Anyone ever installed their magpul M93A, only to find that their upper will no longer properly mate with their lower?

You need to add one of the spacers.

You remembered to reinstall your buffer retainer, right?

-z

In order to get the tube on far enough to hold down the buffer retainer, it has to be screwed in too far for the upper to close.  I just spent 15 minutes "shaving" the spacer only to get the tube threaded in enough to index properly, and now it won't close again.

Page 5 of the instructions:

some receivers are threaded in such a way to make the install of the M9 Buffer very difficult.  In these cases please call 1 (877) 4MAGPUL.  We hae special buffer tubes threaded 180 degrees different for these cases

I guess I get to be a special case.

I used the .060" and the .040" spacers on my Ameetec lower, I had to try several combinations of shims before I got it right. The buffer retainer is just barely kept in place by the buffer tube.
What upper/lower are you using?

Quoted: I used the .060" and the .040" spacers on my Ameetec lower, I had to try several combinations of shims before I got it right. The buffer retainer is just barely kept in place by the buffer tube. What upper/lower are you using?

I could get it with "barely", but that's just not going to cut it for me.
Bushmaster upper/lower.

If it holds it in there, then it's in there. I tried to purposely get the buffer retainer to pop out opening and closing the halves, wiggling it around with pliers etc. It didn't come out.
What does Mr. Fitzpatrick have to say about this?

Quoted: If it holds it in there, then it's in there.

Like I said, that's not good enough for me.

What does Mr. Fitzpatrick have to say about this?

If that's the magpul guy, I dunno, I'll call him tomorrow.

Norman74, I just spoke with Mr. Fitzpatrick. He will get you taken care of, he is very helpful.

Let us know what he says.

Having read new-arguys experience, it appears my 'if it's in there, it's good enough' installation technique 'is not good enough' (as norman74 points out).
Well, at least I didn't have to learn the hard way and have it come undone when firing.
Thanks ARFCOM. I am going to go and brush my teeth now, to clear the taste of my foot from my mouth.

Yes, that's what I was thinking I'd have to do.  I assume I want to wind up with a tube that's got a slight angle to the end of it?  In other words, it needs to be short enough at the top to let the action close, but long enough at the bottom to hold the pin in, right?

Norman74,

I have installed an m93 3 times now and have had your exact same problem. In case it matters to you, I've installed my stocks on Bushmaster lowers. In all cases, I had to sand down a shim to properly index the buffer tube. In every case when I had the tube just right, the upper would not close.

In may case, I taped a piece of sandpaper to my bench, placed the open end of the buffer tube against the sandpaper and with downward pressure I evenly sanded the end of the buffer tube until I had it short enough for the upper to close. This did take some time as I would sand, then install the buffer tube to see if the upper would close. In the end, it was perfect. Don't forget to take some Birchwood Casey Aluma-Black to the end of the buffer to re-blacken it  once you have it just right.

This custom fitting does take alot of extra time but it does work and you'll find that the buffer retainer will be held properly by the buffer tube. This turned out especially well with my new M93A buffer tube which is indexed differently then my original M93 tubes.

BTW, I noticed your line about trying to sand the end of the buffer at an angle. More power to you if you can figure out how to do it. In my case, evenly sanding the end of the buffer tube worked out fine.

You'll really like the stock once you get it installed. I can't say enough about mine.

Pat

TacticalShooter's directions above were very helpful in getting my Magpul installed.  I also have a Bushmaster, and I sanded the smallest spacer down to a little over 0.03 inches, and then sanded just a small bit off of the Magpul tube.

There's one tip I can offer.  Once you've sanded down the spacer, it's very hard to position it over the rear takedown pin detent spring and actually force the spring into its hole.  I ended up taking out the rear takedown pin to allow the spring to go further into the hole.  Then after the stock was installed, I used a punch inserted from the side opposite the takedown pin to hold the detent pin inside its hole as I reinserted the takedown pin.  I found fiddling with the detent was a lot easier than trying to jam that spring in with a little piece of plastic.

David,

Glad I could help.

That's a good tip about the take down spring and detent. I struggled with mine for some time on my last install.

I am about to install an M93A on my new DSA lower and will give that method a try.

Pat