Should I buy a NEA AR?

I dont own NEA products, but I was in your shoes, I was very interested in buying a homegrown product and supporting Canadian industry so when I started hearing about their problems and I dont mean politics I took my time to follow a lot of what was being said.

I concluded that NEA was hit or miss, eg: items they were sourcing were not always consistent. So although I believe they are quite capable of producing a solid product I just simply didnt feel like taking a risk with my hard earned $$ and decided to spend it on an American product. I thought it was kinda of sad because I really excited about the prospect of having a "Made in Canada" AR.

Maybe in a few years when NEA has left their issues behind they will be worth a 2nd glance from me.
 
Ryan I spoke with a lady in your store today. If you would have had one in stock I probably would have ordered it. Now I will save for a DD, but will not rule out NEA. I suspect that the rifles are worth $1100. I remember when the Norinco first became big there were numerous haters that said they were garbage.
I wish there was a local range that had a few NEA rifles. It would be nice to get them in the hands of more shooters to broaden the feedback.
 
I asked before... but are there any other authorized KAC importers other then yourself farmboy... and whats the deal with these other dealers and how do they get guns in country ?
 
L337 said:
I dont own NEA products, but I was in your shoes, I was very interested in buying a homegrown product and supporting Canadian industry so when I started hearing about their problems and I dont mean politics I took my time to follow a lot of what was being said.

I concluded that NEA was hit or miss, eg: items they were sourcing were not always consistent. So although I believe they are quite capable of producing a solid product I just simply didnt feel like taking a risk with my hard earned $$ and decided to spend it on an American product. I thought it was kinda of sad because I really excited about the prospect of having a "Made in Canada" AR.

Maybe in a few years when NEA has left their issues behind they will be worth a 2nd glance from me.
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I have two 7.5" PDWs that have gone through about 1000 rounds each so far. no problems. NONE. except that I have to buy more ammo
 
easysauce said:
I
my norinco has no such warrenty... a knights, lmt stag, S&W ect... you are SOL if something goes wrong... so while you may only have a 2% chance of something going wrong with those brands as opposed to say a 5% chance with NEA (no where near that high... but haters will spew torrents of hate if i dont at least say NEA is more then 2x likely to fail then any other brand)
where as NEA will 100% take care of you...
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I am not interested in debating brands, but will correct your incorrect statement about the one we distribute in bold. Stag Arms have a LIFETIME WARRANTY that is 100% backed in Canada and have way way way less than the 2% fault ratio you surmise. In 7 years of distributing Stag Arms in Canada, every rifle with a lifetime warranty, thousands of rifles, our returned parts bin remains a small shoe box that is less than 25% full. We never send bad parts back to Connecticut because we don't get bad parts in the first place. It is probably the biggest advantage of Stag Arms for retailers as well as rifle buyers. The guns get sold and they don't come back.

Our rifles and parts are manufactured by the manufacturer (this may sound strange but not if you actually know the industry). CMT is to the best of my knowledge the second longest producing DOD M16 FOW parts manufacturers in the United States behind Colt themselves, 8 miles away. CMT is a quiet titan in the M16/M4 manufacturing industry and history. They do not make better M16/M4 FOW parts, and by extension, rifles. Experience counts when it comes to the manufacture of small arms and CMT/Stag Arms have that experience and capacity in spades.

We are very proud of the service these Stag Arms firearms perform in civilian sporting use, law enforcement, and military service in Canada and abroad. We stand by the product 100%.

I have recently heard that Stag Arms will extend their lifetime warranties beyond the initial customer as it currently stands. Think about this. If true, why would they do this? It can only be because their rifles are excellent and their return rates are ridiculously low. I personally own three Stags with over 10K rounds (one over 15K) that have not required any service AT ALL. I have also never personally owned a Stag Arms rifle that didn't work. They JUST WORK. I don't think about my rifle functioning or not breaking when I am shooting. I think about all the other bits, like breathing and trigger control, moving and firing accurately and quickly. My ammunition. My sight picture. Those things. I am like that about firearms and I am like this about other tools I need to do a job, even if that tool is being used for recreation.

