Ordered a 9mm Glock Lower, Now I need the upper

Cucamonga

Cucamonga

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I’ve ordered a PSA 9mm Glock complete lower, on sale now for $179 shipped so I am in need of an upper. I know I want a 16” barreled upper, PSA is out of stock. My question is what are the pros and cons with going with other brand uppers or building one from parts.
 
a carbine length 16"-ish 9mm AR is great fun.. Most indoor ranges allow them as well.. My Colt shoots great at 100 yards as well....
 
JSE Surplus has a few different 16" complete uppers in stock. I run one of their 7" uppers on my 9mm SBR and don't have any complaints.
 
bigfelipe;n53516 said:
Ugh... 16"? Get a stamp and find the parts for an SBR while you wait...
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At least the 16" allows you to shoot while you wait in NFA prison. Hoping to score a PSA9 lower this weekend and ship off my stamp info Monday!
 
Anyone needs a 5" or maybe 5.5" threaded barrel please let me know, I have a spare. Brand new, qc10 and threaded. Need to figure out a fair price, maybe 80% of retail.
 
Slacker;n75557 said:
I really like the Gibbz side charger.
​​​​​​
​​​​​​very nice machine work.
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Slacker How do you like that ALG handguard? I'm thinking of putting one on an AR build.
 
I like the handguard, but dislike it's method of attachment. It has anti - rotation tabs that limit your upper receiver choices.
it does feel great in hand and the weight is very light.
 
Those AR9's are a ton of fun 😊
Hope you enjoy yours as much as I do mine...

6afaddf20d0060810519c92a6868db30.jpg
 
I got the PSA 16" upper w/ bolt, but it ended up having a serious headspace problem. I sent the whole gun back (on their dime) and they sent it back in working order. Apparently a few of them were shipped out with bad barrels (a friend of mine got one, and someone else I know got one). They turned them around quickly, though. Mine is built on the Colt style lower, and I am using the SMG mags that PSA sells. I snagged them when PSA had them on sale for $12.99 each. I also have the Kaw Valley buffer (7.5oz) which does not require any spacers.

I handload my own 9mm ammo, and I found that the chamber in my carbine is a little tighter than some of my pistols so I have to seat the bullets a little deeper for the carbine. So far I have found a good load with 147gn plated bullets, but I am going to work up some 115gn FMJ bullets and see how it does with those. The velocity is just too high for most plated 115gn bullets.
 
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Toprudder's corret. PSA's customer service is awesome. I had the same issue with my upper and in less than a week I shipped it and got it back. Finally got it to the range this past weekend. Took a few mags to get it sighted in but this is the finished product. 10 rds at about 20 yards with irons.
 
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JT, what ammo did you use?

I'm in the process of working up my own loads, and am trying two different routes. One is with 115gn FMJ, the other is 147gn plated.
 
Toprudder;n85105 said:
JT, what ammo did you use?

I'm in the process of working up my own loads, and am trying two different routes. One is with 115gn FMJ, the other is 147gn plated.
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Just throwing out my experience even though you haven't asked. I've given away almost 10,000 plated 9mm bullets, both 124 and 147. I just can't make them work for me from the pistols or carbines. It's not too much velocity, don't know what it is, but I quit messing with them and helped a few folks get started with reloading at the same time. L13 coated work great in 38/357 for me, revolver and lever guns, and I have a 9mm order waiting to pickup so I can try them. Might drive over tomorrow or Thursday.
 
JimB;n85204 said:
Just throwing out my experience even though you haven't asked. I've given away almost 10,000 plated 9mm bullets, both 124 and 147. I just can't make them work for me from the pistols or carbines. It's not too much velocity, don't know what it is, but I quit messing with them and helped a few folks get started with reloading at the same time. L13 coated work great in 38/357 for me, revolver and lever guns, and I have a 9mm order waiting to pickup so I can try them. Might drive over tomorrow or Thursday.
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Thanks for the info. I've done a lot of 9mm 115gn plated and have had good luck with those. I've done a few 124 and those have worked well. All of those were in my pistols. I just started on the 147 but so far I have not done much accuracy testing with them, just wanted to check for velocity. The last 10 I loaded at max charge of Power Pistol worked great out of the carbine and grouped reasonably well, but I was using iron sights and I am somewhat challenged with my old eyes. I'll put a cheap scope on the carbine soon so I can do a better job with accuracy testing.

My thinking was that I could keep the 147gn under 1200fps from the carbine, which is the rated velocity for those. With the 115gn FMJ, I'm hoping to top out close to 1600fps which should keep them supersonic out to 100 yards. The FMJs I'm using are from RMR and cost about the same as plated bullets.
 
Top I'm using Blazer Brass 115gr in that pic. I also ran some S&B 124 gr that day. Both ran fine but I couldn't really say which was more accurate. I was better with the Blazer but I was running it after the S&B so that was probably just me getting more comfortable with the rifle.
 
