AbH's JR Carbine Build in 45 Acp

[AbHobbyist]

Hello all!!

I just wanted to share with you a recent build that I did with a Jr Carbine in 45 ACP.

This whole deal started when I purchased a used JR carbine in a private sale.

Like every semi-auto platform I buy used I started to tear it down to its bones.

The gent I bought it from was not the original owner, and some where along the way on of its owner mess up a lot of things/parts on the gun.

The more I worked with it the more things I found that were wrong with it. In the end the seller and I were able to work it out to both our satisfaction.

One of the major issues with with the upper receiver was that many of screw had been stripped out.

I am not sure if this is a little known fact, but you can buy many parts for your Jr Carbine directly from them!!

Further while you can not directly buy barrels, bolt groups and upper receivers, JR Carbine will send those parts to Canada under warranty replacement as long as your able to provide a valid serial number!!

Any how I was able to get in touch with Jr Carbine and even though I had to pay for it, they handled all the import paper work and I was able to get a new replacement upper receiver sent to me!!

It took some time, and for a while it was stuck in customs, but it did eventually it did arrive.

The rest of the build process proceeded as follows:

- sourced in Canada a shinny brand new stainless barrel with matching flash hider. 45 ACP barrels are threaded 0.578″ x 28 Right Twist at the muzzle and this barrel was no exception to that rule.

- Added a new Ejector plate to match in 45 acp and used it to set this Carbine is set up for Right hand ejection

- saved the body and bolt head and body extension from the original BCG, but replaced all the BCG small parts (Namely the firing pin/spring/retainer assembly, New Extractor Assembly along with a new bolt/charging handle) which upgraded the group to the latest generation!!

- re-used the original large frame Glock mag-well as it was in good used shape

- sourced a new trigger housing (this is the part that holds the fire control group)

- added my last hand selected fire control group from Stag 10 (one of the few standard single stage trigger groups available) along with a Stag 10 A-2 pistol grip with an upgraded hex-head grip screw with Stainless & Star washers

- added an Ambi-Selector/safety

- The Butt stock and buffer assembly were also upgraded with new or as new parts

- Includes one proper Glock Brand 10 round magazine (was used for live fire testing and worked excellent!!)

Just to be safe I printed out a current copy of the FRT (which shows its none-restricted - Jan 3 version) and a copy of the owners manual for reference.

The following is what the finished carbine looks like:



This carbine passed the snap-cap manual feeding test with flying colors!!


Range Visit - Live fire testing!!



Well like all things one builds, the proof is in the live fire testing!!

I finally made it to the range with weekend. The following are a few obligatory glamour pic's:






I then proceed with the live fire. The following are the results:




That little carbine digested 65 round of my A-Grade 230 grain reloads. There was not a single issue with feeding, ejection or firing as long as good mags were used!!

This is why I always use proper Glock brand G-21 mags

Over all I am very pleased with the results !!

Well I have rattled on long enough.

Thank you for making time to read my post and I will do my best to field any questions or constructive thoughts you might have.

regards

AbH

[lone-wolf]

I bought a used 40s&w Jr carbine and the company did all they could to get it up and running reliably, and it was by the end of it. Great customer service for sure.

[Curt]

Looks like fun. I have heard the odd story of .45acp not running reliably in pcc. Now i must build one also..

[M1917 Enfield]

Well done!

Great to see you persisted with it and did not give up on it and move on, apparently some people do not like to tinker with guns and insist on them to be perfect from the get go. Sometimes it is good to pay a lot less and fix it yourself so you get to understand the gun and way it works like it was a part of you.

They all had issues and were finicky even the 9mm ones at the start but over time and with some work and new and improved JR replacement parts they became fine guns, sort of like how some earlier Rossi M92's were rough diamonds too until they either wore themselves in through repeated use or the owner tinkered and smoothed them out to make them first rate light and handy pistol caliber carbines like the JR carbines should be. I also got a bunch of replacement warranty parts for from JR to replace their earlier defective internals for both my ones.

I wish now that had I kept my 9mm and .45 ACP ones instead of selling them in one of my rare moments of madness, they were heavy but handy and accurate carbines. Ah, regret!

[normmus]

Looks great. Was there an issue with the original barrel?

[AbHobbyist]

Thank you all for the kind words!!

Looks great. Was there an issue with the original barrel?

No there was no issue with the original barrel, but it was of the blued variety and I just thought the stainless one looked so much better!!

I wish now that had I kept my 9mm and .45 ACP ones instead of selling them in one of my rare moments of madness, they were heavy but handy and accurate carbines. Ah, regret!

You know........... I can fix that for you!! Send me a PM if you would like to discuss it!!

Regards

AbH

[AbHobbyist]

I just had a thought.

As mentioned previously Jr Carbines can be mag sensitive, and this is particularly true of the version in 45 acp.

That being said the people at JR carbine have figures out how to tune large frame Glock magazines for there carbine and have done an excellent write up on it.

The following excerpt is taken from the 2017 version of their owners manual. I thought I would post it here to be helpful

regards

AbH

[normmus]

Thank you all for the kind words!!

No there was no issue with the original barrel, but it was of the blued variety and I just thought the stainless one looked so much better!!

AbH

Is there a retailer in Canada currently selling JR Carbine barrels or was this a custom job?

[AbHobbyist]

Is there a retailer in Canada currently selling JR Carbine barrels or was this a custom job?

@Normmus

The Canadian Repair Center for Just Right Carbines is Ellwood Epps. I thought this was common knowledge.

As such, you can, at times get parts like barrels and flash hidders from them, depending on what they have in inventory.

This is where the stainless barrel/flash-hider set I used in this latest carbine came from!!

I just conducted a search on their web site and I was not able to find any Jr Carbine parts.

That being said, should you need something it might be wise to give them a call and talk directly to the Gun smith as I do know they keep some undisclosed inventory for warranty repair.

Otherwise sometimes google is your best friend!! For example I have been looking for a JR carbine 9mm conversion kit for some time. The other day I found one from another Alberta retailer. What a Score!!

Needless to say its on its way to me!!

I hope that was helpful and please keep the constructive questions and thoughts coming!!

Warmest regards

AbH

[Elmer Fudd]

I have 3 JR Carbines 9mm, 40 and 45. They were all bought used and the 45 had the stripped screw issue and sent it to Elwood Epps and they fixed it up for free. The only issue with the 45 I have is that it will only feed round nose plated or jacketed rounds and will not feed SWC or cast lead rounds reliably. Other than that they are a bit heavy but shoot great.