Anyone Have Experience with Panzer Arms AR-12 and/or BP-12 12-Gauge Semi-Auto Shotguns

[macandrac]

I recently purchased both the Panzer Arms AR-12 and BP-12 12-Gauge Semi-Auto Shotguns from Palmetto State Armory because they were having a great Sale and the guns looked decent enough for my budget. I watched all the videos I could regarding Reviews, Disassembly, Cleaning, etc. One of the first things they recommend is breaking down the firearms, inspecting parts, cleaning, lubing, and reassembling. These shotguns have Castle Nuts at the Gas Block location that you unscrew to remove the Rings & Gas Block; further down there is a 2nd Castle Nut that hold the barrel to the Upper Receiver. The videos that I watched warned these nuts would be hard to remove the first time and what I found when I removed the Castle Nut from the BP-12 is there was a hidden allen screw/bolt that locked the Castle Nut in place (nowhere in the videos or documentation is this ever mentioned). As a result, I stripped the Castle Nut and had to contact Palmetto State Armory Customer Service; the young lady there said you should never disassemble the rifle because that would void the Warranty. She told me to send pics which I did - she knew absolutely nothing about guns. Awhile latter, she sent an email that said "All Sales are Final" using a different email address labeled "No Replies". What is even more frustrating is when I removed the Allen screw/bolt, there was a 2nd Allen screw/bolt that was impacting the Castle Nut area - it wasn't a broken off part of a single Allen screw/bolt. I ended up with a box of parts. A day later, I decided to breakdown my AR-12 and when I got to the 2nd Castle Nut, I didn't see any additional retainers (Allen screw/bolt) and attempted to remove (as videos showed) using supplied Arbors Tool. However, I had to exert so much force, the tool broke without ever freeing up the nut. I reassembled the gun and went shooting yesterday and cleaned the gun the best I could when I got home (couldn't remove Bolt though). Anyone else have such experience with these Firearms? Any suggestions of getting the BP-12 Upper Receiver and Castle Nut rethreaded?

 

[shawnmcclosky]

I just did the exact same thing for the same reason. They didn't mention the set screw in the video I was watching. Did you ever find a solution? Do you know what size thread it is. I was thinking of buying a thread die to chase the threads. There's still a few good threads to get it started.

 

[Zbrewer60]

i recently bought the Ar-12 and put a nice scope on it but when I was sighting it in the bolt carrier fixing tube broke and I can’t seem to find parts anywhere. Would anyone know where to look?