Toprudder;n85224 said:
Thanks for the info. I've done a lot of 9mm 115gn plated and have had good luck with those. I've done a few 124 and those have worked well. All of those were in my pistols. I just started on the 147 but so far I have not done much accuracy testing with them, just wanted to check for velocity. The last 10 I loaded at max charge of Power Pistol worked great out of the carbine and grouped reasonably well, but I was using iron sights and I am somewhat challenged with my old eyes. I'll put a cheap scope on the carbine soon so I can do a better job with accuracy testing.

My thinking was that I could keep the 147gn under 1200fps from the carbine, which is the rated velocity for those. With the 115gn FMJ, I'm hoping to top out close to 1600fps which should keep them supersonic out to 100 yards. The FMJs I'm using are from RMR and cost about the same as plated bullets.
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Your application is different than mine, for carbine anyway I'm generally staying subsonic, heavy and subsonic.
 
Toprudder;n85105 said:
JT, what ammo did you use?

I'm in the process of working up my own loads, and am trying two different routes. One is with 115gn FMJ, the other is 147gn plated.
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Unsolicited advice, but give coated cast try.
I use the Blue bullets in all my 9mm guns.
they are .355 and have all common weights.

people shoot them in open guns at FMJ velocities with no problems.
 
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Made it out to the range today to test my loads out in my 9mm AR. RMR 115gn FMJ projectiles, seated to 1.100", Power Pistol powder. I tried charges from 5.9 to 6.6gn, with 6.1 and 6.6 giving the best accuracy. The 6.1gn charge also gave good accuracy in my pistol, so I think I will stick with that one. It was 1491fps from the carbine, and 1241fps from my pistol. The earlier loads I worked up using plated 147gn bullets shot consistently and were also accurate. This was at 25 yards, I will make some more and shoot out to 50 yards next time, hopefully with an optic added to the gun.

The PSA upper had a headspace problem as received and I had to send back to them for service. They turned it around door-door in 2 weeks. I did some final tweaking to the ejector, and it ran flawlessly. I am happy with the way it turned out.
 
Interested in learning what were the indications that your upper had a head space problem, firing out of battery, or? I also have a 9mm PSA upper but have only fired a few rounds in the back yard.
 
Cucamonga;n88778 said:
Interested in learning what were the indications that your upper had a head space problem, firing out of battery, or? I also have a 9mm PSA upper but have only fired a few rounds in the back yard.
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I don't want to speak for anyone, but i think he means
the leade was cut short, not an actual Headspace issue.
 
No, it was an actual headspace problem. It was crunching cases when the bolt closed. It was about 0.040" too short.

If you have the upper removed from the lower, place the bolt in the upper and close the bolt on an empty chamber. Notice the gap (or actually the lack of a gap) between the bolt and barrel. Then repeat with a round in the chamber. Mine had a significant gap between bolt and barrel. I know of at least 4 other people that had the same problem. PSA took care of it, though.
 
Toprudder;n89012 said:
No, it was an actual headspace problem. It was crunching cases when the bolt closed. It was about 0.040" too short.

If you have the upper removed from the lower, place the bolt in the upper and close the bolt on an empty chamber. Notice the gap (or actually the lack of a gap) between the bolt and barrel. Then repeat with a round in the chamber. Mine had a significant gap between bolt and barrel. I know of at least 4 other people that had the same problem. PSA took care of it, though.
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Did they replace the barrel or cut the chamber deeper
on your existing bbl?
​​​​​​
​​​​​can you shoot 1.15 COAL RN bullets?

I just received a mess of the RMR
.380 90gr FMJ HP pulls and planned to try them in the blowback with some gassy powder, just to see how they feel.
probably choke me with gas but ya never know.
 
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Slacker;n96461 said:
Did they replace the barrel or cut the chamber deeper
on your existing bbl?
​​​​​​
​​​​​can you shoot 1.15 COAL RN bullets?

I just received a mess of the RMR
.380 90gr FMJ HP pulls and planned to try them in the blowback with some gassy powder, just to see how they feel.
probably choke me with gas but ya never know.
Click to expand...

They replaced the barrel, bolt, and fire control group. I personally thought that only the barrel needed to be replaced. Cutting the chamber deeper would not have worked, as the bolt was going too far forward, enough that the hammer was hitting the bolt catch.

Hard to say about the COL, as every bullet is different. I will say that this chamber has a shorter leade than any of my pistols, so 1.15 may not plunk in it. I have worked up a couple of loads that work very well, one is the Xtreme plated 147gn bullet seated at 1.13", and the other is the new RMR 115 FMJ seated to 1.100". The latter is the more accurate one, about 1.5" at 50 yards, muzzle velocity near 1500fps.
 
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