.22 LR Dedicated Upper Receiver from Atlantic Firearms

[Schuetzenman]

I ordered the Atlantic Firearms dedicated .22 LR AR15 upper on Friday a week ago and it shipped on Wednesday January 28th and arrived on the 30th of January. Not bad, I was very happy for the quick shipment given the crush of orders in the market place. :up: to Atlantic for fast shipping.

Now for the rest of the story. Friday the 30th, yesterday it arrived ground Fed-X in good shape, it was professionally packed. Another :up: to Atlantic for packing the goods well. Upon opening the package and wading through all the packing materiels I finally spied my M4gery .22 LR dedicated barreled upper! :jumping:

The final layer of wrapping was a large dry cleaners like bag, clear and very thin and wispy. The upper was oiled well as I found out. Oh joy! Then I start giving the upper careful scrutiny. As my eyes trace down the length to the receiver ... ? What's this .... awe the flat top receiver is plastic and it doesn't even have a dust cover on the ejection port. :( Well I think to myself, "not what I would of preferred but it will probably work".
http://www.gunsnet.net/album/data//500/22_LR_dedicated_upper_polymer_receiver.jpg
Notice how the manufacturer, who is unknown to me at this time, took mass out of the ejector deflector bulge by slitting it. If this had been left solid it would of present big problems in controlling the quality of this injection molded upper. The forward assist has some kind of funky swivel base pinned in to it. It spins around but does not function as a forward assist. Frankly the Atcheson type bolt group couldn't utilize one anyway so no big loss from a function point of view, but it does detract from the visual presentation of the upper receiver. I also get that impression from it not having an ejector port cover.

Next I scanned back up to the front sight / gas block and it takes me a few seconds to realize what it is I'm looking at.
http://www.gunsnet.net/album/data//500/22_LR_dedicated_upper_front_sight.jpg
Have you all figured it out yet? No taper pin, roll pin or set screws to secure it to the barrel IS the problem. I was able to grab that sight and twist it off with only about 30 LBS. of force. Now THIS IS A HUGE QULITY PROBLEM! How can an upper receiver shoot worth a damn if the front sight can be easily bumped off alignment? :wtf:

Ok that was the last straw for me ......... rebuild time! I had a real forged A3 flat top receiver with T marks and a flip up YHM front gas block BUIS in my inventory of goodies anyway so first thing this moring out came the tools! After 30 mintues this reborn .22 LR upper emerged like a Phoenix from the ashes of failure IMO.

http://www.gunsnet.net/album/data//500/Rebuilt_22_LR_dedicated_Upper.jpg

Last details of this review, the upper as it came to me had a dirty bore and the Black Dog Machine 27 round magazine was also dirty with gunpowder soot. So I guess who ever builds them does test fire the units, or Atlantic shipped me a demo piece they were goofing with. Which is the truth of the matter I do not know. Not a big problem really, that's what Hoppes is for. :)

Final conclusion, I can not recommend this upper to the average person. If you have no tools and expected a drop on .22 LR upper that was trouble free, this isn't the one to get. If otoh you are handy, (have tools and don't mind dropping another $200 bucks to upgrade it to where it is actually worth having) it's a good stepping stone to what should be a quality upper in .22 LR.

[ATLANTIC FIREARMS]

Thank for the review on the upper , good info to know , please feel free to ship the unit back and we will be glad to refund your money and pay any return ship fees. So far we have had no negative feedback on the uppers.

[Schuetzenman]

Thanks for the offer, I'll not be shipping it back unless the bolt group fails for some reason. The cost of a .22 LR bolt conversion system and a dedicated .22 LR barrel would equal the cost of this upper from Atlantic Firearms. So it's a wash on cost, nothing gained, nothing lost really.

The review isn't meant to bash Atlantic in any way. Rather it is meant to highlight for you and any potential consumers possible short comings of this product. Your feed back about the front sight not really being secured to the barrel to the manufacturer could result in a corrected product that will serve you and your customers better in the long run.

[ATLANTIC FIREARMS]

10 -4 , if there are issues with any products we offer we want to know , this allows us to keep a eye out for this in future shipments and we also pass the info along to the factory .

[Schuetzenman]

Small update, due to input from another member I now know there is a means of securing the front sight to the barrel. It is not optimal in execution which is probably why my sight was able to move. There is an allen set screw under the sling swivel. It seems impossible to get to it with the swivel in place. I think one would have to punch out the rivet and remove the swivel to gain access to the set screw for tightening.

Next about that screw, flat as hell on the bottom, not the sort of cupped point shape that one usually finds on them. Looks to be ground off by the makers. I assume they have a fixture to aligne these front sight gas blocks. If so IMO they should drill and tap into the barrel a bit so that a slightly longer screw can be used to locate the sight and secure it sufficiently.

I examined my sight further after learning of the set screw. Running my finger in the barrel loop that has the screw I can not feel it at surface level or above which speaks to why mine was easily moved. The screw was not putting any force on the barrel at all.