| Product |
Price
|
Store | MPN | UPC |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| PALMETTO STATE ARMORY SABRE-15 USED GUNS |
$1,500.99
|
Guns.com Used Guns | - | ECOM00339717 |
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PSA Goes Premium? - PSA 16-inch SABRE
Updated
9 months ago
Good morning, everyone, this is John with gun.deals, and today we're gonna be taking a look at the Palmetto State Armory Saber.
Full disclosure on the Palmetto State Armory Saber, this was sent out to me by Palmetto State Armory for free so I did not pay for it whatsoever, so go ahead and keep that in mind. Palmetto State Armory is very well known as a budget-friendly brand, whether it's AR-15s, AR-10s, AKs and just about anything in between, Palmetto State Armory makes a less expensive version of it. They've had their ups and downs throughout the years, but what they're trying to do now is expand out their lineup a little bit with a more premium AR15, this being the Saber.
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Before we get into this specific Saber upper receiver I do want to quickly go over a mild critique of the Saber lineup in general, so the Saber lineup is the higher end a little bit more premium line of Palmetto State Armory for their AR-15s, the problem that I have with it is that they have a lot of variation within the Saber lineup from different hand guard manufacturers, different barrel manufacturers, barrel lengths, and accessories components, so on and so forth, so if you have a Saber upper receiver it may be a little bit different in terms of parts quality versus somebody else's saber upper receiver because there is a lot of variability within the Saber lineup. One singular upper receiver review like this cannot go for the entire Saber lineup because there's wide variety of parts that they're using between their different builds.
Getting into this one specifically that we have here, this is a 16-inch, mid-length upper receiver, this is using a FM cold hammer forged chrome line barrel, 15-inch M-LOK rail along with one of their three-prong flash hider/compensators that is a very interesting muzzle device. In the back we have a standard forged upper receiver, all good there, micro best BCG that it has a Carpenter 158 bolt, it is phosphate chrome, and a Radian LT charging handle.
In this configuration, I think, currently on the website it goes for about eight hundred dollars, fortunately, the heart and soul of the build, the barrel and the BCG, are very high quality, so we'll go ahead and start with those components first. The barrel, this is a FN chrome-lined cold hammer forge barrel, 16-inch mid-length gas. They call it their A2 profile, it's really just a Government profile, so you have a bit of a thinner profile in the back, like a 0.65 ish, and then after the gas block, the 0.750 gas block Journal, you have about a 0.7 ish inch barrel out to the end, so it is a little bit heavier. If you want it to be a little bit better balanced you would simply swap those around, so you would have a little bit of a thinner taper profile at the end and then a little bit thicker in the back, it would be about the same weight, but because that weight would be a little bit further back it would feel a little bit better balanced rather than having that weight a little bit further out.
No, it's definitely not the most cutting edge or efficient barrel profile on the market, but when it comes to accuracy, which we'll get into a little bit later, it absolutely performs. The rest of the barrel is 4150 chrome moly vanadium steel, it's what they call their machine gun steel because it is used in the FN machine guns, it is 556 chambered, 1-7 twist, all good there. Personally, 1-7 twist is my personal favorite as it does tend to give you very, very good accuracy with some of the heavier bullets on the market. Other than that we have a mid-length gas system and one minor complaint on the Premium lineup from Palmetto State Armory is the gas blocks themselves are not dimpled and not pinned, so you just have two set screws on the bottom of the gas block going straight into the barrel and that is the only retention method, there is no dimple, there is no pin.
I did do a reverse torque test on both the gas block screws and on the hand guard screws and, fortunately, they're all torqued down to spec, so that that is all good. However, on a more premium build, a very expensive barrel, this is about a 250-300-dollar barrel just by itself, I would like to see a dimple end or a pin. The other half of the major components on an AR-15 is going to be the bolt carrier group, the bolt carrier group does a lot of work, this one here specifically is one of their founding fathers BCGs from Microbest, so it's basically just a branded BCG from Microbest, looks very nice, it is phosphate chrome, phosphate chrome is a perfectly acceptable coating, very, very mil-spec. Chrome lining on the bore of the gas key and the bore of the carrier itself, perfectly fine. The bolt itself is Carpenter 158, which is the proprietary mil-spec bolt material, and is overall a very good. There's some arguments between 9310 and Carpenter 158, overall, Carpenter 158 is perfectly fine, there are some better, more high-tech steels on the market, but Carpenter 158 does a really good job.
When it comes to the gas seal on the BCG it's not that great, it's pretty loose after only a couple hundred rounds, it's definitely on the looser side of the gas seal, all that means is that you're going to have more gases escaping and it's not going to have quite as efficient of a seal as something that has a little bit tighter tolerances, keep in mind that we only have a couple hundred rounds through it at this point. It does still past the anecdotal test, but just barely, so basically if it expands on its own that means the gas rings are worn out, so they definitely shouldn't be worn out after only a couple hundred rounds. Could be an issue with the gas rings themselves, could be just a minor tolerance issue on the BCG.
