ARES Defense ARES 2012 Shrike 5.56

by Steve Johnson

Updated: January 9th, 2013

ARES Defense are selling a new 2012 version of the ARES Shrike 5.56. The Shrike 5.56 is an AR-15 compatible upper receiver that can be magazine or belt fed. I am not sure what the changes are from last years model.

The new 2012 Shrike 5.56 – Advanced Weapons System™ is a robust, ergonomic and lightweight upper receiver assembly that is designed to fit MIL-Spec quality AR-15, M16 and M4 type lower receiver assemblies. Once fitted to the host firearm’s lower receiver, the Shrike 5.56™ provides an individual operator with the firepower of a US M249 Squad Automatic Weapon (SAW) at one-half the weight of the current SAW.

#Ar-15 #Ar #Rifles #5.56mm #Shrike

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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5 of 44 comments

OnTarget on Nov 19, 2012

ARES is delivering each and every day,. We have a huge supply of ARES Product.
No need to wait, and the delays are long gone.

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Justin Rouanzoin on May 11, 2014

I just purchased a new shrike upper when I went to charge the weapon the slide fell out and jammed the bolt open so I smacked the charging handle trying to get the bolt closed and the handle broke now I have a broken charging handle and the bolt is still stuck open I do not suggest the upper it very expensive and the quality just is not there

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- Bill P. on Jun 05, 2014
  
  @Justin Rouanzoin What "slide" fell out? You must have "smacked" the living "tar" out of the charging handle to break it like that. Did you replace the buffer, recoil spring, and install new spacer in the buffer tube. Did you read the instruction manual? You're not clear on what happened.
  
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- Bill P. on Nov 12, 2014
  
  @Justin Rouanzoin You got a new Shrike upper, and put it on a lower, which had a non-milspec buffer tube, that was about 3/4 of an inch or so, longer that a real milspec tube. That allowed the charging handle to go further than it's supposed to go in normal operation, up to the point where it can be removed from the upper receiver. Normally, you need to separate the rear of the receiver, to remove the charging handle, but if you use an extra long non-milspec buffer tube, you can do what you did. You probably didn't use the proper buffer, buffer spring, and spring spacer either. Maybe if you took the time to find out how your lower is to be set up, and use real milspec parts, instead of just publicly bad mouthing the product, and company, you'd have a properly working gun, and be much happier.
  
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- Bill P. on Nov 13, 2014
  
  @Bill P. Maybe you could have even bought it complete, with the LMT lower, instead of cobbling together your own lower, hoping it works. Nothing wrong with putting you're own lower together for it, but you should really know a little about it first. That's the problem in the vast majority, if not all, of the operational problems you hear about. The owner did something wrong. The guns are great, and all those guys who say it's "not as reliable as the M249", never ran a bunch of mags thru an M249 either. Better off using it as a club.
  
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