Returns suck for the customer who wastes time and sometimes money, the vendor in lost time dealing with customers with broken guns, the manufacturer, everyone.

We are blessed to sell a quality product from a quality manufacturer. We are proud to stand behind every Stag Arms rifle in Canada.
 
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Runningfool said:
You really know so little and make such large leaps in judgement that you are an embarrassment to the legitimate anti-NEA folk on this board!

When NEA pays for a warranty issue to be shipped back to them, pays someone to work on it, pays for the parts, and then pays to ship it back to the customer you don't think this costs them "cash money"???? What do you think they pay with, Monopoly money?

I don't know anyone at NEA, I've never met any of them, never even spoke with them on the phone but I would love it if you could go to their shop, meet the real people that work there, see the kind of challenges that they face (I know, I know, you are a top notch machinist and you do some very exacting work but I am guessing that they face different challenges than your shop does and vice versa), see the product that is coming out now, and then talk to them like you do here. And I suppose your reply to that will be something along the lines of, "You bet I would!" cause that's just what Internet tough-guys say in these kind of situations.
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You can love NEA if you want to thats up to you. But the bottom line is this; no matter what the challenges they face are, there is no excuse whatever for the crap they have willingly let out the door. Even if I went to NEA, there is nothing I could do for them. There is no way I know of to make people care about the work they do, I can't teach pride in your work. I can't explain to them why "the supplier sent us bad parts" is not an acceptable reason to ship guns with soft out of spec trigger parts. I can't explain why when a gun is assembled and the sling plate blocks the cocking handle, its not OK to just send it out as "good enough". I have no problem with telling people the truth. The best part about being a toolmaker is that the mics never lie, the part is correct or its not. Everyone makes mistakes but there is no excuse for shipping mistakes to paying customers. If telling the truth about something makes me an "internet tough guy" then so be it.
 
Black slide said:
I own a Norinco AR which has greatly exceeded expectations, however I would like to upgrade.

Will a more 'GUCCI' rifle be more reliable and durable than my Norinco CQ. I am looking for quality.

My Norinco has never missed a beat and is accurate as hell for $700.

I might be putting my Norinco CQ up on the EE. Has roughly 400 rds. Kept clean, comes with 1 norc mag, 1 pmag and a 36" tactical NCstar bag.

Thank you for any feedback.
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My 2 cents... KEEP your Norinco!

Buy a more b&*^%ing "GUCCI" AR if you want, but from what I see regarding your Norinco, you should not get rid of it...

If you do sell it, someone is going to get a good deal on a reliable rifle...

Cheers
Jay
 
I asked before... but are there any other authorized KAC importers other then yourself farmboy...
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No.


and whats the deal with these other dealers and how do they get guns in country ?
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The amount of US distributors and dealers has grown quite a bit, most of which are eager to expand their market and ship products to Canada without being familier with ITAR.

There are also a number of export services now who don't stock product but charge a fee for doing the paperwork, and don't concern themselves with exclusives.

Then there are companies like Brownells who have "dealer/industry" pricing and are willing to export. Some of these though like Brownells respect exclusives were others don't.

As well some dealers have mail boxes or an entity in the US and have items shipped there, then just drive down and pick it up.
 
Thanks to dangertree (Arms East) and Farmboy (One Shot Tactical) for helping to straighten out some of the crap that was floating around here about warranty issues wrt some of the US-based firearms. Great to hear facts from people who actually do this for a living. Nice to have you in our corner. :)
 
blaxsun said:
Appreciate the well thought-out reply, thanks. So out of curiosity (and so you don't continue to keep us in suspense), which would be the one you'd keep?
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Of the ones I currently own, the S&W M&P 15-22. Mag capacity being the deciding factor.

If I was to extrapolate on the idea of only one lower, that would be easy. All my lowers but the Dlask (I have the most invested in this lower) would go and I would keep the uppers, sell the 15-22 and build the dedicated 22LR upper.

Sometimes people ask me why not just minimize to one lower with a closet full of uppers? Why not, is my response. The lower is just about the cheapest part of any build/rifle. Why not have one for each upper?

