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Palmetto State AR9


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I have one.  Changed the stock, hand guard and trigger.. Love it.. For under $700 for the gun and then upgrade what you want I don't think it can be beat for value..

 

I'm waiting for sales to get another built lower with a 8.5" upper.. Those two on sale will be less than $700.

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I’ve had one for about a week now.  It is the Glock style lower with a 16-inch Keymod upper.  I bought the lower on a “Daily Deal” which included a Magpul MOE stock and grip at no additional cost.

 

I had a significant problem with it initially that I documented under the General Gunsmithing sub-forum.  Initial Experience   The root causes seem to be that I was initially using rounds with a 1.154 OAL that produced 145 PF out of the carbine.  The bad news is that this resulted in a catastrophic case separation and a double squib.  The good news is that the upper and lower withstood the detonation as well as my subsequent actions to remove a double squib.

 

After the initial debacle, I reduced the OAL to 1.10 and the powder load to produce a 133 PF.  I now have another 700 rounds though it.  This includes two USPSA matches and a couple of extended practice sessions.  All were fired without a single problem.  Accuracy is more than acceptable for the USPSA PCC Division.

 

The Mil-spec trigger is about what you’d expect.  It has too much pre-travel, isn’t particularly smooth and has a 6#-10 oz. pull. A new Hyperfire 24C is on its way as a replacement.  I have the same stock and grip a Smith & Wesson MP-15 AR and they’re fine.  The handguard is also acceptable.  My goal is to keep this carbine as simple and as light as possible because I don’t plan on shooting it beyond 100 yards and 95% of the time at 25 yards and under.

 

I am very satisfied with the fit, finish, function and value of the carbine.  For under $700 delivered I think it is a very good buy.

 

Edited by XD Niner
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So far I've put just under 2000 rds through my PSA Glock magazine PCC.  The only changes I've made so far is a Hiperfire 24C trigger, a C-more Slideride with 4 MOA dot, an ambi-safety and a magwell by bmiller here on the forum.

 

The only negative I have to say is mine will not plunk test long reloads.  I've settled on 147 gr Xtreme RN bullets over 3.0 gr VV N-320 loaded to 1.085" OAL.  PF is 132 with this load.

 

From all the comments on the forum I expect something to break any day now.  Since I'm having so much fun shooting PCC I broke down and bought lots of spare parts to eliminate down time. But so far all the parts are still in the original package.

 

Note that New Frontier manufactures the PSA Glock magazine lower as well as lowers for several other companies.  (i.e. Where PSA would not sell me spares of the lower receiver proprietary parts, New Frontier did.)

 

My next upper will be built from parts but since I was new to PCC, buying fully assembled got me started.

 

Bill

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8 hours ago, XD Niner said:

 I had a significant problem with it initially that I documented under the General Gunsmithing sub-forum.  Initial Experience   The root causes seem to be that I was initially using rounds with a 1.154 OAL that produced 145 PF out of the carbine.  The bad news is that this resulted in a catastrophic case separation and a double squib.  The good news is that the upper and lower withstood the detonation as well as my subsequent actions to remove a double squib.

 

After the initial debacle, I reduced the OAL to 1.10 and the powder load to produce a 133 PF.  I now have another 700 rounds though it.  This includes two USPSA matches and a couple of extended practice sessions.  All were fired without a single problem.  Accuracy is more than acceptable for the USPSA PCC Division.

 

 

I'm noticing a pattern with a lot of these PCC barrels having short chamber leads.  I've heard the same complaints about short lead in several brands and am experiencing the same problem with my NFA 16" match barrel.   Since these guns WILL FIRE OUT OF BATTERY.... this is very much a SAFTEY ISSUE.   It seems most are focused on how to correct the problem with chamber reamers instead of holding the supplier of the barrel to account and force them to replace / refund these defective barrels.     My NFA barrel will hang up on factory ball 115 gr ammo.   Where the problem is most noticeable is when you try to extract a live round.  I first noticed this when I had to "ground and pound" a round out of my carbine and the bullet got stuck in the rifling and needed to be removed with a range rod.  This should not happen with factory 115 ball ammunition.   I believe most of these vendors get their barrels from the same manufacturer stamped with their brand and that manufacturer ran a large lot of out of spec barrels that we are now dealing with.   Of course we can tailor our reloads to work in these "out of spec" barrels but what happens when we use factory ammo?  We run the risk of what happened to XD Niner.

