Economy 9mm AR build
Posted: Mon Feb 27, 2017 10:24 pm
Hey all, long time lurker.
Thanks to everybody who has posted reviews of different companies and parts that really helped me out with my own build.
Let me start by saying I had every intention of building my own 9mm carbine on the AR platform. I planned to use name brand components of good quality without going for any really premium components or flashy hardware. I wanted an economical, smooth operating, consistent rifle. I target shoot regularly and have several family members that hunt and target shoot with me.
As I started pricing out all the components I needed to build my own lower, it quickly became apparent that building my own would actually be more expensive than buying a 100% lower from one of the larger online retailers. I read a bunch of reviews and looked at PSA, JoeBobs, New Frontier, QCC and a handful of others before settling on one of PSA's "weekend deals"
I purchased the 9mm Glock lower with PSA's EPT trigger and the Magpul STR stock. The price was $277 shipped and I have a buddy that's an FFL dealer that didn't charge me a transfer.
http://palmettostatearmory.com/psa-9mm- ... r-blk.html
Comparatively, the parts to build this myself from PSA would have been more than $300 plus shipping. So this turned into a no-brainer for me. The EPT trigger wound up being the only upgrade I bought and I'm very happy I did. It's no high end adjustable trigger, but this isn't a competition weapon either. The release is super crisp with a tactile and audible reset, well worth the $30.
The upper:
Here's where I started having trouble. Again, I considered building my own upper, I'm handy, I have tools and I know a gunsmith in case I screw up. But, again, I found that buying components piece by piece was going to be more expensive than buying something already assembled, head-spaced and test fired by a professional The real problem was finding a 16" upper in stock! Most of the major players have a 16" upper with varying length handguard, choice of M-Lok or Keymod, Hybrid BCG and charge handle in a package for around $400 - $500. Finding one in stock was the real trick. I searched around for a month plus waiting for somebody to have one in stock that wasn't $700 which led to me search the interntz a little harder than normal and I'm really, really glad I did.
I found a newly opened website at http://www.brdc.us (now http://battlerifledevelopment.com). BRDC has apparently been in the OEM manufacturing business for many years but has decided to open a website and start developing a brand name. I wasn't able to find any reviews of their products online or any forum posts at all. Period. This made me extremely wary of buying from them. So I reached out to their support email on a Saturday just to see if anybody was home. I received an email back about 4 minutes later from the founder and CEO. We emailed back and forth a little bit about warranty, company history, etc.. and I decided to give them a shot. Now, I was ready to be dissapointed, the complete upper was priced at $395 and sounded too good to be true. "100% American made components, full nitride barrel, 15" keymod rail, dust cover, forward assist, full aluminum upper, hybrid BCG, etc...
They built it and shipped it 3 days later. I had it in my hands in 10 days and was shocked at how nice it was. The BCG has a super slick black nitride coating and is built like a tank with only the slightest of tooling marks, the upper has a rich black anodized coating and didn't have a single scrape, scratch or scuff on it, the handguard is lightweight but nice, heavy duty material, the chamber face on the barrel was obviously polished prior to getting it's own nitride bath. I can't say enough about the upper. It's fantastic! Honestly, my only complaint is that the bolt on the website pictures has their brand on it [BRDC] and mine was plain black. That's all I can find to complain about.
If you're thinking about BRDC stuff and on the fence, buy it. I don't think you can go wrong! I think they're going to build a quality name and their prices will go up accordingly.
A couple other bits and pieces and I was ready to assemble. I intend to put an optic on it but wanted some flip up sights until I've made up my mind on a red dot. I searched around on Amazon and settled on some $30 flip up rail mount sights from Ozark Mountain https://smile.amazon.com/Ozark-Armament ... ain+sights .
I'm completely happy with them as backups and my only complaint is that they do not fold down all the way flush, they stay partially sprung up (maybe 2 or 3 degrees) when you lock them down. Still a solid deal for $30
And lastly, magazines. I learned a lesson here that I'd like to share. I ordered 2 promag glock 17 9mm mags from Cabela's. When I put my rifle together, it wouldn't feed more than 2 rounds consecutively without slamming one into the chamber face, ejection was weird and occasionally brass would get hung between the bolt and the upper. My first thought was "I really screwed up with all this budget gear" but fortunately that wasn't the case.
I noticed that the bolt was chewing big chunks off the follower and that mags rocked back and forth really bad. Before getting crazy and tearing the thing apart I decided to try a Glock branded magazine and every single problem I had went away, no more misfeeds, no more cases getting stuck in the rifle, no more weak ejections. It ran like a top. Promags went back and I replaced them with Magpul Pmags. I've put at least 250 rounds through it since and haven't had a problem with 115, 124 or 147 grain bullets, weak loads, hot loads, reloads. You name it, this baby gobbles them up and rings the plate at 100 yds. When I compared the Glock magazine to the promag it was obvious that the design tolerances were just garbage and that the angle the bullets sat at were way off.
So, long story short:
PSA EPT STR Lower $277 shipped
BRDC Upper $412 shipped (SCORE!)
Ozark Mountain sights $30 shipped
Magpul PMAGS x 2 $30
Total of $749 for a 9mm AR carbine that runs like a top and looks great!.
