I just acquired a PSA PA-10 lower with a non-PSA upper locally. The seller assured me that everything was PSA Gen3. Well, he was mistaken. The upper is clearly not a PSA product. The profile is entirely different, it has no forward assist, and it appears to be a billet upper. I need to determine if the upper is compatible with the lower.
Got any pictures of the set? I’m assuming they fit together? The biggest difference is the rear junction, and I’m pretty sure that all PSA AR10 lowers are DPMS pattern.
BradE is correct, all are DPMS Pattern, and the uppers while not being DPMS high or Low, they work with the DPMS low pattern best. I cannot recall if psa ever did launch any uppers that had no forward assist on their ar10s however, again as brad asked, Photos will help us a lot in trying to figure out what generation things are and where / what that upper is. or rather is not
cowboy, where’d that come from?
I’d be interested to see a picture of the upper receiver if at all possible. Maybe someone would recognize it.
Please post pics.
The PA-10 generations were all lower based.
The original had issues with 2 stage triggers. 2nd generation fixed this and added a shelf to the top of the lower to match better with the upper. 3rd gen added bcg cuts in the buffer tube threading.
This doesnt help. Please keep it on topic. @Driftedcowboy
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Pretty sure that the upper is an aftermarket billet upper of unknown make. I spent some time looking at pix online of various AR-10 uppers, and didn’t find anything identical. I did note that the rear tang is higher than the top of the lower’s buffer tube ‘loop’ there. Is that going to work out, or did I get hosed? Am I going to need a different upper?
And FWIW, the upper and lower do align properly; it just wasn’t aligned in these pix.
That looks like DPMS High upper based on the thickness of the upper’s rear tab over the charging handle. You could measure it with calipers, but the High receiver’s rear tab is something like 0.21" thick and Low is 0.15". It should work OK because the distance from the lower to the center of bore is the same between DPMS high and low.
So do you need a new upper? No, but you might want one to make it look better, because that is clearly a mystery meat upper. Importantly, you’re not going to blow up if you use it, unless there is a bad part somewhere else.
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I would agree that is dpms high. It is not a PSA upper.
The lower is at least a gen 2 as it has the shelf top. If it has bcg cuts in the buffer tube threading then it is a gen 3.
Can anyone provide a pic of the BCG relief cuts, so I know what to look for?
ETA: NEVER MIND! I found pics, and my lower does have the relief cuts.
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Then you have a Gen 3 lower.
i agree with the concensus here. That is a gen 3 ar10 lower, and a NON psa upper. I also agree with what BradE said about it appearing to be a DPMS High upper, which wont really matter much other than it doesnt align to the back with the top of the buffer tube like you stated. As long as you purchase the proper handguard height rail you will be ok there.
that said, If it were me, I’d ditch that upper, and find a PSA upper reciever for it. thats just my .02. worth.
Yeah, I emailed PSA and they confirmed that it is a Gen3 lower. They had no idea about the upper. I have spotted the high-profile handguards already, but I am leaning towards just buying a current PSA upper. While the upper that I have does fit on the lower, it doesn’t match in either color or profile.
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PSA uses a proprietary height that is a hair’s thickness off from being DPMS low. So if you ever want to change the rail you will know that.
Guitar Guy is correct. Personally i think your best bet to have the least amount of issues is to buy a PSA complete upper like you said you’re kicking around that idea. i think it would be for the best for reliability.