The Firearm Blog

I learnt from Caleb at Gun Nuts that Daniel Defense are launching a new AR-15. The Daniel Defense DDXV Carbine is an entry level version of the DDM4 which was launched earlier this year. The main difference is that the DDXV has a standard M4-style butt stock and plastic handguards rather than a fancy stock and rail system.

Daniel Defense DDXV

Daniel Defense are making a California specific version that requires a tool, in this case a bullet tip, to be used when changing magazines. This allows it to be Cali-legal, although somewhat decreases its utility as a self-defense weapon. The California version also includes a 10 round Magpul PMAG magazine instead of a 30 round magazine.

10 round Magpul PMAG. Same size as the standard 30 round magazine.

It will retail for about $1150 and should be available later this month.

Sean forwarded me an email he received from the Customer Service Manager at Magpul.

The Magpul Masada design has been licensed to Bushmaster Firearms and they are handling production and distribution. It’s been renamed the ACR and was officially scheduled for release in the first Quarter of 2009. However, Bushmaster/Remington plans on offering up the ACR for the M4 replacement solicitation. This is necessitating some possible small design changes (barrel life requirements, rail markings, position of full-auto safety, etc.) to meet certain mil-specs along with much more scrutiny in the testing process. Unfortunately this will most likely delay the release an undetermined amount of time but we are hoping it will be unveiled sometime late this year with a retail of around $1500.

Many dates have been given out in the past for the launch of the Magpul / Bushmaster / Remington ACR so don’t pin your hopes on having a ACR under the Christmas tree! The price seems reasonable.

Many thanks to Sean for the info.

“FREEFALLE7″, a Ranger Instructor, posted the above photo at AR15.com. A student, on arrival at the Swamp phase of Ranger School, showed him his M4 and said “my barrel fell off”. His punishment for not telling an instructor at the Mountain phase (the previous phase) about the broken M4 was to be given a M240, which weights 27 lbs, as a replacement.

Keith J came up with a plausible theory of how this happened

Salt water in the threads. Steel rusts. Steel in contact with aluminum. Aluminum then oxidizes, reducing the rust to iron dust. Joint remains tight until it is abused, then it just falls apart.

This all started when the barrel was installed and it was tightened a bit too much, causing the anodizing to crack

Of course this would have happened over a long period of time and use.

Thanks to Jay for the link.

Federal / ATK have added new loads to the mid priced Fusion range of ammunition. The new loads for 2009 are:

* 62-grain 223 Rem.
* 120-grain 260 Rem.
* 140-grain 6.5×55 Swedish
* 300-grain 45-70 Government
* 260-grain 460 S&W
* 275-grain 500 S&W

I asked Dave, who blogs at LetsKillDave and is a reader of TFB, to take photos of the internals of his new civilian Steyr AUG A3 rifle and he was kind enough to oblige.

16″ barreled AR-15 vs. 16″ AUG. The bullpup length advantage is obvious.


AR-15 bolt vs. AUG bolt. Very similar design.

I highly recommend reading Dave’s blog post. I learnt a lot about the AUG design that I did not know before.

Thanks Dave.

Savage have published a web page detailing how the Savage Accustock works.

It uses a bolted in wedge to push the recoil lug tightly against the aluminum bedding block. Interesting.

Caleb got thinking about bolt action rifles and noted that no bolt guns exist to his knowledge that can feed from STANAG (AR-15 / M16) magazines.

everyone seems to be talking about how the world/economy/social order is going to collapse soon (it’s not) I figured the best rifle for that collapse would be a bolt action .223 with an 18 inch barrel, forward mounted optic, back up iron sights, and the ability to feed from standard AR15 magazines.

This got me thinking and I could not come up with one that did.

My artist impression of what such a Remington 700 would look like.

The Australian AIA M-10 “5th Generation” Lee-Enfield rifle comes in 7.62×39mm and feeds from a AK-47 magazine. The one pictured below is being sold on gun broker. Not many are available in the USA because after it was found out that some parts of the rifle (maybe the whole) was manufactured in Vietnam, they were banned.

While 30 round magazines are not as practical on a bolt action as they are on a semi-automatic, magazine parity with the AR-15 would be a big bonus. Remington and Ruger are you listening?

Wilson Combat are now selling accurized FN Herstal Patrol Bolt Rifles (PBR).

Wilson Combat FN Bolt Rifle

It features a green Hogue stock, fluted barrel, fully bedded action and trigger work done by Wilson Combat gunsmiths. The PBR action is based on the Winchester Model 70 action and is chambered for .308 Winchester.

Wilson are selling it for $1995.

dfwgun @ ARFCOM posted a short tutorial on how to modify a Magpul MOE AR-15 pistol grip so that it will fit on an AK.

As you can see in the photo some dremel work is required but it is a pretty straight forward procedure.

Remington’s entry into the Precision Sniper Rifle (PSR) competition is the Remington Modular Sniper Rifle (MSR).

The first thing you notice when looking at the rifle is the striking stock design. The butt stock is adjustable every-which-way and can fold for easy transport. The pistol grip is AR-15 compatible, just like the new Savage bolt action Model 10 BAS, so it can be swapped out for something the operator is more comfortable with. The free-floating handguard features rails at 3, 6, 9, 10:30 and 12 ‘o clock positions.

Stock folded. 20″ barrel. Interesting that the bolt is lock closed, but trigger is accessible.

Remington have taken no chances and have designed the rifle to be compatible with all of top contenders for selection as the next US Military long range sniper cartridge. The MSR can be easily switch between calibers by changing the barrel, bolt face and magazine. At the moment it is compatible with .338 Lapua Magnum, .338 Norma Magnum, .300 Winchester Magnum and 7.62mm NATO. The fluted barrels are available in 20, 22, 24 and 27 inches in length and can be swapped out in minutes. Accuracy is 1 MOA at 1500 meters.

