Garrow Firearms Development 17hmr locked bolt gas operated AR upper

[GarrowDev]

Originally Posted by AP2020

Thank you Mike for sending one out for a review. This will be the 1st installment video of many more to come!

Video > https://youtu.be/w33JrppBg_o

Can't wait to see it in action with ya, Nito! Slow-motion is gonna look so cool! :]

[AP2020]

Originally Posted by GarrowDev

Can't wait to see it in action with ya, Nito! Slow-motion is gonna look so cool! :]

Oh yeah!!

[Arizona22shooter]

Originally Posted by AP2020

Thank you Mike for sending one out for a review. This will be the 1st installment video of many more to come!

Video > https://youtu.be/w33JrppBg_o

Good video review! It is quiet with a can isnt it?

[vlcakc]

The Garrow 17 HMR upper was delivered this afternoon. Swapped the rifle buffer and spring for the ones included in the kit per the included instructions. I swabbed the barrel with a wet, then dry patch and assembled it on a lower that normally has a .204 Ruger upper. The lower is a CMT billet with a Hiperfire 2# trigger, Magpul MOE fixed stock and rifle length receiver extension (buffer tube). The Garrow upper installed with no problems and fit well. Upper is nicely finished and appears to be a quality item.

I don't have a suitable scope mount yet, so decided to do a quick function test with two types of ammo, Hornady 17 gr VMax and Hornady 20 gr XUV. The kit comes with two magazines, so I loaded each with a different load. Fired five rounds of the 20 gr ammo with no malfunctions. The first two rounds of the 17 gr ammo failed to eject. Fired five more rounds of the 17 gr with no more malfunctions. Not sure why the failures to eject occurred. Ran out of time, so had to halt test.

When the weather improves I plan to do accuracy tests at 50 and 100 yards with the ammo I have on hand. More later, Vic

[AP2020]

Originally Posted by Arizona22shooter

Good video review! It is quiet with a can isnt it?

Thank you.

Very quiet even with a .308 can.

I have (2) other cans to test in the future that are still at my Class III guy's shop (both .22 cans).

Stay tuned, today's video which includes some high speed footage will be published at High Noon EST tomorrow!

[AP2020]

Yesterday's video > https://youtu.be/SkIOaMBUlDw

[GarrowDev]

Originally Posted by vlcakc

The Garrow 17 HMR upper was delivered this afternoon. Swapped the rifle buffer and spring for the ones included in the kit per the included instructions. I swabbed the barrel with a wet, then dry patch and assembled it on a lower that normally has a .204 Ruger upper. The lower is a CMT billet with a Hiperfire 2# trigger, Magpul MOE fixed stock and rifle length receiver extension (buffer tube). The Garrow upper installed with no problems and fit well. Upper is nicely finished and appears to be a quality item.

I don't have a suitable scope mount yet, so decided to do a quick function test with two types of ammo, Hornady 17 gr VMax and Hornady 20 gr XUV. The kit comes with two magazines, so I loaded each with a different load. Fired five rounds of the 20 gr ammo with no malfunctions. The first two rounds of the 17 gr ammo failed to eject. Fired five more rounds of the 17 gr with no more malfunctions. Not sure why the failures to eject occurred. Ran out of time, so had to halt test.

When the weather improves I plan to do accuracy tests at 50 and 100 yards with the ammo I have on hand. More later, Vic

Hey, Vic!

Sounds like it's going well! Keep it running wet and you shouldn't have ejection problems once it breaks in since the tolerances on it are incredibly tight.

-Mike Garrow

[GarrowDev]

Originally Posted by AP2020

Yesterday's video > https://youtu.be/SkIOaMBUlDw

Nito! Just saw the video and it's awesome! Love the slo-mo bottle and fruit

You're the man!

[AP2020]

Originally Posted by GarrowDev

Nito! Just saw the video and it's awesome! Love the slo-mo bottle and fruit

You're the man!

Haha Thanks Mike!

When the lighting is better, I'll work on getting better high speed video of the bolt in action (no pun intended!).

