I was just at the pawn shop in Corvallis and they asked if I wanted to order an AR lower on their group buy. They have 53 orders signed up out of a maximum of 75. I don't know which brand, some company with a TLA (Three Letter Acronym) name. I have never purchased any firearms from there before and only stopped in because I was having breakfast at Sharon's (right next door).
If you're trying to build an AR now, go for it. AR lowers have gone up in price from about $100 for a decent one to more like $150 or some horrendous amount like that.
From what ive heard, century's AR lowers are made by someone else, and they stamp their name on them.
I read a post somewhere that there are only 3 places forging them and everyone else just finishes them to their specs. The outfits that forge them leave small markings somewhere on them for I.D.
Mark, I heard (from behind the counter at the Philomath Gun Shop) that there was only ONE place making lowers and everyone else just finishes them to their specs. I have not seen any evidence to back up this claim. I am not really into ARs, so I haven't put much time or effort into "getting to the bottom of it."
Honestly the lower doesn't matter that much. Higher quality manufacturers will have better finish on it, but as long as the holes are in the right places it should work fine. Problem is, crappier manufacturers sometimes have poor QC and you get the misaligned ones more often.
