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Firearms Legal Protection

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  1. #1
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    PSA 16" Mid-length 5.56 NATO 1:7 Stainless Freedom Rifle Kit - 43526 a Review

    I should start by saying that I have waited several months, after having written this report,to post it.
    I wanted to give PSA a n opportunity to respond to my concerns,but now it's time for an honest report of my experience.
    I am not an AR expert,though I've owned an early model (Windham, Mass. Mfrg.) Bushmaster AR-15 HB Carbine purchased new,
    just prior to the first "assault weapon" ban by Pres.Clinton. (I've had it quite awhile)

    Never had ANY problem with it, has required no work in my years of ownership.
    That said, having read many reports about building a AR-15, decided I wanted to give it a try, as a learning experience.

    PSA is a popular supplier of AR-15 parts, maybe Not of high-end parts, but O.K. quality,for a entry level, budget, AR rifle.
    I ordered a PSA 16" Mid-length 5.56 NATO 1:7 Stainless Freedom Rifle Kit - 43526 , & lower receiver, to assemble.
    The upper receiver was already assembled, just had to assemble parts to the stripped lower receiver.
    The parts fit together well, & assembly was pretty quick, with the help of a few youtube videos
    Lower & upper fit together snugly..no slop. Kit included all needed parts & no special tools were needed for assembly.

    After assembly was completed, everything seemed to work as it should, but trigger felt a bit heavier than I like.
    Measured the trigger pull with a gauge, was > 7 #, (as high as the gauge went).
    After consulting my gunsmith for his suggestion/recommendation, bought & installed a set of J&P reduced power trigger/hammer spring set.
    Springs worked great, dropped pull weight down to about 3.5#, with a little extra attention to contact surfaces, trigger felt much better.

    My rifle was a flattop (no sights), so I had also purchased a scope & rings to mount it to the railed flattop.
    (Amazon Prime is my friend) soon had a mount & Bushnell 3-9 X 40 scope mounted & ready for sight-in.
    Waited for warmer weather to try it out, unusual Feb.warm spell had me @ the outdoor range, the first week in Feb..hey, it was mid 50's!

    First 37 rnds fired & ejected without incident..then, (as I was fine tuning scope adjustment) had a "click", instead of a "bang".. misfire.
    This was followed by extra effort required to eject the chambered round. After the next 3 rds did exactly the same thing, called it a day.
    Examining the misfires, light strikes on the primers were noted. Firing pin wasn't broken, took home to give a thorough cleaning & visual exam of all parts.
    Noticed a few tiny bits of brass, & powder/carbon residue, cleaned off easily. Nothing looked out of the ordinary.

    Spoke with gunsmith & he gave me a few suggestions to follow up on next range visit, should problem reappear.
    After a thorough cleaning of barrel ,bolt carrier, receiver & chamber..a few days later, we returned to the range.

    Tried the 4 rounds that had misfired last outing, & all 4 rounds chambered, fired,& ejected without incident.
    Made it to about 25 rds fired, & then misfires/light strikes returned.
    Difficulty extracting misfires also present.

    Decided to take it to gunsmith to have him take a closer look.
    Checking with a chamber gauge, chamber dimensions checked out fine.
    Upon further visual examination, he suggested that sometimes chambers may be a little rough,
    & the "fix" was to polish the chamber. How ?
    The process he uses to polish the chamber was explained to me.
    I thanked him, & took a piece of scotch brite material he offered, saying it's what he used.

    As I thought about this situation, decided I should first contact PSA & see what they have to say.
    Sent a very detailed e-mail, describing what I'd experienced & waited for a response.
    Waited & waited. A month passed. Resent email. Waited another month. Still no response to my email(s) sent to PSA.

    Following the instructions I'd been given, I sourced a section of wood dowel,& cut a slot across the end.
    Next, I cut a small piece of scotch brite material & inserted it in slot @ end of dowel.
    Chucked the other end of dowel in my cordless drill.
    Inserting scotch brite pad into the chamber & used rotation of dowel to polish the chamber.
    A fair amount of carbon came out of the chamber.
    More than I would expect, considering the low number of rounds fired thru the rifle.

    Repeated this process, changing scotch brite pad as it worn, (or more accurately, became clogged with carbon residue)
    After finishing with my polishing, I flushed barrel & chamber by spraying with WD-40, from muzzle to chamber,
    to wash out residue. Then flushed again, by spraying, from chamber to muzzle.
    Repeated until all areas were clean, then followed this by cleaning with Hoppes & drying with soft patches.
    Cleaned chamber & bore thoroughly, then ran a oily patch thru the bore.

    Next warm day, took rifle to range & ran 100 rounds thru rifle without a hiccup..
    no more misfires, no difficulty with ejection or extraction,
    Rifle shoots tight groups, but only shot out to 50 YDS, @ the time, ground was wet
    & a bit windy for further scope calibration.

    What I learned..
    Learned a bit more about how an AR -15 works, by assembling my lower receiver parts.
    + How important, & valuable, having a knowledgeable, helpful, gunsmith can be.

