Polymer AR lower from ATI—SHOT Show 2014

Authors Paul Helinski Rifles SHOT Show 2014

American Tactical Imports 
https://www.americantactical.us/

American Tactical Imports (ATI) is a worldwide importer of firearms, ammunition and tactical gear. We stopped at ATI’s SHOT Show booth looking for the newest product to show you. They were most excited about the new hybrid AR lower, so we checked it out. It’s a good-looking piece that combines polymer with molded-in steel inserts at critical points like the buffer tube takedown and the trigger group mounting screws. It’s lightweight and comes either as a stripped lower, so you can add your own parts, or as a complete lower with a retractable rear stock. MSRP is $50 for the stripped version and $170 for the complete lower.

 

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  • Phillip Halfhide January 26, 2014, 5:00 pm

    Look good so far

  • James Riley January 24, 2014, 1:53 pm

    I second the notion above.Make it fit and durable and I want one.Please run one through its paces and let us know how good they really are.

  • Monte January 24, 2014, 9:19 am

    Polymer lowers have a long way to go & maybe, just maybe, this new Omni version might be the answer. I own 2 New Frontier models and 1 first addition ATI Omni. All suffer from tight fits, rough unfinished polymer edges and a variety of “just don’t fit well” problems. The retaining pins are so tight you must use a punch to get the lower and upper apart. One New frontier chipped around the rear retaining pin and the one and only ATI Omni I own broke in half around the rear retaining pin. I hope the new Omni model is a improvement. I love my polymer pistols and had high hopes polymer AR lowers would be as good. So far they have been a massive disappointment.

    • Shaw January 31, 2014, 11:58 am

      I have both of those lowers as well. The ATI fell way short of my expectations. I know poylymer lowers where a somewhat new thing when I bought it but I dont know how any company especially with how regulated firearms are would put out such a crappy product. It functioned relativiley well but by no means was it a quality product. The Magazines would get stuck in the mag well and itd take some effort to get them out, saftey selector just felt unreliable and crappy, when the bolt would lock to the rear after firing itd almost take a hammer to release the bolt using the bolt release, then the final nail in the coffin was when I put a different pitsol grip on and the threads just decided to give up was the last straw. Ended up just spending a little extra on a stripped lower and transfered the parts over. The New frontier polymer lower seems to be a decent havent really shot with it but it just functions better. The only thing I would complain about with the New Frontier lower is that they use a plastic buffer tube and its just kinda crappy. It hasnt broken but when charging the rifle it just sticks really bad, but I havent really tried to fix it yet so I wont knock them much for that.

      As for this new improved model it looks like they have reienforced the right areas but I believe the cause of the problmes with the older modles was the polymer they were using. There is a huge misconception about polymer products. Magpul for example has a great compound that is rugged and reliable, even FNH uses a polymer lower on the SCAR rifles which never seems to get any attention as to how good polymer can be. But Im sure these compounds are patented and require lots of money to produce.

  • RICK January 24, 2014, 7:25 am

    What does it weigh compared to a standard lower?

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