Excel Arms X-30R Rifle in .30 Carbine

Steve Johnson
by Steve Johnson

One of the niftiest guns I have seen at SHOT is the Excel Arms X-30R Rifle. It is chambered in .30 Carbine and accepts M1 Carbine magazines. A number of models will be available later this year, including a pistol version. The gun is blowback operated and has a heavy recoil string to slow down the bolt.

My only complaint is that the barrel of the rifle is 18″, not 16″.

Steve Johnson
Steve Johnson

I founded TFB in 2007 and over 10 years worked tirelessly, with the help of my team, to build it up into the largest gun blog online. I retired as Editor in Chief in 2017. During my decade at TFB I was fortunate to work with the most amazing talented writers and genuinely good people!

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  • Silverbullet404 Silverbullet404 on Aug 13, 2013

    I just finished watching a vid on you tube. It was a .30 carbine of the military vintage. Not scoped. He was consistently hitting the targets @ 250 yards. Looked like about 2 3/4" MOA. I have been a gun guy for over 50 years and heard all the rumors about the .30 carbine. I was totally impressed, astounded actually after hearing nothing but bad stuff. With reasonable bullet weight at closer range, this gun is a shooter. Nobody ever seems to want to try one because of all the bad rap. And with the velocity, Im not going to stand in front of one of these little beasts, are you? Strange to me how my grandson constantly bags deer with his little .22-250 but this .30 carbine wont kill deer? Something is seriously wrong with this picture.

  • Douglas Self Douglas Self on Feb 02, 2014

    Barrel has to be 18-1/4", else it's a pistol and subject to Federal and State regulation as such. This seems to be more of a PDW anyway. I have an M1A1 (paratrooper) carbine, it shoots so sweetly that with the stock removed (which is ILLEGAL in California) it can be easily handled one-handed. That's why I never understood why the .30 cal M1 cartridge isn't more used as an intermediate assault rifle round; especially as a hollow-point it'd had better hitting power than the NATO 5.56 mm and the weight per round is about the same. You'd just lose a bit on accuracy beyond 250 yards but most small-arms engagements, outside of sniping, are less than that.

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