First outing with one of Rudy's 45 DI uppers was all good.

1 year update...

Originally ran it with a 2oz anti-tilt buffer, and a Spikes Tactical flat wire spring.
Ran flawlessly with PMC 230 ball, 185 JHP commercial & reloads, and 185+P Remington JHP.
Had brought a selection of buffer weights to tune around any issues, but never tried any other combos, no need, it run just fine at 2oz.

Did find that after a couple more range trips, that the old style Sampson free float tube was moving around, and thus causing the front sight to do the same.
Probably due to the little 10-32 clamp screws being too weak to really lock it onto the barrel nut.
And adding picatinny rail sections was a pain in the ass due it not having threaded holes in the tube, and having to position the steel threaded keys inside the tube, while holding rail section, and starting a screw at the same time.
You almost need it off the weapon to add picatinny rail sections.
Probably why Sampson discontinued this style of tube... https://www.samson-mfg.com/evolution-series-standard.html NOT DISCOTINUED

To cure the Sampson hand guard from moving, I made an insert that pressed into it, and was a slide fit onto the barrel:

No more sight alignment issues

It is a real pain in the ass to load the mags, having to have to pound them on hard surface to get over 6 rounds to go in
A real problem if out in the field, and only have soft earth, a rock, or my car hood to pound on Hmmmm I've loaded thousands if not tens of thousands of rounds in them with out issue
I was working on ways to cure that issue now.
One problem is the width of the loader is .090" too wide, allowing the round pusher finger to tip to one side, and want to squeeze down around the side of the top round in the mag, which kind of fucks with the case (dents, gouges).
I shimmed with .039" thick fiberglass on each side to hold it strait on the mags, leaving approximately .012" clearance, but this brought up another issue, that there is a lot of variance in the mags.
Some mags have high points on the weld bead. Some have a parallelogram issue, but I am sure that these can be addressed in my shop press, the high weld beads can be dealt with on a belt sander, just have to make a couple of press plates to squeeze them back to the original desired shape.
One of the causes of the pusher finger, is it isn't wide enough. For that I plan on cutting off the finger, and Tig welding on another wider one that is just narrow enough to fit between the mad lips.
The mags will then be KalGuard GunKoted to make the IDs a little slipperier, but at this point, that project has been shelved.
Gone is the poorly machined adapter, that I had to correct, and the 3rd rate mags, and loader.
I now run a M3 Grease Gun lower.
Can load all 30 (thirty) rounds by hand, and they are very close to the length of Rudy's 20 round mags

Well, a year after purchasing this thing, I am coming to the conclusion, that this is just another small time wana-be one man band manufacturer, with loose tolerances, that is way over priced.
Upper receiver is spec., and has .011" slop in the upper, and neither the gas key, nor the bolt bore in it is hard chromed.
The bore of the upper feels like a file, the machining is so rough.
So, bought another upper, and when I went to remove the barrel nut from his, it was way over torqued!
The receiver actually broke as the nut finally let loose. He used white lithium grease, not an Aeroshell type moly grease.
And who needs shims, when you can just strong-arm the barrel nut until the gas tube aligns.

This combined with the discontinued Sampson hand guard, the crappy mags, the damn mag insert that I had to correct the piss poor machine work on, to get the mags to fit in the first place,
it is hard to figure why this upper cost 3 times what a bear creek upper costs.

In the first few months, replies from him when I discovered one after another issue, went from bad to worse.
First reply was when I told him the mag adapter wasn't machined correctly, the inner surfaces were concave, and when the two halves were screwed together, the sides bowed in, pinching the mag, he said to send it back.
First, it shouldn't have made it out of his garage in the first place, second would have the replacement been any better?
When I told him I was using an Anderson lower, all I got out of him was a bad attitude, and how shitty Anderson products are.Nope on this...I have quite a few on my personal guns.....never had an issue. What I politely said was Anderson lowers are know for tight magwells......which I have encountered in the past. The side of the adapter bowing is due to it being forced into a tight magwell.

When I tried to talk to him about how hard the mags were to use, he got down right angry, like everyone who buys one of these isn't pleased with his poorly made mags either, and he is getting tired of people complaining. This is a lie.

Starting to see why he had to move into firearms, shutting down his automotive machining shop, and trying to sell off the automotive equipment.

This was a bad decision on my part, wish I had never fallen for his bull shit.
I will only retain the barrel, BCG, and flash hider.
The only reason his .45acp works is because he puts the gas port about 1/4 inch off the case mouth, which works fine, as I stated before, but puts a shitload of gas in your face.
But this is a $1100 upper, with the crappy receiver, workmanship, magazine system, and Sampson out of date, close-out special free float tube. There are literally hundreds if not thousands of very satisfied customers out there who would disagree with you. Here is one of them satisfied customer DI45 review

I can not recommend one of these to anyone, the build quality, and design just isn't there.

