Full Auto Lower Made of Steel

[ken792]

I was visiting some friends down at their range when we met someone who had a transferable giggle switch lower. The nice thing about a registered lower is that you can swap uppers without any fitting required, unlike a lightning link or DIAS. He was nice enough to let us run our own uppers on it. The unique thing about his lower is that it's made of steel rather than aluminum, so he's not afraid of wearing it out or damaging it.

Has anyone else encountered one of these steel giggle switch lowers? He said a few hundred were made across a few production runs in the 70's and 80's.

Needless to say, it made our day to be able to take the uppers from our regular AR's and run them full auto. I only wish I had brought more 5.56 ammo because I did not plan on shooting full auto, haha.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B1uI1eSIa6JmbVE1NVMxTm9YVk0/view?usp=sharing

 

[engineerbrian]

Looks like fun! Was it a public range?

 

[Billman]

Group Industries made a few stainless steel m16 lowers slightly before the 1986 ban.

 

[Caeb75]

The Group Industries lowers are probably the most sought after of all factory M16 lowers short of factory Colt guns. There were something like 105 or 110 made before the company gave up the ghost. The Uzi receivers that Vector used came from the same company that made these.

In as manufactured state they are usually slightly out of spec, but it's nothing that can't be fixed by a quick trip to M60Joe.

There was a guy over on ARFCOM who owned several of them. Some he left alone, and some he sent out to have brought into spec. I THINK his screen name is Sig-X or some such.

These lowers are just shy of bulletproof, and are reportedly the only ones that can withstand a kaboom. Your friend made an excellent investment. As the saying goes... You can never pay too much for a machinegun. You can only pay that much too early.

 

[ken792]

Looks like fun! Was it a public range?

Private club (nice one too).

Group Industries made a few stainless steel m16 lowers slightly before the 1986 ban.

Ah thanks, I couldn't remember the name.

In as manufactured state they are usually slightly out of spec, but it's nothing that can't be fixed by a quick trip to M60Joe.

Yeah, he said that when he got his, the buffer detent was a bit too far back. The issue with those is that the buffer won't touch the BCG when it is fully closed and instead impacts the detent, either chewing up the buffer or breaking the detent. The mag well also is a bit tight with PMAGs, but it worked flawlessly with my GI aluminum mags. The takedown pins fit quite tight on his own upper and needed a mallet for disassembly, but it fit perfectly smooth in my upper and with a friend's Colt M4 upper. It fit tight on another friend's PSA upper, but it seems to be well within the variations you'd find in the pin distances.

 

[Alphabrew]

I've seen Titanium lowers but they didn't have the hole for the auto sear.

 

[IMBLITZVT]

To be frank... I don't see an advantage. Some will be shocked I said that. However AL lower is fine. M16s are easy on the lowers. None are wearing out and all can be repaired. What real advantage does one get out of it. Adds a lot of weight for no real advantage that I can see. Still just can't park it...

 

[ken792]

He was worried about an out of battery or case head separation. He figured if he's paying that much for a pre-86 lower, might as well take the precaution.

 

[5.56blaster]

To be frank... I don't see an advantage. Some will be shocked I said that. However AL lower is fine. M16s are easy on the lowers. None are wearing out and all can be repaired. What real advantage does one get out of it. Adds a lot of weight for no real advantage that I can see. Still just can't park it...

I agree. I ran a military range, where we fired 1000's of rounds out of our range weapons every year. These guns had many years of use and showed no signs of wear to the lowers. If the military can't wreck them then AL must be good. Doesn't rust.