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Sun Devil uppers/lowers ???? any thoughts or opinions

5316 Views 33 Replies 12 Participants Last post by  sharpshooter08
I wanted to know your opinions of these products.... I was told the upper is thicker than the vltor mur....

need some feedback
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Sun Devil makes some of the best receivers on the market. I own several and have built up quite a few. The Patented tension screw tightens the upper and lower and will correct any flaws in wider spec parts.

If you use all Sun Devil parts you can expect "top Shelf" builds.

The upper is a little thicker than Mil Spec but it is done for a reason. It is for match guns and match accuracy.

There is a new model that fits Larue and DD rail systems.

At one time, they made the S&W Performance Center gun for Smith. It was a 1/4 MOA shooter.

Old Guy
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I have one of their lowers and it is high quality. I would like to get more but my NFA stuff is being priority now.
I am using their lower. I have not a single complaint. It is mounted to a LaRue upper. They are good but the Vltor is tighter in the critical areas for accuracy. In all honesty its going to be splitting hairs. What is nice about the Sundevil is matched receivers the tension screw and they don't mark their products up into the stratosphere because they are billet. They do use an alloy that is easier to tool but its plenty tough and don't let all the hype you read about strength and various alloys, billet, forging etc fool you the receivers in ARs are not under high stress from the cartidge. Come on they fire 50bmg off AR lowers and the uppers in the 50 and other big calibers are extruded. All the stress in an AR is contained by the barrel its extension and the bolt. Think about it. Round goes in chamber, bolt locks, round goes off, pressure is one, bolt opens. Other then reciol on the stock there is no stress.It a 50calr reciol isn't an issue then all this stuff about my alloy is tougher etc is all a bunch of irrelevant info.
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I talked to a guy @ coleman tyler who sttd these are thicker than the vltor mur and he has actually seen one after a round exploded in the upper...he sttd it was still in specs and had only minor nicks ....

sun devil makes lowers for POF but without the mark up...

I purchased the upper for 139.00 and the lower for 139.00 since they were being shipped 2 different places I got dinged 2 x for shipping at 6.85 usps priority....

now...

the build changed to a billet upper and lower.... that price couldnt be beat....


oh...these are the new generation lowers with the checkering
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I have an upper/lower "set" also, cost me around $330 to my door.

I'm quite happy, but they were a little "loser" than I was expecting (on par with an off-the-shelf RRA, etc in my limited experience). The tension screw is a nice feature and I think I WILL buy them again. Overall I give them an A for great product and great value.
If he was using the 7075 alloy, the Ar in question would have blown up. The bullet was lodged about 2"up the bore and the second blew the magazine like it is supposed to. The upper was bulged but serviceable.

They make lowers for several OEM's and keep their Prices reasonable.

BUT.. You can request special markings! Like HK style bullets for the fire control or other colored markings.

And their customer service is pretty good too! If they get behind, you know it!

OLD GUY
BLACK LION said:
I talked to a guy @ coleman tyler who sttd these are thicker than the vltor mur and he has actually seen one after a round exploded in the upper...he sttd it was still in specs and had only minor nicks ....

sun devil makes lowers for POF but without the mark up... IIRC, they haven't made lowers for POF in over 2 years.

I purchased the upper for 139.00 and the lower for 139.00 since they were being shipped 2 different places I got dinged 2 x for shipping at 6.85 usps priority....

now...

the build changed to a billet upper and lower.... that price couldnt be beat....

oh...these are the new generation lowers with the checkering
I have th same lower mine is very nice fits my LaRue upper without use of the fitting screw and has no movement what soever yet can be taken apart easily. They look like they were fitted. I was happy.
I am pleased with the 138.95 price tag on the "flat side" a3 upper....

I am hearing nothing but good things about them although there are those out there that argure the 7075 forging is superior to billet, it goes in one ear and out the other...
The funny thing is what makes forging strong? Its pressed under great force correct? Guess how they get those size blocks of aluminum they cut your billet receiver out of. :idea: Hmmmm Also there are differnet grades of 7075 aluminum many not as strong as top grade of 6061
Ugh, I thought I replied.

I have thoughts on the Sun Devil lower:

1) the pin holes are oversized in mine. Enough that my fire control pins were walking out after 10-15 shots. I had to put KNS anti walk pins in. I dont know if my take down pins are undersized, but my upper and lower wobble a bit. I'm going to get a new set of pins and test.

2) the oversized (compared to spec) rear of the receiver required that I hog out my MIAD backstrap with a dremel tool. It fits fine now though :)

3) The magwell is slightly undersized. Mags that fit fine in my colt wouldnt go into this one at all. Again, this may be specific to my lower.

And thoughts on alloys:

1) if the gun that blew up was made of 7075 it wouldnt have blow up. 7075 is stronger than 6061. By a factor of 3. If 6061 handled it, 7075 would have too.

2) There is no "higher grade" of 6061 or 7075. There are just different levels of heat treat. I believe I have gone on at length about this in a prior post. If you care, search for it. There could be counterfeit aluminum with inferior metallurgy that snuck into the supply train - but in that case its not really 7075 is it? And this does happen, racers have been dealing with fake grade 8 and fake AN hardware for at least 20 years.

3) While, in general, forgings ARE stronger than billet parts, that isn't always the case. Remember billets are forged when they are rolled, and the grain structures are straight. The structural reason to use a forging as opposed to billets are that you can form the grain structure so that it is curved, and flows around obvious stress risers. Now, we take a lower forging which has a straight grain structure, and then cut a big ass hole in the center of the grain structure (the mag well). How is that any different than the billet? its not. The reason Uncle specs a forging, is that there is less wasted material, thus lower cost once the tooling is amortized. There is absolutely no reason to not use a billet in an AR platform.
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snort said:
Ugh, I thought I replied.

