I still like me some LMT. I still like me some KAC. I'll take both with all of their issues over DD and BMC any day of the week.
- Thread starter redneckbmxer24
- Start date
After reading some of these post, I’m extremely grateful that I’ve got a JP on order
Learning Machining Together...
Say what you will but they do have some unique stuff that has a place on the market. Hopefully the QC will catch up. I've had my defender 2000 lower/MRP upper for years and will more than likely buy a MARS-l in the near future.
and to the OP, charge your phone.
Say what you will but they do have some unique stuff that has a place on the market. Hopefully the QC will catch up. I've had my defender 2000 lower/MRP upper for years and will more than likely buy a MARS-l in the near future.
and to the OP, charge your phone.
New MARS Piston 5.56, less than 500 rounds. Troubles with feeding due to poorly machined receiver set. You can see I have two hot spots that are wearing on my upper. Lower has same wear as well, where they meet.
Pretty sure those start as raised areas meant to be filed to fit individual lowers upon installation
(Personally, I think this is a BS way to achieve fit as an alternative to better machining tolerance….but there ya go)
They're certainly uneven. Quite visible to the eye, I don't even need type of tool to detect that the receiver isn't level across the plane where they meet.
LMT whore who no longer buys LMT. LMT QC is now 'PSA spec' and that is a no go for me
truly innovative and awesome firearms that just work but over the past 1.5yrs, I've had several issues and their handling of it absolutely sucked. I'm listed as a dealer too and they treated me shitty. When I asked for something they said v1 gets them I told them that's great, I'll go to KAC instead and I'll be sure to tell all the NJ county armors to tell you to fuk off when you visit and call. There is more but needless to say, I haven't bought any LMT stuff in a long time and only buy KAC and CA now
truly innovative and awesome firearms that just work but over the past 1.5yrs, I've had several issues and their handling of it absolutely sucked. I'm listed as a dealer too and they treated me shitty. When I asked for something they said v1 gets them I told them that's great, I'll go to KAC instead and I'll be sure to tell all the NJ county armors to tell you to fuk off when you visit and call. There is more but needless to say, I haven't bought any LMT stuff in a long time and only buy KAC and CA now
While you'll get better QC out of KAC I highly doubt you'll see much better in terms of treatment and inventory.
inventory no but treatment and qc yes
I'm really liking CA a lot more past year or so. great company and ridiculous accurate barrels
Yeah, for real. What world am I in where LMT has repugnant QA, but Christensen Arms is getting recommended as quality? I have two .308 barrels of theirs sitting on my work bench, both fail field gauges, one of said barrels was sent from them as a replacement for the first one.
I had them ask if the bolt would close on a field gauge when I was having issues.
Hilariously, I designed headspace analysis systems for mass production systems and could have really helped them....and they pushed me solidly into "nope" land.
We ordered a fleet of bolt guns for our training academy from them and several wouldn't chamber a round hot at all.
One of my barrels closes on no-go, that was the one I initially contacted them about. The second barrel they sent, wouldn't close on no-go, but effortlessly closes on field. I gave up after that. I could have contacted them again and gotten yet another barrel that would probably be bad, but it wasn't worth the time.
*Edit: Second sentence should be "wouldn't close on field, but closes effortlessly on no-go".
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Pretty sure he means Centurion Arms.
LWRC is my go to now. Reasonable prices, good ambi shit, the rail don’t flex.
The barrel extension on my LMT carbine upper came loose in less than 10k rounds.
Been in the game long enough to know there is no “good guy” list…just those who have fucked me over…and those who have yet to fuck me.
At the end of the day, it comes down to customer service for me. Never had a problem with a BCM product, for example, but their CS refused to help me make a purchase decision by not answering a simple question about gas port size. They claimed it was "proprietary information." Still can't get my head around that one...
This is the purpose of those marks on your upper and lower. It allows for a custom fit between lower and upper.
What some people complain about these days is hilarious.
I saw a MK18 carried by a SEAL in a C130 I was flying on between bases in Iraq. Being a gun geek I asked to see it. It was a “Lewis Machine and Tool” which I’d never heard of.
A few years later, I bought a Defender 2000 SBR for sentimental reasons and because I could not afford the $14,000 M16s were going for at the time (lol)
Not sure where the LMT hate stems from; I haven’t bought one in almost 15 years so I doubt they are the same company (See Noveske, BCM, Colt, Eotech…) but I love mine more than anything on the market today (especially a JP 15 Duty rifle) I have at least 10,000 rounds through it and I’d bet a paycheck it has never malfunctioned.
A few years later, I bought a Defender 2000 SBR for sentimental reasons and because I could not afford the $14,000 M16s were going for at the time (lol)
Not sure where the LMT hate stems from; I haven’t bought one in almost 15 years so I doubt they are the same company (See Noveske, BCM, Colt, Eotech…) but I love mine more than anything on the market today (especially a JP 15 Duty rifle) I have at least 10,000 rounds through it and I’d bet a paycheck it has never malfunctioned.
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I must be one of the only dudes who has bad luck with Centurion Arms. I ordered one of their SR-25 compatible receiver sets when the first came out and it was 100% completely unusable. I sent it back and the said they couldn't find anything wrong with it but they did give me a refund of the purchase price at least. Kinda stuck in my craw. Ray Charles would have seen how fucked up that mess was.
