I'm considering putting together a 5.45x39 rifle. Mainly to take advantage of the cheap practice ammo. I already have a Arsenal SGL31 but wanted to try this cal in AR platform. Plus it would be little easier to give a good cleaning after shooting corrosive ammo.

Any of you guys have good or bad experiences with this project? Do they seem to be fairly non-problematic performance wise? I've been eyeing the Spikes 5.45x39 complete upper. I like that they have taken measures to make it more corrosion resistant. It's like they knew a bunch of us were going to run a bunch of huge sardine cans full of corrosive ammo through them. lol!

Any input appreciated. Thanks

I've also been eyeing the Spikes 5.45 upper from AIM and like the fact that everything has anti-corrosive coatings. I'd like to hear the hive's input/experience.

IIRC C-products is no longer producing magazines..... They other ones were having to many problems so they are going to try to fix them before producing more. The magazines have always been the weak link with the 5.45 uppers. My S&W 5.45 upper would not run right with any of my 10 c-products magazines.

I run one..not a Spikes...runs 100% had a small popped primer issue initially is all

They generally require a little more babying until you get used to 'em, and then it's just like any other weapon you know inside/out.





I love my two, and I'm looking to build either a dissy or an SBR on my ARCOM lower.



ETA: The problems were mainly -



1.) Use a Wolff heavy hammer spring from the start.  There's no need to try to make a standard spring work.



2.) Playing with the spot welds inside the mags to smooth 'em out.  Some people use Magpuls and/or Lancers.  I tried, no luckier with them than a bad CProd.  Most CProds are GTG, but a little smoothing the inside seams goes a long way.



3.) Keep that bastard clean.  Wash out the fouling, it's apparently not as stout as a lot of the Russian weapons you've played with.

Had S&W 5.45 upper. Ran smooth with no malfunctions. Shot corrosive Russian surplus

I have one of the Spikes 5.45 uppers, I like it quite a bit. I have been extremely lucky so far with mags. Apparently, C-products made batches of their mags along the way that work. I have 11 of these and the one that came with the upper, they all run fine for me. I also have run a couple P-mags thru mine with nary a hickup. Altogether I have run maybe 750-800 rounds thru mine with zero failures.
  I download mags by a few rounds (27-28 rounds in my 30s) and have run each mag at least twice. I am running a Spikes lower with the Nib battle trigger set using the heavier supplied hammer spring, it causes a little more trigger tension than I wished, but fires reliably.
  As far as accuracy, I've proven nothing yet, maybe 4-5MOA or so (using Rusky surplus ammo). I have done slow,deliberate fire and mag dumps- mine runs like a top. Side by side with my middy 5.56s, they shoot very similar, but as you noticed the 5.45 ammo is much cheaper to burn.
  All in all, I like mine. I have plans to burn several crates of ammo, but much of my shooting has been out of state and that limits my cleaning. As soon as the Xmas work load gets to normal, I'll have a lot more use on this rifle- it is a big improvement over my AK74s (to me).
The mags are the biggest weak link, I got lucky. Hopefully Magpul will soon release some 5.45 p-mags, there have been no promises they will. Maybe c-products will find the sweet spot again for their mags, my 11 mags work well. YMMV

87GN (forum member) did a break-even analysis based on upper cost (Spike's in his case) and various types of ammo.

IIRC the break even was 3,000-6,000rnds depending on type (surplus vs. new manuf.).

I have an LWRC/LWRC but haven't shot it yet; as stated the mags are the weak link but hey, the Russians figured it out decades ago so I still have hope we will, too...eventually.

Thanks much for the info all.

I ordered the Spikes 5.45 upper, Troy diamond rear sight and a couple crates of ammo this morning. Also a stripped Spikes lower. Plan on installing their enhanced LPK with the Wolff hammer spring. Can't wait to try it out. Got my big bottle of Windex ready and waiting. lol!

I'll post a report on how things go. Thanks again for the feedback. If anyone else has any thoughts I'd enjoy reading them.

Take care

Sounds awesome. I think you made the right call as it will be a good training rifle (much better than .22LR IMHO; .22LR in the AR left something to be desired for me).

Don't forget pics.

here is mine.   I built the Upper..from different parts..

the S&W is what I have, works fine. was the only ammo in town for MONTHS up here when i bought it. since a case of 5.56 is 365 now, and wolf is 400(yes more than PMC xtac or federal), and a case of 5.45 is 175 I will keep my 5.45 thankyou, and my4k that i have run through it have all nicely worked. I took it to a carbine class and had no problems, screw the C mags ect ect, just take a P mag(windowless is what I use) and drop 24 rounds in it, shoot. and then smile when you look over at the guy shooting the same thing that is .005 larger of a bullet for twice the price...
if you order the S&W upper you get the hammer spring with it, and one mag.

If I could just find a decent 5.45 Dissy barrel, besides the M1S's unit...

Standard 16" carbine barrel with a lo pro gas block and a bolted on front sight at the rifle length or a FF railed forend with a MBUS on it. Ive got several uppers I builtthat way when I found some cheap M4 barrels.

Thats how I built my cheapo dissipator knock off. I replace the lo-pro front sight with an eliminator ring. I need to put close up pictures in my build thread tonight if I remember.

Anyways, back on topic, I have a S&W 5.45 upper and have put a sardine can of ammo through it so far. I bought it last year and built a Roggio lower (with good parts). I ran it till my deployment this year and forgot to clean it before I left. I was using the old surplus steel cased, penetrator core stuff that is hard primered and corrosive. Well, when I got back from deployment that was the first thing I did was break it down to clean it. To my surprise only a very little spot of white corrosion on the end of the gas tube where it meets the bolt carrier. I had taken the bolt out prior to storing it. Thats it. I was very impressed with the corrosion resistance of the S&W upper. The stuff shoots great as long as you have an over strangth hammer spring to account for the hard primers. I like the fact that I can just empty a 30 round mag into a target rapid fire and not feel like I have just turned $ into noise breaking the bank. I think it shoots very comparable to my work gun and can use it for cheap practice.

I've had a couple of the S&W rifles. They have all shot just fine. Both full and semi. I'd really like to try one of LWRC's offerings, but I haven't been able to get my paws on one yet.

NWRed,

zukitough:



Thanks for dragging me outside my box.  I just kept assuming I needed that machined shoulder to run the 2nd gas/sight block to.



I had a derp moment there reading that.  



I appreciate the hand up.

I've run S&W uppers with no ill effect.  

That siad, I had it chopped to 11" a while ago, and that ran great too.  However, I'm getting keyholes now,after 7-8K rounds (not sure if due to barrel opening up, or prior heavy corrosion issue due to improper cleaning).  As far as functionin, no issues.  I don't "clean" my rifle now either, just dunk it in ATF to stop corrosion.


Oh, and you'll have to revise the break even point now that ammo prices have come down. The old 6K count is no longer valid, and is up to about 10K rounds now.