BRN-4 Upper - 2024
I bought my original upper in late 2023 while there were still teething issues, and issues there were.
The upper I got then was out of spec in several places:
1) The top rail was wide, and the slots not deep enough.
2) The indexing slot was too wide, causing the rail to shift.
3) The pivot and takedown pin slots were egged out from the factory, and caused MASSIVE wobble.
4) The left side of the receiver is too wide.
I received a replacement upper in 10/2024, and of the above issues, only one remains. Issue 4, the receiver is still too wide, and very obviously doesn't line up with regular AR lowers, or reproduction 416 lowers. The pin slots aren't egged out, but they are VERY picky about the pins being used.
The other noticeably improved area is the finishing. The upper no longer has the ridged texture my original had.
If Brownells reads this, seriously, fix the spec issue on the left side of the receiver and the pin slots being too loose. The upper would be perfect with these changes.
Replacement upper. Still some issues
Received my upper replacement installed barrel and geissele rail. Wasnt able to push in my takedown pins because the handguard was seated in contsct with the front takedown pin tab. Fixed theis by placing 2 shim on the tennon before installing the barrel nut. Once that issue was solved noticed the right side of the upper protrudes noticeably hanging over the lower receiver. I am happy I do not have the out of battery issue as the first run but these new issues on the 2nd run ar sort of aggravating. In the end it works but not without trial and error in some areas.
Needs more Quality Control
The notch slot where the shoulder of the barrel meets the upper receiver has some play in it. Just enough to where the barrel moves slightly so the bolt carrier got stuck because of misalignment. Customer service was great and helped me to return the defective upper. Hoping for a better experience with the exchanged receiver.
No son, We Have HK 416 At Home
Did you ever ask your mom or dad for something at the store, only for them to tell you “no, we have one at home”, only to find out the thing in question back at home was some poor imitation of the thing you really want? Well, Brownells is bringing us the HK416 we have at home. I own one of the BRN 4 Lowers and I figured this would be on par with the BRN 4. Unfortunately, it’s not. It’s fully functional, don’t get me wrong, but the anodizing looks pretty thin and there are just machining and chatter marks all over the outside of this thing. It looks kind of like bubba finished it out with a dremel. I’m going to just shoot with it and have fun at the range, but if you really want an HK clone, get an MR556 or something else. Seriously, Anderson MFG Parts resemble HK quality better than this 🫤. This truly is the HK416 We Have at Home
I had high hopes
A while ago Brownells sold authentic HK416 kits minus the lower barrel and bolt. Most of the cool stuff they sell they went from selling the kits to just selling the parts. A real HK upper was a little over 3 bills seemed cheap and it was a bad time for me to buy gun parts then since I'm married with kids, I had my heart set on an HK416 and the price on the upper just kept going up to almost 4 almost 5 bills and then the lower disappeared for no reason and then the barrel and then I held back on the HK416 since no one had a barrel or BCG. Then a year later Brownells released a cool piston BCG that would work in a HK416 without the stupid redundant "safety" that's on the real one and right when i got this BCG i saw i can special order a barrel, took 6 months, when i got the barrel i came back to here and see they have a new HK416 kit called the BRN4 and I see they have an upper when i recently ordered one for double the price and I still got this one and it's ok i guess.
Does what it was made for but Ugly
The upper is bare bones a 416 upper, so no complaints for it being able to do what it was designed for. However, there are a few areas of improvement I wish brownells will apply to future production. The hole for the forward assist roll pin was very tight. I went throw 2 roll pins before I was successful installing the fa. The anodizing seemed a little thin on the upper. I was able to wear areas down after doing a functions check after initial assembly. Machining marks are clearly visible. I understand this is a machined billet part but a quick pass over the upper before anodzing to smooth them out would add to quality and appearance. While those few things are disappointing, the upper works.
