Barrel and rifle manufacturer Faxon Firearms shared a partition with magazine manufacturer Lancer Systems, with whom they are partnered. One of their first shared projects was on display: An M-LOK compatible carbon fiber handguard for AR-15 rifles, which are significantly lighter than traditional handguards, and which have a much lower heat transfer coefficient (they stay cool longer). The handguards’ manufacturer, Lancer, is also the partner with SIG USA, supplying OEM magazines and carbon fiber handguards for many of that company’s rifles and submachine guns.

Faxon also brought to the show their new low profile 0.750″ diameter muzzle devices, which are designed to be pinned and welded to a barrel shorter than 16″ to create a legal rifle configuration with a nominal 16″+ long barrel. The advantage the Faxon muzzle devices bring is that they are small enough in diameter to allow the gas block, handguard, barrel nut, and other devices to slip over them for disassembly, while maintaining the legal nominal 16″+ barrel configuration. These devices would allow for a “shortest possible non-NFA item” configuration for an AR-15, while maintaining the important ability to swap furniture, barrels, and perform in-depth maintenance.

The company put these two products together into an attractive ultralight rifle, weighing in at a quoted ~4.8lbs unloaded, without magazine or optic.