lets talk Olympic Arms for a minute.

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ID-shooting

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I know Oly Arms has a rather poor reputation. History of cast parts, shoddy construction, poor service, and such.

Did they go through a change recently?

My wife located an AR she really wants at a good price. I go look and it is a new-production Olympic Plinker Plus, 16inch, flat-top with a heavy barrel. Receiver is marked "Caliber - Multi 2013"

I hit their web site and turn up nothing but I do find multiple sources who list the specs:

"Olympic Arms Plinker Plus AR-15 Rifle
5.56x45mm NATO (will accept .223 Remington)
16" 4140 chromoly steel barrel
1:9" twist, button rifled
30 round magazine
7075 T6 aluminum forged upper and lower receivers
Flat top receiver
Black matte anodized receivers and parkerized steel parts
Picatinny rail gas block
6 position buttstock
Two piece, black plastic handguards
35.75" overall length
7.37 lbs

Another step in one of the industry's most popular and fastest selling Ar15 carbines, Olympic Arms is offering the Plinker Plus Flat-Top. This carbine comes with all the standard accouterments that Olympic distributors, dealers, and end users are used to seeing, 30 round magazine, sling, owners manual, logoed hard case and of course the Lifetime Warranty. Also featuring forged receivers, both upper and lower, picatinny gas block, button rifled National-Match barrels, black parkerized steel parts, A2 flash suppressor, and M4 style Fiberite stock. This rifle is 100% mil-spec in dimension, quality and made in the USA."

Her intended use is mainly range shooting with some informal competition we as a group set up.

I look over these specs and I am having a hard time not liking it.

sooo, from the pile here, did they turn over a new leaf?
 
I bought an Olympic M4gery upper a few years ago. I have about 1000 rounds through it without any issues. It looks adequately put together.

I put iron sights on it and for plinking at 100 yards and less it does a great job.

The main issue that would prevent me from buying another Olympic upper is that I had some trouble fitting it to another manufacturer's lower. and I forget exactly what those issues were. Obviously, I was able to correct the problem.

Actually, I originally put a Bushmaster two stage trigger in the lower and it gave me all sorts of problems. Once the trigger was replaced, the rifle has performed flawlessly.

Of course, if you buy a complete rifle, the upper/lower fit is not an issue.
 
My personal preference here, but I would never buy a rifle from a company that feels it's acceptable to put a "Picatinny rail gas block" on a rifle. I see "Picatinny rail gas block" and I run for the hills. A "PRGB" says two things to me:
  1. How cheap can I source and install a gas block? (They're almost always aluminum, and attached with set screws)
  2. My customers don't know what they want, so I'm going to give them this so they feel like they are getting options.

"PRGBs" are poor choices if you opt not to put a sight on them. In that case, they should be made of steel, they should be smaller, and the should be pinned. PRGBs don't fit under free float handguards, so you'd be replacing it anyway if you go that route. If you do choose to put sights on them, you should have got a gas block with integrated folding sight in the first place (or a standard fixed FSB), and those can be pinned as well.
 
I bought an Oly Arms AR in the early 90's. I can only remember a few FTE problems and this was after shooting major amounts of dirty surplus ammo. The LGS owner recommended the less expensive SGW over the Colt. My AR has been great, no problems or complaints here.
 
Oly may have improved but if this is a $650 special, I'd kick in a bit more and get PSA which actually does have good specs. I'd much rather have a FN 4150 steel, chrome lined barrel, decent BCG, milspec parts like the receiver extension. I'm also not a fan of the railed gas block, would rather have low profile block or even the fixed FSB, F-marked of course so any standard milspec rear sight aligns.
 
PSA FN sourced hammer forged stainless barrels are no better? Just who is producing Oly barrels?
 
PSA isnt any better and doesnt have as good a barrel.
Click to expand...

With, respect, you clearly have no idea what your talking about. FN makes some of the best barrels in the world. FN makes the barrels for almost every weapon used by our military. Ignorant comments like those should be stricken from the thread, because someone might actually believe you.
 
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I really do not want to turn this into a brand X is better than brand Y. Those can go on for days and are plentiful already.

I want to hear about the new Oly's.

As for the gas block, doesn't bother her as she will use low power optics and red dot optics. I think the barrel is a bit heavy but she seems to be OK with it.
 
For $650 you could get a new S&W M&P-15 Sport with better components and build quality everywhere on the rifle.

The bigger question is what do you / does she intend to do with the rifle?

I want to hear about the new Oly's.
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What else do you want to know? That's the same configuration they've offered for years now (they switched to forged receivers many years ago). It's a plain 4140 bbl that may or may not have a properly cut and / or finished chamber. Olympic's bolt carrier group assembly is hit or miss. They use the cheapest receiver extensions (AKA buffer tubes) they can find, and they cant be bothered to stake the castle nuts on those. Their finish machining on the forged receivers is mediocre at best. Olympic has remained stagnant at their price point. Companies like PSA and S&W have entered the market and began offering a couple base model at that price point that are still very high quality. Companies like Del-Ton improved their products to stay competitive at the price point.
 
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oly is the only AR maker I know that makes one in 22-250 not that I see a need for one a bolt is better being it would stay a lot cooler
 
ugaarguy said:
For $650 you could get a new S&W M&P-15 Sport with better components and build quality everywhere on the rifle.