One thing that I do want to talk about the finish, the phosphate finish on the actual carrier itself, which is 8620, it is a phosphate finish, which is not necessarily the strongest finish on the market, it does absorb lube quite well, but it's already wearing pretty aggressively on all of the carrier rails after only a couple hundred rounds, so the finish doesn't appear to be the toughest phosphate finish out there and certainly after a few thousand rounds that will all probably be gone.
Let's go ahead and talk about the specific rail that is included here on this version of the Palmetto State Armory Saber, this is a 15-inch M-LOK rail that looks almost identical to a Geissele Mark 8. The Geissele Mark 8 is a very good rail, I'm not sure if Palmetto State Armory is having them make the rails for them, a little bit cheaper there are some cut corners here, or if they're just copy and pasting the design. For instance, you have the same type of rails here on the left, right, and bottom as the Geissele Mark 8, they are a little bit slimmer but very similar in profile, and then you have the intermediate positions for M-LOK here at the top left and top right.
On the bottom, this profile, here where you do not have M-LOK, is to my recollection identical to the Geissele Mark 8 rail, so maybe Geissele is making these rails for Palmetto State Armory, some of the other Sabers do come directly with Geissele rail, so I'm not sure if this is contract manufactured or if they bought the rights to make something very similar and basically kind of just copy and paste it as Geissele Mark 8 rail, not a bad thing to do that, I'm just pointing that out.On the top we do have continuous Picatinny that is T mark, for those of you guys who like that. The Picatinny itself is scalloped out, it is dehorn so it's not like rough or anything like that, that will save you maybe an ounce or two, some people do like that, it's a little attention to detail thing, you don't really need all the Picatinny there anyways, and it is going to be a little bit lighter.
Moving back from there to the lockup, the lockup is actually surprisingly good, you have two steel bolts into a steel locking block with two little prongs up top, and that actually dig into the barrel nut as far as I understand it. So, you have a clamp/wedge system that should work very well, it's a pretty solid lockup. On top of that you have what I consider to be rotation limiting tabs on the top and kind of on the bottom, the hand guard itself somewhat fits over the entire upper receiver so you do have a little bit of overhang and you have a lot of material there, so it's not like really tiny anti-rotation or rotation limiting tabs that basically won't do anything, they'll just bend as soon as it has any sort of impact, there is quite a bit of material back here.
On top of that, you also have QDs on the left and the right, they are steel inserts into the aluminum rail so they are going to be a lot more durable than just a aluminum cutout on the rail. They're not anti-rotation, which does not bug me, but I know that that does bug quite a few of you out there, so that might be a bit of a downer for you, so you might have to put in some sort of other QD for your sling if you desperately need that anti-rotation. As far as I'm concerned, the rail is overall very good, you do have 15 inches of M-LOK, 5 positions, full length Picatinny on top that is scalloped out and T-marked, anti-rotation tabs, wedge locks/clamping system on a large steel locking block, I do like that, QDs on both sides, they are not anti-rotation, which might be a downer to some of you, but for the most part I think most people will be just fine with that.
Talking about the upper receiver, it is a standard 7075 mil-spec upper receiver, no forge mark that I can see, no issues with that whatsoever, standard forward assist, standard dust cover. The charging handle, this is the Radian Raptor LT, the LT version is the lightweight version, which means that the wings are actually polymer, so you have your standard 7075 base charging handle, and then the ambidextrous wings are polymer, which is going to save you a tiny, tiny bit of weight and be a lot cheaper. These are usually about twenty dollars cheaper than the standard Radian charging handles, and I haven't broken one and I've never really needed to mortar one either, so I'm not sure if I love or hate the polymer on it, in general I would prefer to have 7075 aluminum charging handles, I haven't had an issue with one to date, but it's not necessarily the most confidence inspiring thing, so it does work well as an ambidextrous charging handle, it is very easy to get from either side, this is the full size version not the smaller version. The Radian Raptor LT polymer charging handle, maybe like a quarter of an ounce lighter, about twenty dollars cheaper, and not necessarily my favorite, though it works well enough, though keep in the back your mind that it is polymer.
Before we get to shoot ability and performance we need to talk about the in the room, and that is going to be their three-prong muzzle device/compensator. This is, without a doubt, the worst, most annoying muzzle device that I have ever used to date, the pinging sound, the tuning fork noise that this produces when firing is horrific, it is loud and persistent, depending on what I was doing, depending on where I was, it would last up to 20 or 30 seconds of just a straight horrible tuning fork noise. Depending on what ears you're using, if you're using like cheap electronic ear Pro with some feedback issues that would be absolutely horrific, it is still incredibly obnoxious, easily the worst I have used to date.
