Mention Palmetto State Armory (PSA) in online gun circles and everyone seems to have an opinion – but are their entry level AR-15s worth the price of admission? Johnny cuts through the chaff and gives you his honest opinions on two AR-15 rifles (Freedom + Free Float) from PSA that’ll get you into the AR-15 game without breaking the bank!
Peep the full article here for more details on three more tested PSA AR-15s!
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Palmetto State Armory is arguably the reigning king of budget friendly AR-15s – here’s the low down on their M4 EPT Freedom and 16” Mid-length rifles!
►PROS◄
☑ Incredibly affordable
☑ Respectable groupings at 100m
☑ Consistent ejection pattern
☑ Upgraded triggers out of the box
☑ Reliability
►CONS◄
✗ Fit and finish aren’t bad – but aren’t anything to write home about
✗ These are definitely still budget rifles – you won’t be kicking doors with these anything soon.
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I fucking love this guy, he’s so cheerful and he has such a good vibe
Is the oranges for scale a running joke?
What would be the one upgrade you would do on the free-floater to improve accuracy? Drop-in trigger? I have a rifle length 18" PSA with a stainless barrel.
What about the orange????
Why do people think that if a AR does not have a chrome lined barrel then it is not battle capable? These guns are milspec and above. They use receiver and lower castings that all more expensive manufacturers use. The internals , such as pins ,springs , and trigger/sear combos are all know to be outsourced from smaller companies. PSA has had some problems in the past, but what firearms maker hasn't.
Palmetto straight up mil spec. Gets the parts from the same plug the fancy name brands do.
inches < oranges
I've built 5 off of PSA uppers. 2 were with PSA stripped lowers.
I've never had a problem of any sort. Never a jam. Never a fail to feed. Nothing.
The polished trigger with a JG spring set is bliss. Usually has my pull at 4.5lbs.
I like the SPR with the rifle length gas and the 16" with mid length.
Nitride is VERY nice as far as cleaning and accuracy.
My 16 wears an A2 carry handle from UTG. PSA was out.
No matter. Both have the same forging mark.
The float guard is made by midwest. Very solid.
You say these are "budget". Thats because of price not quality. Were these built as completed rifles, prices would be
MUCH higher. Milspec is Milspec. I've no need of a 1K rifle that doesnt give that much more in accuracy.
Rather take the extra money and buy ammo for training.
I built a black rain with y-hill parts up word 1500 plus 1 moa at 100. next two will be psa under 500 if can get a 2moa I'm cool. IN THE 80 A DELTA COLT WAS UNDER 500 BUCKS don't fall into the entry-level labels
@Pew Pew Tactical- PSA offers 1/7 twist CMV ( per mil spec) and CHF chrome lined and melonite/ nitride barrel uppers and full rifles!
PSA so walked away from civilian 1/9 twist UNLINED barrels that companies like Wyndham Weaponry, Rock River and Stag and Bushmaster still sell. THERES a REASON the US military expects chrome lining and western European Militaries expect at least Melonited barrels, but too many people claim its " not necessary"( even in CA the weather and ambient conditions can cause a improperly oiled weapon to RUST in what you think is dry storage- learned that the HARD way when I bought a remington 870 express shot gun!!)
The 4140 CM barrels are rare from PSA and even those get nitride treatment so they tend to be better corrosion, heat heat wear and rifling resistant compared to other " entry" level manufacturers ( Del Ton, DS Arms, DPMS, even higher priced Stag and Rock River will make you pay EXTRA for chrome lined 1/7 barrels)
Its no frills rifle good for HD, plinking and even small and medium game hunting(if your state allows) I have shot my midlength PSA freedom AR-15 along side my Colt 6920 and get consistent 2.5 to 2.75 "groups with xm855- go to 69 gr sierra and the colt punches 1.5" and the PSA 1.75 groups in paper..only difference in performance between the Pony roll mark vs the crossed cannons!
Right now you can buy the midlength melonited CMV barreled upper for 219.00 and the ept complete lower for 179.00- slap on a mbus for 45.00, you have a > $450 ready to shoot rifle vs a $1100 Colt, 1300 BCM or LMT or DD…
Im starting to get pretty good with the fruit measurements, I can give most things an accurate ballpark with persimmons
It would be nice to see the rifle more than you
Johnny we have all missed you
With the M&P Sport II and the Ruger AR556 both at $499 right now, would you still go PSA over either of those two?
They shipped within 24 hours for me
JOHNNY 😁
Are these good for hunting deer/hogs? I'm looking for a good budget AR style hunting rifle.
Love the positive energy. Nice review. Thank you for posting it.
