My Newfound Respect For Palmetto State Armory
Let me start by saying it's not that I didn't have respect for PSA before, because I did. What I am saying is that I now have more respect for them after having the chance to tour their operation. Let me tell you why.
As some of you know, PSA recently had a few select media members down to their facilities in South Carolina. It was a no brainer for me to go for our team, because I can throw a rock and just about hit the SC border.
Okay, maybe I'm not that close, but I was only about 2 hours or so from where we all met up in Columbia, SC. I recorded a lot of video while at their facilities, but sadly most of it didn't turn out well because we were on the manufacturing floors in multiple places, and the microphone on my phone just didn't cut it.
So, why do I respect them even more now?
Let's start with the manufacturing process.
I was once under the impression that PSA was just an AR-15 assembly plant, piecing together parts from the bigger companies out there. I was wrong. And, I think this is a huge misunderstanding among many gun owners.
In fact, I learned that PSA has brought just about every aspect of the manufacturing process under their roof, with different sister companies making parts for their guns. They even have a sister company making higher end race guns, called Lead Star. Here is one of the Lead Star rifles, it didn't even feel like there was something in my hands.
This Lead Star rifle, made in house by the sister company bearing the Lead Star name, was so light it felt like a feather.
Anyway, the company bringing all aspects of the manufacturing process in house is great news because if something is effed up, they can't blame anyone but themselves. In the same vein, if they're getting only a small amount of returns because their people are running the machines on point, then only they can take the credit.
As an added bonus, because everything is in house, with no middlemen, costs are driven down. A second added bonus, is because they control every aspect of the manufacturing process, they can produce as many guns as they like.
Some of the production numbers we heard that week were staggering.
Ferrous, the sister company milling out the upper receivers, currently produces about 1,000 each day. And they're getting ready to increase production again by adding more machines.
DC Machine's barrel QA panels. Once something starts to look like it's going out of spec, they replace the tool being used.
I remember at one point the barrel guy, who apparently used to work at Daniel Defense, telling us that they make 2,000 barrels a day with less than a 1% return rate.
That is one day's worth of manufacturing over a couple shifts. That's a lot of barrels. In fact, chances are good that they're the biggest barrel manufacturer in the country, and they've been making barrels for about 15 years.
DC Machine is PSA's barrel maker. According to one of the guys, this was a company originally started by Jesse James and the DC stands for Death Chopper.
I remember hearing at another point them telling us that they ship 7,000 orders each week. I'm not sure how many of those are completed guns, but that's a lot of orders.
There are a few different sister companies all falling under one roof, you can view them here.
DC Machine's first machine that's still actually in use.
Even better, those 7,000 orders don't just make themselves. Each part, each gun, each idea is pieced together by one of their ~1,000 employees. They've got people to put stuff together, shoot guns to ensure function, treat parts, run manufacturing equipment, pick and pack parts, handle customer service, and handle ideas in the engineering phase. Which, ultimately, brings me to the next point.
They have an engineering department that consists of three people. They've got a CAD guy who does all the drawing and two dudes whose job is to just come up with ideas.
The way they explained it, is one engineer is the brains behind their AR-15 patterned rifles and the other is all about the AK platform. By the way, I had the chance to shoot the AK-V 9mm AK47, and it was fantastic. (That link takes you to my write up about it.)
After having the chance to talk to the engineers a bit, I can say that they've got some excellent things coming down the pipe that I cannot comment on. I saw things that I SOOO want to comment on but have been sworn to secrecy.
All I can say is that PSA seems to be very good at listening to what their customers want and bringing it to fruition. Stay tuned because when I can tell you, when I do get the green light to tell you what I saw, I will.
Here's another Lead Star gun we got to shoot at the 300 yard range.
No middleman means lower prices
PSA has some of the best prices on AR-15s in the industry. The reason why they can do this, from what I learned, is because they've brought just about every part of the manufacturing process into their own house, through different sister companies.
Therefore, instead of sourcing components like everyone else has to do, they're just assembling their own parts that they've made. Because they've cut the middleman out, they don't have to give up a portion of the profit to him.
In turn, that means they can pass the savings on to us. The only components they're not making in one of their companies, are springs and a few other small components.
But, one of the best things to me, is their goals which really resonated with me. Their number one goal, and I'm paraphrasing here, is to sell so many guns that it's impossible for the government to do a gun buyback.
I don't know about you, but that sounds great. If you want to participate in that goal, you can check out PSA's website here.
Glad to see you did not say how good their “customer service”is because it sucks. Also they do not publish negative reviews, so they are not an honest company. I have bought two guns and some parts from them, but will not buy from them again. Somethings are more important than the price, I try to support honest companies that care about the customer
Hey Greg, it’s interesting that you bring up the negative reviews because you’re not the first person I heard mention that. I cannot comment either way on their customer service. But, I am curious about review part. Have you left a negative review that was not published on their website? I took a look around and did see 1 star reviews on some products, but there weren’t a lot of them.
