Hey carbine, I am swapping around several at platform rifles I have. I recently sold a friend my bolt, barrel, and some internal from one… Figured it would be cool to make a 9mm, esp because I reload a lot of 9mm.
In saying that I am very much I to doing quality poo arts build vs not.
Looking for solid advise on barrel, bolt, and buffer…
I need to use a carbine gas system to use the rail I have sitting around and do not want anything under 14.5"… Can’t do sbrs here in IL and I already own a 300blk pistol.
The 9mm AR15 does not require a gas tube since it’s blow bback.I have a CMMG bolt and Hahn buffer and they’ve worked well. I got my barrel from QC10, but they may have redesigned their bolts and barrels to be somewhat proprietary. Not sure though.
I’d check sources like Adco, 9mmar.com answer JSE Surplus just to name a few. Also, good ol’ standby places like Brownells and Gun Broker.
Besides that, search and read, lather, rinse, repeat.
My experience with a CMMG dedicated 9mm carbine wasn’t very positive. I bought it for a training rifle and ended up selling it. I kept it meticulously clean since it was a blowback (used Fireclean/Crisco :rolleyes:) and for the first maybe 40-50 rounds it worked fine. Then it would start to get sluggish and I had failures-to-eject and FTF. After about 50 rounds it became a PIA to keep shooting it, unless you like doing malfunction drills every mag. YMMV but it turned me off to blowback pistol-caliber carbines.
My DDLES Colt Pattern lower and YHM upper / barrel / bolt / rail, combined with a Heavy Buffers 9MM-Q buffer has been a beast. 1500rds, cleaned it twice, once each at 850rds and 1400rds. Zero malfunctions aside from the first round where I failed to properly seat the magazine and the next round didn’t pick up and the mag fell out (100% user error).
It sounds like a nail gun will full power 124/147gr +P HSTs, it must be much quieter with heavier suppressor designed subsonic rounds. Recoil is non-existent. I have mine zeroed at just past 50 yards, so aside from a slight holdover for precise shots up close, it’s dot on out to 100 for COM hits all day long.
I have a 9mm LWD lower and JSE upper combo that has been likewise stellar for me. Effectively everything is OEM besides new furniture, except for a a buck in change in the buffer tube. Unlike the OP, I decided not to Roll it myself because there have been some troubles for some builders.
I have a few thousand rounds down range, with an optimal cleaning between 200-500 rounds. My range has many more bays for pistol caliber shooting, so having a dedicated training gun has been god send.
Angstadt has me very interested, especially as a pistol. I considered DDLES but ended up happy I never put any money down.
The magazine choice is one of the biggest issues you will have to decide. Very satisfied with the Glock choice personally but the Colt/Uzi pattern is likely even better due to the reliable BHO.
I did a full QC10 setup - lower, bolt, barrel - and built it into a lightweight cross trainer for CQB type work at the local indoor ranges. Working great at over 1k rounds. I prefer a dedicated lower for both aesthetics and function over a mag adapter. Ends up being the same price if you’re considering something like a Hahn adapter.
On the barrel, don’t go over about 8-10 inches. You can go longer and squeeze a little more range out of it with +P+ ammo, but not nearly enough to justify the extra length, especially considering that compact size is the reason for 9mm ARs in the first place.
Personally from my investigation I believe anything over 6" to be not worth it, especially for the added size and relation to where a weapon like this is to be used.