During Bullpup 2015 much of the attention was paid to the automatic and older stuff that made up most of the firing line. However on the far right, DEZ Arms was there with one of their .308 rifles all set up for anybody willing to wait in the line to fire it. Compared to the full autos, a match grade .308 isn’t half as fun to shoot, especially at the 100 meter range where it all took place. Regardless, they looked enticing so I figured I’d fire a magazine through it and talk to the staff about the rifle. DEZ Arms started out making barrels, which they became pretty good at, and still their largest product offerings are their barrels. They even make 1919 barrels!

Full rifles are what they are getting into now. The question with AR companies always seems to be what is made in house, and how much is stock. With DEZ, they make their own barrels, receivers, handguards, bolts, and buffers. Their .308 rifle on the line had a Hipertouch trigger in it, of which I was extremely impressed. The thing barely has a reset on it, and it broke very well. Very impressed.

Their buffer is their own design, as they’ve incorporated a concentric raised surface in the center of it. The platform was designed so that the rear of the bolt was putting pressure on the buffer, and thus keeps the buffer from pushing up against the indent that keeps it locked in. However, seeing that so many ARs these days are out of parts kits, or mixed lowers and uppers, different dimensions from different designs might prevent this from happening. So to alleviate that, DEZ has this raised center that allows the indent to still keep it locked in, but whatever bolt or upper receiver someone decides to use, the raised surface will most likely allow it to maintain that pressure on it.

They’ve also put some thought into the upper and lower “slop” so to speak. They’ve done this by having a captive pressure screw through the pistol grip. Remove the pistol grip and tighten down the screw, thus putting pressure on the upper receiver. This ensures that the movement between the two is user adjustable, and that it can get alot tighter, than just having tight margins on the retaining pins. Unrelated to the “slop”, they have flared the magazine port in, to aid in magazine removal and insertion. And this is what impressed me by the company, that they’ve thought a couple of these things through and came out with their ideas of how to fix them. The upper and lower “slop”, the buffer pressure, the magazine port.

Their external parts were all other companies, Magpul, Badger Ordnance, Harris, etc… I think that’s a fair balance, since they make the most important parts of the rifle. I know MSRP isn’t everything, but for this particular rifle, it is going at $3,000. Personally, I’d put that much into a Knights, or even feasibly an H&K with that reputation behind it. But, I really hope to get one of these rifles in for a review and put it through the paces, to see if that much is really worth putting into the gun.

Hipertouch trigger group.

The raised surface