Triarc uppers, the good, the Bad, GO!

[Farmboy20]

I’m in the middle of building my first ar pistol, and due to #ronagunpanic the 12.5 5.56 bcm upper i had my sights set on is out of stock for serval months last I checked couple of days ago. So i went to YouTube and watched a video by garand thumb on triarc upper and considered purchasing one of their 12.5” 5.56 uppers instead of waiting on bcm. Does anyone here have and experience with triarc uppers/lowers? What are your guys thoughts on them?

 

[Chris Winter]

I'm very curious about this as well. I'll soon be in the market for a new upper and the intended purpose will be a serious training gun. I really like the 13.9" barrel option and the wedge lock rail system and interviews I have read with the founder of Triarc give me some confidence in what they are doing, but I would love some real world feedback from someone who has run it hard for an extended period of time.

 

[SmElly]

I'm very curious about this as well. I'll soon be in the market for a new upper and the intended purpose will be a serious training gun. I really like the 13.9" barrel option and the wedge lock rail system and interviews I have read with the founder of Triarc give me some confidence in what they are doing, but I would love some real world feedback from someone who has run it hard for an extended period of time.

Also curious and also awaiting similar feedback

 

[Andrew Inches]

Simple answer: Buy one, you will not regret.

Longer Answer:

I have 2 Triarc 12.5" uppers, both with the Track rifling & chambered in 5.56. I have owned and put significant round counts on rifles from BCM, SOLGW, DD, HK, KAC, FN, Colt & Noveske (I've missed out on all the Hodge sales so far.) The Triarc's are what I have found myself gravitating towards whenever I need to use a carbine. Between the two I have just south of 11k rounds through them. For context, I have them set up with Law folders, A5 buffer systems, & Surefire Warcomps. I run one suppressed with an RC2 Mini & the other stays unsuppressed most of the time. I originally had one of them set up with the Thermal Defense Bantam II suppressor for the first 2k rounds or so, but I ended up putting it on an 11.5 rifle & using the RC2 on the Triarc. Suppressed gun has a Triarc NP3 coated BCG (ease of cleaning) & the other has a standard SOLGW BCG. I have been extremely impressed with the durability, accuracy, & reliability of these rifles. Both guns, whether suppressed or unsuppressed have an extremely smooth recoil impulse. I regularly take them out to 400+ yards on steel with a T2 & K16i.

I run BH 62g TSX as the primary defensive ammo for these rifles. They both love eating the 77g OTM's, 77g SMK's, 62g Vortx, & I can't remember any ammo actually shooting poorly outside of M855 & that accuracy was really only poor in comparison to the other, which is expected. As for training courses, I generally use 55g/62g Aguila & 55g Fiocci, which has proved to be adequately accurate for demonstration & training purposes.

I've been extremely happy with other products from Triarc as well. Their craftsmanship and attention to detail truly reflect their drive to deliver top tier products for professional end users. The guys that work there have always been great to work with and readily available. They have some cool projects in the work as well.

I have a 6mm ARC planned out & the proof barrel I ordered will be going in a Triarc receiver set with a Tri-lok rail around it.

These are my go to carbines for teaching, training, & self-defense. When not on the range/work, its usually by my bed or with me in the truck. I have some courses this weekend and I will try to snap some photos of the on paper performance.

 

[Farmboy20]

Andrew dude that some great feed back! and if ya could id love to see those pic on performance. But between u and grand thumb it sounds like I’ll be buying a triarc upper.

 

[Chris Winter]

Andrew, thanks for the response! That’s good info to hear, especially the round count! I’d love to see some photos from the training class as well. Thanks again!

 

[dont_tread_on_me]

Same boat. Wanting a 12.5 midlength gas gun and they are one of the few offering it. I considered piecing one together with a BCM mk2 upper but seems they aren’t going to be available for a while, and the complete triarc uppers seems really well spec’ed. Interested to hear more feedback from our venerable user base.

 

[Mike Erickson]

I know this is late to the game, but in an attempt to consolidate info on one point of reference, I got to T&E a 12.5 gun from them early last year, pre-Rona panic.

I set it up with both a K16i and an old school Aimpoint H1. Ran it with a Surefire Mini pretty much exclusively, except for some runs in the shoothouse during a training day with frangible ammo and a couple mags just to test it out.

I had one rando fail to eject early on, but I was also running cheapo Winchester rifle ammo, so not sure what the cause was. I think I was only able to get about 800 rounds through it, but it got zero cleaning from me until I sent it back, and the gun had an estimated 9-10k on it when I got it.

Accuracy was solid. Our duty Hornady GMX ammo is 4MOA at best out of several good guns, including my normal duty rifle that'll shoot out cheap training ammo at 2MOA all day long, our old duty ammo at 1.5 and FGMM at about .75. All that to say the Triarc gun shot the GMX at 3MOA consistently and our training ammo at 2.

The gun handled really well with that handguard & barrel profile with both optic options. A couple of my SWAT guys ran it and really liked the handling as well.

It was a touch heavy on the gas with a can, but not bad. I also shot left handed though, so it's going to be more noticeable to me than most.

All in all, I was going to order a few for the team, but the Rona done jacked that cunning little plan all up, unfortunately.

 

[Warchild]

Triarc rifles are baller, highly impressed with my 14.5 it will be ran entirely suppressed once my can gets out of jail.

 

[JSP]

I know this is late to the game, but in an attempt to consolidate info on one point of reference, I got to T&E a 12.5 gun from them early last year, pre-Rona panic.

I set it up with both a K16i and an old school Aimpoint H1. Ran it with a Surefire Mini pretty much exclusively, except for some runs in the shoothouse during a training day with frangible ammo and a couple mags just to test it out.

I had one rando fail to eject early on, but I was also running cheapo Winchester rifle ammo, so not sure what the cause was. I think I was only able to get about 800 rounds through it, but it got zero cleaning from me until I sent it back, and the gun had an estimated 9-10k on it when I got it.

Accuracy was solid. Our duty Hornady GMX ammo is 4MOA at best out of several good guns, including my normal duty rifle that'll shoot out cheap training ammo at 2MOA all day long, our old duty ammo at 1.5 and FGMM at about .75. All that to say the Triarc gun shot the GMX at 3MOA consistently and our training ammo at 2.

The gun handled really well with that handguard & barrel profile with both optic options. A couple of my SWAT guys ran it and really liked the handling as well.

It was a touch heavy on the gas with a can, but not bad. I also shot left handed though, so it's going to be more noticeable to me than most.

All in all, I was going to order a few for the team, but the Rona done jacked that cunning little plan all up, unfortunately.

I’m pretty sure they source barrels from FJ Fedderson. He knows how to make an accurate barrel for sure.

SEPR Process - F.J. Feddersen

FJF's dual-patented barrel rifle technology applies a single edge area and a polygonal area separating the grooves to reduce substantial bullet deformation.

fjfeddersen.com