Back in April I purchased one of these lowers for my son's birthday. We turned into a father/son build project. After a few months of finally getting the build complete it was time to take her out to the range. My son's excitement turned into disappointment when every imaginable failure occurred at the range. We barley got 6 shots off, as only the first round racked off the mag would chamber and fire. Any subsequent round would either fail to feed, double feed, or fail to eject. It became a dangerous situation. These lowers come with issues and they are defiantly not ready to shot without some modifications. This a a serious liability on the part of PSA. Thanks to this archived post.... https://www.ar15.com/forums/ar-15/Palmetto-State-Armory-9mm-AR-PA-9---Hybrid-bolt-question---Failure-to-load-issues/15-723237/ I went from not being able to put back to back shots without a failure, to zero failures. What amazed me is that the bolt stop needs to be shortened as without trimming it, it does make contact with the headstamp of the rounds. The feed ramp is also an issue with PSA Colt 9. It took all of about 45 minutes of polishing and a little dremel work and she was up and running flawlessly using Melaform and C-Products mags. i wanted to thank all those involved in that archived post for the research and effort is still helping shooters today!

I have multiple issues with my PSA colt lower as well. Have tried different uppers, bolts, buffers and springs with marginal success. Have been holding off on modifying lower.  Anyone have any success with PSA being able to fix issues with the colt lowers if returned?

Their CS has a pretty good rep.  I'd contact tham before doing any significant work on my own.

A few people report that the feed ramp is actually too tall and makes contact with the upper, but that was one issue I didn't have. Other people have replaced the PSA feed ramp with the CMMG feed ramp, and have reported successful results. A number of people, myself included, have tried to contact customer service regarding these issues with negative results.

Try loading two rounds in a magazine and begin at that point.....pull the charging handle and try to chamber a round.....does it fire? extract and eject properly, picking up the next round and chambering...…..it as well?    I had a CMMG colt lower that choked right from the start.  I squared the nose of the ejector with a Dremel. slightly bent it inward towards the bolt and it has been spot on since......I only use Metalform magazines......can't speak about any other brand.

Update: finally got around to sending it in 2 weeks ago.  Just got update that it has shipped back with new fees ramp, disco spring and buffer spring.  I’m excited to try it out.

Thanks Josiah and PSA.

@palmettostatearmory

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Finally made it to the range.  Put about 120 rounds through it.  Functioned perfectly!   Even the LRBHO worked.

Thank you PSA.

Had similar problems with a Spikes 9MM lower.  Ejector was loose and not properly aligned to eject the empties.

Here it is, with the bolt locked back and the last empty still on the bolt face.  Popping off the upper, tweaking the ejector tip to the right a bit, took care of that issue.



The Spikes lower and a PSA 9MM (both Colt mag. lowers) would not allow the upper to close with the bolt forward (PSA complete 9MM upper on one, the other an upper I put together with a Faxon bolt).  Had to remove metal from the "feed ramp" on both and then polish them up good.  No issues with either after that.

No matter what you pay for something it can have issues.  Sometimes the fun is in figuring it out and fixing it.

You were my next go to. But so far so good. Thanks though! Attached File

Having to adjust the ejector seems to be quite common on the Colt style guns, both dedicated lowers and magazine blocks. One of the first things I did with my CMMG dedicated lower was to check the ejector and it needed a slight adjustment.