Pistol Caliber upper

[Brass Nazi]

Anyone have one for an AR? I assume that they are blowback????

IT seems to me like they would make a good cast bullet plinker. Cheap brass and easy to pour bullets, and stingy with the powder.

Are they as reliable with pistol ammunition as they are with .223?

Would I be better off with a Beretta Storm or Ruger carbine as the cost would be close to the same for a complete gun versus the ar upper.

[BigSlick]

I'd go with a Ruger PC4 myself ;)

They are hard as hell to find, so, if you don't like it you can always move it quickly.

As far as a Storm vs an upper, I say go with a Storm, as two guns are better than one and an upper for the bucks

[Brass Nazi]

The shop in town used to be giving away those PC9s. I also remember S&W 940s on a clearance shelf for something like $300 and they sat there for a year or so!

I don't know I have been wanting a nice little plinker. I will probably end up with a .357 levergun but I am kicking the tires on a few options in my mind.

[BigSlick]

Well 9x19 and .40 brass is a lot cheaper than .357 and the Rugers are available in 40 and 9x19 for ~$400 if you look around.

I see the 9x19's at shows once in a while. Some of the sellers are trying to get $7-800 for them, but, that ain't gonna fly.

Mags are cheap if you look in the right place (CDNN) and as far as a plinker goes consider Ruger has a lifetime warranty, lever guns are all over the place for ~$5-600 and still being made in quantity.

As far as other options, the others I looked at kinda sucked compared. I just wanted to have a cheap shooter to shoot cheap loads out of. Lever gun is a great option, and a better long term investment, but if you're looking for cheap and reliable, a Ruger is almost impossible to beat.

Easy to get rid of in a heartbeat if you decide to move to something else without taking a hit on the sale. You're either going to buy something else entirely, or take a hit selling a lever gun that's still in production.

I been down this road and stopped at every option I could find. Nothing looked better than the PC4 and PC9's. I'm gonna have me a PC9 next time I run across one for reasonable.

Plus, I'm giving some real thought to maybe throating it to almost 10mm dimensions so I can load .40 long and use me some 200gr bullets

Oh yeah, at least in .40, six o'clock support is excellent I suspect 9x19 ain't a problem there either ;)

Jes sayin :whistling1:

[rjrivero]

Anyone have one for an AR? I assume that they are blowback????

IT seems to me like they would make a good cast bullet plinker. Cheap brass and easy to pour bullets, and stingy with the powder.

Are they as reliable with pistol ammunition as they are with .223?

Would I be better off with a Beretta Storm or Ruger carbine as the cost would be close to the same for a complete gun versus the ar upper.
They are indeed blow back. I decided to build a 9mm upper for a project AR because of several factors:

1) Lone wolf makes a Glock Mag lower that can be built into 9mm or .40 S&W.
2) The controls are identical to my "main" rifle.
3) Much chepaer to shoot 9mm than .223 and reloading it is SO NICE, compared to .223. I mean really carbide 9mm dies vs. .223? There is NO lube required, NO TRIMMING required, MINIMAL amounts of 9mm require primer pocket crimping....etc. etc.
4) 147gr 9mm with a Trident 9? Cmon, MAN!!!:winner:

The AR was designed for the .223/5.56. It's designed around a bottle neck cartridge. The strait blowback of the 9mm uppers is rather simple, but effective. The major draw back is that they are DIRTY. You want the gun to cycle, but you want the bolt closed long enough for a "complete burn." Feeding a short stubby bullet into the long action AR requires a longer buffer to shorten the stroke, and a way to convert the long mag well to use the stubby mags. A properly set up magazine block will do this for you, but I decided to use a dedicated lower. Since I have a bunch of GLOCK mags, I decided to build a Lone Wolf Dist. Lower into my rifle.

I ended up liking this gun SO MUCH, I gave the .gov $200 for the tax stamp!!

http://www.revolverforums.com/forum/picture.php?albumid=46&pictureid=266

And ANOTHER $200 for a Trident 9.

http://www.revolverforums.com/forum/picture.php?albumid=46&pictureid=268

If anyone is interested, I'd be happy to post up some build specs on this little ditty!!

[BigSlick]

Schweet !

How much for the LW lower in a 9x19 ?

[rjrivero]

Schweet !

How much for the LW lower in a 9x19 ?
Stripped is $200 give or take. You can get them complete too, for about $350? (Not sure)

[BigSlick]

Man, JR oughta be making a killing off those

[grendelbane]

I kind of like my pistol caliber AR's. Perhaps because they irritate a lot of people. They do make great plinkers, and are much easier on the ears. They do indeed gobble up cast bullets, and don't take much powder.

They run out of steam pretty quick, but that's OK with me, I think of them as 100 meter guns anway. There are some gas operated .45s and 7.62 x 25s that have been built, but both of mine are blowback.

The main reason I keep one around is the CDI factor.

http://i294.photobucket.com/albums/mm90/grendelbane6/tigerstripepantyhose.jpg

[Blackdog]

I like the paint job. Is that a mag well block or purpose-built lower?

[grendelbane]

The receiver is a Cavalry Arms MKII. The mag well was made extra wide to accomodate either 5.56 magazines, or M3 grease gun magazines. (My father would have called them Guide Lamp clips). It uses a Hahn mag block to help accomplish this. So I guess the answer to your questions is yes. It is a purpose built lower with a mag block.

The upper is Olympic. The buffer is an 8 ounce custom, made by Slash. I call it my CavOly. The paint job is home brew Krylon, and will probably be replaced this spring. It has had 3 different paint jobs so far.

[grendelbane]

Here is how it has looked over the years.
http://i294.photobucket.com/albums/mm90/grendelbane6/CavOly45.jpg

http://i294.photobucket.com/albums/mm90/grendelbane6/industrialnetAR.jpg

It is a work in progress.

[Brass Nazi]

So the uppers are not drop in with a standard complete lower? Parts in the buffer system need to be replaced too?

[grendelbane]

The upper will drop in on a regular lower. The Cavalry Arms lower needs a heavier buffer, due to its plastic construction. The claimed they broke some with a conventional buffer, and recommended an 8 ounce buffer. I took their advice, and had no problem. Its beens shot quite a bit, too. As I said, CDI!

But the grease gun mags won't fit a standard lower. There are some aluminum receivers out there that will.

Some have done surgery on the gg mags. Oly used the old Uzi .45 mags, but these have gotten expensive now.

If you use the Colt style 9mm upper, it will also drop in, but if running a carbine stock it needs a 5 ounce buffer. It will take the Colts mags, which are readily available now. Funny how some mags get higher, and some get cheaper.

Rock River Arms offers a .40 S&W upper, but not too sure about what magazine they use.