Red x arms upper build....so unhappy

[draco41]

First off I'm not gonna bust on them, just want to share my bad experience.  I built this last fall as my 2nd DPMS base build. My 1st build was great, shooting half moa even on a bad day . Decided to give Red x arms a try so I bought a 20" upper. The lower is a DPMS with an AR Gold trigger w/ Magpul furniture . The scope is an IOR Valdada 3x18-42 ffp. Problem...it won't shoot any better then 10" groups at 100 yrds. I even had the barrel recrowned, still no good. I even verified the scope by mounting it on the other build. So..it looks like a new barrel is my next choice.  Anyone here have any experience with Fulton armory barrels? Would also like to hear from other members who have Red x barrels.

[Robocop1051]

10" groups at 100 yards is unimaginable... I can't even begin to think that a bad barrel would be that bad.

You say you had the barrel re-crowned, so I'm assuming you already disassembled and rebuilt the upper to check for issues? Perhaps you are shooting too heavy a bullet with too open of a twist. Are you slinging 180gr out of a 1:12 barrel? If I had a 10" group with a supposed "target" barrel, I'd be out to beat someone!

I believe MADUCE owns one of these, but I'm not sure he's shot his yet. Perhaps he'll chime in here for some better answers.

[draco41]

Sorry, forgot to mention I was shooting 168 and 175 GMM.

[Matt.Cross]

There are a lot of variables that could be behind this. Your receiver face or barrel shoulder or possibly both may not be square and flush to one another, or your barrel nut may have been incorrectly installed. Robocop's suggestions are good ones and I would exhaust the least expensive fix options first. Have you spoken to the people you purchased it from yet?

[survivalshop]

I assume the hand guard is a one piece unit that includes the barrel nut . I have seen them have bad threads or miss aligned threads & or  barrel flange face.( Long shot )

I would call the bbl. manufacturer & see what they say , never know .

I would inspect the chamber  & rifling , could have a screwed up chamber or throat. Like was said , a lot of things could cause the problem .

Fulton barrels are top notch in my book .

[draco41]

Unfortunately the warranty was voided the second the barrel was recrowned. It was done using a 11 degree cutter from Brownell's,  so the barrel was not removed. I don't know the condition of the barrel extension or receiver face or threads.

[draco41]

The tools to disassemble my upper arrived today, so I went to work. the FFT barrel nut was tight as hell and also had locktite . The receiver threads and extension look fine. Cleaned all the parts and reassembled dry. My next question is , How much play should there be between the receiver and the extension? I don't expect it to be a press fit, but should there be "wobble"? It is kind of loose.

[washguy]

Hi Draco  Of the three mega ma10 builds using rainier barrels ..on all three the barrel was pretty darn tight going into the upper receiver  :)  Wash

[draco41]

Thanks Wash, on any of the AR-15 builds I have done, they too have been pretty snug. I just measured the extension and the receiver and got 1.1880" on the receiver I.D. and 1.1845" on the extension O.D. That's .0035" difference. Not a lot, but not tight either. This low cost upper is not turning out to be so low cost. <dontknow>

[washguy]

Thanks Wash, on any of the AR-15 builds I have done, they too have been pretty snug. I just measured the extension and the receiver and got 1.1880" on the receiver I.D. and 1.1845" on the extension O.D. That's .0035" difference. Not a lot, but not tight either. This low cost upper is not turning out to be so low cost. <dontknow>

EXACTLY !    :)  Wash

[Jgun]

I'm not sure if I would be inclined to attribute 10" groups to that .0035" clearance. I think a bad chamber/barrel is a more likely explanation, but if you rule that out and are still concerned about the upper/barrel extension clearance, you can easily cut a piece of .0015" stainless shim stock (available from MSC or McMaster Carr) and wrap it around the extension to remove virtually all the clearance. You could also consider the lapping if you wanted, but I really doubt that alone could cause the kind of groups your talking about. I think you should take a close look at chamber/ammo. By the way, even if the warranty is void due to the recrown, I'd still give the MFG a call just to inquire about it. If they value their reputation, they may be willing to take a look at it anyway, and if the problem is due to their work they may do the right thing, there are some really good people running some of these companies.

[craignmullis]

I ordered a $450 item along with $265 in accessories. The items malfunctioned and I attempted to contact RedX by phone, but the phone message said to send an email. I started an email thread where I contacted them 12 times and they responded only 3 times. I asked for assistance, reimbursement for postage for returned items, and requested that someone in management contact me to discuss this business transaction. I spent $64.51 to send all items back so that they could determine what was wrong. The postage included insurance since the cost of the items was over $700. They only responded that they wouldn’t pay for the postage. RedX did state that there was a defect, ‘The chamber was finished roughly and causing the problems you were having. An error in the machining process.’ I did receive all the parts from RedX and they functioned correctly. However, when I cleaned the parts after functionally checking them out, I found excessive carbon buildup and wear marks that indicated used parts were sent to me and not new parts. During this process it occurred to me to check if the Better Business Bureau had any information on this company. I found that RedX has an ‘F’ rating on the BBB. I should have checked before making a purchase.

[blue109]

Can't say I've ever heard anything good about them. One of the many businesses that owes it's success to the great gun parts shortage. When all the reputable places went dry, the bottom feeders cleaned up with huge profit margins on low end stuff.

 

Zombie thread response for relevancy...redX still sucks.

Edited October 2, 2016 by blue109

[unforgiven]

To bad you didn't mention you're direction of build ahead of time brother. Good luck getting your money back..