Ati Omni Hybrid Maxx Limited 300 Blackout Review

With President Obama's election a few years dorsum and the Great Attack Weapon Scare of 2012, at that place was a ton of demand for AR-xv rifles. The shortage eventually got to the point where it started making economic sense for companies to make plastic receivers instead of taking all that fourth dimension to manufacturing plant out an aluminum forging. But with the employ of plastic instead of aluminum, yous lose some of the rigidity and strength that made the firearm usable. Enter the hybrid lower receiver, where a small cake of metal is molded into the receiver itself to strengthen it. Some companies have washed this well. Unfortunately, ATI is not one of them . . .

The concept backside the "hybrid" design is to strengthen the weakest part of the AR'southward receiver: the rear, where the buffer tube screws into place. This one little section is field of study to the highest strain in the entire gun, since this pocket-sized flap of textile needs to keep everything in line as the commodities carrier group is slammed into the buffer and reciprocates as the action cycles.

And speaking of small parts, the threads that hold the buffer tube in place can easily get stripped with plenty use. As Cody Wilson found out when he was edifice his 3D-printed lower receivers, this one area is the easiest to crack or impairment if you're using sub-standard materials. So rather than relying just on the plastic to proceed everything together, ATI slipped a small cake of metal into that area to reinforce the pillar.

Accent on "small-scale."

Not too long ago we reviewed another polymer hybrid AR-15, one from Mean Arms. Their aluminum cake had two pins holding information technology in place and keeping it from rotating (the takedown pin and the safe selector) and was chunky plenty to shell someone to expiry with. ATI's metal insert has just one pin to proceed it from flexing, and the zipper signal for the receiver extension isn't even as hefty equally an original AR-xv'southward. The upshot is pretty obvious.

Just looking at it, the fit and end on the rifle is pretty hit-and-miss. The upper and lower receiver halves don't match up even in the slightest, and the area where the metallic insert is molded into the gun has errant $.25 of plastic in information technology. Elsewhere on the gun you tin can tell that it's meant for "budget conscious" individuals — all of the parts are from either bottom shelf or at to the lowest degree of mediocre design. The forend is a non-gratis floating quad rail, which looks and feels bulky. The stock and grip are typical "budget" M4-style parts. And the trigger has no break, it just rolls very heavily direct to the sear with no warning.

But there are some things I similar about the receiver pattern, too.

The trigger guard is molded into the remainder of the gun, and flared nicely to allow even the chubbiest of sausage-similar digits to get at the bangswitch. The mag well is flared just enough to be helpful, but not enough to exist annoying. And the overall appearance of the lower receiver is a squeamish blueprint, something dissimilar from the typical AR-15 to be certain.

Out on the range, though, things went bad.

Direct out of the box, the gun didn't work right. Every rifle I've tested, from the PWS Mk114 right downwardly to the JR Carbine, can run for at least a few magazines without additional lubrication. ATI's Omni, on the other hand, failed to cycle a single round. The gun would fire, but the bolt carrier would never get far plenty back to load a new cartridge. Even with a "normal" amount of lubrication — the same level I give all my other "known good" guns — the rifle wouldn't cycle. Information technology was only when the rifle was absolutely dripping wet with lube to the point that it was leaking around the charging handle and down my hand that information technology would bike somewhat reliably.

Unfortunately while we accept a GoPro video camera, the slow motion feature wasn't sufficient to pick up on the reason why the gun needs so much lube, but I have a theory. The Omni's metal insert seems designed simply to reinforce the threads in the buffer tube and not much more. There's still quite a bit of plastic used as structural components in that area of the gun, and plastic has a tendency to stretch and deform nether pressure.

I get the feeling that as the gun is firing, the recoil impulse is causing the gun to buckle upward at the buffer tube pillar, pinching the bolt carrier as it passes from the upper receiver into the buffer tube. This pinching adds friction, which slows the bolt carrier and keeps it from cycling properly. The fact that calculation lube to the mix fixes the issue seems to ostend my suspicions, and the massive build-up of lube in that area of the gun helps too.

Something that The Firearm Blog reported and I can confirm is that the gun likewise doesn't want to lock dorsum after the final circular is fired from a magazine. The bolt catch on the gun tends to rotate out of position and slip behind the follower instead of being raised by it, possibly caused past the mag well existence out of spec. Magazines tended to wiggle in the ATI Omni more other firearms, and then while they seated firmly and properly and were held in place well, they moved back and forth quite a bit under recoil.

On the range, the all-time the gun can muster (fifty-fifty using lucifer grade 55gr rounds from Hornady) is well-nigh 3.five MoA. The reason for the inaccuracy is some combination of the terrible trigger, a "meh" barrel, and a non-gratuitous-floating rail. Take your pick, really.

The ATI Omni is a budget burglarize designed for penny-pinching shooters, just it fails to impress in near every regard. It doesn't part, information technology feels crappy, and it shoots at all-time "minute of pie plate." For my money, I'd suggest that you avert this gun and go with something like the S&W One thousand&P15 Sport. That's the $650-ish AR-15 our human Ben Shotzberger gave a v star rating back in the day. It's still the i to beat at the lower stop of the cost spectrum in my book. If you lot have a few more dollars, the Mossberg MMR is almost $700 on the street and has all of the same features as this model of the ATI Omni — rail included. Or, if you really want a hybrid AR-15, go for the Hateful Arms burglarize.

Specifications:

Sleeping accommodation: 5.56 NATO
Barrel: 16″
Capacity:Ships with 30 round magazines, where applicable
MSRP: $659.95 ($399 at 1800GunsAndAmmo)

Ratings (Out of V Stars):
All ratings are relative compared to the other weapons in the gun's category. Overall rating is not mathematically derived from the previous component ratings and encompasses all aspects of the firearm including those not discussed.

Accurateness: *
Information technology hit the target. That'southward almost the best affair I can say about the accuracy.

Ergonomics: *
The handguards are chunky and uncomfortable, the stock is very 1990'southward, and the charging handle is far too small for the corporeality of forcefulness you lot need to crack the action open.

Reliability: *
The gun simply runs when information technology is completely drenched in lube, like Paris Hilton washing a car for a Carl's Jr. commercial drenched. And even then information technology won't always lock open after the last circular is fired.

Customization: * * * *
There'south a lot of rails space and most of the parts are still standard and swappable with any other AR-xv.

Overall: *
ATI makes some slap-up stuff, only this is not one of their meliorate offerings.

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Source: https://www.thetruthaboutguns.com/gun-review-ati-omni-hybrid-polymer-ar-15/

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