Tennessee Arms Company?

[DangerDanJD]

I came across an ad for a new AR manufacturer our of West Tennessee, Tennessee Arms Company, LLC. Their firearms are based on an in house polymer lower. The lowers are constructed largely from polymer, with the exception of a brass buffer tower insert and grip threads, which may alleviate the problems seen in some polymer lowers. They are using CMMG barrels and it appears they only offer one rifle at present, a lightweight 16 inch model.

 

I have always stayed away from polymer lowers but I am a little intrigued by theirs. The lowers are running under $50 and hey also have color options for an additional $10. Their complete rifle looks pretty nice out of the box coming with a quality rifle length rail, flip up sights, and an NP3 coated bcg (no idea what NP3 is, but it is supposed to reduce friction and aid in cleaning). They appear to be veteran owned and operated if that matters to you and also offer a lifetime guarantee on parts and assembly. I emailed them with a few questions and "Dave" got back in touch with me in less than an hour with answers. 

 

Personally, I'm excited to see a new manufacturer in Tennessee and while I'm not quite sold on a polymer lower yet, this may very well be my next AR. Does anyone have any hands on experience with any of their rifles? I haven't been able to find a single review which may be because they are so new. 

 

http://www.tnarmsco.com/

 

[nightrunner]

Looks nice. Ill have to convince myself to get a polymer lower though...

[Garufa]

Brass seems a pretty poor choice for where they are using it.

[scoutfsu]

They have a thread running on Lightfighter detailing the idea, implementation, operation, and tweaks of the idea.  They've received and handled criticism well and greatly improved upon the first generation.  I'm not a polymer AR lower guy but even I'm considering giving these a try.  They've actively been seeking suggestions and have been very forthright about the whole operation.

[DangerDanJD]

I'm in the same boat. I haven't really seen the benefit of polymer as opposed to aluminum. A stripped aluminum lower runs around 8.7oz and the polymer is listed at 5.6oz so you are saving about 3oz or 2/10 of a pound. As comparison, a set of magpul buis runs 2.5oz. Whats that old saying oz lead to pounds, pounds lead to pain? I think if I were to build off a polymer, I would try to build the absolute lightest rifle I could by using a pencil barrel and perhaps a midwest SS gen II handguard, the lightest stock I could find and polymer buis. It would be fun project. 

 

 

Looks nice. Ill have to convince myself to get a polymer lower though...

Edited February 19, 2014 by DangerDanJD

[Joseg]

The guy posting on lightfighter is a Marine Veteran, 03 something I believe, they are on the ball handling issues and concerns and improving their product, the reason for the insert what due to failure point in those areas, another manufacturer is looking at doing the same thing.

[Guest tnarmsco]

Hello, Tennessee Arms here. John actually, I'm the shipping/office manager. David is my brother and the sales/technical/design side of the business. Just want to let everyone know that we are here to answer your questions about our products. Most of our info can be found at www.tennesseearmscompany.com or our store at www.tnarmsco.com . As to another manufacturer looking into doing the same thing, we kind of have a patent pending on the use of metal inserts in the buffer tube. David will probably go more into detail on that later. Thank you to DangerDanJD for letting us know about this forum. I can answer most general questions but I'll let David know that I have signed us up on here so he can answer in more detail. Thanks guys. Edited February 20, 2014 by tnarmsco

[A.J. Holst]

Welcome John and good luck with your endeavor!

 

I know little about ARs and nothing about polymer lowers, so as a noob, what are the challenges to manufacturing a polymer lower?

 

As DangerDan posted, there is a negliable weight savings, so unless you are building a super light weight, what other advantages does a polymer lower offer?

 

Thanks,

 

GtG

[Guest tnarmsco]

what are the challenges to manufacturing a polymer lower?

 

 what other advantages does a polymer lower offer?

