InRange TV's Review of The Masterpiece Arms MPAR-556

Nathaniel F
by Nathaniel F

Ian and Karl have put another rifle through its paces over at InRange TV; this time a Masterpiece Arms MPAR-556. The MPAR-556 is based on the Leader T2 rifle, an Australian design by British designer Charles St. George. Like the Leader, it uses a large amount of stampings, as well as an AR-18-derived bolt carrier and gas system, with St. George’s patented triangular bolt head. First, Ian, Karl, and several other competitors ran the MPAR-556 through their local 2-gun course (differing from 3-gun in that it excludes shotguns). The video of the rifle’s performance is available on Full30.com.

Following up on that, they posted a complete video review of their experiences with the MPAR-556. Unfortunately, their experiences were not highly positive.

Forgotten Weapons has done overviews of the original Leader rifle before, including running it through the same event, though a different course of fire, two years ago:

Ian also posted this field strip and reassembly video a year before that:


And finally, back in SHOT 2012, Ian interviewed Charles St. George:

Interestingly, while the MPAR-556 performed much more poorly than the original Leader T2 rifle, both suffered from lost e-clips on the exact same fire control pin. In light of this, perhaps a different fire control pin retaining method would be advisable.

Nathaniel F
Nathaniel F

Nathaniel is a history enthusiast and firearms hobbyist whose primary interest lies in military small arms technological developments beginning with the smokeless powder era. He can be reached via email at nathaniel.f@staff.thefirearmblog.com.

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  • Vitor Vitor on Feb 01, 2015

    "hey, see this old cool gun, lets make it much heavier and less reliable".

    • Scw Scw on Feb 02, 2015

      @Vitor Unfortunately this happens every day. I have lost count of how many of my clients while try to keep things simple by using an existing design, but end up "improving" it by making small changes. Almost always the "updated" design is inferior.

  • Vitor Roma Vitor Roma on Feb 01, 2015

    BTW, the m17s from K&M has the very same insides: https://www.youtube.com/wat...

    It is extremely robust and simples design.

    • Ian McCollum Ian McCollum on Feb 02, 2015

      @Vitor Roma It's a copy of the Bushmaster M17, which was designed by the same guy as the Leader - Charles St. George.

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