New Olympic Arms UMAR 22-250 is having problems. Please help.

[USMC Tracker]

Hello All,

I'll start off by saying I love my new rifle and wish that it was not having all these problems.

On January 22, 2012 I bought a new Olympic arms UMAR 22-250, After waiting a month for my new scope to arrive I took the rifle to the rifle range for the first time this last weekend. I am extremely impressed with the accuracy of the rifle. It was shooting sub MOA at 100 yards using Hornady 50 grain V-max. That's Good to Go.

Unfortunately I am disappointed with my new UMAR 22-250. I was braking in barrel using the Fire, Clean, Treat, Lubricate and Fire Method at the range and noticed a few problems,

(1) I noticed that the bolt carrier is damaging the buffer, when the weapon is fired and bolt carrier comes recoiling back instead of going with the buffer, it initially slams into the buffer and then completes its firing cycle. In a properly operating AR/M16 variant the bolt carrier rides the buffer it does not slam the face of the buffer and cause damage.

I was told over the phone that this is normal for the UMAR, Are any of you having this problem?

(2) The bolt is damaging the aluminum magazine follower (This has already caused the bolt catch to malfunction due to aluminum shavings getting caught in the bolt catch plunger).

I was told over the phone this is due to sending the bolt home on an empty magazine.
So if you own one don't do it. BTW this is not mentioned in the UMAR owner's manual that I received with the rifle.

(3) There is damage to the bolt key. I was told over the phone that's just the way they are receiving them from their suppliers.

Does your bolt key look similar?

4) I am not happy with the amount of play between the upper and lower receiver and my upper does not sit nice and tight into the lower, there is a obvious gap at the rear and the bolt carrier is not sitting exactly flush with the rear of the upper. Olympic arms rifles are known for there tight fit. This rifle does not have it.

(5) When the rifle is fired and the spent cartridge is ejected, sometimes the spent cartridge only gets thrown about 1 foot away.

What do you think could cause this problem?

Thank you all for taking the time to read my post, I truly appreciate your opinion and comments.

Please see attached pictures.

 

[ICANHITHIMMAN]

OLY Arms makes crap I try to tell everyone. Your upper is out of spec thats why you have a gap it will not affect accuracy. The damage to the gas key is not a result of firing the weapon it must have been dropped. Your gas key also is not staked. When a gas tube is not strait it will contact the gas key but from the pics it does not look to be what happned. Also this will not affect reliabilty.

I have the same gualing on the buffer in my rifle lenght upper I dont know if its abnormal. I hate to say it but it looks like you got an OLY arms product.

 

[USMC Tracker]

Hello,

Sorry for taking such a long time to respond. I was advised to stop posting comments and updates until the troubles I was having with Olympic Arms were resolved, having said that I will update you on the situation at hand.

I was finally contacted by Olympic Arms. They offered to replace my defective with a new rifle. I declined their offer for a new rifle and I asked them to refund my money.

Beyond their products lacking quality control, I feel their company's procedure and employee interaction policies put little or no emphasizes on being polite to the customer and resolving their issues simultaneously without a hassle. One of the biggest problems is that they refuse to listen to the customer's wants & needs and do not want to be told to anything, especially by their customers.

I my opinion Olympic Arms needs to understand this is an aggressive market with countless manufactures selling AR-15's, AR-15 related products and accessories, the only thing that will distinguish Olympic Arms from their competitors is how they take care of their customers. They need to make certain WE the customers are happy. A happy customer will come back and bring all of their friends. The customer's experience interacting with and buying from Olympic Arms will determine if WE will become return customers and give others positive feedback in regards to the company and their product. A positive experience assures repeat customers. Word of mouth is the best form of advertising, if the word is good to go it can be an inexpensive way of getting business, nevertheless if the word is bad it will start spreading faster than bed bugs making it extremely difficult for these companies to retain their current customers and more expensive trying to acquire new potential customers.

How Olympic Arms treats their customers that are willing to give them their hard earned money for their products and services is very critical in this competitive AR-15 market. If they continue to be rude and deceiving to their customers and making them unhappy, they will end up running out of people to be rude and deceiving to. Additionally, each time they make a customer unhappy, their potential customer pool will decrease accordingly. As the potential customer pool decreases, the advertising cost per new customer will increase. No one is going to get anywhere with customer relations until they recognize that WE as customers are valued assets, not dumb milk cows for money.

Thank you all for your support and comments.

USMC Tracker

 

[ICANHITHIMMAN]

Did you get your money back? Let me know what you want for an AR and I will help you out Marine

 

[USMC Tracker]

Did you get your money back? Let me know what you want for an AR and I will help you out Marine

I received a full refund and it was not easy. I am now back in the market for a new rifle. I am thinking about going with a Scar-17 or larue predatAR.
I am also open to any other suggestions and all calibers.

Thank you for your help.
SEMPER FI.

 

[rdsii64]

I was seriously thinking about one of these rifles. I have always heard all the negative commentary about the quality to their guns. I must admit the thought of an AR 15 that fired the 22.250 round almost caused me to give one of their guns a try. After reading about how they treat their customers, and reading this thread, I get the impression that that there is something to all the negative commentary. I have decided to take my quest for another auto loader in a different direction. Maybe a reputable company can figure out how to chamber a 22-250 in an AR 15 without getting into patent violation trouble or 100 dollar magazines. Until then I will confine my desire to own a 22-250 to bolt guns.

 

[Rubicon06on33s]

I bought a used UMAR from Cabelas and it performs flawless. I took it prairie dog hunting and it was easy to shoot dogs at extended range. I reload 40g Nosler BT with Tac and it shoots 1/2 MOA every time I shoot paper. I just wish the mags held more than 5 22-250.

 

[chuxta]

I know nobody has spoken on here in a while but this should be copied and pasted and sent to olympic arms. I wont buy anything from them and wonder how many others have been influenced by this post. This is the best forum that i belong to and i encourage many to check it out because, not unlike customer service, you can tell a lot from the way people talk. Usmc could have griped because he was upset with the company, but he refrained and showed nothing but disappointment. Classy move man

 

[oldmossy]

Any new comments to add about the UMAR? Thinking about trying to find one for coyote hunting.

 

[436]

I'm sure Olympic wishes this post would just go away. I've seen some pretty nice rifles Olympic has produce, and on the other end; some real crap. But this one seems a little dangerous, more than just cosmetic.

The problem sounds like quality control. USMC said; that they told him "that's just the way they are receiving them from their suppliers." referencing the gas key... What! That's the condition from the subcontractor.... and they can't do much about it.. Now that's not true, they can do everything about it.

The bottom line here is honesty, it's clear the rifle was "way out of spec's" the real question is how did it get out the door??? Because that dud needs to be fired. OK maybe not that drastic, if it's an employee hand him a broom and he can clean the shop floors. If it's the owner, he needs to hire someone that understand manufacturing and quality control.

So I guess what it comes down too is; can you trust them to make you a weapon that's a fair value for the money your going to spend.
I guess I'd give them another shot at it, but with the understanding in the beginning( in writing) which would be that '.., it better meet or exceed "their" claims on "their" products, and if it didn't it's coming back full refund and no hassle.
If they want your business, and... they can produce the product they'll do it.

They should also never try and pass off this kinda stuff... "bad workmanship".. by using the subcontractor or supplier as their scapegoat.... that's a bad business practice, the truth is to easy to find out'.., on that type of scapegoating.

Good luck
436