Part 1
It’s not a name you hear often and when you do, it’s normally surrounded by conjecture and speculation. In terms of solid fact, not much is known about the California based company, though speculation of foreign ownership, Chinese parts and questionable build quality fill the void in lieu of fact. With that in mind, who in their right mind would take a chance on such a big unknown when there are literally of dozens of better known brands building AR parts with proven track record in what is finally a buyers’ market?
Well, me.
In my defense it was a screaming deal from their Veteran’s Day sale. I researched the company and found exactly what was stated above: Little to no fact, but more importantly nothing negative, so I decided what the hell and dropped the cash on one of their uppers. The specs looked good and the company featured a one year warranty on it. Likewise, I threw it on my AmEx for the buyer’s protection and ability to dispute the charge if it did turn out to be no good.
But before we dig into the meat and potatoes, let’s get this out of the way: I am not a company rep, shill or fan. I’m just a guy who decided to take a chance on a relatively unknown company. You don’t have to believe me or even like it.
With that out of the way, here’s the tale of the tape straight from their website—
Unboxed upper, no mods.
16" FLAT TOP UPPER
5.56 X 45 mm
BOLT AND CARRIER:
MIL-SPEC
Chrome Moly Carrier
Carrier Key - Chrome lined
Attached with grade 8 Screws
Properly Staked & Sealed gas key
Bolt: Phosphated-Carpenter Steel
M.P.I. Heat Treated
HANDGUARD
MID-LENGTH FREEFLOAT
UPPER RECEIVER:
Forged 7076 T6 Aluminum
A3 Flat Top With T-Marks
Hard Coat Anodized
Mil-Spec
Ejection Port Cover and Round
Forward Assist
Right Hand Ejection
Bore's surface is coated with dry
film lube, over the anodized surface.
COMPLETE WITH BCG & CHARGING HANDLE
BARREL:
H-BAR
SOCOM-MID-LENGTH
GAS SYSTEM
4142 Heat Treated
Chrome Moly
1/7 Twist
7.50 Gas Block.
THREADED
1/2 X 28
SOLID BLACK FINISH ON BARREL
I know—Somebody out there could have gotten the top of the line tier zero operator spec gear for pennies on the dollar from a well-known company. While that’s great and all, you’re missing the point. For this review the ARD upper was paired with a Palmetto State Armory Classic Complete Lower spec’d as follows:
Machined from Aluminum Forgings 7075-T6
Hardcoat Anodizing: MIL-A-8625F, Type III, Class 2
Milspec diameter Receiver Extension
M4 Stock
Staked M4 Lock Nut
Standard Carbine Buffer
Un-notched Hammer compatible with 9mm use
Caliber: Multi
In terms of the upper, you’ll note some give and take in terms of the features, and it’s obviously not chrome lined. Remember, kids, Chrome moly is what they tell you when they don’t want to admit the barrel is not chrome lined. For the price and my purposes, I was fine with that, but some of the details were lacking; details like what was this mysterious solid black finish on the barrel? Spray paint? Melonite? What? I also had yet to receive any form of confirmation notice that the order had been received beyond a payment email, let alone estimated shipping dates or tracking numbers.
Upper + PSA Lower. Compact scope, flip-up 45' offset sights.
I shot ARD an email asking them the specifics and quickly found out that communication is not their strong suit. I was promptly told that the barrel was ‘Made in America’ and it was not Melonite Nitride or chrome lined. It was, and I quote, “a different black.” Not only had my question not been answered, the email was a terse, run on-sentence without punctuation, lending weight to the belief that English wasn’t their first language as had been speculated elsewhere. More on that later.
Delivery was prompt, received the following week of the order. On the other hand, I was dismayed to find the upper packed in plain cardboard with only the barest of paper padding wrapping it and a couple business cards haphazardly thrown in. So far ARD isn’t exactly off to a roaring start in my book, but the upper was received exactly as advertised and without visible damage. Once mated to the PSA lower, everything checked out and my newly assembled AR seemed good to go.
The Range.
A misbehaving rifle at Table Mesa.
Over the next several months, I tested a variety of ammunition through the upper. For those of you noting that I’m specifically focusing on the ARD component of this AR, it’s because I didn’t expect any problems with the PSA lower. If anything, it was the known quantity from a generally reliable distributer. The upper was going to be where the action was...
...Just not the action I was hoping for.
My trips to the range invariably followed a pattern as I attempted to break the AR in with a small variety of ammunition: 62 grain or heavier would work, 55 grain turned my new rifle into a single shot musket. A number of mags were tried and ammunition attempted, but the problem was always the same when 55 grain ammunition was used-- The rifle would fire, eject the brass but fail to strip the next round from the magazine. Charging the handle again would load the next round, but the cycle would inevitably repeat and I was never able to get more than a one to three round string out before being forced to charge the rifle again. The rifle was cleaned and lubed sloppy, but continued to fail.
The AR was short stroking.
As mentioned, 62gr or higher worked marvelously after a short break in period, which limited the malfunction’s potential causes to one of two things: An overly stiff buffer spring or a problem in the gas system. Of the two, I was going to give the PSA lower the benefit of the doubt and began looking hard at the ARD upper. After six months, even the break in card could no longer be played. ARD had a one year warranty and I intended to use it.
Back to the Shop.
I shot AR Depot a description of the problem and my desire to have it fixed under warranty. I’m glad to say they were amicable to doing so, though the communications issue with them persisted. Run-on sentences, sloppy grammar and unanswered questions plagued these correspondence. Even such simple things as inquiring about an RMA number as per their website went unanswered, but they said just send it in, so I did on my own dime.
