Where Are Palmetto State Armory Guns Made? (2026)

Last updated and checked October 28, 2026 · By Nick Hall

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Quick Answer: Where Are PSA Guns Made?

Palmetto State Armory guns are made in Columbia, South Carolina, with components forged, machined, and assembled across sister facilities in NC, SC, and FL under JJE Capital Holdings.

Spartan Forging in Lincolnton, NC handles aluminum forgings. DC Machine in Summerville, SC produces barrels. Ferrous Engineering in West Columbia, SC is the CNC machine shop. Final assembly happens at PSA in Columbia.

That vertical integration is how a complete PSA PA-15 16-inch M4 carbine was $489.99 on PSA’s site on October 28, 2026. Most “manufacturers” buy forgings from one supplier, ship to a second for machining, and source barrels from a third. PSA’s family of companies owns those steps.

If you’re shopping a PSA firearm right now, you can browse the daily deals at Palmetto State Armory or jump to our roundup of the best PSA guns of 2026 for the picks worth buying. For an honest take on the brand overall, see Is Palmetto State Armory Good?

PSA’s Manufacturing Footprint Across Three States

Palmetto State Armory’s headquarters sits in Columbia, South Carolina, and PSA says that’s where it builds its firearms. The business started as an ammunition and magazine website and grew into one of the biggest names in American gun making.

Today the operation spans multiple buildings across the Columbia area plus dedicated sister-company facilities. Forging happens up the road in Lincolnton, North Carolina.

Barrel manufacturing runs out of Summerville, South Carolina. Upper-receiver milling sits in West Columbia. Special tooling work happens in Jacksonville, Florida.

Each sister company runs as a specialist shop. DC Machine alone says it operates 70+ CNC machines with nearly 100 workers. It looks more like an automotive component supply chain than the typical gun-shop image people have in their heads.

PSA also runs ten retail locations: Columbia, Greenville, Summerville, Ridgeland, Myrtle Beach, Florence and Charleston in South Carolina, the Palmetto Outdoors range in Swansea, plus stores in Savannah, Georgia and Lake Norman (Denver), North Carolina. Most double as ranges and showrooms, which means you can walk in, handle the rifles before you buy, and pick up an in-stock build the same day.

JJE Capital Holdings: The Parent Group

The piece most PSA buyers don’t realize is that PSA doesn’t stand alone. It’s the consumer-facing brand inside JJE Capital Holdings, a Columbia-based holding company with subsidiaries in South Carolina, North Carolina and Florida.

That’s what “vertical integration” actually means here. In PSA’s words, it has “ownership in every step of the process of its firearms, from the first forging of the receivers to the last twist of the muzzle brake.”

JJE’s portfolio page lists 16 companies, including AAC, DPMS, H&R Firearms and Soviet Arms. Six of them make up PSA’s own supply chain, and here’s how that family breaks down:

• Palmetto State Armory (Columbia, SC): The retail brand and the company that builds the firearms. It started as an ammunition and magazine website and now runs an online store, ten retail locations and its own gun brand.
• Spartan Forging (Lincolnton, NC): Aluminum forging, per JJE. This is where the receivers start, and forging is one of the most capital-intensive steps in AR production, so owning it cuts a major cost driver.
• DC Machine (Summerville, SC): Barrel manufacturer. DC Machine opened its first facility in 2004 with a single CNC machine and says it now produces “over 1800 barrels per day”, which makes it one of the largest barrel makers in the country.
• Ferrous Engineering and Tool (West Columbia, SC): JJE calls it a research and design center and CNC machine shop. It mills receivers and other precision components.
• Lead Star Arms (West Columbia, SC): High-end firearm designer and manufacturer, focused on lightweight and competition-oriented builds.
• Special Tool Solutions (Jacksonville, FL): Product development and design, plus the specialized tooling for complex parts.

By owning every step from raw forging to finished firearm, PSA doesn’t pay the markups that get layered on at each independent vendor. That savings is exactly what shows up as the lower retail price on the consumer side.