Yes, I sent an email to customer service about a product that I bought that was not as represented correctly (as pictured) and did not hear back. I then posed a review stating that “customer service is not responsive” and they did not post it (I did state that the product was very nice Just not as pictured), a week later I got an email to review some thing else I bought and again stated the product was fine but the are lacking “customer service skills”. With the poor customer service i am leery of any “lifetime warranty” claim. I will be buying from other businesses from now on.
I whald like to have copies
I’ve now bought numerous things from PSA in past year. Pleased with products, pricing, and delivery. I called customer once because I accidentally order a red dot twice. The took care of it right away. I have no qualms about them or their cistomer service. Sorry to hear you’re experience was not as good. I’d give them a ring. Email is easier to lose track of in my experience.
I’m sorry to hear Mr Smith’s review about PSA’s customer service. I on the other hand like their service! I had a problem with a product and it was taken care of with one phone call!
Ditto, David.
PSA is a huge retail concern, When I was in South Carolina I visited the Isle of palms store. Or I should say outlet. They won’t try to sell you camping equipment or frying pan unless you want to shoot it. I was blown away at the selection and prices and service. I mean who wouldn’t want to work in a gun store? So if they see a review that is perhaps unfair. They’re unlikely to smear their own names. Coming from California visiting some Old Navy buddies in South Carolina, I can tell you it was better than a trip to Disneyland.
What a bunch of fiction. PSA sold me an A4 Kit (Premium FN Barrel, etc.). The front sight base was so canted that I couldn’t get sighted in at 25 yards. That was with a removable carry handle. I jumped through all the hoops to return it, and they sent the same upper back to me, still canted. Then they ignored my emails and calls. I had to do a credit card charge back to get them to send me a return authorization number. I’ll never buy anything from PSA. I know you won’t publish this, but I want you to know: PSA sucks.
Spoiler Alert, we published your comment. Why wouldn’t we?
One of our writers wrote a post 5 years ago about his experience with PSA. An experience which was generally positive, sorry yours wasn’t.
How do you jump from a bad experience with PSA, to attacking the honesty of our writers or the ethics of how we post the comments we receive? You’re assumption that we wouldn’t post your comment is clearly wrong, and out of line. We publish comments from readers that disagree with us all the time. What we won’t publish are comments that violate our community guidelines.
You can check those out here https://www.concealedcarry.com/community-guidelines/
You can tell by the crappy attitude that this guy Ray has that he was probably a huge part of causing the bad response he got. Some people will complain and whine no matter what but are still worth helping… and then you have the guys that make somebody not want to help them at all. When your attitude makes it clear that you can’t be made happy and you are just going bash and smear the company no matter what… people won’t try. I hate the fact that in the firearms manufacturing and aftermarket community it seems very common these days for companies to provide crap parts and worse service but you still have to give people a chance to correct a problem. The way that Mr Ray here decided to smear the editorial team for no reason gives me the feeling that he comes into an interaction from the start as an a—-.
I have to wonder if the majority of your problems can be directly linked to YOUR ATTITUDE. I’m not saying that PSA is guilt free but by not being reasonable AND responsive to WORKING WITH THEM to resolve your issue(s) you get on a public forum and stomp your feet and gnash your teeth. Then you try to say the writer(s) of this publishing are somehow involved or in cahoots with PSA. All I have to say is grow up and try the ADULT thing adults are supposed to employ. I’ve has CS issues with PSA but I worked WITH them and didn’t scream and holler when things weren’t instantly fixed. But, yeah, you SHOULD go elsewhere for your firearms shopping. Perhaps YOUR company can provide better CS, right? What’s that?!? You DON’T have a business and cannot understand YOU aren’t the ONLY CUSTOMER on the planet?!? Imagine that.
That’s an hysterically funny response, Huggy. And, I expect highly accurate. Let me see..Shop at a huge company that has some of the lowest prices for the goods you desire? Then, have a problem and squeal to High Heaven from the inception of the issue? Expect a seat change to “first class” because the free beer is warm in coach? Hey, I want my money’s worth as much as the next guy. But, when I want to build a budget-something and not do a “Buy Once, Cry Once”, I take a lower risk with my wallet the first time around…. and let the company prove they (or their products) are up to the value standards for which I’ve paid. If they are not, and won’t cover it after being sweet-talked if necessary, then the next $$$ out of my product goes elsewhere. My risk, my loss. So far, this company has sent me what I bargained for. So, so-far, my gamble had paid off.