At the 2017 Shot Show I stopped by the Aero Precision booth and visited with several of their people. I had heard the name but didn't really know much about the company. I was given a detailed run down of their company and examined the quality of their products. I was pleased to learn that they are strong believers of "Made in the U.S.A."

I was also excited to learn that they are located in the Pacific Northwest  in Tacoma, Wa. just up the road from Olympic Arms in Olympia, WA . Anyone familiar with Carty Rod & Gun knows that we have anchored our business on "Made In USA First" and that we have strongly recommended Olympic Arms because they are a true American manufacture that provided excellent quality at reasonable prices. 

Since the announcement of the possible closure of Olympic Arms I have been searching for a new American manufacture to replace Olympic Arms if they should close. At this same Shot Show I also visited the CMMG booth and found them to be strong supporters of "Made in U.S.A." ideology. I examined their products and found them to be of excellent quality. Since that Shot Show in 2017, I have used both Aero Precision and CMMG parts for in house builds to help me decide which of these two brands would be my new manufacture of choice. I have experienced very few problems with either brand.

 It is worth noting that neither of these two manufactures make their own barrels. They both use American barrel manufacturers to supply them with barrels. Aero uses Ballistic Advantage barrels and I have used these barrels in current builds and found them to be of excellent quality.  This is not a deal breaker for either of these two manufactures it's just good to know where your barrel comes from. Olympic Arms made their own barrels and my experience had proven that their barrels shoot better on average then barrels costing more. Ask anyone who's shot an Olympic Arms K16 (16" bull barrel) about the accuracy potential. 

Olympic Arms before closure, was a manufacture of lowers and uppers to many other firearms companies. Most people don't know that many of the designer brands don't actually make their own uppers and lowers, but instead contract a manufacture to produce them.  It is my understanding that CMMG is not making their own uppers and lowers. I do know that Aero Precision makes their own uppers and lowers and that they also make uppers and lowers for other brands. I confirmed with Brownells that Aero Precision does make uppers, lowers and other AR parts for their house brand. I like the fact that they are located in the pacific northwest and plan to make a visit to their facility in the near future.

Ballistic Advantage(BA) and Aero Precision joined forces in 2014. The manufacturing process at BA begins with highest quality 416R & CrMoV steel. In preparation for the button rifled process, barstock is cut to length then drilled, reamed, and rifled. Using custom designed blanking tools, every production barrel from BA carries match-grade tolerancing with bore uniformity of .0003” or better. It’s normal to see barrels coming off the line at less than .00015” variation through the entire blank. BA controls and assures quality through contact gauging, air gauging, and laser light measurement. In addition to a fully staffed QC department, They have built in redundancy through  Production Support Specialists who perform in-process inspections and report to the Production Manager, ensuring both departments are fully informed and able to react as needed. All Ballistic Advantage barrels are guaranteed to give sub Minute of Angle (MOA) accuracy with match grade ammunition. They define sub MOA as a group size of 1 inch or less  at 100 yards with a 3 shot magazine fed group, or 5 shot single loaded group factory ammo.

Olympic Arms is out of business. I am officially announcing that Aero Precision is our manufacture of choice for AR Uppers and Lowers. Also, Ballistic Advantage is our barrel manufacture of choice. See the custom AR15 rifles and pistols pages to see current offerings built on the Aero Precision platform with Ballistic Advantage barrels. Any factory assembled Aero Precision rifles or pistols will be featured on this page.

Chief

Updated 12/27/2021