    Finally, my thoughts on PSA.. their parts, rifle kits, & customer service.
    As I assembled the kit, I was impressed by the ease of assembly & the fit of the parts supplied.
    I was disappointed that the rifle didn't function reliably without having additional work needed.
    I was most disappointed in PSA's lack of response to my emails.

    I'd describe their customer support as totally ABSENT.

    From my experience, I won't be buying any more kits from PSA..
    as they have shown an unwillingness to even respond to a customer's problem.

    My conclusion, I'd say they (PSA Kits) are a gamble.
    If you get a good one, it may work fine. Many other purchasers report in their reviews how well they work.
    Not my experience.

    I choose not to deal further with a company that has disappointing customer service.
    If you have ANY issues, I wouldn't hold you breath getting PSA to respond to them.

  2. #2
    MGO Member G36 Shooter's Avatar
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    A friend of mine had issues with his PSA, failure to go into battery, the problem was broken gas ring.

  3. #3
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    From what I've heard, if you want a quick reply from PSA, post it on the AR15.com PSA subforum.
    http://www.ar15.com/forums/f_2/301_P...te-Armory.html

    Glad you got it straightened out.

  4. #4
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    Mine has been flawless. I am curious about what ammo you were shooting. I don't know all there is about the AR so wondering how a dirty chamber results in light strikes. I would have suspected the light weight JP springs. I use them but with the enhanced reliability hammer spring.

  5. #5
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    Quote Originally Posted by ATA Works View Post
    From what I've heard, if you want a quick reply from PSA, post it on the AR15.com PSA subforum.
    http://www.ar15.com/forums/f_2/301_P...te-Armory.html

    Glad you got it straightened out.
    Leonie hasell is the CS manager also if the arf guy doesn't help quick

    I got banned for a week from that forum because of an issue

    Something about calling the makers of Vortex "squints" as in BONES techs

  6. #6
    MGO Member dice's Avatar
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    I responded to a post just like this on a Shovel forum. Joe will know I'm talking about.


    Dice

  7. #7
    I would say the light trigger spring are to blame. Also, I would expect reliability to increase as the first few hundred rounds are fired.

  8. #8
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    The trigger spring can be installed backwards, it looks and operates fine, even will shoot many rounds with no problems. I had 100 rounds through the gun before I had light strikes, I thought it was bad ammo at first. But it was just a backwards spring, funny I build two AR prior to this one.

    On my last AR build I had a Bear Creek Arsenal barrel that had a bad chamber. The Chamber was so rough the empty casing would not extract, you could see the marks in the empty casing where the rough tool marks were in that chamber. Bear Creek is a major barrel manufacture that supplies a lot of companies with barrels. Sometimes parts just slip through quality control, especially when production is at the maximum output.

  9. #9
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    First, Thanx for the responses.

    As for ammo, I shoot almost exclusively hand-loads.
    I use std. CCI or Win. srps, not the CCI No.41's, (that use a thicker cup)
    Been loading ammo for about 40 yrs, (.223 for at least 25 of those yrs.) so my ammo is very reliable.

    I had read about taking care to install springs for hammer & trigger correctly.
    Made sure they were installed correctly. Even checked this..( X 2 )
    J&P reduced power springs are in my (Windham,Maine) Bushmaster AR & my S&W M&P AR15-22.
    The same spring sets are in all 3 of my AR rifles & have had NO ignition issues using these springs,
    (beyond what I posted about my PSA rifle.)
    No issues since polishing the chamber, per my gunsmith's suggestion & done per his instructions.

    as to " how a dirty chamber results in light strike", as my gunsmith explained, ( & I believe I understood what he said)
    carbon builds up in the rough pores in the metal (of the chamber) and this build up prevents the round from chambering fully.
    Not enough to keep the bolt from closing, just enough so the case isn't completely in the chamber.
    Because of this, the firing pin doesn't travel it's normal/complete distance, & a light primer strike is the result.
    This also explains the difficult extraction of cases misfired.
    The case "sticks" to the carbon, requiring much more effort to extract the misfires from the chamber.

    After firing the 100 rds ,following the chamber "polishing", I noticed while cleaning the chamber,
    there was MUCH less carbon fouling in the chamber .

    Also noticed there had been some fine, superficial, scratches noticeable on the brass cases
    on the first 60 or so rounds fired, that are not present on the brass shot AFTER the chamber was polished.

    I'd say @ this point, the problem has been solved.
    Just disappointed I got no help or advise from PSA for the problem.
    Budget line product or not, I feel I shouldn't have to polish a barrel chamber for a rifle to function reliably.
    Last edited by joepistol; 04-04-2017 at 01:49 PM.

  10. #10
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    Glad to hear you got the problem solved. I have owned three PSA AR's (one was a PTAC upper) the first one, was very inaccurate, bench rested I could not shoot a group better than 6" even moved up to 40 yards. The second one which I currently own, shot a one inch or less group at 50 yards. After sighting in a scope on it, I put rounds through the same hole at 100 yards. The PTAC upper one shot okay, I didn't shoot much before I sold it. It just goes to show how extreme in quality differences from PSA, it's like roll the dice and see what you get!

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