Responses from Rudy in bold

Wish you had contacted me with the issues. would have been happy to upgrade you to the new mlok handguard I have, solve any problems you might have, or refund your purchase. We did have a batch of mags that were re-nitrided due to a screw up by the heat treater that were a bitch to load. I thought I had contacted everyone who got them and replaced them, obviously I was wrong. Thanks for your comments, fortunately this is the first negative review of this sort I have recieved since being in business. In the future, I suggest contacting the manufacturer and allowing them to address the issues. I can't comment to the upper spec.....as I have used CMMG or Aero stripped lowers for builds. During panic times.....things happen.  Again I would have been happy to address every issue you had had you contacted me and asked for refund or replacement. You didn't. I do not appreciate the out and out lies you posted in the rant above.and won't dignify some of the comments with a response.The  Samson Evolution freefloats have been used since the early days....first complaint on them as well. I have transitioned to a new Mlok forearms of my design with a very robust  barrel nut handgurd locking mechinism to work with 460 Rowland, 10mm, and 45 Win Mag uppers.

Rudy

I've never had any of those issues nor has anyone else I know with a DI45. I've probably sold at least a dozen of those uppers for Rudy just by letting people shoot mine. Same for my MA AR9s. I've also sat right next to Rudy a number of times while he was on the phone with a customer, explaining to them what was causing whatever issue they had on whatever other manufacturer's upper, which they proceeded to send him to fix, and he did, sometimes for little or nothing.

My takeaways from this:

OP made a free float tube contact the barrel on purpose

OP swapped out or modified basically everything else on the gun vs letting Rudy fix it, which is what he should have done if there was an issue. OP probably doesn't listen well and believes he knows the answer to everything.

I've never known Rudy to get rude with anyone unless they were being an ass or trying to tell him he didn't know what he was doing or that his product sucks, which you could expect from literally any manufacturer. The comment about shutting down the automotive business is pretty shitty. That's been closed for years, was his Dad's business, who is deceased now, and he spends about 60hrs a week just machining and building Macon Armory products.

Never had a problem with my DI45 (or my Blowback AR9 as well) , other than I run it 100% suppressed and it gets dirty as a $2 whore.  When that happens it gets hosed with brake cleaner and another liberal application of cherrybalmz and she's back up and running.

Mine is all still original as it came from Macon Armory as I didn't' see the need to "modify" it.

Gas in your face?  Get a better charging handle that mitigates that, easy as that.

As far as the mags are concerned, what other mags could you use as a weapon to beat someone too death with after you run out of ammo?  

My loading tool works just fine, maybe quit being so gentle while loading the mags?  Basically they load just like an UZI mag.

As far as Rudy personally, he'd give you the shirt off his back if you needed it.  

OP, the personal attack on his dad's auto business is way over the line and you should remove that if you are any sort of man. ( Not holding my breath)

I have not had any of the problems you have had op,  but then again, I follow the instructions for use and haven’t tried running it with anything other than what came with it from the factory.  No problems with any of the 17 mags and 2 loaders that I have, but tbh, my WWII Grease gun pouch only holds 10, so that’s all I take with me.  I run a red dot and an IR laser.  Tirant 45 can and m16 lower.  It’s lots of fun day or night.  

If I were to change anything, I’d add a finger rest on the bottom of the mag loader like my m-11 has.

Yeah, I cummins swapped my F450 and exploded the tranny, transfer case,  rear diff, and fried the electrical system..... time to go complain to Ford.  

Thanks for giving me the courage to show my stupidity OP.

I've been happy with my 8", running it with greasegun mags on a CNC Guns lower it runs like a raped ape, fantastic suppressor host.

My only complaint, I think the carrier needs to be bored out a 1/1000th or two.
The gas rings are such a tight fit, I can't open the action with the charging handle, I have to mortar it everytime.
Even when I have it apart for cleaning, the bolt fit in the carrier is way too tight.
I thought it would loosen up with shooting.  It's got at least 1000 rounds through it with no change.

My Macon magazines are awesome.  Some may say they are overbuilt, but that is my default inclination.  No issues in nearly four years.  

Excess gas because of the short gas system?
I'm sorry, but I laughed.  No.  There is nothing excess about it. In both volume and pressure, it is on the low end.  You may be getting a little more particulate with your gas, but that's it.  If you think this is bad, stay away from 300 Blackout.

I believe, and he can correct me if wrong, he uses Toolcraft BCGs.  At 1st I thought it was a little tight.  Cherrybalmz is your friend.  Apply way more than you think you need.

I have several thousand rounds thru my upper with the only failures due to getting dirty running suppressed as stated above.  Clean, lubricate and back in action.

John, if you remember your order number send to me, and I'll shoot you a return lable...that isn't correct. I'd like to find out why. A few thousandths too much on the gas tube can cause the condition you describe.....But I can definetly solve it .
to ANYONE with an AR45....if you have an issue, no matter how small....CALL me I will take care of it.

I don’t own one of Rudy’s guns (something I plan to rectify in the near future), but I do own a PSA AR9 that wouldn’t run worth a shit that I put together from a complete upper and complete lower. I called Rudy, made a trip, and he fixed all the issues the same day (which involved machining) for a nominal fee. We then ran several types of ammo through it on a FA lower and had fun BSing.  He has also machined pieces to fix antiques. As southerncross stated, Rudy would do anything for almost anybody (but particularly an ARFer), is a man of his word and stands behind his work 100%.  