 

Great questions, again David will probably expound on this more tomorrow, he's out of the office for the day, but I'll answer you the best I can. One of the challanges we ran into when working with polymer was the shrinkage rate when cools after the molding process. During our first generation, our fire control group cavity was shrinking almost .02 inches between the walls. This caused a lot of headache and retooling. The main headache when manufacturing a polymer lower isn't the material, it's dealing with all that have come before us. I shouldn't say all because there are companies that manufacture quality polymer lowers. There are also those that pretty much made a carbon copy of a stock AR-15 lower and made a mold out of it, and injected it with inferior material . This practice led to a lot of cracked buffer tube collars and snaps between the buffer tube and pistol grip. Their lack of care has led to a huge black cloud being cast over the head of the polymer lower industry. Mainly one bad apple. I won't name them but...you probably already know who i'm talking about. We use only the highest quality materials and are constantly looking for the next big thing. We aren't afraid of changing our design if we find a better way or a better material. Again, David will probably go into this more than I can.

 

I have found that using polymer does has it's advantages. Polymer is not prone to leaving marks when it is scratched, so there really is no need in all the painter's tape when throwing a LPK in one of our lowers. I kind of forgot I was working with a metal upper today and dinged the ever loving hell out of it... so not having chipped equipment is always a plus. Another advantage is the ability for polymer to flex. There are videos on our site of our lower being run over in -20 degree cold with a police cruiser. We also have a video of us crushing the mag well, almost completely, in a vise and it material springs right back to it's normal shape when pressure is removed. Also, the ability to have a matching color. When you don't have to worry about going down to bare metal on a painted or cerakoted lower if you drop your gun or a punch slips during maintenance, it's a plus. The colored lowers, along with the black, are solid color all the way through. Even when we beat on the buffer tube collar with a hammer (we've done this to try and remove our brass insert) all it does is leave a scuff where the hammer hit. I don't know about the blend of polymer that other companies use but we use a blend that is close to the polymer as used for leveling blocks for pickup lift kits. It's strong stuff. These are only my opinions, I'm sure Dave will have more in the am. I'll try to check here regularly for comments but as for now I have to run and drop off a couple packages at UPS. Thanks guys

 

 

 

Edited February 19, 2014 by tnarmsco

[Steelharp]

Great to have a TN manufacturer!!

[gregintenn]

I'm thinking a 22lr upper would be cool on one of those lowers.

 

Pretty cool to learn of another Tennessee gun manufacturer.

Edited February 20, 2014 by gregintenn

[Guest tnarmsco]

We haven't tried a 22or upper yet, but on the flipside, we have ran some .50 Beowulf through one of our lowers . Kicked like a damn mule, but didn't harm the receiver whatsoever. I think they would be a great lower for the plinker/3 gun crowd to try out.

[gregintenn]

Are you guys an FFL dealer? If so, could a customer swing through Dyersburg and pick up a receiver or three in person?

 

That is a nice, clean looking website you have.

[Guest tnarmsco]

We are an FFL , not a gun shop whatsoever. I don't think we're even zoned for retail sales ,only manufacturing. But, if you were to but one or three online, we would just use the shipping fee as your transfer fee. If your a Tn buyer state tax is figured in. You would end up paying $9-$12 for the shipping/transfer. So yeah,completely doable.

Oh, thanks about the site. We use bigcommerce.com . Pretty simple layout to work with , really hard to mess it up. Edited February 20, 2014 by tnarmsco

[rugerla1]

I really like that coated NP3 BCG!!!

Edited February 20, 2014 by rugerla1

[Guest tnarmsco]

Those BCGs are awesome. Definitely a must have upgrade in any AR. It's really the only part that moves any great distance, so a lower coefficient of friction is a plus . When you pair the coating with Fire Clean , a great lube altogether, the carbon just wipes off. I lowered the price to 158.99 at the beginning of the month to keep up with Palmetto State ,it wasn't til I did some digging today that I found we are the cheapest I've found on the internet when it comes to NP3. I was just trying to stay on pace with the NiB coating. But now that Ive dropped, everyone else has gone to the 120 -140 range for NiB. I guess not having a killer overhead is where we shine in this department. We get to pass on savings to the customer and offer a superior part.

