While shopping for an AR, I saw that a couple of manufacturers sell AR 15 kits. One kit was very simple, two pieces, an upper and a lower. Another consisted of 25 or so pieces. I’d consider both manufacturers somewhat “off brand.”
Anyone know why these manufactures sell these as kits? Especially in the case of the two-piece kit, how much time would it take to assemble it at the factory? I don’t think a “kit” skirts any federal or state laws. Just seems odd.
I don’t know why they would sell ‘kits’. Are you still in California? Maybe it’s away of getting around the strict gun laws there?
FWIW, AR-15 style rifles are incredibly easy to build from parts. The only parts I don’t like assembling are the sights. Everything else pretty much just drops in.
As I understand it, fellas like fussing with things, makes em feel like they’ve had a hand in the production process? Maybe the manufacturer is trying to help out, or maybe just skirt a law or ten.
Depending on what the vendor means by “kit,” it can be a way for the buyer to have a rifle with the exact set of festures s/he wants.
This is sometimes called ‘The Ikea Syndrome’ - a person will value an item higher if they feel they had a role in its production.
:rolleyes:
As I understand it, the bit that’s actually regulated is the receiver, so you can sell a kit that consists of everything but that with no problem at all. Meanwhile, the receiver is very easy to mill out of a lump of metal, and you can also get custom milling rigs just for making receivers really easily.
yep. on an AR-pattern rifle, the lower receiver is the serial numbered part, and is legally “The firearm.”
I made my AR from a kit, and my main reason for doing so was that I wouldn’t be paying someone to install parts I planned on changing out anyways. But in the process I feel I got a really good grasp on how the various parts worked and I also feel I’m better equipped to fix it if something breaks down the line, since I installed all of it in the first place (with the exception of the barrel and receiver, bought that pre-attached).
Wired Magazine had an article a few months ago about milling a receiver. There’s a milling machine out there which can make one pretty quickly with very little manual help.
They also tested making a receiver with a 3D printer. That didn’t work very well.
Whoops! ZipperJJ beat me to it.
I read about it a long time ago from some pancake mix marketing guy. The “just add one egg” increases sales dramatically, and most people think that without doing that no such instant pancake could ever exist.
Especially if assembling an AR-15 with an Allen Wrench.
I would love to see the Ikea style instructions that would go with that kit…Also, what would it be called?
Koltinotto?
One of the kits I referenced is the “Del-Ton AR-15 Rifle Completion Kit.” I’ve got a part number, but I don’t know if it’s the retailer’s or the manufacturer’s: 597-RKT100-10.
Manufacturer’s website might have some instructions/info.
Kits can be customized. There is a lot of variety available depending on your wants and needs and many of the parts are easily interchangeable. And, it’s fun!
Just to keep this de-rail going:
I heard the ‘Just add egg’ story re. original (ca 1946) cake mixes.
After WWII ended, there were tons and tons of powdered eggs stockpiled (the US had essentially geared up for continual warfare), so the cake mix was invented as wat to use up the surplus.
They didn’t sell.
Focus groups (so to speak) were convened and discovered that ‘housewives’ felt that preparing a mix did not count as ‘baking’ and using them ‘cheated’ their husbands by not really baking.
So they removed the powered egg and put ‘beat in eggs’ and Bingo! it is now real baking!
To nip this in its embryonic stage, Snopes says ‘False’.
Thanks to this thread, I’m pretty sure I’ll always associate cake with AR-15’s…no wait, I think I already did. This just reinforces my feelings of murder at bday parties.
Mmm, delicious murder.…