[vlcakc]

Mike Garrow: You have Another PM. Vic

[Arizona22shooter]

Originally Posted by vlcakc

The Garrow 17 HMR upper was delivered this afternoon. Swapped the rifle buffer and spring for the ones included in the kit per the included instructions. I swabbed the barrel with a wet, then dry patch and assembled it on a lower that normally has a .204 Ruger upper. The lower is a CMT billet with a Hiperfire 2# trigger, Magpul MOE fixed stock and rifle length receiver extension (buffer tube). The Garrow upper installed with no problems and fit well. Upper is nicely finished and appears to be a quality item.

I don't have a suitable scope mount yet, so decided to do a quick function test with two types of ammo, Hornady 17 gr VMax and Hornady 20 gr XUV. The kit comes with two magazines, so I loaded each with a different load. Fired five rounds of the 20 gr ammo with no malfunctions. The first two rounds of the 17 gr ammo failed to eject. Fired five more rounds of the 17 gr with no more malfunctions. Not sure why the failures to eject occurred. Ran out of time, so had to halt test.

When the weather improves I plan to do accuracy tests at 50 and 100 yards with the ammo I have on hand. More later, Vic

I shot 50 rounds without an initial clean- than cleaned and lubed, it prefers light weight lube / i personally prefer ballistol/ and had no issues after that, except with ammo- well over 700 rounds and no issues after the first 75 or so, keep it wet! You will be fine.

[vlcakc]

Originally Posted by Arizona22shooter

I shot 50 rounds without an initial clean- than cleaned and lubed, it prefers light weight lube / i personally prefer ballistol/ and had no issues after that, except with ammo- well over 700 rounds and no issues after the first 75 or so, keep it wet! You will be fine.

Thanks for the tip! I have some Ballistol on hand.

I managed to scrounge up a Brownell's AR base and some Burris Signature rings from my spare parts stash to mount a 4-12 Nikon Monarch scope. Plan to sight it in later this afternoon.

While preparing to mount the scope, I noticed for the first time the barrel was off-center in the forward end of the handguard by about 3/8". The handguard is a straight cylinder of aluminum that attaches to the barrel nut with a large diameter, very fine pitched female thread. I have used this type of handguard before on another AR build. There was a gap on one side where the handguard and barrel nut mate, but not on the other. Hmmm. Had the handguard been cross-threaded when it was assembled at the factory, were the threads not properly machined or had it been damaged in shipping?

I could not unscrew the handguard with my hands. After exchanging emails with Mike Garrow, I decided to use a heavy duty strap wrench and 1/2" drive long handled breaker bar to see if that would work. Even with the extra leverage provided by the breaker bar the handguard was very difficult to remove. The threads were really jammed and resisted turning until almost totally off.

There was some galling on the female thread and some very fine metal shavings in the joint, but the threads didn't look too bad. After I cleaned the threads the handguard easily screwed back on the barrel nut by hand with little resistance. The threads seemed ok. I snugged the handguard a bit using the strap wrench and proceeded to mount the scope. If the handguard tends to loosen in use I'll use a bit of blue Loctite, but I think it will be fine. The barrel in now centered in the handguard. Problem solved! I will start a separate thread to post a range report later. Vic

[GarrowDev]

Originally Posted by vlcakc

Thanks for the tip! I have some Ballistol on hand.

I managed to scrounge up a Brownell's AR base and some Burris Signature rings from my spare parts stash to mount a 4-12 Nikon Monarch scope. Plan to sight it in later this afternoon.

While preparing to mount the scope, I noticed for the first time the barrel was off-center in the forward end of the handguard by about 3/8". The handguard is a straight cylinder of aluminum that attaches to the barrel nut with a large diameter, very fine pitched female thread. I have used this type of handguard before on another AR build. There was a gap on one side where the handguard and barrel nut mate, but not on the other. Hmmm. Had the handguard been cross-threaded when it was assembled at the factory, were the threads not properly machined or had it been damaged in shipping?

