Psa uppers

[Wake27]

Do not let others sway you from PSA products. You just have to be aware of what you are buying. Make the best use of your funds and that means budgeting for the AR, optic (if needed/wanted), BUIS, magazines, and ammo to get you started.

Why would you have to be aware of what you’re buying if they were truly good to go?


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[alx01]

This is exactly why I said owning a PSA will teach you more about troubleshooting and tweaking an AR than you wanna know

This summary should be an auto-reply on all PSA threads.

[Spud2388]

Put this together for a friend a few months ago. Similar budget to you. Might not be top notch items but decent on the important bits from what I have gathered.

Aero stripped upper $64
Aero upper parts kit $15.29
Spikes Tactical lower parts kit w/ grip and trigger $72
Aero stripper lower $72
Ballistic Advantage 16” Barrel w/ low pro gas block $230
Ballistic Advantage Mid length gas tube $15
Toolcraft Nickel Boron BCG $100
BCM Carbine Buffer kit $60
Magpul Stock $69 (or something cheaper)
Strike Industries charging handle $26
A2 Flash Hider $11
About $70 for whatever handguard you want.
Comes in right at $800. Most of these prices are from opticsplanet and that’s with free shipping. Probably could find cheaper elsewhere. Some coupon deals to offset some taxes would be handy too.

[sig1473]

I'll leave this classic PSA thread here............
https://www.m4carbine.net/showthread...hooting/page13

[NWcityguy2]

Why would you have to be aware of what you’re buying if they were truly good to go?


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Application, value, legalities. Seems obvious, but I guess it was not.

[Eurodriver]

I just recently purchased a PSA upper on Black Friday. This is my first PSA upper as I have perhaps a couple dozen other rifles. The only other brand I have purchased as complete uppers is BCM.

I purchased their 10.5” FN marked CHF upper. I also purchased their pistol lower build kit.
As a disclaimer, I am a former employee of a firearms manufacturing company and I have built literally thousands of AR15 and M16 rifles in the 10 years I worked for them. I have also built several PSA rifles for friends that wanted a cheap rifle.

Here is my no BS assessment of PSA.

-A good portion of their parts are pretty decent. Not top tier but good enough.
-Their lower parts have gotten way better in the past couple years. The lower I just built functions very nicely. Safety is crisp, trigger is smooth etc.
-I would shy away from most of their barrels if hard use is what you intend to do with it. The CHF stuff seems to be quite nice.
-Their action springs and buffers are hot steaming crap soaked garbage! Replace them immediately!
-Their BCGs are interesting. They are different every time. Sometimes they are nice and look like mil-spec and other times they look like cheap nitrided garbage.
— The biggest issue i have is their assembly of their complete uppers. Any time I have purchased one I have taken them apart and rebuilt them. Whoever is building them in house should be beaten over the head with a hammer! I have seen the stupidest crap with their assembled uppers! I have seen loose gas blocks, loose or over tightened muzzle devices and barrel nuts.
The last upper I purchased had a standard GI barrel nut and was tightened to about 100 ft/lbs of torque! It took a Magpul barrel wrench with a breaker bar attached and my 230 pound ass hanging on it to break it free! The front threads of the upper receiver were bent and bare metal was showing. Fortunately, I was able to reassemble the upper and everything lined up with about 45 ft/lbs of torque.

So long story short, for a first rifle that will see any type of home / personal defense use, I do not recommend a PSA upper or complete rifle. I would purchase a BCM upper and source a decent lower. If you want a range and training rifle a PSA upper will be fine but have a knowledgeable armorer look it over first.

The red part is interesting. Please note, I have no dog in this fight.

However, a few months ago I was on a drive to South Carolina (of all places) and listened to a podcast on PSA. It was actually very interesting (on many levels, not just their QC), and they are aware of the problem you mention. The problem, simplified, is that the demand for their products is so high especially around the holidays, that they have to hire temps to assemble rifles/uppers during busy times. These temps are people with zero gun building experience hired off the street. This isn't internet conjecture, rumor, or "The truth about guns" page. The CEO of PSA himself admits it in the podcast. He realized this was causing issues, because the product quality was suffering. There's really only two options - hire temps to assemble uppers during busy periods or maintain the same folks year round and let wait times get astronomical during the holidays.

Why people buy a rifle from them and don't bother shelling out the extra coin for a BCM is obvious - PSA is cheaper. I can think of no other reason to go with PSA over BCM. One just needs to decide whether the savings are worth the potential headaches.

Link to podcast below:

https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcas...=1000430236787

Now, I'm gonna dip out of this thread before the "Well, PSA uses FN parts and you overpaid for your BCM" folks with zero sources on the basis of their argument get angry.

[NWcityguy2]

Enjoy your rifle dude. I actually would like to see PSA succeed, because they get rifles into the hands of the masses, and have a Mil discount that gets my ammo down to around 27 cents per round. They also have a range/store 10 minutes from my house, and I’m a member, and go there 4-8 times a month. So like I said, I’m not here to grind an axe. In fact, I bought an axe there.

