Reviews & Ratings for Faxon Firearms ARAK-21 Complete Upper Receiver — 8 reviews — Page 1

I purchased an ARAK-21 12.5” 5.56 upper, and I’m honestly pretty disappointed. First of all the accuracy is pretty atrocious. It’s a real struggle to get a group under 8 inches at 100 yards with a 4X scope and Xm193 ammo, from a bag. It does slightly better with 77g SMK but not much. The scope mount is solid. Admittedly, I did not follow the “one round, clean it, etc.”break-in process that’s listed in the manual, so that’s on me, but even so that seems REALLY inaccurate. Like way more than any other 556 gun I’ve ever shot. I am by no means a great rifle shooter but just to make sure I wasn’t worse than I thought. I pulled out 4 other 556 guns and shot them all side-by-side (including the ARAK). Everything was shot using XM193 ammo, 10 shots each, 100 yards. All from a bag. The other four rifles were shot using red dots (either an Sig Romeo4 or eotch.) and a 3x magnifier so if anything I would think the 4x vortex scope would give the ARAK an advantage. I’ve also been able to get good groups with that scope on other rifles. The other rifles shot all shot about 4 inches, more or less. The ARAK was over 8 inches. The rifles used use were a Tavor x95, G36c clone and 2 ARs.

In addition to the accuracy issues, after about 150rds the muzzle break came loose and for the life of me I can not seem to get it to stay tight while shooting. I emailed their customer service and they told me they would send me a shipping label so that I could return it to them and they could fix the issues. ...
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Built like a Swiss watch, fit and finish is impeccable. Don’t hesitate to buy, pull the “trigger”.

Bought the Faxon ARAK-21 upper and the second I attached it to my aero lower, my rifle grew a third eye and started humming the national anthem. It’s not a gun anymore it’s a portal. The recoil feels like a butterfly farted and the charging handle telepathically reminds me to hydrate. People at the range asked, “What the hêll is that?” and before I could answer, the rifle whispered, “Tell them… I am inevitable.” This rifle spoke to me in Latin I would really recommend it I might just have to get one in 300 blackout.

I forgot to give a review after going to the range a few months ago.

I've never experienced such a monotonous set of instructions for a barrel break-in. Honestly, I dont understand Faxon's logic behind its break-in requirements. But, they are the engineers.

The upper is monolithic, so it has a little weight. But that weight makes recoil feel almost nonexistent. Extremely smooth action. This is the luxury sport of piston uppers. Not a single malfunction. Did I mention how smooth the action is and how light the recoil feels? You can control your sight picture during rapid fire as if it were a roller delayed action.

The upper did get quite warm at the end portion of the handguard that sits over the gas block. But, if you wear shooting gloves, it's not an issue.

If you are considering the ARAK as your next piston purchase, do it! I can't say enough about how well manufactured and how well this upper functions.

The next review will be how it runs suppressed.

This upper is an interesting addition to my lineup. In short, consistent groups with a con of weight.

Out of the box I had fitment issues. Takedown pins were about a millimeter off. After getting over my initial irritation, i broke down the upper and confirm the barrel was not fully seated. I don't know if this was an assembly issue at the factory or occurred during shipping. Once i seated everything properly, fitment was not an issue. If you're buying this upper i would definitely confirm the barrel is fully seated. This requires removing the lower portion of the handguard and simply pushing the barrel as far back as it goes. It will certainly save you time regretting your purchase.

Moving onto shooting. The manual has a pretty specific break-in process which i followed. Kinda sucks you shoot and clean then shoot and clean right out of the box but I did it anyway. My upper came with a confirmation card that states 5 rounds were fired through my upper before being shipped. Not sure if this process was followed at the factory. Grouping with a budget red dot, vortex strike, the grouping at 25-50 were well within the diameter of a quarter in 3 shoot groups. Actually very impressive out of the box. At 100 groupings were still within an moa. Im jot exactly surprised but I am impressed with the consistency of the groupings.

The things I don't like though I before buying..

The weight. This thing is pretty heavy. Shouldering is not impossible but I do have other ARs I'd rather sh...
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Out of the box, the quality of this upper is exceptional. The milling, finish, design, and function are top shelf. I own many piston uppers and I consider this upper to be the all-around best. I hope my range fire experience is as positive as the unboxing.

The only negative comment I have is with the packing of the upper. The Faxon box was twice the length of the upper, with no internal packing material. The upper was wrapped in a plastic bag and was free to slide freely back and forth from end to end during shipping. This caused the barrel assembly to be pushed back into the monolithic upper receiver by approximately an eighth of an inch. Thankfully, I was able to use a wood shim and mallet to knock the barrel back into proper position. This also caused the plastic bore safety to be jammed into the bore of the barrel needing plyers to remove it. Upon inspection, thankfully, the upper and barrel were not damaged. I also noticed the muzzle brake was not timed very well and is slightly off center.

OP should have noticed the movement of the unsecured upper in the Faxon box when they packed it in the OP shipping box.

A part of me wants to give this 4 stars. Only because it is advertised as having the ability to quickly change barrels. However finding the shorter or 300 BO is not available anywhere currently. That and the "sand" tone doesn't really match the FDE. That being said the long stroke gas system is amazingly simple and very easy to access. You can open the gas system up completely. The muzzle brake is very nice. Reduced recoil and closing the gas made it very easy to make a very tight group.