I had recently seen some cool AR pistol builds come in like the Saint Edge pistol, a certain BCM pistol, and a few others, and I really liked how lightweight and modern looking they were. Some of my AR's still have quad rails on them. I like them, but they seem dated now with the smooth M-Lok, and Keymod stuff out there. plus the smallest AR pistol I have has a 14" barrel and I've always thought I'd like to go really small like 10 inches.
I had a customer come in yesterday who upgraded barrels and he decided to give me his old 7" barrel... who was I to say no...
After he left, I got to thinking and realized I had enough take off's, extra parts, and prize table pickups to build a complete pistol so I put one together last night.
This is built on a PSA lower and a mystery upper. It has an SBA3 brace, H2 buffer, Raptor charging handle, Magpul BUS, MOE+ pistol grip, Mystery BCG, Mil Spec trigger, B.A.D lever, Primary Arms AMD, Sharps Bros ultralight handguard, mystery low pro gas block, and a Lancer Nitrous comp.
I was worried about such a short 5.56 barrel causing cycling issues, so I took it out today and put about 300 rounds through it with absolutely zero problems! I did chronograph my reloads (Berrys 55gr FMJ's) and they were running about 1905 FPS. (These loads run 2785 out of a 20" IIRC) I was getting about 2-3" groups at 50 yards with the red dot, but decided to try stretching it's legs a little, so I put on a PA 1-6 ACSS scope and went for my 20" gong at 250 yards. After finding my POI, I was able to hit it 8-10 times which is OK I guess...
I do really like how lightweight it is. Every time a new, nice looking, lightweight, AR pistol comes in, I weigh it and record it so I have something to base my future build on. They were coming it at 5 pounds 10 ounces, 5 pounds 13 ounces, etc... Mine is 5 pounds 8 ounces so I'm very happy with that! I also really like the Lancer comp. The barrel barely moves, although it is pretty loud. I did tune it with the adjustable jets, and found I like having two of the small orifice jets installed in the comp best.
I like the gun so much... I'm thinking I might want to use it for my home defense gun.
Of course I need to run a bunch more rounds through it for reliability testing, probably swap over to a matching black pistol grip, and trigger guard because it bugs me, and I think I'm going to try a Holosun HS515GM, but I'm wondering if I should be concerned with such a short barrel on a 5.56. So far it's running perfectly, but using it as a HD gun with hollow points, could I have expansion, or fragmentation problems with a velocity of only 1905?