American Defense Manufacturing: The AR-15 Maker You Should Know

I’ll tell you a story. We’ll get right into this. 

Sidenote: American Defense Manufacturing (ADM) does not know who I am. This is about my experience with their UIC Mod 2 and my research on the company. 

 

Last Saturday, a friend invited me to shoot up behind Mt. Rainier. He had a new rifle and would only disclose what it was once we met up for a range day, only telling me it was an AR-15. And he talked about wanting to break it in some, so with childish excitement, I went up. 

Collin lives 30 minutes closer than I, so he had it set out in the case when I arrived. A black Plano that he picked up on the way. Like the fudd he is, the dust cover was open. And I saw the ADM logo on the bolt carrier group.  

I’ve heard of ADM rifles before, particularly of the lower receiver for being one of the best on the market and the use of Criterion barrels. In this case, the barrel length was 13.9 inches with a pinned and welded Surefire WarComp on the business end. 

Collin was sitting there loading magazines, which is usually a part of my nightly routine before a shooting day. I wasn’t going to wait all day for him, so I gave him a few of mine, along with the legendary sriracha sauce (Mobil1 grease and oil mix), so we could get on with it.

I’ve never been a fan of anticipation. 

 

Who Is American Defense Manufacturing? 

You may live under a rock if you haven’t heard of ADM before. 

Just kidding. It’s shocking how many shooters haven’t heard about this company. 

American Defense Manufacturing is a firearms and parts manufacturer out of New Berlin, Wisconsin. They borrow parts from companies like Geissele, Radian, and Criterion and build your AR-15 for you. 

They supply these parts and firearms to civilians and government, and many law enforcement agencies use them as patrol rifles. Naturally, many of the law officers in my shooting group had also heard of them. 

 

Back To Shooting

I wasn’t fond of the Magpul furniture, but I did appreciate the Geissele G2S trigger and the oversized bolt release button. It made for smoother reloads and getting back on target when precious seconds matter, such as a competition. 

I’m sure that with the right ammo, this Criterion barrel could achieve Sub-MOA accuracy. We used 62-grain 5.56×45, better known as M855 or ‘Green Tips’ as most like to call them. It’s hardly the ammo for accuracy, but it’s what we had. 

We set up some paper targets at a buck to test our accuracy and see how consistent we could be with the Criterion barrel. I went first. I got around 1.5 MOA with five rounds, and Collin got 2 MOA on his go-around. 

We also realized that testing this with better ammo would be better. M855 is not the ammo for this. So we opted to just get on paper and dial it in for 25 yards using the top of the reticle on the EOTech EXPS2.

After we got dialed in, we put on our battle belts and started doing some actual shooting. We warmed it up; the rifle is running right. 

At this point, I also pulled out my BCM Recce, and we were to alter between the two when running drills. I kept my spare parts on standby. 

“Let’s send it,” Collin says. 

The subtle tactics were over. The rifle was dialed in. Now, the only thing left to do was shoot until something failed or we ran dry of ammo. I’ve always loved shooting steel anyway. 

Can you guess which one happened first? It wasn’t the rifle. 

That grease and oil mix kept it running smoothly. Eventually, we got down to the last of our ammo and called it a day. The range started to get packed, so we got our stuff together while a lady in a run-down Pontiac came around and collected our brass. 

Since I usually take care of all the maintenance on all of the rifles in my group, Collin handed me his ADM so I could look it over at home and ensure everything was running right. 

“Here ya go, partner,” he said, “Can you make sure it’s still tight in here?” and looked at me with a wink. 

He was talking about the rifle, ya’ll. 

 

So Why Should You Consider ADM? 

We had to put at least 3,000 rounds through the rifle when we shot it. We ran drills, threw some dirt on it, fell a few times, and pretty much did everything else to make it fail. 

But it didn’t. It ran flawlessly. All of the ambidextrous features quickly made me realize how easy and efficient of a shooter the UIC Mod 2 is.  

And why people pay a premium for fully ambidextrous firearms. Oddly enough, rifles that go for a thousand or two more lack these features. 

Blows my mind. 

You should consider the UIC Mod 2 for your next rifle because of how well the concoction of all of these aftermarket parts, along with the pieces from ADM, work together. 

They didn’t try to reinvent the wheel. No. They simply took what works best and wrapped it up in one package so we can feel more tacticool when we’re walking around the house doing bathroom ops.

And it all works together perfectly. The ADM UIC Mod 2 should be on your list if you’re looking for a rifle. 

Or simply a lower receiver. 

But that’s just the opinion of this measly gun writer. 

 

Conclusion 

If you’re wondering why no pictures accompany this story, I have to apologize and say that I didn’t know I would be doing this write-up. 

And we generally like to keep our phones in the car when shooting. This way, our ladies don’t pressure us to get home because they want to question us and ask if we’d still love them if we were a lizard. 

Anyway, the ADM UIC Mod 2 was an impressive firearm. 

Without reinventing the wheel, ADM created a montage of the best parts on the market (like the Radian Raptor and Geissele G2S, among other things) and put it all together in one spot. 

I can appreciate that. 

Be good and take care.