For those of you looking to get POF piston AR before the ban...

[jimmy-buffett]

I figured if I'm going to get an AR, I'll want to get a good one that will last. I had pretty much settled on one of the piston AR's from POF ( POF-USA Patriot Ordnance Factory, Inc. ), but after the election, the number of these available dropped to almost nothing. And the people who do have them are marking them up, in some cases as much as 30-40%.

So I started looking for just a POF upper. There are a handful of them on Gunbroker, also going for more than retail. Here's an example of one already going for $100 over MSRP (which is $1250):

POF 16" UPPER P415 SX MODEL GAS PISTON AR POF 223 : for AR-15 at GunBroker.com

I watched two of these sell for $1700 in the last week.

So after playing around on their website for a while, and seeing that they only sell the complete rifles to FFL's (rather than letting me buy it, and then shipping it to my FFL), I noticed that their website would let me add upper's to my cart. For MSRP.

After a quick call to POF, the sales guy told me that they could sell me the upper's and ship them directly to me. They said the current wait time is about 12 weeks.

I bought 3. They aren't charging me until they ship.

I'm not too worried about not being able to get a lower eventually, I figure I can find somebody with two AR's to trade me his lower and cash for one of my upper's. Apparently it's the lowers that are regulated and have to go to an FFL. What do I care if I can't get a POF lower with it? I'm not buying a piston rifle for the lower.

So if you are like me, and have been looking at a POF rifle, be advised that they will happily sell you an upper directly, and they aren't price gouging.

 

[nalioth]

So after playing around on their website for a while, and seeing that they only sell the complete rifles to FFL's (rather than letting me buy it, and then shipping it to my FFL)

I suspect if they have your FFL dealers license on file and you called them with $$$, they'd be happy to ship it to him for you.

A lot of sites have that bit of info on it because their lawyer told them to include it.

 

[djspump2003]

Those are beautiful, but man they're pricey.

 

[jimmy-buffett]

Those are beautiful, but man they're pricey.

Yeah they are a bit pricey. I went into the local gun shop last week even with all the craziness and they still had regular AR's on the rack for under $1K. But then I thought, if they are going to do another ban, and the odds are that this one will be permanent, why get a non-piston AR that I'll have to spend so much time and effort cleaning if it's the only one I'll probably ever own.

My only concern long-term is parts, there aren't too many companies making these piston rifles and the ones that are probably have parts specific to their design, where the non-piston rifles probably have a lot more interchangeable parts.

 

[phatcyclist]

Yeah they are a bit pricey. I went into the local gun shop last week even with all the craziness and they still had regular AR's on the rack for under $1K. But then I thought, if they are going to do another ban, and the odds are that this one will be permanent, why get a non-piston AR that I'll have to spend so much time and effort cleaning if it's the only one I'll probably ever own.

My only concern long-term is parts, there aren't too many companies making these piston rifles and the ones that are probably have parts specific to their design, where the non-piston rifles probably have a lot more interchangeable parts.

The parts conundrum was the only reason I hadn't been looking into them. I have a Smith and Wesson M&P15, standard M4gery with direct impingement upper, so I'm not really looking anymore.