It weights 13 lbs with 22” barrel and loaded 5 round magazine and 17 lbs with 22” barrel, scope, bipod, loaded 5 round magazine, and AAC Titan suppressor.

Posted by boottrac at Sniper’s Hide forum.

A video of the rifle in action:

Overall this rifle seems to meet, and in many cases exceed, the SOCOM Precision Sniper Rifle (PSR) requirements. It is good to see Remington MPD (Military Products Division) innovating. They have not introduced new military hardware for quite a long time (aside from the Remington ACR, which they did not design).

More info at Remington.

Hat Tip Accurate Shooter

The US Military is looking for a system to replace the existing bolt-action SOF Sniper Systems M40, M24 and MK13 which are all based on Remington 700 actions.

Marine’s M40A3 Sniper rifle.

One of the key requirements for this system that differentiates it from the existing 7.62×51mm NATO and .300 Win. Mag. sniper systems is that it needs to reach out to 1500 meters with MOA accuracy. Armed forces around the world have long recognized the need for a system that can reach out further than the 7.62mm NATO but is lighter than .50 BMG rifles. Many have adopted the .338 Lapua Magnum chambered rifles to fill this niche. The .338 Lapua Magnum was originally a US Military project but it lost traction and the .300 Win. Mag. is currently used for longer range shooting. The .300 Win. Mag. lacks downrange energy and the lighter projectiles mean greater wind drift at long range (1000 - 2000 yards).

The current Precision Sniper Rifle, as at March 2009, are as follows.

1) The system shall be chambered to safely fire factory produced “non-wildcat” Small Arms Ammunition Manufacturing Institute (SAAMI) or Commercial European standard (CIP) ammunition.

This eliminates some of the fancy odd-ball caliber long range cartridges such as the .408 Cheyenne Tactical (CheyTac). The most obvious choice is the before mentioned .338 Lapua Magnum. The cartridge has been around for a while and manufactures know how to get the most our of the cartridge. Another alternative is the .338 Norma Magnum which is only coming into production this year. It is similar in length to the .338 Lapua but has a slightly shorter and fatter case so it can use heavier and longer bullets which have a higher ballistic co-efficient.

.338 Lapua vs. .338 Norma Mag. Photo from Wikipedia.

2) The action can be either manually or gas operated and available in left and right hand versions.

I think most, or all, entries will be bolt-action rifles. They are easier to make accurate, lighter and more reliable than autoloading rifles. The advantage of a semi-auto is of course rate of fire, but this is not a requirement for this weapons system.

3) With primary day optic and ammunition the system shall provide 1.0 MOA from 300 to 1500 meters (in 300 meter increments) when fired from the shoulder or an accuracy fixture in nominal conditions. This is further defined as 1 MOA Extreme Vertical Spread for all shots in a 10 round group at the stated distances.

1500 meters = 1640 yards.

The rifle is fired from a rest and 80% of the fifty 10 round groups need to be 1 MOA. Note that the MOA is measured only for the vertical spread which eliminates the effects of wind on the measured accuracy. 1 MOA spread is over 10 round groups is much harder than getting 1 MOA for a standard 3 round group!

4) Mean Rounds Between Failures (MRBF) shall be 1000 rounds.

5) The system shall have an overall length no greater than 52″ in full configuration / extended excluding suppressor with a single component no greater in length than 40″.

6) The system shall weigh no more than 18 lbs with a 12:00 MilStd 1913 rail and a loaded magazine with 5 rounds.

7) The system shall be capable of operator breakdown into major components in less than two minutes.

The barrel also needs to be able to be swapped out by the operator within 20 minutes.

8 ) The system will assemble from the major component breakdown in less than two minutes by the operator.

9) The system will assemble from breakdown with no change in weapon zero.

10) The system will have an integral MilStd 1913 rail at the 12:00 position, the rail will be capable of maintaining bore sight alignment and weapon zero while conducting routine firing combined with combat movement and operational training drills.

These are all pretty standard requirements. One other test than will be performed will be drop tests with loaded rifles. The rifles are expected to be able to be dropped 1.5 meters at various angles without firing the chambered cartridge.

Overall they seem very sensible requirements. It will be interesting to see how this competition progresses.

This is the first video I have seen of the new Beretta ARX 160 carbine.

Looks like a very easy to handle rifle. I think this would sell well if it made it stateside.

Murdoc spotted a video where a Remington VC referred to the ACR, formerly Magpul Masada, as the Remington ACR. It looks like the rifle, or at least the marketing, has been transfered from Bushmaster to the military devision of their sister company Remington.

I found this Remington promotion material online.

Click to expand.

It says that the rifle will be available in 5.56mm NATO, 6.8mm SPC and 6.5mm Grendel.

There is no indication that Remington will be offering civilian sales.

Guess how much this Knights Armament muzzle break sells for …

Photos by unclemoak @ ar15.com

The Answer: About $450!

The muzzle brake is made from one of the Inconel family of nickel-chromium superalloys and claims 40% reduction in recoil.

Thanks to Jay for the link.

Master gunsmith Steve Zihn, who made the huge 2 bore rifle I have blogged about before, emailed these photos of this magnificent .54 caliber flintlock rifle he built.

Look at the trigger blade. Beautiful.

It has a 44″ swamped barrel.

The rifle along with a matching custom made knife is being raffled off to raise money for the Cowboy Church in Riverton, Wyoming. Tickets for the raffle cost $10 each or 3 for $25 and can be purchased from CJ Vandermuehlen. He can be contacted at 1-307-851 8829 or at the below email address.