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Posted: 6/7/2011 10:47:26 AM EDT
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I am looking for two uppers, a 16" mid-length and a 20" full length.
I've been looking at Del-ton because I have two roggio lowers that I will be using as the platform for these rifles. I don't want to spend a lot of money on these because they are going to be frankenguns and I don't care provided they run. They will be my beat up rifles. For my quality rifle, I have my Oly Plinker plus. I could buy a $399 BCM upper plus another $140 for a bolt carrier plus the cost of the handguards. Spikes would be the same price approximately at retail. Or I could just buy the entire package from del-ton. Is there an alternate source of a complete upper, including a bolt carrier/charging handle that beats the price/value of del-ton? p.s. I was only kidding about the Oly, I do have one but my quality rifle is my Daniel Defense! :D Thanks, New |
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I did exactly that...bought a 16 inch CL and 20 inch CM uppers from Del-Ton. Picked DT because of the price and excellent customer service.
They are GTG and mine shoot MOA. Like you I have another "go to" rifle...Armalite 16 inch with DD Omega handguard and Magpul furniture. There are other players in the Del-Ton price range now and BCM and Spikes are pretty close. |
| cant really beat the spikes upper for price. DPMS i wouldnt touch. delton i have no complaints about but the difference in price isnt much really. deltons upper is 400 without chrome lined barrel. add another 45 for chrome lining and your talking what....a 50 dollar difference between the spikes and the delton? if you dont care about chrome lining get the DT, if you are gonna get the chrome get the spikes since its not much more. |
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While you're not likely to ever have a problem with a DelTon, why buy one when you can get Spikes or BCM for $50 more? You are getting a MUCH better upper, that you know without a doubt will be reliable, should you ever have to bet your life on it. Just my $.02. +1 I had a Del-ton upper for awhile. The only problem I had with it was the staking on the gas key was crap. I let it go because I wanted to see if it would work loose. It only took about 500 rounds and it turned into a bolt gun. I staked it and did not have any malfunctions for another 1500 rounds or so. I gave it to a good friend for Christmas because I replaced it with a BCM middy. He's probably put about 300 through it so far and has not had any problems. I don't think Del-ton's product are bad but you can do better for just a little more. |
| I've had my Del-Ton for a few months, put around 1000 rounds of brass and steel through it. It has been 100%. No FTF, FTE, etc. The finish looks fantastic and matches the lower from Barnes perfectly. Sounds like there are other choices as well, but the Del-Ton I own is solid. Good luck. |
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I bought a Del-Ton shorty A2 upper for my RR M16, and I have not looked back.
Many many rounds down range without an issue. I even ran it in a Patrol Rifle class, and I ran it hard for a couple of days. It worked like a spinning top - no hiccups, runs drips or errors. Go for it. Oh yeah, with that shorty, I magaged to get perfect scores of 300/300 in the rifle qual and the rifle instructor qual. 
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In great ARFcom fashion I will recommend something that you didn't ask for. While I have no problems from my Del-Ton barrel, there is play in the FSB where when I used the FSB as leverage to remove a flash suppressor (completely my fault for not doing it the right way) it moves enough to cover part of the gas port to cause short stroking.