OP - it sounds like you fucked around and found out you don’t know as much as you thought you did and then tried to blame someone else for shit you did. I would hazard a guess you never had an issue with Rudy’s work and if you actually did, you never gave him a heads up to make it right.

Thanks.

I get home this week and will follow up.

Originally Posted By Mad-Machinist:
We did have a batch of mags that were re-nitrided due to a screw up by the heat treater that were a bitch to load. I thought I had contacted everyone who got them and replaced them, obviously I was wrong.
Calling bull shit on this. When I contacted you about the issue, you got upset, like just about every time I called, admitted nothing about a 'bad nitride job', and put everything on me about not watching your video on how to pound them on a hard surface.

Thanks for your comments, fortunately this is the first negative review of this sort I have recieved since being in business. In the future, I suggest contacting the manufacturer and allowing them to address the issues. I can't comment to the upper spec.....as I have used CMMG or Aero stripped lowers for builds. During panic times.....things happen.

Again I would have been happy to address every issue you had had you contacted me and asked for refund or replacement. You didn't.
I contacted you on everything except the bull shit Sampson outdated crap hand guard. I figured that was on me for not asking who made the piece of shit. Lesson learned.
All I got in return was bull shit & hostility
I do find it interesting, that you now use a different handguard, LoL!
Did you offer to take care of the loose upper/BCG issue? NO.
Did you offer to trade out the 8 mags with a a 'bad nitried' job, with good ones? NO.


I do not appreciate the out and out lies you posted in the rant above.and won't dignify some of the comments with a response.
Not a single lie in my review.
Only thing that was out of line was my comment about the auto machine shop side of the business, that was an assumption on my part.

The  Samson Evolution freefloats have been used since the early days....first complaint on them as well. I have transitioned to a new Mlok forearms of my design with a very robust  barrel nut handgurd locking mechinism to work with 460 Rowland, 10mm, and 45 Win Mag uppers.

Nope on this...I have quite a few on my personal guns.....never had an issue. What I politely said was Anderson lowers are know for tight magwells......which I have encountered in the past. The side of the adapter bowing is due to it being forced into a tight magwell.
Lie...
The Anderson lower comment from you had nothing to do with the bowed mag adapter, that the two haves were machined concave, and when the assembly screws were tightened. the sides bowed in without the adapter even in my lower. Most like due to them being squeezed to tightly when they were machined.
It had to do when I contacted you about an issue with the mag release not always engaging, which turned out to be an issue with the aftermarket mag release.

Rudy

Rebuttals by Cressida in bold


Well, here is your chance Rudy, I'll send these 8 (eight) shit mags, and ill fitting mag loader back for a full refund. After all, you have admitted that they were a bitch to load.
I doubt you loaded as many rounds as you say using these ones that you admit at this point had a 'bad nitride' job that were a bitch to load.
Personally, after 2nd range trips, having everybody looking at me with that WTF look on their faces when I was pounding them on the shooting bench in order to reload, I had enough.
I now run a CNC lower that takes M2 mags that I can load all 30 rounds by hand.

Hm, I find it interesting that there is no mention or thread on a recall on the 'bad nitrided' mags in your section.

He literally said he thought he had contacted everyone who may have gotten them.

Even thought you have been less than decent about the whole thing.....I am still willing to take what you have back , repair it, test fire and return 100% functional at no charge.All I ask is you cover return shipping.
I will bite my tongue off before I am disrespectful to a customer.
I am making my own handguards due to supply chain issues that Samson was having. Samson Evolution forearm is still in production.
What was original order number?

More than generous.  I will have to question the OP's intelligence even more, if he doesn't take you up on this offer.

Rudy,

Hardly anything left of that upper.
Receiver cracked when trying to remove over tightened barrel nut. Was going to replace it anyway due to rough bore machine work.
Bolt carrier has been tossed in the spare parts bin.
And barrel has been modified for GAS PISTON, that WORKS.
See build thread: 45acp Piston Driven PCC

But since you said that you Did have an issue with the load-ability of your mags, I told you what you can do to correct that issue.
You can refund the cost of 8 mags, mag adapter that I corrected, and the mag loader.

By the way, you already have been disrespectful by calling me a liar.

LOL, yeah sure.  If you were my customer, I'd just fire your ass and be done with it.  

He offered to make it right and fix the issues.  Asking for a full refund on 8 mags etc that you are keeping is unreasonable.

As far as the upper, you have done so many "mods" to it already, it's a lost cause IMO.  You own that.

Sorry pal, guessing English isn't your first language.
Where did I say I wanted to keep that shit?

The part I highlighted in RED led me to believe you wanted a refund without sending them back.  

English is my only language.

I understand.
English is my first language also, but sometimes I don't get everything correct, and leads to issues like this.

Still waiting on an order number or a name so I can research the original order. As I said....I'll fix anything no problem.

ONE year 4 months is a bit beyond the window for a refund. As I stated, Send the mags and magwell adapter back and I will replace no problem. As I don't do drama, I am locking this thread.

nothing to add/no drama