Today my new Palmetto State Armory upper half arrived. I paid $430. It is the 20" flat top with an FN barrel.
I was never able to find any detailed photographs or information before I ordered, so hopefully this will help people currently shopping.
The packaging was simple, but effective. The upper half arrived completely assembled and undamaged.
The first thing that really caught my attention was how incredibly stiff the charging handle was to pull back. I was a little concerned that something may have been wrong with it. More on this later. (If you’re hanging on the edge of your seat, the upper is fine.)
The first thing I wanted to check, based on prior problems I’ve had with another company (High Standard/Interarms) was that the gas key fasteners were not YFS and that the staking was not field expedient. The staking looks good, and the fasteners are not YFS. The gas key is chrome lined.
The interior of the carrier is chrome lined, too. The carrier is of the full auto variety.
It does come with a PSA logo on the side of the carrier, but the etching is very thin and isn’t really that prominent. I’m glad of this.
The upper receiver has a similar mark on the port side. Again, it is thin and really doesn’t draw much attention. It’s classy.
The front sight base is F-marked. The pins are tapered.
The barrel has a FN logo, followed by “MP 5.56 NATO 1/7”.
The rails on the upper receiver are T-marked, and white-filled.
No idea who did the machining. It does have an Anchor-Harvey Forge mark, though. “M4” is etched into the front of the upper receiver.
Aside from the identifying marking, the barrel has two other stamps. What appears to be a “U” is near just aft of the front sight base under the handguards. Just fore of the upper receiver is what looks to be a “10”- maybe the year 2010?
Standard A2 flash hider, with a crush washer for timing.
The sling swivel pin could have been flattened a little better- but it will hold. I’ll probably flatten it a bit more myself.
Continued, next post.
