I bought it myself with money I earned at my regular day job, and which I EMT'd to Jeff last week. The gun is a rack gun and in fact the upper was changed at the last minute so there should be no time to tune it for me. There was minor annoyance on the part of NEA staff at having to suddenly switch uppers at the last second - the transfer already went through so there was no way to keep the whole gun intact, and they had to build an upper on the spot to get the latest barrel extension on my gun. That was annoying for them as they were in the middle of moving and renovating their shop and it was probably a bit inconvenient to suddenly screw around with my rifle.
So it's not tuned at all. You could argue that a random gun from a dealer would be more fair but honestly, this gun just went together at the last minute after a conversation Jeff and I had. We specifically discussed the whole issue of tuning the gun for me and it was not done and would not be practical to attempt just because of the time frame involved, and the sudden change of uppers at the last minute. It's just a rack grade NEA. If it weren't for the fact that there is a specific lower on the gun, they wouldn't have even had a particular one to mess around with. Jeff wasn't really thrilled about having a specific gun to have to send me, just because he had a few ready guns he could have sent otherwise when we first talked about doing this a few months back.
They discounted it slightly, mainly because the lower it's built on is a cosmetic reject that wouldn't have been allowed out any more (and they fought me on getting it at all) but I had specified a specific serial number months ago, so they eventually agreed to let me have that lower, even though it would be a reject now, for cosmetic reasons only. To get the very slight discount that I got I had to promise not to fixate on the finish of the lower.
Of course for me that's a total non-issue so that was never a concern. I've seen enough ugly Colts that ran like clockwork that I couldn't care less. I think they were mainly concerned that I would post a bunch of close-ups of the lower, which isn't representative of their current stuff.
We talked about possibly getting me a new lower in the near future, as soon as they get caught up on other stuff. I believe they will be donating the new lower, but that's as close as this gets to being "sponsored". And it hasn't happened yet, and if they took offense to any comments I made about the gun and wouldn't send me another lower I couldn't care less. A lower is worth a hundred and fifty bucks or so...hardly an amount that would interest me enough to change the outcome of a review. If they decide not to send me a newer lower, I really won't care. In fact the only use I would have would be for taking close-ups, because I'll be running it with the lower it's on, so a second lower is not particularly useful to me at this time anyway.
I'm not really interested in trading reviews for guns. It wouldn't affect the review, but it would affect the perception of the review.
We also discussed a couple of tuned LPK parts that they might send me, but they're not in the gun. If they'd wanted to send me a cheater rifle, they would have just put their tuned parts in, rather than explain what they're playing around with and then making me promise not to show anyone if they send me any.
I would say that this is a much greater level of disclosure than you would get from 99% of testers and you now have a high degree of insight in to the internal aspects of this whole project. I have been on the internet long enough to know that you can never make everybody happy, but this test is going to be about as honest and as detailed as I can find a way to make it.
Here is the only disclaimer I'll give: I like the guys at NEA. Unlike most here, I've talked to them quite a bit, and there is a lot of stuff that they do that very few people here realize in terms of honest self-improvement. There is also a lot that they have done that's been severely misinterpreted, and knowing Jeff I know he really struggles with that. So I am rooting for them to win in the long run.
Of course they've also done some pretty public, pretty boneheaded things. But it's not like they aren't aware of it. It's like everything else on the internet: there is the internet persona, and there's the real person. The real guys at NEA are not at all the way some here probably imagine. They're good guys who f**ked up some things and can't figure out how to shake it off. A real shame.
But that's neither here nor there. I am a devotee of the Glock 17, and anyone who reads the pistol forum knows that I slammed the Gen 4 all over the place for its issues. I love the 1911 more than any other pistol and I absolutely rip the f**k out of 95% of 1911 manufacturers. I like NEA and I like the guys at NEA and I want their rifles to turn out well. But I'll be logging rounds and recording performance, not writing about my feelings. If the gun chokes, I'll say so. If I notice premature wear on a surface, I'll say so. If it won't group, I'll say so. The best way to help NEA is to just be honest IMO. If the gun is good, I'll tell you. If it isn't, I'll tell you and I'll tell them what I think it needs.
But I suspect it will be pretty good.
