My cousin recently succumbed to the 2013 Fever and bought an AR-15, against my advice, at the peak of the frenzy. Thinking that “An AR is an AR”, he brought home a Moores Machine Company AR-15 from the Sillman Cartridge company, fully dressed in UTG and Chinese accessories. This rifle cost him about $1300 out the door, but good news is the retailer was willing to take the rifle back, unfired, and sell him the S&W M&P-15 I told him to buy in the first place.
I did get him to bring it to the club so I could take some pictures and have a look at it. What I found was a substandard piece of crap that was totally unsuitable for even casual use. The machining on critical parts was haphazard and rough, with numerous obvious faults.
Anyway, let’s have a look:
As it came out of the box.
You can’t see it here but the castle nut was unstaked.
The rifle was a 16″ M4 type with a flat top upper, government contour barrel and a Tapco telestock. It had a UTG foregrip, bipod, laser and flashlight hanging off a UTG quad rail, and an NC Star 2-7x scope for optics. No BUIS was supplied.
MMC: The warning label.
Anodizing already chipping off the lower receiver.
1:9 unlined barrel. Supposedly a 5.56 NATO chamber.
Bolt carrier had a strangely rough surface like a low grade of sandpaper. Surely it’s not a casting?
Gas key screws incorrectly staked. It looks like someone gave it a whack with a cold chisel.
M16 style bolt carrier, but the bearing surfaces were rough and unpolished.
Upper forging appeared fine other than rough, unfinished M4 feedramp cuts (which I couldn’t get my stupid camera to focus on, so here’s the forge code instead).
Any excuse to show off my favorite AR.
My nontechnical recommendation: Do not buy at any price. I would be surprised if this rifle functioned for an entire magazine, and a quick google search seems to back this up. As I mentioned we didn’t shoot the rifle, but even dry manipulations like pulling the charging handle and moving the safety lever were rough and gritty, like moving two sanding blocks against each other. This despite the bolt group literally dripping in a smelly, goopy lubricant.
Folks, AR is not an AR, unless it’s a Colt, S&W M&P, Noveske, Daniel Defense, BCM, or LMT. Other brands like Spike’s, Bushmaster, Armalite, DPMS, RRA, Palmetto State Armory and CMMG can be made to work, or will work fine for short periods, but why bother when they cost about the same as a real AR? Then we have the bottom of the barrel, like MMC, Olympic Arms, Model 1, M&A and pretty much everyone else, which are totally unusable out of the box and even worse, unsuitable for a base to build upon. Sometimes buying a lower quality model as a base for future modifications can make some sense, but the heart of an AR is the barrel, gas system, bolt and carrier. Why on earth would you skimp there?
Buy quality and cry once. Buy crap and it’ll haunt you until you give up and sell it. And if you haven’t heard of the AR company, there’s probably a reason for that.
{ 12 } Comments
I’d include Stag Arms on your list of real AR’s. I’ve had mine for 4 or 5 years now, and I have never had a malfunction. The thing runs like a champ.
And if you want a really accurate one, try a Compass Lake.
Here is there site, http://www.compasslake.com
The quality reflects the price, be prepared.
Expect to wait too.
I’ve seen less Chinese shit in a Hong Kong outhouse.
You guys couldn’t find your own dick with both hands in the dark could you..??
Lemme guess, uhh.. you paid north of $2K for your “high end” my shit doesn’t stink AR, with all the crap hanging off it that just gets in your way, but it doesn’t shoot any better than your cousins $800 “piece of crap” MMC right..??
That pretty well sums it up doesn’t it…??
Reality is harsh I know, but you “my AR is best and yours is crap” guys need a good dose of it once in a while.
What do you think of the Sig line of AR?
Your reading comprehension is as lousy as your critical thinking skills. The MMC was returned unfired to the dealer where it was exchanged for the S&W M&P15 that I told him to buy in the first place.
Also, I paid $1354 for my AR as pictured, including the Aimpoint M3, not including PMags. A Colt 6920 is $1100 off the shelf. An M&P15 is a little less. Buying a quality AR doesn’t require more money, it only requires some knowledge and research.
I haven’t had any personal experience with their line, but while they do have some unique features, I don’t feel they justify the price increase over a 6920 or M&P15, and SIG’s QC lately has been a sad joke. I wouldn’t buy a new SIG anything on a dare these days.
I am curious as to what your opinion of Winhad Weaponry might be.
I believe you mean Windham Weaponry. Again, no personal experience with the brand, but consensus among those who would know would slot it with Armalite, Bushmaster, CMMG, RRA and the other mid-grade brands. I wouldn’t willingly choose one, but these days if you can’t find a Colt, S&W or BCM, I guess you have to do what you have to do. If you end up with one, I’d suggest making sure the carrier key screws are torqued and staked, stake the castle nut, replace the bolt with a properly constructed HPI and MPI tested unit and hope for the best.
i own an MMC, and i had the same concerns as everybody else, and that is why in the hell does my bolt carrier feel like 600 grit sandpaper!,lol, and why does my barrel have this almost primer grey look and crappy feel to it? As an active duty Marine this was far less than what I’am acustomed to using to say the least, but, i stuck with it. At first i was having an issue with the bolt not going all the way home when i pulled the charging handle back, and yes i properly lubricated and cleaned the weapon before use, so i tried yanking the crap out of it and it worked. After the first 30 rounds i didn’t have that problem again. ive since put about 1,000 rounds through it and the weapon is operating as smooth as ever until i get about 3 mags into it, then it started getting stiff and i was having FTF problems. I’ve shot different brands of ammo, and i’ve used your standard military issue mags, as well as p-mags. I’m probably going to switch out the bolt carrier and the barrel any way down the road, but for now what i’ve got is working fine. I do think MMC needs to step there game up though.
Richard,
One thing I noticed on my cousin’s S&W was that the forge code on the upper was the same as on the MMC. If you replaced the barrel with a quality chrome lined 5.56 NATO chambered barrel, and got a good quality bolt and carrier set that was made of Carpenter steel and HPI / HPT tested, then had someone give it the once over, you’d probably have something useable. Good luck!
[quote]Your reading comprehension is as lousy as your critical thinking skills. The MMC was returned unfired to the dealer…[/quote]
Well lets see, my critical thinking skills got me thru two wars and I’m drawing a high 5 figure US Government pension for life, and your skills got you thru what… 8th grade?? And you still work at Jiffy Lube right..?
You never even fired the thing, but you can state categorically that it’s not suitable for even “casual” use..huh..?? Do you have any idea how retarded that sounds..?? Well, I guess you can add clairvoyant to your list of critical skills sonny.
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[...] we’ve seen previously with the dismal MMC AR-15, the biggest problem with buying crappy ARs and AR parts is that you spend about the same money for [...]
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