Think about what would have happened to someone standing on the ejection port side (like the RO)  or a left handed shooter when an "out of battery" detonation like this occurs.   It's only a matter of time and we need to force this issue with the suppliers and get these barrels recalled. 

Edited by vinconco
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9 hours ago, vinconco said:

  I believe most of these vendors get their barrels from the same manufacturer stamped with their brand and that manufacturer ran a large lot of out of spec barrels that we are now dealing with.   Of course we can tailor our reloads to work in these "out of spec" barrels but what happens when we use factory ammo?  We run the risk of what happened to XD Niner.

Think about what would have happened to someone standing on the ejection port side (like the RO)  or a left handed shooter when an "out of battery" detonation like this occurs.   It's only a matter of time and we need to force this issue with the suppliers and get these barrels recalled. 

 

I bought a Faxon made barrel from Joe Bob's that wouldn't plunk factory 147's. They took it back and gave me a refund. The money went to a JP barrel that I'm very happy with.

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50 minutes ago, gatortommy said:

 

I bought a Faxon made barrel from Joe Bob's that wouldn't plunk factory 147's. They took it back and gave me a refund. The money went to a JP barrel that I'm very happy with.

I contacted NFA about my "match" barrel that wouldn't plunk factory 115 gr ball ammo and they told me that was the first time they ever heard that complaint..... I know better than that.

 

They want me to return it for repair / replacement but I want a refund ONLY. 

I consider this a safety issue especially since blowbacks will fire from "out of battery".

 

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1 hour ago, Flatland Shooter said:

 

Its advertising hype aimed at newbies that are getting into 9mm PCC for the first time and don't know any better.  (Include me in that group.)

Yup, they've managed to trick a lot of people into thinking there's something unique about their AR9 parts based on that language and calling their uppers "hybrid" (which really just means they have the Glock mag cut).

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3 minutes ago, Aircooled6racer said:

Hello: Don't the PSA uppers that say hybrid also come with the hybrid type bolt? The couple I have seen here do. I really don't like the hybrid bolt personally. Thanks, Eric

The ones I have seen came with normal bolts that just had a Glock mag cut and as far as I can recall they've always been calling them "hybrid" uppers. What do you mean by hybrid bolt? You mean the New Frontier Armory modular bolt?

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32 minutes ago, Southpaw said:

The ones I have seen came with normal bolts that just had a Glock mag cut and as far as I can recall they've always been calling them "hybrid" uppers. What do you mean by hybrid bolt? You mean the New Frontier Armory modular bolt?

Hello: Yes the New Frontier style hybrid bolt that is modular. This is what your chambered rounds should look like. Thanks, Eric

IMG_0793.JPG

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3 hours ago, Aircooled6racer said:

I really don't like the hybrid bolt personally. Thanks, Eric

 

Only two bolts I've had the opportunity to play with is the PSA "Hybrid" and the Spinta.  

 

I don't see any real difference between the two.  

 

What is it you don't like about the Hybrid bolt?

 

Edited by Flatland Shooter
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Hello: The Hybrid New Frontier just seems to have more parts that may go bad over time. Now that we are shooting these PCC's a lot more than in the past we are finding the weak spots, kinda like the gas key bolts. I checked a couple of the bolts on the gas key blocks on a couple of bolts now and they were not torqued down correctly. That maybe the problem with them breaking on some peoples bolts. I have noticed some peening on the bolts and barrels from being over sprung. There seems to be some very good parts out there and some that are not. I would say if your gun is running 100% leave it alone and shoot it---alot. Thanks, Eric