Other than that, the muscle device works very well, so as a three-prong flash lighter, it does a good job of reducing flashlight, you're not getting too much on a 16-inch 556 to begin with, on top of that, it does have two very small ports up top to give you some vertical compensation in terms of recoil. It does not push down like a Knoxville with the six ports, with just the two ports on top it feels very, very smooth, while giving you a very, very good flash reduction as well. Those aspects of the muzzle device work very well, on top of that I think it's long enough to get pin and weld on a 13.7, it's a pretty long muzzle device so it could work well for that application, but when you fire it just produces the most horrible ringing noise you have ever heard and It is very obnoxious, and this is what they ship with this is one of their, I don't know if this is their in-house design or something like that or if somebody's making them for it, but if they could redo the geometry a little bit with the prongs, make them a little bit shorter, make them a little bit thicker, do something to reduce that absolutely horrible tuning fork noise.
Getting into shoot ability and how it performed in that regard, this is a 16-inch mid-length FN barrel. That's a little bit over gassed, and I do mean a little bit over gassed. Keep in mind that in the back end we also do not have that efficient of a gas seal so we are definitely losing a little bit there, and it was still ejecting full power M8 55, L2A1 at about two o'clock with carbine springs, carbine buffers, with the full A2 rifle system in the back it would do that at about three o'clock, which is perfectly fine for an A2 system. However, when you're just running carbine buffers and springs you are going to get a little bit more aggressive ejection so it is going to be a little bit over gassed.
I don't work in their marketing department, I don't need to tell you ‘it's combat gas’, you guys can do whatever you guys need to feel good about the recoil. For me personally, it is a little bit over gassed and it's just that, it's a little bit over gassed, it's not horrible, it's not quite as smooth as it could be, it's not quite as smooth as some nicer guns on the market, though FN does in general slightly over gas their barrels whether you think that's combat gas, a little bit enhanced reliability, so on and so forth, for me it's just a little bit more gas than you absolutely need for very good reliability. Keep in mind that without a suppressor it’s using decent ammunition, if you are using weaker ammunition it would probably feel very good, and if you're using full power M193 and a suppressor you're probably going to get a lot of gas back in the face.
Getting into accuracy, which is also going to be greatly determined on the quality of the barrel, keep in mind this is a FN cold hammer forge chrome line barrel, which is generally going to give you very good accuracy, well, we got very good accuracy out of it. The scope that we use for accuracy testing, this is a Vector Continental German glass 1-6, fantastic glass, very, very beautiful, but 6X magnification isn't really enough for me personally to get a perfectly refined point of impact, point of aim at 100 yards, so I did the accuracy testing at 50 yards.
I only had a couple different loads to test on the day that I went out, we will continue to shoot this, get it over a thousand rounds, do accuracy testing with a little bit heavier of a scope as well as more weights of bullets as well, but the accuracy that I was able to get out of it with 62 grain L2A1, which is a M8 55 clone, I was able to get about 2, 2.5 MOA perfectly fine with some 69 grain ADI, which can have some variation between gun to gun, that one there shot at 2 MOA, and then keep in mind at 50 yards it shot 69 grain Federal Premium into one hole or just under 1 MOA, which for me is perfectly acceptable, anytime I can get a gas gun at or under 1 MOA I am going to be a very happy camper. Keep in mind that I did not throw any heavier loads through it, I know Palmetto State Armory has had some very good luck with their AAC 77 grain load, their Mark 262 clone for all intents and purposes, so I will probably try and get some of that to test through it as well, but as it stands right now this is absolutely capable of 1 MOA with the right shooter, and the right load.
For Palmetto State Armory's first foray into the more premium and for AR-15s I think they actually did a very good job in giving you a high value upper receiver that costs a little bit more money. The barrel itself is a very high quality barrel, cold hammer forged, chrome line, FN has a extremely long history of making fantastic barrels. The hand guard itself, for me, is basically perfect, very, very few complaints. The upper receiver is perfectly fine, the charging handle is plastic, not my favorite, the Microbest BCG are very well regarded BCGs, this one here just has kind of a mediocre finish and a little bit less efficient of a gas seal.
As far as real complaints, the only thing I don't like on the build is the three-prong flash hider, I think that can be swapped out and because it's a 16-inch it doesn't need to be like pinned and welded on there, so you could swap that out for anything and I will be shooting it suppressed. It is a tiny bit on the over gas side so I will probably throw in a heavier buffer and spring combo when I'm doing suppressed shooting with this gun, but I will continue to test and evaluate. As of right now, the shoot ability is very decent, it was put together well, the torque on the hand guard screws and on the gas box screws was very good. I'm not a big fan of the fact that it's not dimpled or pinned for a more premium upper receiver, especially with a very nice barrel, I would like to see it pinned or dimpled at least, to give it a little bit more of a bombproof build, but overall, the only thing that I'm going to be swapping on the build is definitely going to be that flash hider. Shoot ability on the decent side of things, accuracy very, very good, and I hope to continue to have good accuracy when you put some more rounds through it with a little bit higher power of a scope.
