Palmetto State Armory .300 Blackout Upper. Do you own one or have any experience?

[drumvudu]

I was curios about the quality of PSA's uppers for a 300 pistol. I have been dealing with PSA for years when buying ammunition and numerous small parts but I have never purchased an upper or a complete gun from them and have never had much time behind one. How is the quality of their barrels? What forging marks are on their uppers? I'm looking at an 8.5" or a 10" barrel. it's a nitrided inside and out setup with no chrome lining which for a semi-auto, I prefer. Can anyone give me any insight?

[Dave_L]

I can't say much about the .300 but all their 5.56 uppers I've bought have been good. Their premium line's barrels are made by FN. I believe their other PSA lines are made by Wilson. PTAC is their budget line and I've heard has some QC issues. I have one ptac upper on the wife's ar and its worked great but that line seems to generate the most complaints. The freedom line doesn't come chrome lined. That's where the savings comes in. That helps accuracy usually (or so they say) but you lose some longevity (but that longevity usually isn't something the casual shooter needs).

[drumvudu]

Well, I shoot between 600 and 1000 rounds a week most weeks, sometimes less so I wouldn't exactly call me a casual shooter. At the same time, I do it because I enjoy. Not because I think I am Rambo or because I am trying to win some competition. I like to shoot for defensive reasons and for accuracy and I have no machine guns so as long as a barrel will hold up to what I consider the normal, hard use of 2500 rounds per month, then it should be fine. Maybe I will buy the thing and keep strict track of the round count so I can then report back on the actual reliability of the .300 blackout. I will be shooting suppressed and supersonic so It'll be a complete gamut of tests. Thanks for the info Dave.

[Skip]

I don't shoot .300BLK but I own several PSA products including three AR uppers. I have a love/hate relationship with PSA. I love they are getting black rifles out there, but they are doing so quickly and apparently expect the customer to be their QA department.

The barrels have all been solid and very accurate. I have two mid-length ARs and one 20" for an A4 build. The middys have been flawless. The 20" upper had annodization flaking off the side before the first range trip and had to be sent back. This process takes weeks. Had them send me a lower for a build that was an obvious blem with the non-blem price tag (when lowers were scarce) and they wouldn't do a return.

On my uppers, there's what looks like an "A" behind the brass deflector. There is also a white PSA logo on the left side.

Given you shoot that much I don't see how you can go wrong (for the money) as long as you are patient if you have any issues. The way I look at it, any gun that runs for a few hundred rounds is good to go. The ones I've had fail have failed within 200 rounds (and I've never had any PSA product fail).

[drumvudu]

I couldn't agree more with your synopsis on round count. On an AR, if you are a couple to three hundred rounds in and have had no issues, then you are almost always good to go. I have seen a few exceptions though. My best friend since college bought his son an M&P 15 for his 25th birthday and after 900+ rounds of flawless fire, it suddenly has developed a very weak ejection problem. We tried all of the normal things you would try and nothing changed it so he called Smith and it's on it's way back to them for them to look at. I can't wait to hear what the problem is cause it's like the damn thing is haunted. Nothing else is wrong! That kind shit gets very frustrating. Anyway, thanks for the comments guys.

[WFA]

I don't think the BLK uses enough powder, with enough pressure, to ever wear out - unless you go FA - and I'm not sure that would burn out a barrel. All three of my uppers (a BHW, a S&W, and an AR Stoner) just seem to get more accurate the more I shoot them. IIRC, round could is about 1500 on all three.

I have a number of PSA products. I consider all of them to have been a "good buy". You might want to "bed" the barrel because some of the uppers seem to be a bit on the loose side, but that all depends on your specific assembly.

[drumvudu]

I would agree that some of them are on the loose end. I did finally buy a .300 blackout upper from them but by the time I was done changing and upgrading, the only thing left was the barrel.lol Here's a shot of the gun completed until my paperwork comes back for the stock

[.40isthenew.45]

Well, I shoot between 600 and 1000 rounds a week most weeks, sometimes less so I wouldn't exactly call me a casual shooter. At the same time, I do it because I enjoy. Not because I think I am Rambo or because I am trying to win some competition. I like to shoot for defensive reasons and for accuracy and I have no machine guns so as long as a barrel will hold up to what I consider the normal, hard use of 2500 rounds per month, then it should be fine. Maybe I will buy the thing and keep strict track of the round count so I can then report back on the actual reliability of the .300 blackout. I will be shooting suppressed and supersonic so It'll be a complete gamut of tests. Thanks for the info Dave.

I sure would be interested in your feelings about the upper (okay at this point I guess the barrel since you upgraded a lot)....

[mattiooo]

I bought one of their 8.5" uppers. It was a CHF barrel with a 7" keymod handguard. Runs great for me. I only have about 100 rounds through it, but zero problems. Not one single failure to feed (I'm not counting when I couldn't strip a round off a Magpul mag - that was the magazine not the upper) - not one. I have been using with a PSA lower SBR. Ran it both with and without a suppressor. Slow fire and rapid fire. Works as it should.

It was insanely quiet too....running subsonics through a Gemtech GM-45.

As mentioned in other PSA threads, stay away from their PTAC and Freedom uppers.