What PSA Makes In-House

Here’s the line-by-line breakdown of what comes off PSA-owned production lines, either at the Columbia campus or at one of the sister-company facilities. The list is unusually long for a firearms company at this price point.

• Forged Receivers: Upper and lower receivers start as aluminum forgings at Spartan Forging in North Carolina, then head south for machining.
• Machined Receivers: Ferrous Engineering in West Columbia mills the rough forgings into finished receivers.
• Barrels: DC Machine in Summerville makes barrels at more than 1,800 a day. Standard PSA rifles list 4150V nitride barrels; the FN-labeled Sabre rifles use barrels FN makes for PSA.
• Bolt Carrier Groups: PSA sells its own BCGs, and they go into its complete rifles.
• Handguards: Both drop-in and free-float handguards are designed and sold by PSA.
• Triggers: PSA produces its own trigger groups, including the EPT (Enhanced Polished Trigger) and two-stage drop-in options.
• Pistols: The PSA Dagger series is PSA’s own design, with a polymer frame and a stainless steel slide.
• AK Components: PSA sells its AKs as “GF3 Forged”, and JJE says its DPMS facility in West Columbia manufactures and assembles parts for both the AK and AR platforms.

What PSA Sources Externally

No firearms manufacturer makes absolutely everything in-house, and PSA is no exception. There is a short list of components that come from outside vendors, and most of them are the small-parts items that simply don’t make economic sense to bring inside.

• Small Parts: Springs, detent pins, roll pins, and similar commodity components are sourced from specialist suppliers. These parts are the same ones every AR maker buys from the same handful of vendors.
• Furniture: Some PSA models ship with Magpul stocks, grips, and handguards, and the Dagger ships with a Magpul PMAG 15 GL9 magazine. Magpul is an independent company based in Austin, Texas.
• Premium Barrels: While DC Machine handles the bulk of barrel production, the FN-labeled Sabre rifles use cold-hammer-forged barrels that FN America makes for PSA. FN is a Belgian-owned company, and it opened its Columbia, South Carolina plant in 1981.
• Premium Controls: The PSA Sabre rifles ship with a Radian Raptor LT charging handle and a Radian Talon 45/90 safety, from Radian Weapons in Redmond, Oregon.
• Optics: PSA doesn’t manufacture optics. Its package deals bundle optics from outside brands.

Most of the outside parts come from US companies: FN’s barrel plant is in South Carolina, Magpul is in Texas, and Radian is in Oregon. PSA’s own slogan is “American Made. For Life.”, and its About page says it builds its firearms in Columbia, SC.

Optics and some third-party products are a different story, so check the listing if country of origin matters to you.

PSA’s Major Product Lines and Where Each One Is Made

PSA’s catalog has expanded well past the AR-15 over the last decade, and not every line is built the same way. Here’s the breakdown of where each major product family is actually made.

PA-15 and AR-15 Variants

This is the bread and butter. Receivers start at Spartan Forging in Lincolnton, NC. They’re machined at Ferrous Engineering in West Columbia. Barrels come from DC Machine in Summerville.

Final assembly happens at PSA in Columbia before shipping. On October 28 the PA-15 16-inch M4 carbine was $489.99 on PSA’s site.

Variants in this family include the standard PA-15 carbine, the lightweight Sabre line, the JAKL piston-driven rifle (which we tested at length in our PSA JAKL review), and the AR-V 9mm pistol-caliber carbine line, which feeds Glock-pattern magazines and uses the same in-house BCG hardware. All of them share the same underlying supply chain.

AKv, AK-103, GF3 and GF4

PSA’s AK lineup is the most interesting part of the operation. Plenty of US AK brands build on imported parts kits. PSA sells its AKs as forged GF3 rifles, and JJE says its DPMS plant in West Columbia manufactures and assembles AK and AR parts. The PSA AK-47 GF3 Forged was $699.99 on PSA’s site on October 28.

The AK-103 is the recent flagship: a Russian-pattern rifle in 7.62×39, offered with a fixed or side-folding stock, at $699.99 for the GF3 Forged classic polymer version on October 28. We covered it in detail in our PSA AK-103 review.