[rugerla1]

Those BCGs are awesome. Definitely a must have upgrade in any AR. It's really the only part that moves any great distance, so a lower coefficient of friction is a plus . When you pair the coating with Fire Clean , a great lube altogether, the carbon just wipes off. I lowered the price to 158.99 at the beginning of the month to keep up with Palmetto State ,it wasn't til I did some digging today that I found we are the cheapest I've found on the internet when it comes to NP3. I was just trying to stay on pace with the NiB coating. But now that Ive dropped, everyone else has gone to the 120 -140 range for NiB. I guess not having a killer overhead is where we shine in this department. We get to pass on savings to the customer and offer a superior part.

Well glad to find out about a TN company with these. That BCG is definitely on my "to buy" list.

[Guest tnarmsco]

They usually ship same day if you order before 5. Delivers to west, middle, and some of east Tn next day. Most orders going to an FFL ship when we get the FFL info. I try to stay on top of the shipping . I've seen how delays kill a companies image . We have a good one so far.

[gregintenn]

I might have missed it on your website, but are you manufacturing the bolt carrier groups in house?

[Guest tnarmsco]

I might have missed it on your website, but are you manufacturing the bolt carrier groups in house?

We use contract manufacturing for our BGC. We're still fairly new and buying a 5 axis CNC machine wasn't exacally in the budget for the first year. We do have them made to order and then we have them coated by Robar.

[DangerDanJD]

John,

 

Lots of companies make colored parts, stocks, grips, forearms, etc., Some of them match up great, some not so much. Normally the polymers match up pretty good with each other but not so much with colored aluminum parts. Do you have any comparisons of your colored receivers verses the other manufacturers colors? Specifically, I'm wondering if your colors match up with magpul/vltor FDE, OD and Foliage?  

 

Edited February 21, 2014 by DangerDanJD

[Guest tnarmsco]

Our lowers match up great with Magpul Foilage/Pink/FDE/Black. We are currently working with Magpul to get our OD to match theirs perfectly (the owner of Magpul is ex recon and so is David, he actually contacted us to ask if he could help with anything,he's a little slow to reply on emails but hey.....he owns Magpul) . So we are eventually will offer two OD. One Magpul and one lighter OD. Our current OD matches Tapco and PSA furniture and we're thinking of picking up Hoague (spelling?) They are comparable to Magpul quality wise and the rubberized grips feel great.If you go to the site we have pictures of the Foliage Pink and Black complete lowers in our complete lower section.Im taking pics of FDE tomorrow. When you select the furniture on the menu the price and picture should change. I did all of that today after we tested our mold. We're back in production as of tomorrow so I put the complete lowers on sale. Let me know if I can answer anymore of your questions. Thanks


Edit: We are looking into doing Simunition Blue as well. We are always open for color suggestions. If there is a market for a color we'll do it. That goes for laser etching logos on the mag well as well Thanks Edited February 21, 2014 by tnarmsco

[Guest semiautots]

Hey John:

 

Thank you for making Tennessee your manufacturing base.

 

Do you, or will you, do anything with a gas piston upper?  Will you offer a short barreled rifle?  How about .300 Blackout? 

 

It would be fun to have a 9 inch .300 Blk made in Tennessee.

 

Good luck to you and your company!

[Guest tnarmsco]

 

Do you, or will you, do anything with a gas piston upper?  Will you offer a short barreled rifle?  How about .300 Blackout? 

 

It would be fun to have a 9 inch .300 Blk made in Tennessee.

 

Good luck to you and your company!

We are going through the steps to get our class 3 as we speak. So we plan on doing a lot of things with SBRs and suppressors. We plan on doing all of the things you are talking about. I just can't give you a time. We are constantly picking up new parts and David is always wanting to do something new. We're still new and are in no way set in our ways. We are currently working on our DPMS style AR-10 hybrid mold. So that will be the next thing that only Tennessee Arms offers. Sorry it took me so long to reply. I have been doing secondary manufacturing work on the Gen III receivers we made today. We were only able to get 50 made today but I'm going to try to get them all shipped out by tomorrow. Busy busy busy down here.

[TrickyNicky]

AR 10 mold?! Very interested. Do you have plans to beef up the area around and below the buffer tube or are you planning on building just a polymer copy of an existing reciever?

I've got 3 polymer lowers and have been very happy with them. All function well and have stood up to the "rigors" of life as a range gun. I had decided not to buy any more polymer, but I really like what you guys are doing so far, I may have to pick up a few just because.