Tennessee Arms Company?

[Guest tnarmsco]

 are you planning on building just a polymer copy of an existing reciever?

 

No, we aren't making a carbon copy and making a mold. We are using a DPMS style AR-10 receiver as a base for us to work with. We have just finished a 3D scan and have a designer working on a computer model before we send it out to get a mold cut.  Ours will still use our brass inserts in the buffer tube and pistol grip but we do plan on beefing it up where it needs to have added stregnth. Glad to hear you might try us out. If you do ever see one of our lowers out in the wild, just hold one and you'll see a noticable difference in how our lower feels compared to a 100% poly lower.

[DangerDanJD]

Are you guys planning on something similar to the DPMS Gen I or the Gen II receiver? I know the Gen II receiver is smaller which may be a bad thing for polymer. The Gen II seems to be a step forward by making the 308 in a smaller package. Just curious. You guys are the experts. 

 

No, we aren't making a carbon copy and making a mold. We are using a DPMS style AR-10 receiver as a base for us to work with. We have just finished a 3D scan and have a designer working on a computer model before we send it out to get a mold cut.  Ours will still use our brass inserts in the buffer tube and pistol grip but we do plan on beefing it up where it needs to have added stregnth. Glad to hear you might try us out. If you do ever see one of our lowers out in the wild, just hold one and you'll see a noticable difference in how our lower feels compared to a 100% poly lower.

[Guest tnarmsco]

Are you guys planning on something similar to the DPMS Gen I or the Gen II receiver? I know the Gen II receiver is smaller which may be a bad thing for polymer. The Gen II seems to be a step forward by making the 308 in a smaller package. Just curious. You guys are the experts. 

David is the subject matter expert on that one. He is currently in Virginia Beach working with High Threat Concealment on a couple projects. I'll have an answer for you Monday or Tuesday when he gets in.

[gregintenn]

When do you anticipate having your lower parts kits ready for sale?

 

Also, do you have plans for a matching polymer upper receiver?

 

Sorry for all the questions. I'm looking for parts. I have two sons, and we plan for each of them to build their own rifle. Tennessee manufactured parts would be a plus in my opinion.

Edited February 23, 2014 by gregintenn

[Guest tnarmsco]

We are VERY close to having our parts kit finished. We are just seeing how much the finishing machineing would be per kit. All the parts would be made in Tennessee. We couldn't afford a complete machine shop/forge/spring machines. But we did find companies in this state that have each of those. So indirectly we're helping to employ 50+ people ourselves included.

[gregintenn]

Sounds good.

 

So, have you tried a polymer upper receiver?

[Guest tnarmsco]

So, have you tried a polymer upper receiver?

Not yet and I don't think that is in our grand scheme of things. There is a LOT of heat going on in the upper when you fire for any amount of time. Plus you have the BCG traveling back and forth inside the upper and when you have two unlike materials rubbing together, that is going to cause friction and friction is never good. I don't think the material science is there yet for a high temp polymer to handle the glowing red hot barrel that you sometimes get with long runs of ammo. But, if they do ever come up with a blend of poly that will work, I don't see why we couldn't try it. But I don't think we're there at the moment.

[Guest tnarmsco]

This is Dave:

 

Sorry i have been away for awhile doing development work. 

 

Ill try and answer everything I have been reading but if i missed anything please let me know.

 

We are working on both a hybrid polymer Ar-10 and a Polymer hybrid single stack 1911. Neither will be carbon copies of the all metal versions because polymer has different material characteristics that make changes necessary to have a quality part. We are constantly improving our products and how our products assemble into everyone else s products. You wouldn't know it but the manufacturing tolerance variation is huge between different manufacturers.

 

We are making 300 blackout complete uppers and complete rifles. I am a huge fan of the 300 AAC

 

We have also partnered up with High Threat Concealment, Rogue Gunfighter, Inforce, Fireclean, Way of the Gun, and OSS Suppressors to make the best packages we possibly can. We work together with these companies to innovate and package our different products so they work together seamlessly. 

[MiddTennTaco]

If I am not mistaken David, the owner of TGO, will not take kindly to violating his vendor rules. He takes it extremely seriously (understandably). I would look into them very carefully and take an appropriate course of action.

 

http://www.tngunowners.com/forums/index.php?app=forums&module=extras&section=boardrules

[RC3]

Is the 1911 going to be based off the a1 or a later variant? 

[Caster]

You can easily get overwhelmed with suggestions and you can't please everyone but........you should consider offering an alternative barrel option. Not everyone is convinced the 1/7 twist rate is all that great. A 1/9 option might be a good idea. I've never been happy with 1/7 myself.

[whitewolf001]

You can easily get overwhelmed with suggestions and you can't please everyone but........you should consider offering an alternative barrel option. Not everyone is convinced the 1/7 twist rate is all that great. A 1/9 option might be a good idea. I've never been happy with 1/7 myself.

Unless you plan on shooting a REALLY heavy bullet, it's not really needed IMHO. I plan to start loading for 80gr loads in the future for my 1/7. :D

Edited March 21, 2014 by whitewolf001

[Caster]

Well, we gonna see what these buggers are made of.  I'm going to pick one up from FFL tonight.  