I could not unscrew the handguard with my hands. After exchanging emails with Mike Garrow, I decided to use a heavy duty strap wrench and 1/2" drive long handled breaker bar to see if that would work. Even with the extra leverage provided by the breaker bar the handguard was very difficult to remove. The threads were really jammed and resisted turning until almost totally off.

There was some galling on the female thread and some very fine metal shavings in the joint, but the threads didn't look too bad. After I cleaned the threads the handguard easily screwed back on the barrel nut by hand with little resistance. The threads seemed ok. I snugged the handguard a bit using the strap wrench and proceeded to mount the scope. If the handguard tends to loosen in use I'll use a bit of blue Loctite, but I think it will be fine. The barrel in now centered in the handguard. Problem solved! I will start a separate thread to post a range report later. Vic

Hey, Vic! Was the box damaged at all when you received it? Just trying to figure out how that happens since you'd have to be the Hulk to screw that forend on crooked. Sorry to have screwed it on so tight in the first place. To line the gas tube hole up, sometimes it needs to be overtightened. Like I said in PM, you can send some pics to my email to diagnose it, but sounds like you already fixed the problem. Anything else, let me know!

-Mike G

[vlcakc]

Originally Posted by GarrowDev

Hey, Vic! Was the box damaged at all when you received it? Just trying to figure out how that happens since you'd have to be the Hulk to screw that forend on crooked. Sorry to have screwed it on so tight in the first place. To line the gas tube hole up, sometimes it needs to be overtightened. Like I said in PM, you can send some pics to my email to diagnose it, but sounds like you already fixed the problem. Anything else, let me know!

-Mike G

Mike: The box didn't seem to be damaged at all when received. I'll check it again this afternoon and look a little closer.

The gas tube is now not centered in the barrel nut hole and touches on one side. The gas tube is dragging on the gas tube causing almost 100% failure to eject/failure to feed. I suspect the barrel nut may have turned a bit when I removed the handguard, since so much torque was required. I'll disassemble the handguard, gas block and gas tube for a closer look this afternoon. Does the barrel nut use a standard mil-spec spanner wrench? If so, I can re-torque and realign the gas tube if necessary. Thanks, Vic

Followup: Mike: The box doesn't show any sign of mishandling or damage. All the packing material was intact and in place when received.

The hole in the barrel nut is indeed out of alignment with the one in the upper receiver causing the binding of the gas tube on the gas key. Unfortunately the barrel nut wrenches I have on hand will not fit. I do have the heavy duty strap wrench and will try it later. The gas tube doesn't seem to be bent out of shape. Vic

[GarrowDev]

Originally Posted by vlcakc

Mike: The box didn't seem to be damaged at all when received. I'll check it again this afternoon and look a little closer.

The gas tube is now not centered in the barrel nut hole and touches on one side. The gas tube is dragging on the gas tube causing almost 100% failure to eject/failure to feed. I suspect the barrel nut may have turned a bit when I removed the handguard, since so much torque was required. I'll disassemble the handguard, gas block and gas tube for a closer look this afternoon. Does the barrel nut use a standard mil-spec spanner wrench? If so, I can re-torque and realign the gas tube if necessary. Thanks, Vic

Followup: Mike: The box doesn't show any sign of mishandling or damage. All the packing material was intact and in place when received.

The hole in the barrel nut is indeed out of alignment with the one in the upper receiver causing the binding of the gas tube on the gas key. Unfortunately the barrel nut wrenches I have on hand will not fit. I do have the heavy duty strap wrench and will try it later. The gas tube doesn't seem to be bent out of shape. Vic

I called Hogue to see if they've had this issue in transport before, and they do, but rarely. It takes a good jolt to the box, and doesn't always show signs, but it can happen. Does sound like you had to crank at it to get the forend off, so it more than likely misaligned the barrel nut. The nut itself can be aligned with a deep-well spanner wrench, but your strap wrench should do the trick. I align every one of them by hand before they go out. Imagine that! It's a lot of work, I'll tell ya. If you can align it again, then great! If not, just send it back and we'll get it running.

-Mike G.