Fast forward a few years and I order an regular assed forged AR-15 receiver set and BCG from them. The BCG wouldn't slide smoothly in the upper, almost like their was a tight spot in the upper's bore. The pivot pin spring channel was offset from the pivot pin hole so bad that the pin was cockeyed and rubbing a groove into the upper. It was also drilled too deep and there was barely any tension on the pin with the spring amd detent installed. Under the grip, there was a step machined at the back that you could see daylight through when the grip was installed. I sent it back and they sent me a replacement that wasn't much better.
I do like their C4 handguards and i hear their barrels are the tits but I'll never waste my money with them again.
Makes sense for that time period
In the post-AWB era where the cool kids were arguing about Colt forging marks, SOCOM barrels, and pin sizes, LMT kinda snuck in with some good spec'd gun that was pretty much no-BS (though "the chart" noted they didn't phosphate under the gas block
).For a long time, they have been a good bang-for-the-buck on some things, but somewhere along the way they (or someone) decided they were some Gucci tier 1 shit...and they started acting/pricing like it. Fine...whatever. But if you're going to do that, your shit better be squared away. As noted, the QC for where they sit (or think they sit) does not jive, and its consumer market won't tolerate it.
that sucks no doubt, sorry that happened
they did change the vendor on the 308 receiver sets and I'm impatiently waiting for the new ones
they are innovative and their rigs perform extremely well but since the move to Iowa and some key departures, absolute shit show with PSA spec like QC. hard pass nowMakes sense for that time period
In the post-AWB era where the cool kids were arguing about Colt forging marks, SOCOM barrels, and pin sizes, LMT kinda snuck in with some good spec'd gun that was pretty much no-BS (though "the chart" noted they didn't phosphate under the gas block
For a long time, they have been a good bang-for-the-buck on some things, but somewhere along the way they (or someone) decided they were some Gucci tier 1 shit...and they started acting/pricing like it. Fine...whatever. But if you're going to do that, your shit better be squared away. As noted, the QC for where they sit (or think they sit) does not jive, and its consumer market won't tolerate it.
I may go finger bang the ones I have right now to show some love for the good ones lololol
This sums it up quite nicely. I'd stick to the stuff they made before the move. The move was a bit of hard line between quality LMT and the absolute dumpster fire that they've become since. I do have one of their rifles post move and I must have lucked out because it's flawless and I have no plans to get rid of it.
Those are fine when they're machined/filed properly. In my case, they were not, and I had feeding issues due to this. I know, I know, how dare people complain about feeding issues.
I respect their efforts on the proprietary stuff. The MRP upper was a win. The piston...'meh'. The BCG innovations have been rendered somewhat moot given people have figured things out and aren't stuck with 14.5/16" carbine systems (though I have had mixed results with the enhanced bolt). For the price at one time, the semi-stripped MARS were a solid option.
One of the rare cases, "Shoulda never left IL"
I bought two LMTs in the last 12 months. The 16" DI and the 16" Piston both in 5.56. I have since added a D. Wilson 6 ARC barrel with JP BCG, a 10.5 300 Blackout barrel. I have around 2k rounds on the 16" DI, maybe 1K on the Piston. The 300 Blackout has 200 rounds of super through it and 400 or so in sub. I have barely 100 rounds through the 6 ARC.
The 16" Piston rifle shoots 1.5 moa at 100 yards when I put a bipod and 1-8 LPVO on it. It has had zero failures. The 16" Piston rifle shoots 1.7 moa with the same setup (I think they probably shoot the same, the difference is me).
I have not really tried to stretch the 300 Blackout, just an EOTECH and it is sited at 50 yards, I think it will exclusively be shooting subs.
The Proof D Wilson 6 ARC combo has printed repeated sub .5 moa 3 shot groups. I have not shot it enough to have aggregate data on how accurate it really is, when I get more rounds I will update.
To this point in all of the various configurations, I have had zero failures. LMT is one of the few factory rifles that I feel zero need to change anything. They are completely stock. While I do not have high round counts, this thread made me look and I can't find any unusual wear points.
Over Memorial Day weekend, I snagged to Enhanced BCGs from Titan Defense and can't wait to try them. I am really sorry that others have been having problems with their rifles.
The 16" Piston rifle shoots 1.5 moa at 100 yards when I put a bipod and 1-8 LPVO on it. It has had zero failures. The 16" Piston rifle shoots 1.7 moa with the same setup (I think they probably shoot the same, the difference is me).
I have not really tried to stretch the 300 Blackout, just an EOTECH and it is sited at 50 yards, I think it will exclusively be shooting subs.
The Proof D Wilson 6 ARC combo has printed repeated sub .5 moa 3 shot groups. I have not shot it enough to have aggregate data on how accurate it really is, when I get more rounds I will update.
To this point in all of the various configurations, I have had zero failures. LMT is one of the few factory rifles that I feel zero need to change anything. They are completely stock. While I do not have high round counts, this thread made me look and I can't find any unusual wear points.
Over Memorial Day weekend, I snagged to Enhanced BCGs from Titan Defense and can't wait to try them. I am really sorry that others have been having problems with their rifles.
A field gauge should be bigger than a no go gauge. Closing on no go gauge means you need to check with a field gauge. Closing on a field gauge means headspace is excessive.
Yeah, I meant the other way around. Doesn't close on field, but closed on no-go.
I got a MWS defender last year and it has been perfect. I think a complete rifle makes more sense than parting out an LMT, as the complete rifles are subject to additional QC and come with a QC sheet where they check various aspects of the rifle.
Exactly….! Mine is complete and it’s been a flawless dream. Mine came with the signed QC sheet, target, and spent rounds. That was acquired back 2016.
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