Bought my first AR - NEA in 7.62x39

TheWhole9Yards said:
Got the upper in the mail today. Looks like they replaced the bolt with the updated unit mentioned earlier in this thread. The wear on the parts tells me they did more testing than they did in original production, makes me feel more comfortable with the repair and gives me some confidence in shooting it.

I'll be installing a wolf xp hammer spring tomorrow to ensure minimal light strikes, and have a range report saturday evening. Fingers crossed!
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Wear a full helmet when you do, and I'm not joking.
 
TheWhole9Yards said:
Well it finally happened, decided to buy my first AR. Not a fan of the DA/Norcs and I have a ton of Surplus 7.62x39 kicking around, so only made sense to pick up one the gen2 NEAs in x39 w/ 14.5" barrel.

My plan is to update this thread with my experience with this rifle, good or bad. Also what it is capable of in the hands of a novice, with various optics and ammo.

I'll have an unboxing video up shortly, if anyone has any specific questions about the rifle let me know and I'll do my best to help you out.

I've read all the hate regarding this rifle, still didn't sway me from buying it. Seems most vendors are sold out so I'm hoping some other owners can come out of the shadows and share some info regarding their experience.

Please don't comment unless you have something constructive to add, would really like to focus specifically on the rifle and not its related history/politics.

Here it is!



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my apologies...

...wait did you read any of the threads about NEA on here???
 
redshooter said:
No kidding? We already know that in the past they had a real problem with QC/Inventory Control. I don't give a crap what you do in your shop, I give a crap what NEA does going forward. If this part failure is the leading edge of a defective batch we'll know soon enough won't we? As for recalls, for all we know some clown dropped a part under a machine and grabbed one from the defective batch to replace it, none required, or maybe it's ongoing. I realize your likely a young fella, and you may find that hard to believe of co-workers, but there's plenty of lazy sacks of crap that would do that very thing...in any shop, if the place you work is big enough it'll happen there too one day...unless there's a supervisor for each worker.

It's too bad you didn't study stats to go along with your manufacturing expertise (a little psychology too). If you did you'd realize that there is a difference in how you perceive it and how it really is, especially when it come to the circus that always forms around an NEA thread. There is a group here who do nothing but create a negative vibe in every NEA thread, making it difficult to sort through the facts...think of it as unintentional smoke and mirrors (prob some intentional too). I want real numbers...and until then I'd ask the guys who have nothing to add to please shut their cake holes. I suspect what you'd find is if you remove the known batch related failures, that other defects are in line with other manufactures.

I've wasted too much time trying to reason with...what, anti-fanboys? The best part is I have no skin in this game. I'm going to do my best to ignore NEA threads going forward.
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When you hire the right people you don't need to supervise them like that, If they are leaving known defective parts laying around at NEA then somebody needs to get fired. Known defectives and suspect parts are kept in a locked cage where I work, until they are destroyed. As for what NEA does going forward, I will lay some psychology on you, the best indicator of future behavior, is past behavior.
 
mg4201 said:
That looks like a used carrier to me too, look at how the finish is worn on the cam pin as well, those are not new parts. Wow, just wow.
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Its my original carrier, they told me they didn't replace it. Based on the dirt found in the bolt and muzzle brake I'm confident its from them test firing the rifle before sending it out.

If I didn't find wear I would be more concerned and to be honest unhappy they didn't fire it themselves. That would mean they swapped parts, didn't test anything and officially elected me as a guinea pig. Don't get me wrong, I have some serious apprehension towards shooting this rifle, but seeing that someone there has already taken that plunge makes me more comfortable.

Updated bolt seems to support the idea I ended up the older production rifle that has made them so famous. I hope that means people who have recently purchased from CanAm or other dealers have a more reliable firearm.

We'll see what happens this weekend, I'll bring my gopro and some spare batteries to make sure I catch any events on film this time. If all goes well I'll report back after 500+ rounds through the rifle.
 
TheWhole9Yards said:
Got the upper in the mail today. Looks like they replaced the bolt with the updated unit mentioned earlier in this thread. The wear on the parts tells me they did more testing than they did in original production, makes me feel more comfortable with the repair and gives me some confidence in shooting it.

