atblis
Member
I have a pretty good selection of PSA uppers, and there's been lots of requests for reviews of PSA uppers with questions about accuracy. One question that comes up is what which barrel should I buy. I have a couple of the FN HF barrels that I'll eventually test as well.
Mini review: They all look like 20" Ar15 uppers. They're black. The sights seem to be on straight. They all worked. Done.
This is by no means definitive. I suspect my shooting abilities and the ammo used were limiting factors. I didn't use match grade bullets. Also, the later groups were noticeably tighter than early groups. I could tell I was shooting better towards the end.
10 shot groups (give or take) at 100 yards. Sand bags, Zeiss Conquest 4.5-14x44 in a Larue Mount. A2 lower with Geissele Match trigger. The same lower and scope/mount were used for all uppers.
Load used:
Hornady 55 gr FMJ/BT bulk bullets. Generally considered a 2 MOA bullet
26.5 gr of WC844
Wolf 223 primers
Brand new LC brass. Touched up with a 0.245 neck bushing and slightly bumped shoulder.
good for 2950ish fps out of a 20"
No malfunctions of any kind in any of the uppers. I also did not clean any of the uppers before using them. I did put some Breakfree on the bolts.
Uppers Tested
1) 20" Premium 4150 PSA upper. Government profile. Referred to as W1
2) 20" Premium 4150 PSA upper. Government profile. Referred to as W2
3) 20" FN upper. Government profile. Referred to as FN 20". This is the button rifled FN barrel that PSA offered (not HF).
I think the Premium 4150 uppers have Wilson barrels.
Note that the groups are not shown in the order they were shot. Also do not pay attention to the center of the groups as there were scope adjustments and scope removal/installations between groups.
These are all the groups I shot. No omissions, No called flyer BS, No 3 round groups, etc. etc.
Conclusion: At first I thought those were awful groups, but after thinking about it: Government profile, chrome lined, M193 type projectiles--> anything under 2 MOA is actually not bad at all. Planning to revisit this with premium bullets. Basically they all shoot well, and I wouldn't hesitate to buy one of the non FN uppers.
Mini review: They all look like 20" Ar15 uppers. They're black. The sights seem to be on straight. They all worked. Done.
This is by no means definitive. I suspect my shooting abilities and the ammo used were limiting factors. I didn't use match grade bullets. Also, the later groups were noticeably tighter than early groups. I could tell I was shooting better towards the end.
10 shot groups (give or take) at 100 yards. Sand bags, Zeiss Conquest 4.5-14x44 in a Larue Mount. A2 lower with Geissele Match trigger. The same lower and scope/mount were used for all uppers.
Load used:
Hornady 55 gr FMJ/BT bulk bullets. Generally considered a 2 MOA bullet
26.5 gr of WC844
Wolf 223 primers
Brand new LC brass. Touched up with a 0.245 neck bushing and slightly bumped shoulder.
good for 2950ish fps out of a 20"
No malfunctions of any kind in any of the uppers. I also did not clean any of the uppers before using them. I did put some Breakfree on the bolts.
Uppers Tested
1) 20" Premium 4150 PSA upper. Government profile. Referred to as W1
2) 20" Premium 4150 PSA upper. Government profile. Referred to as W2
3) 20" FN upper. Government profile. Referred to as FN 20". This is the button rifled FN barrel that PSA offered (not HF).
I think the Premium 4150 uppers have Wilson barrels.
Note that the groups are not shown in the order they were shot. Also do not pay attention to the center of the groups as there were scope adjustments and scope removal/installations between groups.
These are all the groups I shot. No omissions, No called flyer BS, No 3 round groups, etc. etc.
Conclusion: At first I thought those were awful groups, but after thinking about it: Government profile, chrome lined, M193 type projectiles--> anything under 2 MOA is actually not bad at all. Planning to revisit this with premium bullets. Basically they all shoot well, and I wouldn't hesitate to buy one of the non FN uppers.
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