American Defense enters the Grendel Arena

[LRRPF52]

From the builds I have done, the simple answer is if you are building a quality rig then there is no price savings as compared to simply buying an off-the-shelf premium rifle, such as LWRC or Larue, etc. The only difference is you get to tailor the components exactly to your preferences.

Budget build that you still want to shoot, and not just leave on floorboard of truck, is $1300... premium is $2K and up. At least this is how it always works out for me. I pay retail pricing regardless of whether is a completed rifle or all the individual parts to make one.. same same.

Yup. There is a lot to be said for a company that knows how to solve a lot of the assembly problems and approach them from a manufacturing standpoint with tooling that the layman simply does not have.

Press-fit gas blocks is one of those things, though most companies just use slip-on crap and set-screw in place, next.

If you have a TDP you’re working off of as a manufacturer that is informed by decades of lessons-learned on the AR-15 family, you can really reduce your returns and CS margins by getting it right first, then taking care of customers who genuinely have a problem with the few that slipped through.

Most home assemblers just don’t know what they don’t know. As long as all the parts fit together and look great on social media, they’re satisfied.

Show up to a high volume course, and things start crapping all over left and right.

Biggest one is loose gas blocks, no matter how tight set screws are tightened. Gas seal just isn’t there, so short-stroking is common.

Next is clipping gas tubes and carrier keys.

Next is loosely-tightened RET lock nuts (castle nut).

Next is backwards hammer springs.

Etc.

Then there are things you can’t control like chamber dimensions. “But it says 5.56 right there on the barrel!”

“Yeah, and your throat is short and is jamming the lands with M193, blowing primers.”

It’s easier to just buy complete rifles from quality manufacturers if you don’t have time to go through all the trouble-shooting, tool acquisition, gauges, and somehow acquiring the knowledge base yourself.

I personally like the method where the top quality companies offer build kits with all their critical parts, and then I can assemble them after checking all the things I check.

ADM seems to have both of those options to some degree.