New AR 15 pistol upper

quasimojo

Newbie
This past Sunday I went ahead and ordered a m4 76 complete upper from solgw. It is an 11.5 inch barrel with the 10.5 inch handguard. I got the opportunity to speak with Mike very briefly, and he managed to talk me out of a flashcan. His argument made sense to me ( don't put something between the handguard and barrel just because it looks good cosmetically ) as well he pointed out that the mlok slots at the end of the handguard would be useless to me if I did put the can under the handguard. I was willing to consider other options but we never got an opportunity to reconnect after his cell phone battery died.

I ended up simply ordering the default A2 flashider, but I am still looking for some advice on what to use to get the blast and and sound forward of the muzzle, if only for the guys on the firing line next to me during course work, I do intend on getting a suppressor for this pistol build butvrealistically, that won't be for another 2 years. Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

I look forward to getting the upper and will hopefully get to use it in my next scheduled class.
 

Nowski

Member
I haven't used either of these but if you are looking to get a suppressor I would check out the Surefire Warden, the AAC Blastout and the Griffin Armament blast shield. Other than the Noveske Flaming Pig these are the big ones I have seen on guns and have heard people talk about the most. They all work with a their brakes or flash hiders which in turn are mounts for you suppressor.
 

quasimojo

Newbie
I haven't used either of these but if you are looking to get a suppressor I would check out the Surefire Warden, the AAC Blastout and the Griffin Armament blast shield. Other than the Noveske Flaming Pig these are the big ones I have seen on guns and have heard people talk about the most. They all work with a their brakes or flash hiders which in turn are mounts for you suppressor.
Thanks for the input. I'll start taking a look at the technologies and pricing. Thanks again!
 

quasimojo

Newbie
Excited! I placed my order last Saturday 4/6 for a complete SOLGW upper and just got an alert that it has shipped! Really nice turn around! Can't wait to mate this thing with my lower and get it out on the range for some quality time!
 
I have a 11.5 BCM, I put a cheap KAK flashcan on it as I want to use this for home defense and throw blast away from me in the house. It does throw the blast away from the shooter but also puts out a big fire ball. I am going back to the A2. I do like the idea of a suppressor mount with some form of blast can when not using a suppressor. Congrats on the SOLGW!
 

0uTkAsT

Amateur
If you have any idea what can you might be purchasing, I would start there... order a compatible muzzle device for the can you like, and hopefully that manufacturer makes the type of blast mitigation device you want for the interim, i.e. Dead Air Pyro Blast Cap, Surefire Warden, Griffin Blast Shield, Silencerco Blast Shield, etc.
 

Dpvaz56

Member
I’ve been eyeing the exact same upper (11.5” bbl with a 10.5” M4-76 rail)! I look forward to hearing how you like it.
 

quasimojo

Newbie
So far I have about 200 rounds through it. I was using 55 grain 5.56 Federal xm193. In the first 10 rounds I had 1 failure to cycle (2nd or 3rd round through the AR pistol, it definitely wasn't on the initial charge) where the bolt didn't come all the way forward and the assist did not work to bring it forward. Re-racked the rifle fired and the next cartridge did not make it all the way in battery. Upon removal of the cartridge, and inspection the nose of the lead projectile was completely bent at a weird angle/malformed. I don't really understand how my son got it into the mag. After those 2 non-firearm induced failure to fire incidents all subsequent rounds cycled/fired/ejected with no issue. I am positive the initial incidents were just shitty ammo.

Accuracy wise this pistol was very impressive. Zero'd at 50 yards and shot 3 moa directly over bullseye with utterly consistent 1.5 moa groups. This surprised me (pleasantly surprised me) because I know that SOLGW builds for utter reliability, superb accuracy is not the objective. That being the case I may have found the perfect upper because I am absolutely thrilled with accuracy. In any case I adjusted my red dot down 1 moa and called it done.

So, not many rounds fired through it yet, not enough to make it really dirty. When I did receive the the complete upper I gave it a quick initial cleaning and covered all moving surfaces with SEAL 1 after letting the upper bake in the sun for 20 minutes. Lubed up the BCG, bolt, and ejector as well. After firing through the 200 rounds I simply removed the BCG, wiped off the carbon and the NP3 coated BCG and bolt came away factory clean.

A2 bird cage worked well at the end of the muzzle. I certainly did not see a fireball while shooting during daylight (or at least did not notice it). The report during firing was about what I expected, comparable to my 30-06 maybe? Very managable with ear pro.

All in all just what I expected to experience when I purchased the gun. To me it definitely meets/exceeds the hype around SOLGW.

The last observation I 'll make is that I have ordered an A5 buffer kit from SOLGW (H3 buffer weight). This is in anticipation of running supresses/unsupresed in the near term future. I ordered the buffer kit on May 9th (the same day SOLGW posted that they had 70 kits to sell) and the order is still in fulfillment today June 1st. I am waiting until the 9th and then I'll call them to see what's going on.

The only thing I can think to cite with SOLGW is customer communication. It's great that the owners will get on the phone with you (and I have never failed to get Mike on the phone when I call). But some types of information or queries are best conducted in a written format. Email communication with them is a non starter. It's a small but relevant nit pick.
 

PM07

Moderator
Staff member
Moderator
Just a suggestion. If you have a bolt that fails to go completely back into battery, do not use the forward assist to force the round in. You may be making a bad situation worse by forcing a bad round into the chamber. My .02 worth

Also, be weary of any product that says it 'seasons' your bolt. Do some research on why the sun baking and opening pores on the bolt carrier metal has been debunked
 
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