Thanks to everybody who has posted reviews of different companies and parts that really helped me out with my own build.
Let me start by saying I had every intention of building my own 9mm carbine on the AR platform. I planned to use name brand components of good quality without going for any really premium components or flashy hardware. I wanted an economical, smooth operating, consistent rifle. I target shoot regularly and have several family members that hunt and target shoot with me.
As I started pricing out all the components I needed to build my own lower, it quickly became apparent that building my own would actually be more expensive than buying a 100% lower from one of the larger online retailers. I read a bunch of reviews and looked at PSA, JoeBobs, New Frontier, QCC and a handful of others before settling on one of PSA's "weekend deals"
I purchased the 9mm Glock lower with PSA's EPT trigger and the Magpul STR stock. The price was $277 shipped and I have a buddy that's an FFL dealer that didn't charge me a transfer.
http://palmettostatearmory.com/psa-9mm- ... r-blk.html
Comparatively, the parts to build this myself from PSA would have been more than $300 plus shipping. So this turned into a no-brainer for me. The EPT trigger wound up being the only upgrade I bought and I'm very happy I did. It's no high end adjustable trigger, but this isn't a competition weapon either. The release is super crisp with a tactile and audible reset, well worth the $30.
The upper:
Here's where I started having trouble. Again, I considered building my own upper, I'm handy, I have tools and I know a gunsmith in case I screw up. But, again, I found that buying components piece by piece was going to be more expensive than buying something already assembled, head-spaced and test fired by a professional The real problem was finding a 16" upper in stock! Most of the major players have a 16" upper with varying length handguard, choice of M-Lok or Keymod, Hybrid BCG and charge handle in a package for around $400 - $500. Finding one in stock was the real trick. I searched around for a month plus waiting for somebody to have one in stock that wasn't $700 which led to me search the interntz a little harder than normal and I'm really, really glad I did.
I found a newly opened website at http://www.brdc.us (now http://battlerifledevelopment.com). BRDC has apparently been in the OEM manufacturing business for many years but has decided to open a website and start developing a brand name. I wasn't able to find any reviews of their products online or any forum posts at all. Period. This made me extremely wary of buying from them. So I reached out to their support email on a Saturday just to see if anybody was home. I received an email back about 4 minutes later from the founder and CEO. We emailed back and forth a little bit about warranty, company history, etc.. and I decided to give them a shot. Now, I was ready to be dissapointed, the complete upper was priced at $395 and sounded too good to be true. "100% American made components, full nitride barrel, 15" keymod rail, dust cover, forward assist, full aluminum upper, hybrid BCG, etc...
They built it and shipped it 3 days later. I had it in my hands in 10 days and was shocked at how nice it was. The BCG has a super slick black nitride coating and is built like a tank with only the slightest of tooling marks, the upper has a rich black anodized coating and didn't have a single scrape, scratch or scuff on it, the handguard is lightweight but nice, heavy duty material, the chamber face on the barrel was obviously polished prior to getting it's own nitride bath. I can't say enough about the upper. It's fantastic! Honestly, my only complaint is that the bolt on the website pictures has their brand on it [BRDC] and mine was plain black. That's all I can find to complain about.
If you're thinking about BRDC stuff and on the fence, buy it. I don't think you can go wrong! I think they're going to build a quality name and their prices will go up accordingly.
A couple other bits and pieces and I was ready to assemble. I intend to put an optic on it but wanted some flip up sights until I've made up my mind on a red dot. I searched around on Amazon and settled on some $30 flip up rail mount sights from Ozark Mountain https://smile.amazon.com/Ozark-Armament ... ain+sights .
I'm completely happy with them as backups and my only complaint is that they do not fold down all the way flush, they stay partially sprung up (maybe 2 or 3 degrees) when you lock them down. Still a solid deal for $30
And lastly, magazines. I learned a lesson here that I'd like to share. I ordered 2 promag glock 17 9mm mags from Cabela's. When I put my rifle together, it wouldn't feed more than 2 rounds consecutively without slamming one into the chamber face, ejection was weird and occasionally brass would get hung between the bolt and the upper. My first thought was "I really screwed up with all this budget gear" but fortunately that wasn't the case.
I noticed that the bolt was chewing big chunks off the follower and that mags rocked back and forth really bad. Before getting crazy and tearing the thing apart I decided to try a Glock branded magazine and every single problem I had went away, no more misfeeds, no more cases getting stuck in the rifle, no more weak ejections. It ran like a top. Promags went back and I replaced them with Magpul Pmags. I've put at least 250 rounds through it since and haven't had a problem with 115, 124 or 147 grain bullets, weak loads, hot loads, reloads. You name it, this baby gobbles them up and rings the plate at 100 yds. When I compared the Glock magazine to the promag it was obvious that the design tolerances were just garbage and that the angle the bullets sat at were way off.
So, long story short:
PSA EPT STR Lower $277 shipped
BRDC Upper $412 shipped (SCORE!)
Ozark Mountain sights $30 shipped
Magpul PMAGS x 2 $30
Total of $749 for a 9mm AR carbine that runs like a top and looks great!.