The bigger question is what do you / does she intend to do with the rifle?


What else do you want to know? That's the same configuration they've offered for years now (they switched to forged receivers many years ago). It's a plain 4140 bbl that may or may not have a properly cut and / or finished chamber. Olympic's bolt carrier group assembly is hit or miss. They use the cheapest receiver extensions (AKA buffer tubes) they can find, and they cant be bothered to stake the castle nuts on those. Their finish machining on the forged receivers is mediocre at best. Olympic has remained stagnant at their price point. Companies like PSA and S&W have entered the market and began offering a couple base model at that price point that are still very high quality. Companies like Del-Ton improved their products to stay competitive at the price point.
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What better quality/components? I hear this a lot regarding these discussions but no empirical data to go along with it. Are we talking pot metal? heat treated? Stuff made from tin? Are we talking assembled by drunken monkeys vs. hand fit parts?

Her shooting is mainly sitting-supported, some standing-unsupported. She wants to get more into multiple target acquisition shooting plates, jugs, clays at varying distances usually in the 50-200 yard range.

She really likes the rifle. The price she is comfortable with as there will be a trade of her mini-14 involved. She had been doing OK with her mini but seeing all the gizmos and configurations of our groups AR's she wants one instead.

She she likes it so much, I am inclined to support her unless there is something that just screams "NO!" So far I haven't seen anything. I have held the rifle in question. Seems solid, no noticeable shake over any other AR on the shelf. I was leery of the pin spacing and what not being "out of mil spec" but I swapped a bunch of different uppers around on the lower and they all snapped right into place. The finish is a bit rougher on the upper and lower than I would like, almost a dura-coat feel but again, if she like that, who am I to complain. The trigger is nice and crisp, the function is OK smooth for a new rifle. It passes Army unit-level function checks just fine. Has M4 feed lips on the barrel extension and receiver that are properly lined up. Gas block lines up level and true to the upper. Rifling is crisp and bright. Pmags and GI mags fit, lock, and function as they should.
 
cyclopsshooter said:
Oly produces Oly barrels. They made barrels long before they made ARs. You set an Oly on a bench next to a PSA and see which shoots a better group.
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Are you comparing a non chromed lined barrel with a chromed line barrel. Apples to oranges.
 
ID-shooting said:
What better quality/components? I hear this a lot regarding these discussions but no empirical data to go along with it. Are we talking pot metal? heat treated? Stuff made from tin? Are we talking assembled by drunken monkeys vs. hand fit parts?

Her shooting is mainly sitting-supported, some standing-unsupported. She wants to get more into multiple target acquisition shooting plates, jugs, clays at varying distances usually in the 50-200 yard range.

She really likes the rifle. The price she is comfortable with as there will be a trade of her mini-14 involved. She had been doing OK with her mini but seeing all the gizmos and configurations of our groups AR's she wants one instead.

She she likes it so much, I am inclined to support her unless there is something that just screams "NO!" So far I haven't seen anything. I have held the rifle in question. Seems solid, no noticeable shake over any other AR on the shelf. I was leery of the pin spacing and what not being "out of mil spec" but I swapped a bunch of different uppers around on the lower and they all snapped right into place. The finish is a bit rougher on the upper and lower than I would like, almost a dura-coat feel but again, if she like that, who am I to complain. The trigger is nice and crisp, the function is OK smooth for a new rifle. It passes Army unit-level function checks just fine. Has M4 feed lips on the barrel extension and receiver that are properly lined up. Gas block lines up level and true to the upper. Rifling is crisp and bright. Pmags and GI mags fit, lock, and function as they should.
Click to expand...
The Oly will probably be just fine. Why the heavy barrel? If I'm going to get the weight of a heavy barrel it's going to be to shoot off a bench for groups. If I'm shooting off the bench for groups I want a free float rail.
 
It is a heavier profile that my lightweight carbine but not a full bull barrel. I see it more as a medium weight. Just slightly thicker past the gas block than a HBAR marked barrel. Not even as thick the the flash suppressor.
 
Med contour is OK. My brother has a heavy barreled 16 inch he bought before he knew any better. Thing is a boat anchor.
 
I think the heavy barrel profile is maybe cheaper to make? There is more machining that goes into a M-4 profile barrel than there is in a barrel that's just basically a round cylinder with a 5.56mm hole bored down the center.
I figured that's why that profile is used with M&P Sports and maybe that's why Oly is also using it.

My experience with Olympic was with my first AR. It was an Oly carbine, heavy profile barrel, fixed A1 carry handle upper. I remember the castle nut coming loose and the stock beginning to unscrew while I was at the range. I didn't know anything about peening the endplate at that time and just put a few drops of blue loctite on the buffer tube, then tightened it up. The magazine well was also kind of tight. It didn't like some magazines. If this is still an issue with Oly guns, getting PMags to fit may cause you anger.

Personally, if I was looking for something in the $650 range today, I'd buy an M&P Sport or something from PSA over an Oly. Really, there isn't going to be a difference in handling - a heavy barrel AR carbine is going to handle like a heavy barrel AR carbine. So I'd look for the best quality I could get at that price range. I don't think Oly is it.
 
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