PSA Dagger Series

The Dagger is PSA’s Glock-pattern striker-fired pistol. PSA’s handgun catalog now lists it in Micro, Compact, Full Size-S and Sabre Dagger versions. The frame is polymer and the slide is stainless steel.

The steel sights are one detail PSA points out itself: Glock rear-sight pushers won’t work, because the Dagger’s sights are steel and a stock Glock’s are plastic.

The Dagger Compact with Extreme Carry Cuts was $299.99 on PSA’s site on October 28, while a Glock 19 V was $539 at Sportsman’s Warehouse. We tested the platform across multiple variants in the Dagger Compact review and the Dagger Micro review.

Sabre Series

The Sabre is PSA’s premium AR-15 line, built to compete with Daniel Defense, Bravo Company, and Sons of Liberty rifles at a lower price. Sabre rifles get a Radian Raptor LT charging handle, a Radian Talon 45/90 safety and upgraded triggers. Barrels depend on the model: the FN-labeled Sabres use FN cold-hammer-forged barrels, the rest 4150V nitride. On PSA’s site on October 28, a 16-inch Sabre with the nitride barrel was $929.99 and the FN-barreled version $999.99.

The Sabre Bolt Gun extends the Sabre brand into bolt-action rifles. PSA first showed it in January 2024, and its January 2026 update still called it “upcoming” and “in final production tooling”, built around the Remington 700 footprint. It wasn’t for sale on PSA’s site when I checked.

Olcan, PA-10, and the Niche Lines

The Olcan bullpup, the PA-10 .308 AR-10 platform, and PSA’s other niche lines draw on the same family of companies for forgings, machining and barrels, with final assembly in Columbia.

The Vertical Integration Advantage

When people ask “how does PSA sell guns so cheap?”, vertical integration is the entire answer. Most AR-15 manufacturers buy forgings from one company, send them to another for machining, outsource barrels to a third, and bolt the result together at their own facility. Every link in that chain stacks a profit margin on top of the part cost.

PSA cuts most of those middlemen out. An aluminum forging leaves Spartan Forging in Lincolnton, gets machined at Ferrous Engineering in West Columbia, mates with a DC Machine barrel from Summerville, and ships from Columbia. Every one of those steps stays inside the same family of companies.

That is how a complete, ready-to-shoot PA-15 leaves PSA’s website at $489.99, while boutique builds with similar specs cost far more.

The materials are the standard ones: forged aluminum receivers, 4150V barrels, nitride finishes.

The difference is fewer vendor markups along the way.

I’ve handled PSA rifles next to guns costing twice as much in side-by-side range testing. The fit and finish has improved dramatically over the last five years. The vertical integration model is working, and it benefits the consumer end of the chain in the most direct way possible: a lower price tag on the same hardware.

PSA vs Imported Guns

There’s a meaningful distinction between a company like PSA and a company like Century Arms. Century imports rifles and parts kits from Romania, Turkey, and other overseas sources, then finishes assembly stateside. The core manufacturing happens outside the United States.

PSA does the opposite. Its firearms ship out of South Carolina, built on forgings, machining and barrels from its own sister companies. When the political wind shifts on imports, PSA keeps shipping.

That’s the practical difference for a buyer: one family of companies stands behind the forging, the machining, the barrel and the finished gun.

The PSA AK-47 GF3 is the clearest example. A lot of US AK builders start with imported parts kits. PSA sells its GF3 as a forged rifle built in South Carolina, which is no small undertaking for an AK.

If you want an AK built in America and you don’t want to pay boutique prices, that’s the one to look at.

And no, PSA guns are not made in China. PSA builds its firearms in Columbia, SC, and the forging, machining and barrel work happens at its sister companies in North and South Carolina.

A Brief History of Palmetto State Armory

Palmetto State Armory was founded by Jamin McCallum in Columbia, South Carolina, and he’s still the owner and CEO of the parent company, JJE Capital Holdings.

The early operation was straightforward online retail. JJE describes PSA as starting out as “just an ammunition and magazine website.” If you were buying loose 5.56 or stripped lowers in the early panic-buying cycles, you may well have ordered from PSA at some point.