My suggestion would be the uppers from PSA complete for $399 with all the HSLD features up until a few years ago ARFcom just refuses to live without. (except the 4140 barrel) Posted Via AR15.Com Mobile |
| I have had a Del-ton 20" government profile upper for over a year and ~2K rounds. Zero hiccups except for a half dozen FTE's with tula .223. Del-ton is G2G in my opinion. I'm also contemplating a 7.62x39 Del-ton upper if they run their black friday sale this year. |
| I've built 4 different AR's with Delton kits. Liked the quality at the price point, and the available list of options. I've never built a gun with BCM or Spikes parts though, and had no issues when I sold the Delton kit guns I built - got good money out of them as well, but this was back right after Obama got elected and AR prices went a little high for a while, as everyone was back ordered for parts. |
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While you're not likely to ever have a problem with a DelTon, why buy one when you can get Spikes or BCM for $50 more? You are getting a [u]MUCH better [/u]upper,[u] that you know without a doubt [/u]will be reliable, should you ever have to bet your life on it. Just my $.02. +1 I had a Del-ton upper for awhile. The only problem I had with it was the staking on the gas key was crap. I let it go because I wanted to see if it would work loose. It only took about 500 rounds and it turned into a bolt gun. I staked it and did not have any malfunctions for another 1500 rounds or so. I gave it to a good friend for Christmas because I replaced it with a BCM middy. He's probably put about 300 through it so far and has not had any problems. I don't think Del-ton's product are bad but you can do [u]better[/u] for just a little more. WIth out a doubt? Are you guaranteeing the OP Spikes/BCM will never ever fail? Spikes & BCM won't make that claim. MUCH better..? How much Better? As I believe all 3 companies are highly reputable and respected I am also not a "vote for this because of popularity" and everyone has it now person. We all have been around the milspec this & milspec that...Delton spec's and tests their products the same as BCM/Spikes...according to the Industry forum and their site. As any company can have issues, The BCG failures and staking problems have (as Delton states) been rectified. not much more money...depending upon the interpretation of "not much more" and what the OP decides is budget/affordable; the entire rifle kit thru Delton (sans rear sight) is $465 (depending upon selected upgrades) where as a starting upper from BCM with no BCG or CH is $399.....not much more can become much more very quickly. I am not disrespecting or knocking any of the above manufacturers...only playing Devil's Advocate, because I have some stripped lowers and am still debating on DelTon vs BCM parts....and too am looking for solid reasoning/answers. I guess I have hard time with getting sold on the whole testing, milspec thing and bet my life on it stuff....thousands of people bet their lives on fire arms that aren't milspec or tested a certain way other than it fires 'x' number of rnds before failure (on average!) and hits point of aim....ie, all the CCW citizens to LEOs with sidearms, secret service and yes even the military. Why do some in this community seem so convinced if an AR-15 is not mil-spec'ed or each piece MPI tested or chrome lined, then it is an inferior rifle with an inherent failure waiting to happen? *sorry about the extended rant SYSTEM MESSAGE* |
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While you're not likely to ever have a problem with a DelTon, why buy one when you can get Spikes or BCM for $50 more? You are getting a MUCH better upper, that you know without a doubt will be reliable, should you ever have to bet your life on it. Just my $.02. In my best FARGO voice....I'm going to have to question your math there a little, norm. :D BCM or Spikes uppers can generally be had for $399 + bolt carrier $140 + charging handle $15 + hand guards $35 for an approximate build cost of $595. With the del-ton, I can get the complete upper with the bolt carrier and all for $395. Unless I am missing something that's a savings of $200. New |
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While you're not likely to ever have a problem with a DelTon, why buy one when you can get Spikes or BCM for $50 more? You are getting a MUCH better upper, that you know without a doubt will be reliable, should you ever have to bet your life on it. Just my $.02. In my best FARGO voice....I'm going to have to question your math there a little, norm. :D BCM or Spikes uppers can generally be had for $399 + bolt carrier $140 + charging handle $15 + hand guards $35 for an approximate build cost of $595. With the del-ton, I can get the complete upper with the bolt carrier and all for $395. Unless I am missing something that's a savings of $200. New Del-Ton uppers are a good value and you're right on the math if you compare a standard upper from Del-Ton (Chromoly barrel, 1/9 twist, etc.) if you just look at it from a monetary standpoint and not at the build features. It's more like $0 to $25 difference (shipping costs) for the Spike's if you compare apples to apples: Del-Ton M4 Upper $460 plus shipping. Spikes M4 Upper $499 plus it comes with MOE handgaurd and Spikes ST-T2 buffer and free shipping. While both barrels are roughly the same (4150, chrome-lined, 1/7 twist, etc.) the Spike's barrel is also MPT and HPI, not just the bolt like the Del-Ton. I happen to have both uppers in mid-length. I like them both. The Spike's is just a slight notch better for the same price. Shipping for me in Utah from Del-Ton is $23.06, but it doesn't come with the MOE handguard, which I love, and the buffer, which is awesome too. ETA: I bought my Del-Ton first. Had I known about the deal from Aim, I would have bought two Spikes uppers from them instead of one of each. They both shoot great. The Spikes shoots a bit more accurate. I bought and built the receivers at the same time and have switched between uppers. Spikes is still a bit better.
