Your eyes do not deceive you. That is indeed an “XM8” rifle in the wild…

But, its not a “real” XM8, of which few could have potentially made it into the civilian market. The “XM8” shown is a custom build from Tommy-Built commissioned by Tim at Military Arms Channel.

The “XM8” started life as a civilian SL8 (which in my opinion, only exist to provide the base parts for a G36 or XM8 conversion). Due to byzantine German export laws, the base G36 design had to be modified to be sold to the US and foreign markets including fixed thumb-hole stock, a magazine well that only accepted single-stack 10 round magazines, and a receiver that did not accept folding stocks.

With the base rifle (and about $3,000 for the custom work) Tommy-Built custom fabricated various components to convert the rifle to the near clone of the potential US Army rifle. Modifications to the base SL8 include, but are not limited to:

• Double-stack magazine wells for both G36 and STANAG magazines.
• Recontoured barrel.
• Custom fabricated handguard
• Custom fabricated, adjustable LOP, stock
• Custom rail and charging handle handguard
• Etc.

MAC then adorns the rifle with an Insight weapons optic similar to the one originally proposed on the XM8 rifle. Its picatinny mounted (not built-in), but does an excellent job as a stand-in.

If you are interested in your own conversion, check out the custom work by Tommy Built Customs at their website.