Bushmaster or Olympic 9mm AR

[Hawgleg44]

I've owned two Colt 9mm AR's and they were both extremely unreliable with both Colt and converted Uzi mags. I swore off pistol caliber AR's until I shot my friend's Oly .45. 100% reliable, even with cast bullet reloads, and with an AR45 lower, reliable, durable and inexpensive M3 GG mags. I bought an AR45 lower with an Oly .45 upper and have been happy ever since.

With such good luck with my .45 Oly, I grabbed an Oly 9mm upper, too. It works 100%, and I shoot my own wheelweight alloy cast bullet reloads exclusively. The STEN mags aren't fun to load, but with their reliability, I don't mind.

I'm in with a group of guys who are big into Class III toys. One of them has Oly 9mm and .45 uppers for his M16 and he abuses the hell out of his toys. We have 4 organized shoots per year and the other fun times, and he never runs into a problem with his Oly. He even found the 32 round STEN mags too low of capacity so he took some 50 round Lanchester mags and welded the top of the STEN mags on them. Guess what...no problems. All he's had to do is replace a few ejector springs and extractors, which are both inexpensive. He used to use a Colt 9mm system for his M16, but no matter what he did, it wasn't reliable. I spoke to someone in the NRC, who used to be issued 9mm Colts, and he said it was nothing but problems. From my experience with two of them, and my friends who have owned a total of 4, that's the opinion, too.

I'd rather spend a reasonable amount on an Oly and shoot reliably, even if it means some people laughing at your AR, but remember, you'll be shooting while they are laughing at you and getting plenty of practice with malfunction drills!

Yes, I can see how a 9mm upper can be more stress on a lower. Felt recoil, although it's still mild, is more than a .223. I haven't installed the KNS pins on my 9mm yet, but I plan to. My AR45 lower already wears them, and all of my AR's will soon. It's cheap insurance to protect your investment, even on a .223 where some feel it's not necessary.

I'll try to post a link to a video of my friend shooting is Oly short barrelled 9mm M16. I'm still new to the whole digital video thing. I'll get a friend of mine to give me a hand.

[markm]

I'd rather spend a reasonable amount on an Oly and shoot reliably, even if it means some people laughing at your AR, but remember, you'll be shooting while they are laughing at you and getting plenty of practice with malfunction drills!

Oly's pistol uppers don't have nearly the horrible reputation that their .223 guns do from my informal data collection.

I still could never bring myself to buy anything made by those goobers.

[Hawgleg44]

Oly's pistol uppers don't have nearly the horrible reputation that their .223 guns do from my informal data collection.

I still could never bring myself to buy anything made by those goobers.

I have no experience at all with Oly's .223 uppers, so I can't comment on them. All of my .223 AR's, except for one old pre-ban (I'm in MA) cast Essential Arms lowered carbine, are Colts.

I know a lot of people don't like the cast EA Co. lowers, but mine has been problem free, and with the heavy 16" barrelled upper on it, it's proven to be very accurate, too. I am going to add the KNS pins to it, as I am with all of my other AR's, just for cheap insurance.