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While you're not likely to ever have a problem with a DelTon, why buy one when you can get Spikes or BCM for $50 more? You are getting a MUCH better upper, that you know without a doubt will be reliable, should you ever have to bet your life on it. Just my $.02. In my best FARGO voice....I'm going to have to question your math there a little, norm. :D BCM or Spikes uppers can generally be had for $399 + bolt carrier $140 + charging handle $15 + hand guards $35 for an approximate build cost of $595. With the del-ton, I can get the complete upper with the bolt carrier and all for $395. Unless I am missing something that's a savings of $200. New as someone pointed out you can buy a spikes upper with MOE handguards for 500 from aim and ive seen them for under 500 on other sites. delton rings in at 395, but the barrel is not chrome lined and MOST people opt for that...so add another 45$ for chroming. 440$ for the delton at this point, or 500$ for spikes with better handguards that people usually buy anyways. hence why i suggest if you are going to chrome line the delton kit, might as well just buy the spikes since it really isnt much more and as much as i do praise my DT rifle, spikes is a tad better. the BCM stuff tho ur right, is far more expensive. |
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Now...are your lowers complete with stock/buffer tube & firing control group?...or stripped.
The DelTon kit includes these components where as going just complete upper from elsewhere, you'll still be adding a couple hundred bucks to the build. If they are stripped lowers...economically the Delton even adding chrome and going with 1:7 is money ahead. If they are complete...then yeah cost savings become negligible. |
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Quoted:
While you're not likely to ever have a problem with a DelTon, why buy one when you can get Spikes or BCM for $50 more? You are getting a MUCH better upper, that you know without a doubt will be reliable, should you ever have to bet your life on it. Just my $.02. While I concur with you that BCM & Spikes are both better than Del-Ton, you don't know if they will be reliable enough to bet your life on them out of the box with each & every example that is sold. You should never trust any AR out of the box until you've put several hundred if not thousands of rounds thriough it. Even then a gun can still fail you at the most inopportune time imaginable. |
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None of these rifles will be my go to rifle, that'd be for my Daniel Defense.
As for the roggio lowers (I will not even capitalize their names), I got lucky in that my lowers only had the problem with the buffer tube screwing in but I was able to get them in with a UTG piece of crap six position stock. But like I said, I am going to beat these rifles to heck and then not have to care about scratches, etc. Maybe one Del-ton and one Spikes. New |
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Now...are your lowers complete with stock/buffer tube & firing control group?...or stripped. The DelTon kit includes these components where as going just complete upper from elsewhere, you'll still be adding a couple hundred bucks to the build. If they are stripped lowers...economically the Delton even adding chrome and going with 1:7 is money ahead. If they are complete...then yeah cost savings become negligible. the delton kit does NOT include these parts. we are talking about the 395$ UPPER ONLY. you are talking about the 465$ RIFLE KIT. buying the UPPER from delton you still have to buy the LPK, stock, buffer assembly, and pistol grip. |
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+1 for Delton, I'm at the 1,000 rd mark without a SINGLE hiccup of any kind––and that's shooting cheap PMC out of GI mags. Not even my sig 556 can say that, at x2 the price! Not to throw this off track but you must have come across a funky batch of ammo or mag combo in your Sig556. My 556 has been flawless with over 1200+ rounds uncleaned except chamber and barrel, I just cleaned it after 1446 rounds because I felt bad for it lol. That was using all sorts of garbage ammo up to 77grain match. Now on the delton upper my friend bought everything looks good except its just very gritty and needs more than a break in to make it run smooth. Im going to take the time and deburr a few spots on it and also the barrel is non MP or HPT for sure so you know this. I think for what he has in the complete kit its a great deal but I feel it just needs a little work to make her a good beater or first time rifle. |
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