For those of you who don’t know, a lot of the staff here at The Firearm Blog are serious gun nerds. Most of us grew up watching action movies in the 80s and 90s. There is one movie that we all collectively appreciate and that is Clear And Present Danger. In that movie, there was one star that rose among the rest and that was the Olympic Arms OA-93. I managed to get one a while back so we can take a close look at this gem from the 90s.

AR Pistols @ TFB:

• TFB Review: Switchblade AR Pistol from SIG SAUER
• Rifle Dynamics: “Let us Deal with the NFA” Pistol to Rifle Services
• TFB Review: American Tactical Imports Galeo Pistol (Galil SAR clone)

Olympic Arms Or PWA?

So this gun was acquired over the phone from an FFL. Actually, it was from a photo online and I found out what FFL had it. I bought it right away. The problem was that the upper and lower receiver did not match. For sure this was an OA-93 upper but the lower was a PISTOL lower by PWA.

That was a bit of a bummer but after talking to some friends, a PWA PISTOL lower is actually rather desirable in some states, specifically Connecticut. So through some references, I was able to sell the lower for just a little bit less than what I paid for the entire gun. But I stripped all the parts off it including the period accurate pistol grip. It is so ugly that it is kinda cool.

I added the C-More sight but the beam shot laser came with the gun already mounted. I left it since it seemed appropriate. Along with the laser, this OA-93 upper came with a Brennan Nil-Flash flash hider.

Aside from the concussive muzzle blast from a mere 6.5″ barrel, the Brennan Nil-Flash flash hider does a pretty good job minimizing muzzle flash.

Is The OA-93 The First AR Pistol?

I will be honest, I do not know my AR history that well. According to some, the Olympic Arms OA-93 is the first true AR pistol. Olympic Arms came out with the OA-93 in 1993. Soon after the Clinton-Era Assault Weapon Ban was enacted a year later. Some people say that the introduction of the OA-93 chambered in 7.62×39 is the reason armor piercing ammo from Norinco and other manufacturers were banned in the 90s.

Most AR pistols we know today are just short-barreled versions of their longer variants. They still use a buffer tube. Well, the OA-93 does not have a buffer tube. Instead Olympics Arms used a recoil spring on top of the upper receiver so when the bolt cycles rearward, it pulls on the front end of a long narrow recoil spring. I field stripped my OA-93 to show you what this looks like.

See that long recoil spring? The recoil guide rod sits ontop of the bolt gas key and that pin sticking out the top fits in a hole at the back of the recoil guide rod.

If you notice, the carrier is very short. There is nothing on it that can trip a full auto sear. The OA-93 is still direct impingement operated.

I found some scans allegedly from the manual of the OA-93. Below is an exploded parts diagram of the upper receiver.

Here is another scan showing the OA-93 loading a round from the magazine.

Knife, This Is Variable

As mentioned earlier, the TFB staff are huge fans of the movie Clear And Present Danger, myself included. I also mentioned that I sold off the PWA lower because I had other plans for this upper receiver. With the help of my Ghost Gunner 3, I milled an 80%. I did this so I could machine engrave Olympic Arms markings onto it. With the help from some people online, I was able to get reference photos of what an Olympic Arms OA-93 lower looks like and more importantly the markings. My friend Alex of Nocorium is a graphic designer and he helped re-draw and match the font from the original.

I uploaded the images of the marking to Ghostwriter which then spits out the GCode for the Ghost Gunner 3 to machine engrave the markings on a lower. Specifically the left side magwell and receiver markings just behind the mag well and above the hammer/trigger pin holes.

Since this was an 80% that I completed, it does not need a serial number but for the fun of it, I gave it one as a nod to Willem Dafoe’s character in Clear And Present Danger.

I then had another friend Cerakote the lower for me.

I know it is not a perfect replica. But it is as close as I want to get. The selector markings are off and the real OA-93 lowers did not have a buffer tower with a gaping threaded hole out the back. The PWA lower came with some sort of aluminum buffer hole delete plug. So I kept it on this lower and added a Magpul ASAP QD end plate.

The prop firearm in Clear And Present Danger is a little bit different. If you look at the screen cap below, the lower has a receiver extension. Allegedly the prop house used a modified full auto carrier and the short buffer tube is actually to allow for the rear of the carrier to reciprocate. Near the end of the movie, you see John Clark (Willem Dafoe) shoot the OA-93 in full auto bursts. Not possible without this modification. Just like the prop below, my upper has the sling stud instead of a forward assist.

A minor difference from the Olympics Arms lower is that this lower used what looks like an M16A1 pistol grip. Most likely this is a registered post sample and who cares what the grip looks like? The screenshot below lasted all of a second or two and was the only scene I saw the grip. Also, the prop gun has a standard bird cage flash hider but mine has the Brennan Nil-Flash.

Modifying The OA-93

Since the OA-93 does not need a traditional buffer tube, buffer and spring, you can put the upper receiver on a variety of oddball lowers. Here is the OA-93 upper on my Fightlite pirate lower.

My Defiance .22LR lower is designed so that the buffer tower is sealed off but you can still attach a buffer tube for stocks or braces. I attached a simple Picatinny adapter and used a folding SB Tactical brace. The OA-93 can still function like this.

In reality, there are plenty of modern solutions like the SIG Rattler. But there is a bit of nostalgia and a cool factor to the OA-93.

Shooting The OA-93

If you recall in my TFB In The Dark article from SHOT Show 2023, the TFB staff went out to the desert in Vegas and shot some guns at night. One of which was my OA-93. I used a Maxim Defense Hate Brake as it is one of the best flash hider/linear comps I have used. It also helps reduce a lot of the concussive muzzle blast that you feel when you shoot without it.

The TFB crew had a blast shooting it even though it is very impractical. We had a minor malfunction where the recoil rod nut came loose and the recoil spring shot out the front. Unfortunately, since it was dark, no one noticed this at the time. It was only when Luke brought the gun back to me, I decided to check why it was malfunctioning. “Oh!! It’s missing the recoil spring. There’s your problem!”. We started searching. I found the recoil spring but trying to find a tiny gray nut amongst the dirt and tiny rocks would be impossible even in the daytime. Then it was Hop (Aidan) who suggested we use thermal to search for the missing recoil rod nut. Sure enough, I found it with technology. Since the recoil rod nut sits directly over and in direct contact with the front sight, there is some heat soak coming from the gas tube. Add to the fact that night it was in the low 30ºF so the Delta T (temperature difference) was easily high enough for me to see the tiny nut with thermal.  Scroll to 5:33 in the video below to see us shooting the OA-93 last January.

Final Thoughts On The OA-93

The OA-93 is an interesting little gun by Olympic Arms. It truly is a pistol. It is crude looking but yet it has a sort of cult following. Sadly the Clinton AWB made Olympics Arms try and make the OA-93 compliant but they were mildly successful. So there are not that many true OA-93 out there. Pistol AR-15s like this are rather impractical. There is doubt about how effective a 6.5″ barrel is in shooting 5.56×45. I do enjoy owning this gun though and it always brings a smile to those who shoot it.