My sample size is about a dozen “Freedom” barrels. The gauge does not provide numbers for me to share.

I don’t believe the chamber gauge is very photogenic, but heres a link to my pictures of muzzle threads, which will explain why they installed the crush washer backwards: https://imgur.com/a/qsPrZvl

Again, I ask, how many have you measured? I’m not sure why you are so emotionally invested in this single point, despite all the other shortcomings in their uppers. If you measure one and it has a 5.56 chamber, are you going to overlook the improperly installed gas block?


It is Ned Christiansen’s (m-guns.com) 556? Gauge. Its kinda like a field headspace gauge, in that it does not provide numbers. Its shaped kinda like a cartridge and if it seats on the shoulder when you drop it in the chamber, you have a 5.56. If the guage gets held up by the cylindrical “bullet” portion of the cartridge shape, you have something else, such as .223 Rem, .223 Wylde, or Noveske 5.56 Match Mod 0. I just rechecked my barrel, and it feels close, but not quite. I don’t know how to quantify it. Might actually be closer than the Noveske I also just rechecked.

I've never measured the headspace of an AR chamber, nor have I used some non-standard tool that doesn't even explain what measurement it is taking while being used. And I'm not sure why you are so emotionally invested.

[Wake27]

Application, value, legalities. Seems obvious, but I guess it was not.

Did it not seem obvious that it wasn’t your post I quoted?

I've never measured the headspace of an AR chamber, nor have I used some non-standard tool that doesn't even explain what measurement it is taking while being used. And I'm not sure why you are so emotionally invested.

Ned isn’t exactly a rando garage armorer.


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[1168]

I've never measured the headspace of an AR chamber, nor have I used some non-standard tool that doesn't even explain what measurement it is taking while being used. And I'm not sure why you are so emotionally invested.

If you are not familiar with checking headspace in a rifle, then you are completely unqualified to even begin to have a discussion on the topic of chamber dimensions. Enjoy your rifle. Shoot it until the barrel (and bolt) are roached, and then learn about the process for determining that and rectifying it. Have a nice day.

[Wake27]

Enjoy your rifle dude. I actually would like to see PSA succeed, because they get rifles into the hands of the masses, and have a Mil discount that gets my ammo down to around 27 cents per round. They also have a range/store 10 minutes from my house, and I’m a member, and go there 4-8 times a month. So like I said, I’m not here to grind an axe. In fact, I bought an axe there.

My sample size is about a dozen “Freedom” barrels. The gauge does not provide numbers for me to share.

I don’t believe the chamber gauge is very photogenic, but heres a link to my pictures of muzzle threads, which will explain why they installed the crush washer backwards: https://imgur.com/a/qsPrZvl

Again, I ask, how many have you measured? I’m not sure why you are so emotionally invested in this single point, despite all the other shortcomings in their uppers. If you measure one and it has a 5.56 chamber, are you going to overlook the improperly installed gas block?





It is Ned Christiansen’s (m-guns.com) 556? Gauge. Its kinda like a field headspace gauge, in that it does not provide numbers. Its shaped kinda like a cartridge and if it seats on the shoulder when you drop it in the chamber, you have a 5.56. If the guage gets held up by the cylindrical “bullet” portion of the cartridge shape, you have something else, such as .223 Rem, .223 Wylde, or Noveske 5.56 Match Mod 0. I just rechecked my barrel, and it feels close, but not quite. I don’t know how to quantify it. Might actually be closer than the Noveske I also just rechecked.

The why is what I can’t figure out. I don’t see how it would be cheaper to ream them to less than true 5.56 dimensions. And if they know its not 5.56, and I expect that they do, then why not simply mark them as .223 Wylde or whatever? Maybe whoever is cutting the chambers has worn reamers? I dunno. If anybody reading this has access to a gauge and one of their CHF barrels, I would be interested in knowing the results of a check, since those are made and priced differently.



I’ve checked mine using MistWolf’s method and found it to be VERY slightly undersized. Not enough to be a real problem for me. A buddy’s off brand (not PSA) upper is significantly over on width, go figure. For comparison, I have several BCM, Aero, and Vltor uppers, and have not noticed any variation in those when swapping optics. Also haven’t noticed anything in the Mil FNs and Colts. Pretty unscientific testing.

CoryCop pointed out the PSA action springs are not up to task. I just changed the spring in a cop’s frankenrifle because it was having failures to achieve battery. Action spring was not the main problem, but I replaced the PSA spring with a Colt one because it measured 9 15/16”. He’s got less than 1,000 rounds on the gun. WTF.

Bottom line: I am mostly happy with the PSA upper I own, because I have the tools and capability to go through it. It works for what I use it for. I’ve even shot a few mags of M855, M855a1, and commercial 5.56 ammo through it, and it has not exploded. But its current and future diet is .223 Rem.

Is that mil discount only in store? I've never heard of one for PSA.