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Ok to clarify on all my earlier comments.  First, I was just trying to be funny making fun of PSA for trying to trick people into thinking their parts are propriety when really they're not.  But it seems they keep changing around what parts they're using in their AR9s.  As far as I can recall, they've always called their uppers/bolts "hybrid".  As far as I can tell, there's really no such thing as a hybrid bolt, PSA just made up that term as a marketing technique.  When they first started making AR9s as I recall they made Glock mag AR9s before Colt mag AR9s so their bolts always had the Glock mag cuts in them, unless I'm remembering incorrectly.  They called them "hybrid" because they work with both Glock and Colt mags (and I guess thought that name sounded cool?).  No one else seems to call them hybrid. 

 

New Frontier makes a bolt called a modular bold (they don't call it a hybrid bolt per their website).  This bolt is a two piece bolt with a removable weight in the back half.  According to Eric, PSA is now using this modular bolt (still calling it a hybrid bolt?  They called the old normal bolts hybrid too...).  So now if we're talking about the quality of current PSA AR9s I don't even know what bolt we should be talking about, they've used quite a few over the past year.

 

Regarding the New Frontier modular bolt - I tried one when I first started building my AR9 and wound up returning it.  It did not work with the Geissele G2S trigger that I was trying to use with my AR9.  Once I got a new bolt (normal Colt style bolt with Glock mag cut) the Geissele trigger then worked.  Also that NFA firing pin broke after less than 10 dry fires.  Besides these issues it may work fine though; I don't know since I returned it...

 

Long story short - to answer the OP's question, the PSA billet lowers are made by New Frontier so should be GTF.  The forged ones with LRBHO are made by someone else, I don't know who, and I have no experience with them so can't comment on them.  Their uppers should be fine too, but from what Eric says it sounds like they're changing around what bolt they use so you don't know what you're going to get?

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The PSA Hybrid bolt and the NFA AR Standard bolt are very similar. Both have the rear weight held on by a pin.   On the PSA the last 1-3/16" inches of the bolt are the weight.  Removing the weight makes the bolt 1-3/16" shorter.

 

(Note that the rear weight on my Spinta backup bolt is also pinned on but is inserted within the bolt.  Removing that weight does not shorten the bolt.)

 

The NFA modular bolt separates just behind the gas key.

 

When I was trying to accumulate spare parts for my PSA AR9, I visited with the folks at New Frontier (late Oct 2018).  At that time they verified they supply a slightly altered (trigger guard area) billet Glock mag lower to PSA.  They were not supplying bolts, uppers or barrels to PSA.

 

Its a fast moving market and things change.  It may be different now.

 

Bill

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I have a brand new PSA Glock billet lower, and a PSA Hybrid bolt in an Anderson lightweight upper. My Glock 9mm mags will not drop free, 40 mags will. I took the upper off, and all mags will drop free from the lower alone. It appears the feed lips on the 9mm mags are sticking on the bottom of the bolt on the surface that cocks the hammer, but since the 40 mag feed lips are wider, they don't stick. Should I work on the bolt, or open the feed lips a little? I have a Spinta blem bolt coming, & hope it fixes the issue so I don't have to do either. Anyone else have this issue?

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I have the PSA upper and lower.  I've not had problems with factory Glock magazines sticking using either a PSA bolt or a Spinta bolt.

 

Are you using aftermarket magazines?

 

Are they sticking after you've run the magazine dry or are you inserting an empty magazine?  

 

Does it also stick with rounds in the magazine?  

 

On all magazines?

 

Bill

Edited by Flatland Shooter
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All my 9 mags stick: Glock factory 15, 17 & 33 round, Magpul !7, & Korean 31. I haven't shot it yet, just built the upper yesterday, so this is just inserting empty mags.My Spinta bolt should be here Monday. When I can, I'm going to try it with the bolt removed, but the upper on, and see if they stick. I did notice some wear on the right feed lip on the mags that are sticking. I think that is my contact point.The bolt retracts and chambers rounds with no noticible drag. Wonder if it'll just wear in.

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