Wow they send you an orange also. Can't beat that
Ok, my mad rant is over now. But dang, having stupid issues like that I wrote on earlier is ridiculous and when the upper came in this morning, the dust cover (ejection port cover) was half hanging off. The hinge rod/pin for the cover is 3/8" too short and it backed out and the cover was hanging off. And no, there is no E clip or even a grove in the rod. Sure I can fix it by buying the proper size rod, but I have to take off the free floated fore arm and barrel to do that. I was going to do that anyway to check the tightness of the gas block and alignment of the holes as I've heard people say the screws were not tight and the block canted on them. Plus I've heard a bunch of buyers say they had to put in an adjustable gas block to get it to run right. And some have had to dremel out the bottom of the lower to get the bolt lock to work on the last round. I'm looking the upper over really good and so far, all I've found wrong was the mentioned port cover and the charge handle is very hard to close. I see I'll also have to file it a tad, like others have commented on their uppers. I don't know if .308 charge handles are larger than the 5.55, but this one seems wimpy compared to the size of the upper. This is my first AR 10, or PA 10. The screws on the free float seem tight but I've not put a wrench on them yet, same with the flash hider up front. It's just that I've never had to do this on any other gun I've ever owned and I've owned many, many guns, dating back to 1971. My age, not the gun age. But all in all, the upper seems nice enough for the price. My lower will be in next week, all legal and shit.
2 moa with what? 55 gr fmj? Ha
I own 3 psa AR's….18" stainless steel .223 wylde rifle length mlok FF, 16" 5.56 midlength nitride mlok FF, and a 10.5" 5.56 mlok pistol build…..all are awesome. I'm planning on picking up an Ar10 and one of their new AK's……
Hey I’m sorry. But I advise anyone thinking about buying from them to save your time and buy elsewhere. Sure they are cheap, and that’s it. They are cheap. They have rules that they do not disclose until you make a purchase and then they wait a week before getting to you that they won’t ship. I’m a resident of one state, but travel a lot. So if I have to buy a rifle out of state, I have to have it shipped to a local FFL and when the gun arrives, I go in, fill out the form, they make the call and it’s approved and I take possession of my rifle. PPA won’t ship anything but a full rifle to and FFL for you. Won’t ship a lower. They suck. Ruined a trip I had planned for the end of the month. So I have an upper arriving today, but my lower will not be shipped. Cancelled the lower, probably be a week before I get a refund. And I’ll be returning the upper to and start all over, anywhere else. Not to mention the money I spent on the trip is non-refundable. So yeah, they suck and I’m gonna post this everywhere. If I can cost them $1,000 in sales loss, I’m happy, because that’s what I’m out. Plus have you read the hundreds of thousands of reviews of flawed guns they sell? Poor customer service and replacements galore??? I was willing to take a chance. Never again. It was most likely a flawed lower anyway, like the masses report.
GREAT AND INFORMATIVE! THANKS. Newbie to the scene. Very helpful vid
Great video, always enjoyable.
Have you ever considered a second YouTube channel reading children’s books? I think that would be a huge hit.
Sweet, Thanks for the video!!! Watching this and reading some of the comments here made me make the decision to order one of PSA's rifle kits. Anybody here who built one of their rifle kits have suggestions on what brand of stripped lower to put on? I didn't add the PSA's lower to my order because I wasn't sure. I know the PSA lowers are probably just fine; I just wondering if there's other brand options out there that's not expensive and has a solid reputation, just for some other option choices? Someone told me just go with an Anderson lower, they're cheap and has good reputation of being solid.
Thanks for the review. I just ordered my free float kit online last night! Excited for it to arrive!
My PSA Freedom free float shoots sub MOA with 70 grain 223 ammo.
I got a freedom keymod a couple of years ago, the best I've been able to do with it was 2moa with 30rds at 100yds? That was because one hit wasn't touching the big hole in the middle! So, just saying
What about the ati omni max for only three fifty ?
I love my 2018 20" 556 PSA A2 Freedom and I've been using the AR platform since 1987. Its a great all purpose rifle, and very easily customized.
I am about to own my 1st PSA Freedom kit. Its brand new and already put together. I am trading for my FNS-9. Anyone have any input on whether this is a food trade or not? Thank you.
PSA is really killing it, I got a freedom complete upper with bcg and lower kit for $249 shipped here in Kommiefornia in 5 days from time of order. Coupled with a cheap stripped anderson from my local ffl I have a good solid rifle for a little over $300. I have a over 500 rounds and it is rock solid with no issues. Tight groupings and perfect reliability, what more can you ask for.
Useful information delivered well. Good job
So what exactly is not entry level
I would buy from PSA if they weren't CONSTANTLY "out of stock" on damn near everything.
You can get budget stuff with PSA, or you can get a nice mid level PSA build for a bit more. People always focus on the cheapest option.
And this gun fits my hand better than this gun!
Nice to see you again Johnny
Del Ton Echo 316 $405.99
PSA has been selling complete PA-15 rifles for $469 for the past couple of months (similar to the second rifle in the video). No sights, but they also have their MBUS pop up sights on sale for $49. This is my first AR style rifle and it seems to be adequate. I don't like the trigger and will probably upgrade that at a later date. The overall purchase experience with PSA was great. I went online and purchased the rifle, my FFL dealer was already in their system so checkout was very simple. Took about a week for the rifle to be delivered to my dealer. I would definitely buy from PSA again.
The FFL dealer network and having to go through a separate FFL dealer for the transfer is the biggest drawback to this process. My dealer is very good about firearms transfers. Some dealers are not. I get it. They prefer to sell you the weapon themselves instead of you buying it online.
My mlock rail from a complete upper from them rotates after shooting. It can't be tightened any further not sure how to fix