Cheers!
 
blaxsun said:
Interesting (honestly didn't expect that). So are we talking the 50-round drums or the 25-round magazines? The only thing that I don't like about .22LR is that it's a PITA to load.
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Both mags. 10s, 25s and 50s for that matter.....

I would have to agree about 22 being a pain to load, I have large fingers. They have been described as "sausage" fingers! lol!

By the same token I think that 30 rnd AR mags would be a pain to load as well!

Cheers!
 
TinkerBell said:
I asked before... but are there any other authorized KAC importers other then yourself farmboy... and whats the deal with these other dealers and how do they get guns in country ?
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Just to be clear, OST is the official importer and distributor. That means that they supply KAC products to other dealers. We carry KAC guns obtained through OST for instance.
 
I was under the impression all ITAR controlled rifles needed paper work to go back to the states for work, thanks for the correction dangertree glad to hear at least stag has some local warranty repair facilities
 
dangertree said:
I am not interested in debating brands, but will correct your incorrect statement about the one we distribute in bold. Stag Arms have a LIFETIME WARRANTY that is 100% backed in Canada and have way way way less than the 2% fault ratio you surmise. In 7 years of distributing Stag Arms in Canada, every rifle with a lifetime warranty, thousands of rifles, our returned parts bin remains a small shoe box that is less than 25% full. We never send bad parts back to Connecticut because we don't get bad parts in the first place. It is probably the biggest advantage of Stag Arms for retailers as well as rifle buyers. The guns get sold and they don't come back.

Our rifles and parts are manufactured by the manufacturer (this may sound strange but not if you actually know the industry). CMT is to the best of my knowledge the second longest producing DOD M16 FOW parts manufacturers in the United States behind Colt themselves, 8 miles away. CMT is a quiet titan in the M16/M4 manufacturing industry and history. They do not make better M16/M4 FOW parts, and by extension, rifles. Experience counts when it comes to the manufacture of small arms and CMT/Stag Arms have that experience and capacity in spades.

We are very proud of the service these Stag Arms firearms perform in civilian sporting use, law enforcement, and military service in Canada and abroad. We stand by the product 100%.

I have recently heard that Stag Arms will extend their lifetime warranties beyond the initial customer as it currently stands. Think about this. If true, why would they do this? It can only be because their rifles are excellent and their return rates are ridiculously low. I personally own three Stags with over 10K rounds (one over 15K) that have not required any service AT ALL. I have also never personally owned a Stag Arms rifle that didn't work. They JUST WORK. I don't think about my rifle functioning or not breaking when I am shooting. I think about all the other bits, like breathing and trigger control, moving and firing accurately and quickly. My ammunition. My sight picture. Those things. I am like that about firearms and I am like this about other tools I need to do a job, even if that tool is being used for recreation.

Returns suck for the customer who wastes time and sometimes money, the vendor in lost time dealing with customers with broken guns, the manufacturer, everyone.

We are blessed to sell a quality product from a quality manufacturer. We are proud to stand behind every Stag Arms rifle in Canada.
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Okay, hang on. Let's imagine for the sake of argument that I get a Stag that doesn't run (and don't infer from my membership at M4C that I am anti-Stag!). Then what? Let's imagine a scenario in which, say, the chamber was somehow cut with a worn-out bit, and is consequently a little tight.

Do you replace the barrel? Or does it go back to Stag?

Or what if, again just for the sake of argument, there is an issue with the pin holes in the lower. Or the threading is a little off for the receiver extension. Something odd. Something that is not easily sorted by a simple parts replacement. Something, say, that you can't diagnose on the spot. Then what?

Then do you have to sort out export/import permits, and send it back to CMT? Do you have a Stag-approved gunsmith on site to deal with any issues that do crop up?

I appreciate that issues with Stag guns are rare. I don't mean to be argumentative. This is pure curiosity (from a guy who, incidentally, recommends Stags regularly, and specifically recommends Arms East Stags for a number of reasons) in regards to the process of solving issues that aren't obvious. At what point does the gun go back to the manufacturer?
 
We have DD's, Windhams and an NEA lower/DD upper gun available. 12.5" guns should be in stock for immediate purchase shortly. I have 7 more people to offer them to before I release them from preorder.
 
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