I recently reviewed the PSA Sabre-15 carbine, and it proved to be a fantastic little rifle. The Sabre represents the higher-end PSA rifles, and it’s always fascinating to see how far a company has come. With that in mind, I wanted to dive back into PSA’s bread and butter and look at their bare-bones budget rifle series. This led to me acquiring a PA-15 and taking it for a spin.
Palmetto State Armory PA-15 – The Starter AR
If you’re new to the world of firearms and especially new to the world of ARs, the PA-15 is likely on your radar. AR-15s are a dime a dozen these days, and tons of budget brands are competing for your attention and affection. Palmetto State Armory does a great job of producing budget-friendly ARs, and the PA-15 retails for less than 500 dollars.
The PA-15 is about as basic as it gets, but it does come equipped with an M-LOK rail rather than the world’s cheapest polymer carbine furniture. Out of the box, you need to add some form of sights, and then you are off to the races. The rifle has a basic A2 grip, a basic M4 stock, and the classic A2 flash hider.
At its core, the PA-15 is designed as a starter AR. It’s budget-priced to get you in the door and ready out of the box to shoot. If you decide to upgrade things along the way, it’s not all that hard to do so. You can drop in the stock and pistol grip you want. Personally, I’m partial to the B5 stock and the Magpul K-style grips.
Live Inventory Price Checker
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PSA PA-15 16" M4 Phosphate 5.56 NATO 1/7 Classic AR-15 Rifle with 13" Lightweight Hex M-LOK Rail, FDE | Palmetto State Armory | $ 859.99 $ 499.99 |
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PSA PA-15 20" Nitride Rifle-Length 5.56 NATO Classic AR-15 Rifle W/Carry Handle, Black | Palmetto State Armory | $ 999.99 $ 569.99 |
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PSA PA-15 20" Nitride Rifle-Length 5.56 NATO Classic AR-15 Rifle W/Carry Handle, Black | Palmetto State Armory | $ 999.99 $ 569.99 |
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PSA PA-15 16" Nitride M4 Carbine 5.56 NATO Classic AR-15 13.5" M-Lok Railed Rifle | Palmetto State Armory | $ 959.99 $ 479.99 |
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From Tip To Stock
The PA-15 features a 13.5-inch M-LOK rail that provides plenty of space to mount whatever accessories you want. It has your typical carbine-length 16-inch barrel and a carbine-length gas tube. I’m a fan of mid-length gas systems, and that’s an option with some PA-15 rifles.
Mid-length gas systems have a little less recoil and a little less gas blowback. The carbine-length tubes are a bit more over-gassed than the mid-length systems. The benefit is that you can shove basically any crappy ammo in it, and it will run. This includes the underpowered steel-cased crap from whatever dubious country sells it.
Everything is a bit of a compromise. The barrel is 4150V chrome moly vanadium steel with a nitride finish. We get M4 feed ramps and a Carpenter 158 steel bolt. I’m not telling you anything crazy; it’s all fairly standard for an AR-15 carbine. PSA tops it off with a Magpul PMAG to keep your rifle fed.
If it gets any simpler than this, you’ll need to get into the retro line of AR-15s. The PA-15 gets you in the door, but will it keep you in the building?
To The Range With the PA-15
I equipped the PA-15 with a Primary Arms 3X Microprism. It’s a basic, affordable optic for a basic, affordable rifle. I’m a bit of a prism fan and will have a review of this optic sooner rather than later. With the optic equipped, properly zeroed, and a chest rig full of magazines, I was ready to let it rip!
I wanted to see what kind of reliability I could expect with a sub-500-dollar rifle. I added a squirt of lube onto the bolt from the ejection port, and that’s all the maintenance it received. I still have stacks of old Tula .223, so a lot of the testing was done with that old steel-cased crap. I used magazines from Magpul, Lancer, ETS Gen 1, and Gen 2 magazines.
Ultimately, I had two malfunctions, both with ETS Gen 2 magazines and failed to feed with Tula ammo. Interestingly enough, it was the first round in each magazine. Outside of the ETS mags, I had no failures. I also had no problems when I filled those ETS mags with brass-cased ammo, and I had no problems with other mags using steel-cased ammo. It’s an odd coincidence or a bad combination of ammo, guns, and magazines.
Shooting Straight
I don’t have any match-grade ammo to test accuracy, and this isn’t a match-grade gun anyway. I used brass-cased 55 grain .223 Remington at 100 yards to see what kind of accuracy I could get. From a bag-stabilized position, my best groups were about 3 MOA, with the most common being around 3.25 (using a tape measure, so +/—.1).
Could better ammo, a better optic, and a better shooter do better? Yeah, probably, but I’m pretty happy with a 3 MOA group from a $500 rifle. For a more practical accuracy test, I switched to the off-hand, grabbed an 8.5 x 11-inch thoracic target, and fired a simple drill.
From 100 yards, in the standing, in the low ready, I’d aim and fire two shots in four seconds. I fired five rounds before checking the target and was pleasantly surprised to find all ten rounds hit home.
Near and Far
Next, I got some steps in and tried the Sgae Dynamics Eleanor drill, which is 1 round to a 1-inch circle and 3 rounds to a reduced-sized A-zone. It’s fired from five yards, and you have 2.5 seconds. You’re trying to work your height over bore correction, and I certainly need to work on that. In the five runs I ran, I only passed once due to misses of the 1-inch dot.
I also spread through some failure to stop drills starting at three yards and eventually moving to five, seven, ten, fifteen, twenty, twenty-five, and fifty yards. It was a fun way to test some skills and be a bit more dynamic in pushing speed while maintaining accuracy.
Overall, the PA-15 shoots straight enough for my standards. In fact, at 500 dollars, it’s outperforming its cost.
Handling the PA-15
If you’ve ever fired an AR-15, you know what to expect. The recoil is light and soft, and the ergonomics are spot on. It handles like any other AR; it’s just very basic. Outside of the charging handle and trigger, nothing’s ambidextrous. The six-position M4 stock is fine, the grip is fine, and it’s all just fine.
My one downside is how much gas hits me while I shoot. A carbine-length gas system tends to do that. It’s throwing a lot of gas in my face, and I’m shooting unsuppressed and outdoors. The increase in recoil is also noticeable compared to a mid-length gas system, but it’s still just a 5.56 carbine. A dime is twice as much money for a nickel, but it’s still just a dime.
Luckily, you need a lot fewer dimes to get a PA-15 than other rifles. For most, it will be a suitable starter gun to build and upgrade and to learn the ins and outs of the AR platform. After shooting it side by side with the Sabre, I can see the differences, but ultimately, the rifle still runs and still shoots straight.
About Travis Pike
Travis Pike is a former Marine Machine Gunner, a lifelong firearms enthusiast, and now a regular guy who likes to shoot, write, and find ways to combine the two. He holds an NRA certification as a Basic Pistol Instructor and is the world’s Okayest firearm’s instructor.
Make it available with a skinny profile 1:7 twist barrel and I’ll buy several.