AR-15 Complete Uppers...

mgrs · Jul 19, 2015

lkenefic said:
With the price of these things coming down... who has the best completed upper for the money? I've now seen these as low as $270 or so (plain Jane PTAC) with BCG and charging handle... to upwards of $800 for a YHM with a machined forend. As with most of these things, the more you pay... the better the quality, but is an Adams Arms really three times better quality than a PSA, or DPMS, or Del-Ton... etc? Thanks in advance for your input...

What is your budget? There are many manufacturers out there.

Best direct impinged gas uppers, period- KAC (LaRue, PRI, JP, HCS for precision or special purpose uppers). DD is pretty good, but does not seem to give you anything over the next rung down for a similar cost.

Best top end uppers for the money- Colt, BCM, Spikes can be pretty good.

Best budget uppers- I've seen/shot some great PSA uppers.

lkenefic · Jul 19, 2015

mgrs said:
What is your budget? There are many manufacturers out there.

Best direct impinged gas uppers, period- KAC (LaRue, PRI, JP, HCS for precision or special purpose uppers). DD is pretty good, but does not seem to give you anything over the next rung down for a similar cost.

Best top end uppers for the money- Colt, BCM, Spikes can be pretty good.

Best budget uppers- I've seen/shot some great PSA uppers.

I opted for a YHM upper to fit the pre-ban YMH lower I already had. It turns out the finish is really close. The upper I got also has a Troy quad rail on it as well. The builder was Precision Firearms at the recent show in Howard Co. The barrel profile was a bit heavier than I wanted, but the price was good at just under $600.

Bertfish · Jul 19, 2015

I have one PSA upper and it runs great. I have read bad things about quality of the PTAC products so be mindful should you choose to go that route.

outrider58 · Jul 19, 2015

lkenefic said:
I opted for a YHM upper to fit the pre-ban YMH lower I already had. It turns out the finish is really close. The upper I got also has a Troy quad rail on it as well. The builder was Precision Firearms at the recent show in Howard Co. The barrel profile was a bit heavier than I wanted, but the price was good at just under $600.

Those guy build some good stuff. :thumbsup:

Neutron · Jul 20, 2015

Jollyllama said:
Beemer, glad to hear it. I'd be interested in a full report once you get your up and running. I have the Rest of mine all ready to go sans upper. I will post a full report once I get it out.

Can't find a lot on them I the way of reviews online.

Waiting on the mag adapter, magazine, and AR9 buffer. As far as the PTAC upper, I'm not sure what constitutes a"bad" upper. Accuracy? Fit and finish? Reliability? It goes bang and seems to be reliable and accurate so far. I guess time will tell.

Jollyllama · Jul 20, 2015

Got a ups notification that the new upper/ bcg will be delivered tomorrow. Pretty fast turnaround by any standards. I'll post a review once everything is functioning.

md_al · Jul 20, 2015

Are the 16" PSA AR uppers sold by PSA HBARs? The ones with no visible narrowing of the barrel.
Thanks in advance.

Jollyllama · Jul 21, 2015

They sell a variety of barrel profiles. I'd suggest calling them and asking as it is not always apparent on their website.

md_al · Jul 21, 2015

Jollyllama said:
They sell a variety of barrel profiles. I'd suggest calling them and asking as it is not always apparent on their website.

Thanks for your reply. I did call them. What I was told was to select the one with "heavy profile" in the description: none of the descriptions specifically stated that. Are non M4 barrel profiles considered HBAR? Or are the 0.75" barrels the HBAR barrels?

Thanks in advance.

photoracer · Jul 21, 2015

lkenefic said:
With the price of these things coming down... who has the best completed upper for the money? I've now seen these as low as $270 or so (plain Jane PTAC) with BCG and charging handle... to upwards of $800 for a YHM with a machined forend. As with most of these things, the more you pay... the better the quality, but is an Adams Arms really three times better quality than a PSA, or DPMS, or Del-Ton... etc? Thanks in advance for your input...

Adams Arms are piston uppers not gas impingement uppers so they will always be much more expensive than regular AR uppers.

