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Posted: 4/29/2012 12:20:05 PM EDT
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I have recently been pondering the purchase of a 50bmg. Like most of my guns I dont see shooting it a TON but it is definitely a good collection piece. I originally looked at a Bohica and was looking to sell my very lightly used CZ 308 varmit kevlar to finance one. Looking it at whatever way the company seems to have vanished over night. The idea of a $1300 BMG upper is gone. I did see recently a company called blackthorn which makes a similar upper. I have found nothing about it anywhere.
Brings me to my questions. I keep coming across zel custom. Their cheapest upper, the spartan is about $1500 but only has a 1 year warranty. The next up is the T1 for about $1800-$2000. Finally, there is their T2 with magazine. I am leaning towards the spartan or a T2 if I could swing it. Has anyone used one of these ever? The mag fed looks nice and the AI mags usually run $200 a piece anyway so the T1 plus mag price is almost the price of the T2. I cant find anyone that has these in stock. Usually, stocking dealers tend to try and beat each other in price. However, the Zel Custon site seems to be the cheapest. I read in a magazine add that Zel advertised Mil/LE price, does anyone know if this is still the case and how much? Also, brownells once offered Mil/LE pricing but I have not seen it advertised so I dont want to ask for it. Is the T1/T2 worth it or am I just as well off with a spartan or even a blackthorn for a show piece with occasional shooting? |
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I am interested to hear others reports on the Zel uppers as well.
I have seen a lot of interest spike on these, especially those desiring to get into a fifty on a budget. For the price of the mag fed version, you might be able to step into a used full-on dedicated rifle if you shop around, or at least at one time you could have. It seems as of late, things have already started getting crazy in anticipation of November, but you may wish to look into the possibility anyway. I have seen a number of shell older variations on GB, for decent prices. Shell holder designs always make me nervous, but there are thousands who shoot them without incident, so it may be another option for you as well. I was looking at the Zel uppers as well, IIRC in Brownell's LE or AR catalog. I went to their website and was fairly impressed with the available cartridges. I also ran across Advanced Long Range Systems, while I was browsing the gallery on CeraKote's website, and looked them up. They seem to be a bit higher priced than the Zel, which may or may not be indicators of a good product. I would definitely make sure you have communicated with an owner of any brand/ maker and received realistic feedback, before taking the plunge, but that's just my $.02. Good Luck, -PC- |
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I emailed zel custom last night and I got a reply on a sunday! Not what I was expecting but great customer service. I got answers to most of my questions and I am strongly considering a Spartan. I would like a mag fed upper but there is something like a 5month backlog according to their site.
As far as November goes I am not sure about the panic buyers. I really dont see gun control on the top of anyone's agenda right now. They have to deal with the economic disaster, gas prices, and the wining from the state and local governments that they have to actually pay their employees retirement and health insurance instead of purchasing expensive trivial BS. I think the only thing that might get banned eventually will be 50cal stuff but not bc of an election. If the gov really wanted cash they would reinstate machine gun builds with a $200 or even $500 one time tax. They could also remove the fingerprint and LEO sign off requirement as well. Enough of that political talk, I would be interested in hearing what anyone else thinks of these uppers. A good source of singleshot lowers? Also I was looking at eventually loading my own and once heard something about not to shoot API rounds out of a weapon with a muzzle brake. Anyone shot any out of the zel custom brake? |
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