I have thoughts on the Sun Devil lower:

1) the pin holes are oversized in mine. Enough that my fire control pins were walking out after 10-15 shots. I had to put KNS anti walk pins in. I dont know if my take down pins are undersized, but my upper and lower wobble a bit. I'm going to get a new set of pins and test.

2) the oversized (compared to spec) rear of the receiver required that I hog out my MIAD backstrap with a dremel tool. It fits fine now though :)

3) The magwell is slightly undersized. Mags that fit fine in my colt wouldnt go into this one at all. Again, this may be specific to my lower.

Why didn't you send it back as it was obviously not within spec? Was it second hand or used where you could not? My bet is regardless if you called SD they woudl have replaced it. That is certainly not the norm for this product.

And thoughts on alloys:

1) if the gun that blew up was made of 7075 it wouldnt have blow up. 7075 is stronger than 6061. By a factor of 3. If 6061 handled it, 7075 would have too. I agree but 6061 does tend to allow for flex before failing then 7075 from what I have read but it as in 7075 is stronger in the context we are speak in

2) There is no "higher grade" of 6061 or 7075. There are just different levels of heat treat. That is what I meant honestly just didn't feel like going into it as I have a habit of long posts :lol: and the point was still the same: 'increased strength at least that is how I understood it. Certainly don[t have any expertise in the area only what I have been told and read I believe I have gone on at length about this in a prior post. If you care, search for it. There could be counterfeit aluminum with inferior metallurgy that snuck into the supply train - but in that case its not really 7075 is it? And this does happen, racers have been dealing with fake grade 8 and fake AN hardware for at least 20 years.

3) While, in general, forgings ARE stronger than billet parts, that isn't always the case. Remember billets are forged when they are rolled, and the grain structures are straight. The structural reason to use a forging as opposed to billets are that you can form the grain structure so that it is curved, and flows around obvious stress risers. Now, we take a lower forging which has a straight grain structure, and then cut a big ass hole in the center of the grain structure (the mag well). How is that any different than the billet? its not. The reason Uncle specs a forging, is that there is less wasted material, thus lower cost once the tooling is amortized. There is absolutely no reason to not use a billet in an AR platform. I agree completely and a very good explanation
Very informative and good info.

Your comment about the counterfeit aluminum apparently has been an issue with the amount we seem to be getting from China. Same with barrel steel apparently the level of impurities in some batches is thru the roof.

Unless that SD is really old I woudl still give Dave the owner of SD a call. He is a good guy and I don't think wants products like that out there. In general my rule is if there is a issue I call th seller first if different then the manf. Then the manf. I think they have to be given the chance to fix and issue as even the best manf in the world can put out a POS here and there. Now if they don't correct the issue then all bets are off.
Good point about calling Dave. I just dropped him an email. Helps that i'm local, so I can just bring it over for him to look at.
I took this upper to the gun shop today and it fit tight on every lower they brought out...stag/noveske/cmmg etc and it was significanlty beefier than even the vltor mur....

for 138.00 :eek:

I dont think I will ever buy a standard mil-spec receiver after having this one....

oh and the coating is even better.... its sateen like teflon but confirmed its just a better than mil-spec anodizing....
BLACK LION said:
I took this upper to the gun shop today and it fit tight on every lower they brought out...stag/noveske/cmmg etc and it was significanlty beefier than even the vltor mur....

for 138.00 :eek:

I dont think I will ever buy a standard mil-spec receiver after having this one....

oh and the coating is even better.... its sateen like teflon but confirmed its just a better than mil-spec anodizing....
When did you purchase the SD upper? I know when those SD uppers first came out, they were supposed to be used in conjuction with their lower only as the tolerances were machined tighter. I had an SD lower when they first came out and it was as you said, tight fitting on all the mil-spec lowers. I had both the SD upper/lower at the time. I don't see them mentioning that anymore, so I was wondering if they may have changed the tolerances to fit on mil-spec lowers "loosely"? I want that tight fit again.
BLACK LION said:
I talked to a guy @ coleman tyler who sttd these are thicker than the vltor mur and he has actually seen one after a round exploded in the upper...he sttd it was still in specs and had only minor nicks ....

sun devil makes lowers for POF but without the mark up...

I purchased the upper for 139.00 and the lower for 139.00 since they were being shipped 2 different places I got dinged 2 x for shipping at 6.85 usps priority....

now...

the build changed to a billet upper and lower.... that price couldnt be beat....

oh...these are the new generation lowers with the checkering
Those are very good prices. The billet LaRue set is $500, and even regular forged AR lowers are increasing in price. I've seen many lately for $115-125, and a RRA for $150.
My 2 cents...
I tried 4 different bands of lower: Stag, DPMS RRA and Bushy.
Then I found Sun Devil......
I sold the others and I'm never going back.

The uppers have one small flaw.....
There is a small cutout in the left side for the bolt catch.
It is too small for anything but the stock bolt catch. I have Tactical bolt catch-the one with the larger upper pad and lower pad that makes it easier to hold bolt open. and this forced me to trim the upper pad down with a dremel.

But honestly.... 150/each, it's a steal.
I would call and tell them the issue with the catch.
If they enlarge it by 1/8" all around that should do it.
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