[Steelharp]

Well, we gonna see what these buggers are made of.  I'm going to pick one up from FFL tonight.  

Anxious to hear.

[Steelharp]

If I am not mistaken David, the owner of TGO, will not take kindly to violating his vendor rules. He takes it extremely seriously (understandably). I would look into them very carefully and take an appropriate course of action.

 

http://www.tngunowners.com/forums/index.php?app=forums&module=extras&section=boardrules

Agreed. However, David has been very busy with new baby, house, etc. I have had NO success in getting any information about becoming a vendor from ANYONE here. Hopefully, he will be somewhat lenient, once he finds time to come back to us.

[Caster]

Anxious to hear.

 

 

Well, they for one don't play games with shipping.  My FFL sent out of them like the day before yesterday.  He received the order this morning.  WOW.  He wouldn't elaborate but he did mention they are dealer friendly.  I'm guessing my dealer got a break for being an FFL and because he ordered several.  That's good.  I wanna see my new dealer prosper, that's for sure.  

 

Appearance at first glance seems to be great.  I seen one or two little sharp edges.  Not so much flashing just sharp edges.  You'd have to be one seriously anal SOB to complain...although I probably will go over some of the edges during the fitting process.  I didn't have time tonight but my upper seems to be half a hair too snug to this lower.  IMHO, that's AWESOME.  I'm more than happy to fit a tight fit than live with slop.  Everything else at first glance seems great.  I LOVE the fact it says made in TN. 

 

I'll get some build pics up....eventually.  

 

My dealer was obliged because he didn't know they existed, SO he did me a favor.  I walked with the stripped lower for $60 OTD.  How the hell can you beat that?  

kind makes me wish I had an ultra light barrel instead of this Hbar.  

[zgunbear]

How will the BATFE ruling on other Polymer lowers affect you? Is your serial number installed in such a way that removing it destroys the receiver?

[6.8 Fan]

Been interested in polymer lowers for a long time but no one ever seemed to make a decent one and some closed-up shop. It seems you have figured it out how to make them right. And you offer a .308 too! Want to build a light .308 one day. I am a 6.8 fan and will be building my next rifle with one of your lowers just as soon as I finish my current build. If you build a 6.8 rifle please contact Harrison at AR Performance for the barrels. He has perfected the 6.8 offering that Remington messed up. I am getting 3000 fps out of a 16" barrel pushing the 85 grain Barnes TSX bullet and reloaders report 3100 fps. It is awesome on coyotes, hogs and whitetails, etc... 

 

Only issue I see with your lowers so far, is cosmetic, these might be old videos, and you may have addressed this problem already. The over-flashing, rough edges and some tooling marks(circle on front/side of receiver near pivot pin) left on the receiver. Be nice if they were cleaner looking...other than that I am sold. Colors that come to mind...Coyote Brown or some kind of darker brown(daniel defense brown is nice). Gray-Blue or Blue-Gray, Navy Blue. Thanks for perfecting this lower and continued success!     

[cybernorris]

Wanna bring this discussion back to life. Am thinking of doing an AR build and like the TN connection.

Is there any more experience out there with the Tennessee Arms lowers?

[KKing]

Wanna bring this discussion back to life. Am thinking of doing an AR build and like the TN connection.

Is there any more experience out there with the Tennessee Arms lowers?

I've only had one, so a very small sample size. On the one I had, the hole for the rear takedown pin was too big. If you popped the rear pin like you would for disassembly, you had to be careful not to pull it completely out. I emailed the company via their "contact us" link on their site, but never got a response. I sold it to someone that was fine with the problem it had. If they had replied at all I'd be inclined to give them another try. Not as it stands though.

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[shotgunshooter]

My dad has two and only one is actually built. We had to take some material off the reciever so the pistol grip would fit. The holes for the takedown pins are extremely tight. The reciever also appears to be thinner than an aluminum one but I'd have to get the calipers out and see. The hole for the safety seemed a little loose but since he was fine with it I guess it doesn't matter. I doubt the complaints I have are with the parts kit but who knows. I'm all for new products but I'm not gonna bet my life on a polymer lower anytime soon. Hopefully the industry will continue to innovate.

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[quietguy]

I have used them in a couple of builds, and have another that I am about to start.  So far, I haven't had any issues with durability, hole size, etc.  

[Mindless-Focus]

I own one. Got it on super sale for the novelty of a ghost gun. 

[KKing]

I own one. Got it on super sale for the novelty of a ghost gun. 

I do want one of those for my man cave. The videos of it firing are nuts

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[Mindless-Focus]

1 minute ago, KKing said:

I do want one of those for my man cave. The videos of it firing are nuts

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I'm always building ARs for friends  and family. I've got about 20+ under my belt so far (the black rifle above is for someone else). I always love explaining what the parts are for and how things work to those interested. I've often thought of building this as a teaching tool. There is another company that makes clear uppers and I want to get one of those too. I also want to get a short barrel and cut it away to show how that works. All in all, I think it's a pretty cool receiver.