The pivot to manufacturing changed everything. PSA started producing AR-15 components in-house and passing the savings to consumers, and the family grew to include Spartan Forging, DC Machine, Ferrous Engineering, Lead Star Arms and Special Tool Solutions. Along the way PSA stopped being a retailer that happened to sell some house-brand guns.

The growth has been remarkable. JJE’s portfolio now runs to 16 companies, including AAC and DPMS. The product mix expanded from AR-15s into AKs, into the Dagger pistol family, and into the Sabre premium line, with the Sabre Bolt Gun still on the way.

Today PSA is a major player in the American firearms industry, and it has gotten there without changing the founding mission of affordable, American-made guns. They have just gotten a lot better at executing it. You can browse Palmetto State Armory’s daily deals directly to see the current lineup.

How I Researched PSA’s Manufacturing

This guide draws on primary sources and hands-on time with PSA firearms. The supply-chain breakdown comes from PSA’s own About page, JJE Capital Holdings’ portfolio page and DC Machine’s company page. Product details come from PSA’s product pages, checked on October 28, 2026.

For the product-line specifics, I’ve run extended round counts through PSA’s PA-15, JAKL, AK-103, GF3, Dagger Compact, Dagger Micro, and PA-10 platforms. Those tests are documented in our individual reviews linked throughout this guide. Spec details (steel grades, rifling methods, magazine capacities, frame materials) are pulled directly from PSA’s product-page spec sheets, then verified against the firearms in hand.

Where a claim couldn’t be traced to a primary source, it’s left out. The barrel figure is DC Machine’s own: “over 1800 barrels per day”. No company publishes a daily figure for Ferrous Engineering, so we don’t quote one.

Bottom Line

What country are PSA guns made in? The United States. PSA guns are built through a chain of sister companies in South Carolina, North Carolina, and Florida, all under the JJE Capital Holdings umbrella.

Forging happens in Lincolnton, NC. Machining happens in West Columbia, SC. Barrel production runs out of Summerville, SC. Final assembly sits at the Columbia, SC headquarters.

Those steps are owned and run inside the same parent group.

That structure is the main reason PSA can sell a complete PA-15 for $489.99 without cutting corners on the parts that matter. It’s also why PSA is less exposed to the import-restriction risk that hits brands depending on overseas supply chains.

If you’re shopping for a budget-friendly American-made firearm in 2026, PSA is the most vertically integrated option on the shelf. Browse the lineup at Palmetto State Armory’s daily deals, or check our roundup of the 12 best PSA guns of 2026 for the picks worth pulling the trigger on.

Related Guides

If this guide helped, our other PSA coverage goes deeper on the individual platforms:

• 12 Best Palmetto State Armory Guns (2026)
• Is Palmetto State Armory Good? An Honest Assessment
• Palmetto State Armory AR-15 Review (1,500 Round Test)
• PSA JAKL Review (Piston-Driven AR Test)
• PSA AK-103 Review (1,500 Round Test)
• PSA Dagger Compact Review
• PSA PA-10 .308 Review (800 Round Test)
• PSA Olcan Bullpup Review

Looking for the best prices? Our gun deals page and price comparison tool compare PSA pricing against 200+ retailers in real time so you can find the lowest available price before you buy.

Facts and Figures

• PSA names five sister companies: DC Machine (Summerville, SC), Ferrous Engineering (West Columbia, SC), Special Tool Solutions (Jacksonville, FL), Spartan Forging (Lincolnton, NC) and Lead Star Arms (West Columbia, SC).
• All six sit under JJE Capital Holdings of Columbia, SC, whose portfolio lists 16 companies.
• DC Machine opened in 2004 with one CNC machine and says it makes over 1,800 barrels a day.
• FN opened its Columbia, SC plant in 1981 and makes the barrels on PSA’s FN-labeled Sabre rifles.
• PSA runs ten retail locations in South Carolina, Georgia and North Carolina.
• On October 28, 2026, a PSA Dagger Compact was $299.99 and a PA-15 16-inch carbine $489.99 on PSA’s site.

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