POF is breaking with their tradition of offering only oprod guns (aside from the straight-pull ReVolt) by introducing a new .308 Winchester direct impingement precision rifle. Calling it the “Olde School”, they are presenting the rifle as being more reliable and heat resistant, incorporating an Inconel gas tube and their four-fluted chamber neck. As of yet, POF has only released a single-page brochure for the Olde School, but they claim the rifle is shipping to customers presently:

Fortunately for us, Guns.com has published a more detailed article on the rifle:

The Patriot Ordnance Factory, POF, is well-known for their hard-use, heavy-duty piston-driven AR-style rifles and uppers in 5.56 and 7.62 NATO, but they’re doing something a little different for 2015. They’re going “Olde School” with direct-impingement rifles chambered for .308 Winchester/7.62 NATO.

Still, this is POF, even the gas system is going to be improved. Although these rifles are direct impingement, they have a 3-position gas block and a straight Inconel gas tube. Inconel belongs to the exotic “superalloy” family of materials and is extremely resistant to both heat and pressure; it’s just perfect for an enhanced gas tube.

These new rifles are still built to the same standards as existing POF guns and promise “relentless reliability” along with many features and improvements not seen on standard direct impingement rifles including an adjustable gas block like the one used for their piston guns.

Olde School rifles bring everything that their piston rifles have to the table including the E2 semi-fluted chamber for enhanced extraction, one-piece M-Lok handguard that runs the entire length of the upper receiver and fully-ambidextrous controls, including bolt catches on both sides.

The E2 chamber is unique to POF rifles. The neck has small flutes to allow gas from burning powder to unseal the spent case from the chamber before it is ejected. This leads to better extraction and improved reliability, even when thing start to foul up. The flutes are still small enough that they don’t cause a lot of case deformation, either, which is a plus for reloaders.

In addition to having truly ambidextrous, precision machined billet receivers, the Olde School lowers have anti-rotation pins for the fire control group, ensuring that the trigger is consistent pull after pull.

The Olde School is offered with 14.5-, 16.5- and 20-inch barrels and the barrels are topped with hearty 3-baffle muzzle brakes with integral standoff devices. Additionally Olde School guns are offered with a standard black or optional nickel-boron NP3 finish.

The handguard accepts all M-Lok accessories but still has two short sections of Picatinny rail at the front of the handguard, one for grips or bipods, and a small top rail for a front sight or weaponlight mount.

Even with its overbuilt rails and rugged design, these .308s still manage to weigh in at around 8 pounds, and just a bit more for the 16- and 20-inch models.

Of course, POF rifles don’t come cheap, and these Olde School guns have a suggested retail price of $2,599. Real-world prices are usually lower, but even then, these guns fetch a premium.

Whether this was the rationale behind the Olde School or not, it has become increasingly obvious that oprod systems offer only a lower-residue firing cycle than DI. This is attractive enough to buyers and designers alike that oprod weapons are certainly not going away, but neither are DI rifles, either.