Palmetto state armory Dissipator review

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First I want to say that I had no issues with their customer service. I e-mailed Palmetto twice about the status of my order and was responded to both times with a friendly and polite note telling me that my upper was still being built and that it would take 15 days to get it out.

I placed an order for a Palmetto state armory 16" mid-length dissipator upper one week before election day during their "You didn't build that" parts sale. Day 15 was verterans day and I got an E-mail that day with a tracking number saying that my upper had shipped. Time from order to shipment, exactly 15 days as was stated in my e-mails and on their website when I placed the order.

My order arrived in a box within a box. The outer box was plain with no markings other than the shipping labels stating it was from Palmetto state.
The inner box looked like this.....

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And inside was this.....

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The box contained both my upper assembly and my Magpul back up sight.

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I lifted the upper from it's crate and looked it over and the first thing I noticed was the hand guards. They are of an unknown make and feel flimsy. They are oval in shape and are larger when compared to the A2 guards I would eventually replace them with. They also weren't installed properly. They do fit somewhat tightly and I was able to fit them with some coaxing. I chalk this up to a shipping rush and since the guards did fit and the function of the upper wasn't affected I called it a small disappointment and moved on.

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After making certain the hand guards did fit I removed them to look at the gas system and barrel. The barrel is a 5.56 chambered 1:7 twist chrome lined light profile barrel made by FN for palmetto and is stamped as such just under the F marked front sight base. The front sight is drilled and tapped in the gas port for an allen head screw which holds the front hand guard mount in place. The front sight is pinned and also has a bayonet lug attached. The muzzle device is an updated version of the A2 birdcage with no slots on the bottom.

The low profile gas block is held on by two hex head screws and there is zero play in the gas tube.

One note: The whole barrel was slathered in CLP. I think they might dunk the entire upper before they ship it. There was a lot of oil. There may have been oil in the gas tube as well because after firing it for the first time I noted a lot of oil in the action. I would recommend blasting some air down the tube before firing.

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The upper receiver is T marked for whatever reason and had M4 feed cuts that matched the barrel extension.

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After examining the barrel I mounted my optics and assembled the rifle. The bolt, bolt carrier, and lower that I used came from my Bushmaster A2 20" HBAR and everything went together fine. The upper fit tight with only a small amount of movement. My bolt slid in smoothly and since Palmetto test fires their uppers before shipment I didn't bother to check head space. I had no access to head space gauges anyway.

I sighted in the rifle for 25 yards initially using 30 rounds of American eagle tactical XM-193. I experienced no malfunctions during those 30 rounds. The brass looked good and the groups at that range where clover leafed so tightly that I sometimes couldn't tell if I was dealing with one hole or three.

Recoil was not noticeably different from my "20 HBAR and was soft. I Don't know if I can attribute that to the mid-length gas system or not. The muzzle blast was a much more noticeable heavy sounding thud thanks to the 16" barrel.

Overall I was pleased with palmettos service and their product. I plan to run 200 rounds through the rifle later to test it's endurance and functionality with more types of ammo and to find it's accuracy at 100 yrds. With the winter coming I ran out of daylight before I ran out of ammo otherwise I would have shot this rifle a lot more and would have done a more complete test. It is quite a joy to shoot and I feel it strikes a good balance of weight (8.5 Lbs loaded), length, and utility.

My intention with the build was to create an all around utility carbine for home defense and to take with me in the woods. I left the fixed stock attached so that I could continue to store a cleaning and spare parts kit in it and I will be picking up a CR123 battery compartment for the pistol grip later.

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If anyone would like to know more about this build feel free to ask and I will answer what I can.
 
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thanks for the write-up. I've been wanting to get the Palmetto Dissipator upper for one one of my builds and I appreciate you taking the time to provide this review. Looks good!
 
You're welcome!

I had to do a lot of looking when I was considering this for purchase so I thought a write up might help others in their decision.

I won;t know until I put more rounds through it but it seems like a solid upper for the money. I would definitely recommend it.
 
Nice! Good to hear they did it right with the carbine or mid lenth gas system.

Thanks for the review. PSA is getting a lot of good reviews.
 
I ordered mine a week after you did! I will add to this review when I get mine.
 
I ordered mine a week after you did! I will add to this review when I get mine.

Perfect!

Nice looking rifle. I like the camo look.

Thanks! The furniture came off my first AR-15 Bushmaster that was decked out in that furniture. The original rifle has some sentimental value to me so I wanted to keep it looking as close to the originals as possible. That's a lot of the reason I went with the dissy upper.
 
The bolt, bolt carrier, and lower that I used came from my Bushmaster A2 20" HBAR

You may want to use caution when swapping out the bolt between rifles as headspacing may be affected. Depending on how many rounds you have fired, your old bolt has been somewhat "mated" to your HBar by use. Putting the old bolt into a rifle with a new chamber can create problems.

Oh..and great review!
 
The first photo of the hand guards show a triangular end plate and hand guards for a round end plate. May have something to do with it being a Dissipator model.

I just receiver two mid-length uppers and the hand guards are for the triangular end plate and the fit is very tight.
 
You may want to use caution when swapping out the bolt between rifles as headspacing may be affected. Depending on how many rounds you have fired, your old bolt has been somewhat "mated" to your HBar by use. Putting the old bolt into a rifle with a new chamber can create problems.

What you say is true but my old upper had a round count under 1000K so I thought I would be pretty safe in reusing it.

I just receiver two mid-length uppers and the hand guards are for the triangular end plate and the fit is very tight.

I don't follow.
 
The first photo of the hand guards show a triangular end plate and hand guards for a round end plate. May have something to do with it being a Dissipator model.

I just receiver two mid-length uppers and the hand guards are for the triangular end plate and the fit is very tight.


Same here, my PSA midlength came with the triangular end caps and the fat M4 style handguards fit tight. So it probably does have something to do with the dissy model.


Nice review and nice rifle, walking arsenal!
 
I may have to order one of those. A shorter stock would be nice and I want to go with the magpul guards too.

Does it make use of the standard length rifle tube?
 
Yes... the standard tube is the A1 length, and from what I understand all A2 stocks use a spacer to fill the extra space behind the tube.

Someone correct me if I'm wrong.

I'd order the upgraded A2-style hard buttplate/trap door unless you have one lying around. The "basic" one is pretty cheap plastic.
 
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Update!

Added a C1 butt stock from Cavalry arms. Review here: http://www.thehighroad.org/showthread.php?t=717617

Cavalry's stocks don't come in realtree so I went with "Dark earth" (That makes it more tactical right? Chris Costa would approve?) handguard to match the butt stock and the grip. Well, almost. The stock is a slightly different color of brown. Very slight. But it stands out in the photo because of the lighting.

I also added a magpul rail for my light.

The rifle weighs 8.2 pounds empty which is a little on the chunky side but light for a dissipator.
 
No it really does kick.I am used to shooting a full size Colt hbar.I think this build is awesome.Full length sights on a short barrel = FUN
 
Ah. Okay.

Yeah. It's probably the reduction in weight then. I had a 20" HBAR upper on mine before I bought the palmetto.

It weighed quite a bit.
 
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