to be well aligned before they slipped in, but they did fit.  The finish is a nice, deep black (matte) and looks pretty thick.  I think they put a little too much on there with their name, location and an engraving of a grizzly, but other than that, they look good.  For the price, these are the receivers I'll be using until somebody shows me somthing better.

Hope this is helpful to someone.  Take care!

dwj

Just FYI:  A recent issue of SGN had a Kieslers ad for a DPMS parts kit for $379.95, all new parts.  Their P/N is KTA116P-LL.  (The description says that it has a pinned fiberite stock.)

FAC has them for $399.

i ordered a Grizzly lower from Joeken last week thx for the review.

Thanks for the heads up.  I'll have to go through the SGN when I am next at my Father's.  He has a subscription.  

Dave.