Spikes has lowers

[o1yellowGT]

At their store in Apopka. My buddy bought a complete lower for $300 today. He offered to buy all 8 they had in the case and they said 1 per person per day . He said Ill see you tomorrow lol. The "Blemish" is the wrong troop number engraved on them..lol WHO CARES lol

[nipster]

Wait a couple weeks, prices will be close to where they were.

The impulse buying idiots only have so much credit

[o1yellowGT]

300 for a complete lower isn't bad

[BlitzK]

not at all. Wish they were closer! I've driven over there many times, but not going to do it for just 1 lower!

[Gixxer]

Yeah that's a good deal for a complete lower, it's too bad I need an upper.

[Serbonze]

Even at $300, I'll never buy another Spikes Tactical product. You can get a complete BCM lower for just a few dollars more.

[Gixxer]

Even at $300, I'll never buy another Spikes Tactical product. You can get a complete BCM lower for just a few dollars more.

Did you have a bad experience with one?

[Shin180sx]

Idiots on gunbroker are paying 500+ for spikes stripped lowers.

[o1yellowGT]

Did you have a bad experience with one?

Jeff has taken the painstaking time to inspect just about EVERY upper , lower, assembly kit etc on the market. He is VERY knowledgable on the AR platform. Its amazing. Good Neighbor to have

[Gixxer]

Yeah, he gave me lots of great info when I bought my first AR (which happened to be a Spikes) but I am still in the process of building another one so I don't really have anything to compare it to. I only did little stuff to it like change the furniture, trigger guard, and BCG and everything fit perfect; It shot well and never gave me a single issue.

[Serbonze]

Did you have a bad experience with one?

I'll give you my first hand account of Spikes Tactical and why I will never purchase another product from them. About this time last year, I made the decision to start taking carbine and pistol classes. At the time, I had a complete Spikes Tactical 16" Mid-Length upper with a Spikes Tactical BCG and 12" BAR Rail. I took my first carbine class in February, and went through about 600 rounds a day for two days. The upper seemed to be functioning fine, but when I compared it to another student's BCM upper, I immediately noticed the lack of recoil and soft shooting feel of the BCM vs the Spikes. I decided to do a little more research on Spikes and the upper. I soon realized that the difference in felt recoil was because it was completely over-gassed. The explanation from Spikes was that they wanted to tune their gas ports to allow it to shoot any kind of ammunition. That's great if I'm shooting Tula or Wolf, but when shooting XM193 and switching to an H3 buffer and Blue Sprinco Spring and the internals are still getting the snot beat out of them, something is wrong. I ended up selling that upper and bought a BCM. It's perfectly gassed, has hardly any felt recoil, and I can use an H or Carbine Buffer and standard carbine spring (although I use a white Sprinco, but it's the same power spring) and it shoots like a dream. It has been through three classes last year, and I've never had an issue with it.

Second Problem. I decided that I wanted a SBR, so I purchased a complete Spikes Tactical 11.5" upper. After waiting five + months for my tax stamp, I finally had the chance to mate it to my lower and the rear take down pin would not engage. I sent the upper back to Spikes, and they replaced the upper receiver because it was out of spec. Now, if they did any kind of quality control on that upper, how could it have possibly gotten out of the shop like that? And yes, I did try to mate it to a friends registered lower prior to contacting them and it would not fit that one either. After receiving it back from Spikes, I sold it and bought a BCM 11.5" upper.

Third Problem. I broke down my now 16" BCM mid length that was using a Spikes BCG after a two day class for an inspection. Guess what? Loose gas key on the carrier! I sent it back to Spikes, and this is their exact response:

To be completely honest, this is kinda embarrassing…. But from the information I collected investigating into the loose carrier key it looks like the screws weren’t completely tightened. I imagine that the threads were built up with phosphate and when the torque wrench that’s set to a specific inch pound broke to the specific weight it wasn’t actually fully tightened. The next step in the process would be to stake it. After 2000+ rounds the heat and action put on the BCG worked its way loose.

Looks as if our carriers will have to have the threads chased… Which will only make our BCG’s better but I hate learning the hard way through the process. Thanks for your patience hope the new carrier makes up for this mishap.

They did replace the entire BCG with a new one, which I then sold. I've since switched all of my ARs to BCM BCGs. Are they more expensive? Sure. One BCM was $159 vs $109 for the Spikes (at the time). However, my peace of mind in knowing that my AR is always going to work is worth $50.

So, Spikes Tactical is 0-3 and they have lost me as a customer. Yes, they produce "mil-spec" products that seem to be less expensive than most vendors. However, I don't believe that the Quality Control is there. Companies like Spikes and PSA, that are selling thousands of lowers and uppers and other parts a month would need to dedicate entire teams of people to QC every single part that they receive, and I don't think that's happening. They did take care of the problems, I'll give them that, but I would rather spend a little more money up front and know that the firearm that I'm using has been through a very strict quality check.

This of course, is just my opinion based on my experience and there are thousands of people out there that are using a Spikes product and will never have an issue. However, I have learned my lessons the hard way and I won't make those mistakes again.

[Gixxer]

Well, that certainly explains why you're not a fan, lol.

[o1yellowGT]

lol just got a text he just bought another lol.. He is flipping them for $600... LMAO panic buyers are paying his mortgage ...

[Gixxer]

Who?

[o1yellowGT]

my buddy

[Gixxer]

Damn, that almost makes me want to sell my lower for 3x the price I paid for it, lol.

[o1yellowGT]

lol.

[o1yellowGT]

but he is a hoarder . He has like 8-10 stripped lowers , 3 100 rd ar drums, like 100 p mags , 2 complete lowers etc etc etc

[BAMF]

but he is a hoarder . He has like 8-10 stripped lowers , 3 100 rd ar drums, like 100 p mags , 2 complete lowers etc etc etc

Your buddy is a jackass and part of the reason things are so fucked up right now. Tell him a guy on the internet said so.

And 300 bucks sucks for a lower.

[Gixxer]

And that makes me almost a jackass.