Anderson Mfg. has a long history of manufacturing and selling inexpensive (but still reasonably good quality) AR receivers. While I haven't personally used any Anderson receivers in my builds, I know people that have done so and reported no problems, including one guy that just stockpiles the lower receivers whenever they were on sale.
But that time is over. Ruger has announced its purchase of Anderson Mfg.'s assets. Per the article, "Ruger will not continue the Anderson Manufacturing brand or its firearms products. Ruger is looking to take all of Anderson’s facility capabilities and utilize it to create new products, grow Ruger lineups, and launch new accessories as well." Anderson is no longer taking orders.
So, they're buying the physical plant, not the product line.
ReplyDeleteRE: Anderson receivers - IIRC, there are only four forging companies producing lower receivers (or used to be, there may be more now), which then go to "finishers" for machining into usable receivers, of which there are many. The big outfits - S&W, Colt, PSA, Ruger et al do their own finishing, smaller outfits - Fred's Gun Shop, etc. - depend on shops with CNC equipment to turn out their receivers, although CNC stuff has gotten cheap enough that even Fred's could probably afford one.
So, Ruger gets all that CNC equipment, in a building, and some unknown number of people skilled in using it for what I'd bet is a much smaller number than putting all of it together from scratch. Makes good sense, actually, and I'm wondering why stuff like this hasn't happened more often. CNC equipment doesn't care if it's turning out AR lowers or parts for coffee pots, the big expense is - probably - in the licensing, meaning there may be a bunch of small to medium machining outfits that could be bought at reasonable prices.
It is my understanding that Anderson was one of the companies that forced their own receivers, so perhaps that is what Ruger wanted.
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