Jollyllama · Jul 22, 2015

Got the new psa 9mm upper in yesterday. At first I thought they had just sent the original one back. After comparing my pictures to the new one I realized they had sent another one that is not finished on the inside and has some Knicks and scrapes down to bare metal. This one does not have rust in the barrel, which is nice.

I will be back in touch with psa customer service, but this experience has left a bad taste for me with them.

I doubt I will be spending any more cash with palmetto. Which is unfortunate as I had previously really liked them.

Their QC seems to have plummeted down hill and they don't seem to care about the customer's concerns.

Jollyllama · Jul 22, 2015

Took the 9mm out this evening for its maiden run.

I ran only 115gr psa re manufactured ammo through it. 160 rds total. Some rapid fire mag dumps, some moderate speed shooting at bottles.

1 fail to feed from a promag.
Also use 2 tavor 9mm conversion mags that were flawless. Shot 160 rds in total.

I used the whole build kit that came with the upper on a blem spikes lower with the addition of kns pins.

I used the buffer and spring that came with the kit but placed $2 in quarters in the buffer tube before inserting the spring. This gave me about 3/8 in clearance between the bolt and the catch when the charging handle is pulled all the way back.

In order to insert the mag block I had to file a small amount of metals off the top left tab that keeps the block from going too far into the mag well. This tan stuck out at the base and needed to be knocked back a little. I used a lansky diamond stone to take this off.

Overall despite the poorly finished upper I am happy after firing this bad boy.

It has mild recoil, ran great besides the one fail to feed and was overall very fun.

If any one has questions about the psa 9mm kits I'd be happy to offer more details of my experience.

clandestine · Jul 22, 2015

3/8" travel past the Bolt Catch is too much. You will likely break Bolt Catches with that much travel.

When doing the test its best to remove the upper from the lower. Remove the Bolt Group, and using your hands push the bolt group into the receiver extension and check your travel. You dont want Gas Key (Non Functional in a 9mm) contact with the receiver, and you want maybe 1/16" distance once the Bolt clears the Bolt Catch.

Jollyllama · Jul 22, 2015

Good advice, thank you. Looks like I'll be pouring more money into this project.

clandestine · Jul 22, 2015

Its a nice looking build.

Jollyllama · Jul 22, 2015

Yeah thanks. Kinda bummed that they buffer tube doesn't match. Not sure what psa is doing these days.

mgrs · Jul 24, 2015

Jollyllama said:
Took the 9mm out this evening for its maiden run.
<snip>

Thanks for the feedback. I am doing a 9mm build and was thinking about a PSA upper.

Jollyllama · Jul 25, 2015

No problem.

I'm not saying it is a bad upper. The kit works well together, it functions well. Fit and especially finish are in need of help. For the money it is the only option. You get what you pay for.

I also have no other experience with other 9mm options so take that into account.

Neutron · Jul 27, 2015

Jollyllama said:
Beemer, glad to hear it. I'd be interested in a full report once you get your up and running. I have the Rest of mine all ready to go sans upper. I will post a full report once I get it out.

Can't find a lot on them I the way of reviews online.

Took it out yesterday and didn't even make it through one mag before the mag insert moved up a bit and jamed the bolt. I'm not sure what I'm going to do about this. First thing will be a call to PSA and see what they have to say. The mag adapter felt very tight going in so I'm surprised it wiggled lose. I thought about drilling and tapping the mag well and putting in a set screw to hold the adapter tight. It only moves a little but that is all it takes to cause a jam.

Jollyllama · Jul 27, 2015

Sorry to hear about that. I was really banging mags into mine to attempt to get it to malfunction but the block didn't move. The little rear tabs can be move odor and aft slightly If you unscrew the block. Maybe try making them stick out a little more?

Mine was so tight they had to be stoned down a little. That block was pretty tight going in but could be pushed in by hand. To get it out i had to used a price of wood up the maxwell and tap it on something hard.

I also wish there was some tensioning device on the block as your results are my main concern with this set up.

I'm interested to see how psa responds. They have not responded to me yet regarding the second upper and we had a pretty good email chain going.

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