It was there for a week.
Now I’ll be the first to say the turn-around time was fantastic, but it was the details that continued to mar my experience with ARD. I never did receive confirmation that they received the upper or that they had even sent it back. One day I’m worrying whether they even got the upper and the next it arrives on my doorstep in another plain box, wrapped in paper and barely cushioned for shipment. Annoying me further is that there is literally nothing accompanying it—No receipt, no record of service, no nothing except more of their business cards.
Did they service it? Replace parts? Find nothing wrong? Did they even touch it? Beats the hell out of me because they sure as hell didn’t bother to clue me in on this potentially important piece of information. Even HiPoint will detail the services and repairs performed on any pistol you send in to them, so another email goes out; this one with slightly less patience than the last. The response I got was light years more coherent than anything else I had received to date, but still didn’t address what they had done to service my darn rifle.
Seriously?
Seriously. But it did include an invitation to call somebody there directly to answer my questions, so I did. I spoke to a live person who had a reasonable command of the English language. I asked him the same question. I sent my rifle in. What did you do with it?
He had no **** clue.
After waffling and trying to sound confident, the rep told me their armorer had looked at it and repaired it. I thought that was great, but what did he do? I was asked if I had shot it yet, to which I replied I kinda wanted to know what they had done before sending rounds down range. I mean, let me know if I’m being unreasonable here, guys. The only answer I got was that it was repaired and good to go.
My ability to recommend ARD to anyone was rapidly flat-lining.
While I’m not a certified armorer myself, I can tell you at least part of what they did—ARD swapped out the gas block. I can tell you this not because I recorded serial numbers or identified tool marks. No, I can tell you this because it’s a completely different model of gas block, lacking the same geometry and was now absent the rail in the 6’oclock position. It’s hard to get worked up about because I actually like it better even sans rail, but I’m wondering if it even occurred to AR Depot that I might not have? They just went ahead and altered the product I paid for with a different model part without at least advising me of the fact. I’m fine with the end result, but it’s the principle of the matter that annoys me most.
That said, the rifle passes its functions tests and inspection, so it’s off to the range I go.
The Range, Take Two.
My AR with a friend. Note the different gas block after repairs.
Back to Ben Avery we went, along with two Police Trade-In Mini-14s that also needed beta testing. First we slapped the 62gr Green Tip back in to make sure our working baseline was still working. It devoured the mag without issue, confirming that at least that bullet weight still worked. From there we backtracked with some Independence 55gr 5.56 known to work in nearly everybody else’s AR, just not mine for more than three rounds.
Finally, some success.
Several boxes of Independence were eaten straight away. Then we reverted back even further and popped some of the dreaded Tula 55gr Steel into a mag and cut loose. The stuff is notoriously underpowered and comes with the obligatory advisements of being sticky, hard on extractors, may cause cancer and even sudden death if inhaled. A mag was all we had of that and if it ran, great! If not, I wasn’t going to be overly broken up about it if it didn't since I wasn’t planning on running a steady diet of steel to begin with. That was for the Mini-14s.
Long story short, it ran everything we threw at it. stuff that would not cycle to save my life- literally –was all of a sudden jumping out the ARD upper without issue—No short stroking, failures to extract, eject or anything else that would be considered bad behavior. I’ll start putting heavier weights through just to test the range, but given what seemed to be the problem, I don’t expect there will be any other hang-ups with this rifle. In terms of accuracy, it is. You’d like me to tell you more about that but the current setup was what I could throw together on short notice. The scope just isn’t cut out for anything beyond 100 yards. At 50, it’s easily MOA, but this outing wasn’t really a test of marksmanship, especially with so many other rifles eating my 5.56 reserves that day.
As for AR Depot themselves… Well, that’s a tough one. I’m willing to give a bad apple out of the bunch. It happens even to the best manufactures. According to them, they are short staffed and pushing 200 uppers a week. They definitely speaks English and has a good command of the English language… When they want to. Half the problem is not that they are foreign, but their preferred method of communication: The text message. The other half of their problem appears to be internal record keeping. I gave the rep my name and offered the order number. He was typing something in, but had to BS his way through the conversation in lieu of substantive information. If I had to classify them in a single blurb, it’s that the spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak. ARD is more than willing to handle any problems that arise and has a frankly fantastic turnaround time on them, but falls way down in critical communications with their customers.
That brings us down to the final question—Would I recommend them? It’s hard to. They do the job but there’s a lot of guesswork involved. Getting specific details from them is like pulling teeth at times and if it weren’t for the great Veteran’s Day Sale price, I probably wouldn’t even bother. I don’t want to have to guess what a barrel is coated with or wonder if my repair will get sent back for lack of an RMA number. I shouldn’t have to guess what they did to repair my rifle and should at least be consulted if that repair is going to swap out functionally and cosmetically different parts. My upper should be shipped in some sort of protective padding, not a single layer of plain paper wrap.
Final Spec, including skeletonized buttstock and compensator.
If they can get their communication down, ARD offers decent value, but it’s the details that kill it for me. Their aspirations may be that of a big box retailer, but they’re currently a hobbyist operation at best, regardless of how many units they move. But then again, that describes a lot of AR builders in the US. It doesn’t exactly take special skill to assemble one. It’s a buyer’s market and much as I hate to say it, there’s no hurt for brand names within ARDs regularly advertised price bracket, and without the hassle.
But in the end, the rifle is alright. I like it.
(Review is written toward a general audience, not geared for the awesomer members of this forum).