I'll be installing a wolf xp hammer spring tomorrow to ensure minimal light strikes, and have a range report saturday evening. Fingers crossed!

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well you know its a new week and one hasnt blown up yet...
 
TheWhole9Yards said:
Its my original carrier, they told me they didn't replace it. Based on the dirt found in the bolt and muzzle brake I'm confident its from them test firing the rifle before sending it out.

If I didn't find wear I would be more concerned and to be honest unhappy they didn't fire it themselves. That would mean they swapped parts, didn't test anything and officially elected me as a guinea pig. Don't get me wrong, I have some serious apprehension towards shooting this rifle, but seeing that someone there has already taken that plunge makes me more comfortable.

Updated bolt seems to support the idea I ended up the older production rifle that has made them so famous. I hope that means people who have recently purchased from CanAm or other dealers have a more reliable firearm.

We'll see what happens this weekend, I'll bring my gopro and some spare batteries to make sure I catch any events on film this time. If all goes well I'll report back after 500+ rounds through the rifle.
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did you ask them about NDE results?
 
Put 530 rounds through it yesterday. Rifle performed flawlessly!

The mag that came with the rifle works great, the ones I picked up from epps not so much. They wont feed properly if loaded to 10rounds, and by feed I mean fit in the mag well properly. Seems the pressure of being loaded to capacity causes the upper part of the mag to seperate at the top. One mags had 3 spot welds fail.

I'll post a range review video by mid week with the mag issues explained better.

 
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Those mags with the white follower appear to be E-Lander mags, rebranded NEA. They are usually very good quality, I'm surprised to see the deformation.
 
Well I managed to stay away for a few days...

Glad it's working well for you and they continue to provide good warranty service.

Kevin M. said:
That doesn't skew the results at all...:confused:
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It depends on what results you're trying to draw conclusions from...old data is just that.

Go talk to your QC guy Kevin...but don't give him your take on what I said, let him read it. It makes perfect sense, I'm suggesting all but a handful of defects are related to failures of batches of parts made elsewhere. Granted that's a seat of the pants feel if you will, but I'd challenge anyone to go back through the threads here and give me an honest estimate of their defects. It's not unreasonable to remove the bolts etc. from this as this is well known, and we want the current stats, we know they had some serious screw ups in the past.

MG4201, I'm glad you didn't respond to the comment about your age, it wasn't meant as an insult. I can't speak for NEA as I've never been in their plant, but I have been in a few places that do similar things. Savage for instance, in both Lakefield and Westfield, The size of both places makes close supervision difficult, if not impossible. I can also tell you that my experience with Savage rifles is their QC is pretty bad and their rifles shoot very well for factory. Remington is another with dodgey QC. I'm not saying NEA's QC/Inventory control is good, I'm saying it's likely typical of other large manufactures.

I'm pretty sure someone mentioned Honda in this ongoing discourse...I made Honda auto parts for a bit. Believe me they don't check every part, it's been awhile, but I think it was at best 1 in 10, and some depending on where you were in the line, not at all.

If you could only read one source of information on NEA rifles, I'd suggest to get anything approaching an honest evaluation of the current crop you go somewhere other than here. If it all came from here you'd be forgiven for thinking NEA rifles come packed with explosives...provide your own detonator.

I still stand by my assertion that NEA rifles are no better or worse than any other middle of the road AR builder. You disagree? Tell you what, prove me wrong! Find me more than a handful of NEA failures where there was a serious injury/death, or dozens of random part failures. I know someone is going to reply, "haven't you read these threads?", and yes I have, and no I haven't seen anything to lead me to believe that random part failures are any worse than anyone else.

IF you feel you need to toss this ball back at me, show me a little respect. What I mean by that is actually go back and do a little mental arithmetic when re-reading these threads. Now hit Google and find me those all those problems from NZ, SA, etc. If your just going to repeat the same old tired #### save it...perhaps just blowing a fart in my face will be better.

Before someone jumps on the handful of failures leading to injury/death, it's a statistical certainty that a few rifles will fail catastrophically across the board, due to ammo, out of battery discharge, or carless handling, regardless of who made them. As for the others, I've seen it claimed it just exploded, but that's just taking someone at their word.
 
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