The JAKL has been around for a little while now, but just recently PSA released some in 5.56 with a combination of 13.7" barrel, pinned and welded flash hiders, this awesome full length rail, and an F5 ACR-style stock. I had to have one.
I purchased the complete rifle outright for $1299 from PSA. It is possible to mix, match, and customize your own. The JAKL uppers are proprietary, but the lowers are built on a standard AR-15 lower receiver and an adapter piece, which fits on the back end of the lower using a threaded plug on the threads for the buffer tube. Due to the uppers being wider than AR15 uppers, a proprietary bolt release fitted to the relief on the upper is required. The standard lower adapters have a section of 1913 rail for a folding stock of your choice, while the F5 Manufacturing stock has a proprietary adapter. As of this posting, you can buy a lower receiver from PSA with this stock and adapter, but not the stock and adapter by itself. The stock is rather uncomfortable at lengths of pull that I'm used to running, as the recoil will drive the edge of that cheek piece into your face. However, it is solid, and does look very cool.
I am not completely sold on the idea of building these around an AR-15 lower. I think the solution is kind of clunky, and would have been more impressed by something more like the ACR and Masada's polymer lowers. However, PSA sells several options of upper receiver with barrels as short as 8.5", so this design choice allows someone to take an SBR'd lower and easily convert it to utilizing a JAKL upper. Because the JAKL does not use a buffer tube, don't expect to hot swap back to standard AR-15s. At the time of this posting, I am not aware of whether anyone has experimented with JAKL lowers and BRN-180 or Foxtrot Mike uppers. I purchased the gun as a complete JAKL, which gets you matching finish and some neat little JAKL branding on the lower.
On to the upper. The JAKL operates on a long stroke piston system, with an adjustable gas block. The bolt carrier superficially resembles an AR-18 with an AK piston attached to it. The JAKL bolt carrier group is at the top, can you identify all the others?
The recoil spring keys into the top of the proprietary upper. The bolt head is standard AR-15 fare, rotated by a simple cam pin in the carrier. The charging handle rides in a sheet steel sled inside the upper, and is non-reciprocating. These sleds have been beefed up by PSA following reports of breakage. Bolt handle can be swapped left or right. There are numerous screws on the upper, which connect to steel rails inside the upper. The upper is partially monolithic, with a continuous rail all the way out to the front. It could use a few more 1913 slots at the back, but I suspect those were omitted because that's where the recoil spring keys into the upper. The lower part of the handguard is removable via screws, which will help with servicing of the gas system or barrel. The handguard is chunky, and has enough airspace with the gas block to avoid burning your hand. You will notice immediately upon picking it up that the upper is boxier and wider than an AR-15. The barrel is 1-7 twist, 13.7", and I would characterize it as a medium profile similar to a gunner profile, with what appears to be a standard 0.750" diameter forward of the gas block and a slight taper under the handguard. The muzzle device is a 3-prong flash hider with a SilencerCo ASR pattern mount. These pinned and welded uppers are currently available with ASR, KeyMo, and 51T. Check back in about 10 months for notes on suppressed performance.
At the moment I am utilizing a Leupold VX-Freedom 1.5-4x optic and an Aero ultralight mount. This is an extremely light setup, only about 12oz all told. It is unpowered and has no illumination, but the glass is quite good and the eye relief is extremely comfortable. I had this optic laying around after selling another rifle recently.
Shooting and handling notes below:
Two groups at 50yd, fairly rapid fire, off a rest, Wolf .223. Accuracy is equivalent to any ARs I shoot with that ammo and magnified optics. No surprises here, it's a nitride 4150V AR barrel. Chrome lining would have been nice for $1300 but okay. I expect these groups could be tightened with nicer ammo, sandbags, etc. I would classify the trigger as improved milspec.
Are you wondering why you can't find the weight of the complete rifle on the PSA sales page? Yeah that's because it's heavy. You pick it up, it's a chonkasaurus. Base unloaded and bare weight is around seven and a half pounds. As configured now, the heft is pretty close to my 16" SOCOM wannabe AR with a full length quad rail, HLX, and PA 1-6. The gas block and piston do make it front heavy. The last piston gun I had was a Wolf A1 with a 16" HBAR, and the front-heavy feel of the JAKL is similar but not as bad. The shorter barrel helps, and there is a shorter handguard length available. Charging, reloads, and manipulations are fine, I think the charging handle is in a good location and probably won't macerate your knuckles against a cantilevered LPVO mount or widebody EOTech type optic. It does run my hand into the sling QD, of which one is provided on the handguard in my preferred spot.
The charging handle does not have a forward assist functionality, so don't expect to use it to beat the bolt into battery. This is worth it to avoid the problems of reciprocation, in my opinion, which was the most hated part of the original SCAR-L.Getting the gas dialed in was a bit of a pain. Manual says 6 positions, PSA's sale page says 8 positions, some of the original JAKLs shipped with 4 positions, and I don't know how many mine has because it works now and I'm not moving it to count.
Reaching through the handguard is awkward, and of course I forgot which direction to turn it. It is possible to overrotate the gas key past the detents, which I had to figure out. Eventually I got it to a usable position with the Wolf ammo and it ran fine. The detents aren't as positive as I'd like, but the gas key did not walk out under firing. Locks open every time with the Wolf .223 and there are a couple more positions left for additional gas if needed. No feeding issues beyond a stuck case, which I experience once in a while with this ammo on all 5.56 platforms.Recoil with the Wolf was a pussycat once adjusted, partly owing to the rifle's weight. Bumping up to Igman brass resulted in stouter recoil on the same gas setting. I did confirm through fumbling around that the gas can be turned down so far that even regular brass won't extract. Once I figured it out, I'm pleased with the range of gas settings available. Adding range and settings was one of the first things PSA improved on this platform, and I'm glad it can handle lower pressure ammo as well as cutting back for suppressed use. I can't wait to run it suppressed.
Only 150 rounds so far, all bench shooting. This rifle is at the top of my list to take to TSA 2-gun for more practical testing, if they ever stop canceling matches.
Final Notes:
My use case for this gun is "I want the ACR from MW2 and now I have it. I rule."
Results from the first outing are promising. I think the gun is super cool, it worked once I figured it out, and there are no show stopping issues. I cannot wait to get it out to a practical shooting match, put more rounds down the pipe, and eventually try it out suppressed.
$1300 is a lot of money. Should YOU buy it?
I'd say the nearest competitor to this gun is the BRN-180. Cost is very close, use cases and advantages are very similar, BRN-180 is lighter. I think it's a tossup to which you think is cooler.
I think you should buy this gun if:
-You want something that vibes hard and makes you feel like you're 14 again, chugging Mountain Dew and calling people gamer words in CoD lobbies.
-You want the ACR or SCAR-L or Bren 2 that you can't afford. It's another $1,000 or more jump from this gun to one of those.
-You are interested in a 5.56 or .300 piston gun that isn't an AR.
I think you should not buy this gun if:
-You are very weight sensitive and want the lightest everything. If all you want is piston functionality, something like a PWS piston AR is a similar price and knocks a lot of weight off.
-You don't want to spend $1300 on something that says PSA on it. This is a legitimate point. They are still PSA. This gun plays more to their strengths than when they tried to get into AKs, but it's a first gen PSA product and there have already been minor breakages and design updates. Maybe wait for a Gen 2?
Wonder if Gen 2 will get a little steel insert.
