LWRC's New, Totally Loaded, Direct Impingement AR15: The LWRC M6IC-DI

Steve Johnson
by Steve Johnson

In this video, James enlists the help of retired Army Ranger, Jacque B., to review LWRC’s newest model, the M6IC-DI. Bucking LWRC’s piston-gun trend, this is a direct impingement gun with a $1500 price tag and a lot of tricks up its fluted sleeve.

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The full transcript …

– Hey guys, James again for TFB TV and I am thrilled today to bring you a brand new gun from LWRC.

This is from LWRC’s M6 IC series.

That’s the individual carbine series.

These are the rifles that were made to compete in the Army’s individual carbine competition.

So, this thing’s loaded to the gills with features.

Now, those of you that know anything about the history of LWRC know that these guys almost exclusively do piston-fired uppers.

So this is a really neat turn of events for LWRC to come out with a direct impingement gun.

So a couple cool things, I want you to see right here with this M6 before I shoot it.

It’s got a lot of ambi features.

Ambi safety, ambi mag release.

So those of you, your mom was a witch and you were born left handed, you will be able to use this gun still.

Even has an ambidextrous bolt release.

That’s kinda cool.

Comes with a Magpul grip.

Right out of the box.

Comes with a hand stop that…

Two hand stops really.

Kinda works like an AFG.

And a couple of grip panels.

You got some Picatinny rail pieces.

Also, forgot to mention.

Ambi charging handle.

I mean this thing’s almost completely ambidextrous.

It’s got this fluted barrel, which keeps it very lightweight.

But it’s a spiral flute which my wife, Lindsey, says, looks like a narwhal tusk.

And as silly as it sounds, I can’t say that I disagree with her.

But another cool thing that I just went over is the way they’ve got the handguard.

The free float handguard setup on these guns.

Aero’s been doing this lately and it looks like LWRC’s jumping on the bandwagon, too.

Which I’m all for.

That is that you can, you can see you’ve got two, four, six, eight, ten torques screws at the base of the handguard.

And you can see the upper has an extension here.

So what that allows you to do, is with a couple of torques wrenches, you can change out your free float handguards.

A lot of us who are ham-fisted, especially me, we’re not so good with tools.

We can’t change out free float handguards whenever we feel like it.

So this is a nice option.

So easy, a caveman could do it.

You just remove these ten screws, slide a new handguard on there, and boom, you’ve got a new configuration.

Very neat feature.

Anyways, I want to say thank you to LWRC for sending me this gun.

I’m honored to get to try out something new like this.

And let’s go see how it shoots.

(gun firing) [Jacque] So it’s a good looking gun also.

– [Voiceover] Yeah.

– So this is the one of the first…

– [Voiceover] D.I. guns.

– (mumbles) That’s right, huh? A little hung up with the magazine there for a second? – [Voiceover] Yeah, give it another go.

Not bad.

– [Jacque] I tell you what, it need a…

There we go.

Now that time it went.

– Be damned, you can definitely feel the weight difference by far with the other LWRCs.

The piston verse gas.

I mean it’s unbelievable.

Diggin’ the look, diggin’ the controls.

It feels light, feels great.

No doubt great looking gun.

It really is.

But all in all, you know…

I say we gas it up see how it actually controls under rapid fire.

At your ready.

(beeps) – [Voiceover] Seven, 1.64.

Really good.

– Tell you what, all in all feel good.

I think the trigger for some…

just some practice getting used to like how it actually rolls.

But all in all, the gun drives phenomenal.

The trigger, like I said, a little bit on that.

But the controls, diggin’ the controls.

The gun feels phenomenal.

The handguard.

I mean all in all, think LWRC did a great job with this gas gun.

– [Voiceover] Thumbs up? – Thumbs up. By far.

– [Voiceover] Nice. – Send me one, LWRC.

(laughter) – Alright, okay eight rounds.

Eight rounds. Shooter ready? – [James] Yeah, right. – [Jacque] Stand by.

(beeps) (whistles) Smoked it. 1.64, awesome.

That was freaking jammin’ up. – [James] Yeah.

– I tell you what, look at that.

All within eight inch play.

Phenomenal.

– Yeah, great trigger.

It’s very easy to shoulder this gun.

I mean, the fluting really makes a huge difference.

In terms of weight.

Really lightweight AR.

Especially considering this thing’s got a free float on it.

I don’t know, maybe that modular upper had something to do with it.

Either that or it’s just the fluting.

The fluting on this barrel is substantial and it really does at least keep the felt weight down.

Very easy to shoulder this guy.

Sorry, I really got to, I got these low pros, super low pro sight mounts.

So I keep having to put my head all the way down to look through the optic.

I probably look like an idiot.

But, well, more so than usual at least.

Anyways, so far so good.

I like this rifle.

So final thoughts on the LWRC other than the fact that you have to use every frickin’ letter in the alphabet to say it by name.

I think it’s a good gun.

I think it’s a good gun.

I’m a big fan of the AR platform.

I like the AR.

This one comes with just about everything you would want on it.

It’s fully accessorized, it’s fully ambi.

It’s got all the furniture you would need.

As Jacque pointed out, the trigger.

He didn’t like the trigger that much.

I thought it was fine, but it is just the standard nothing special, plain Jane, GI trigger.

And it’s really lightweight.

And easy to shoulder, easy to handle.

And that’s what I like in a AR, is a lightweight gun.

This fluting really helps in that regard.

Now as far as the downsides go, there aren’t many.

Jacque didn’t like the trigger.

And it is just like I said, a standard GI trigger.

There’s nothing special, nothing to it.

And you would expect more out of a $1500 or $1600 gun.

And I guess that really would be the negative issue that we have to focus on here.

And that is, that this is a gun with a $1500 street price.

So of course I’m gonna love it.

And you’ve seen me through this video say, “Man this is great.

“This is great.” And just fawn all over this thing.

Because it’s (expletive bleep) awesome.

It’s a great gun.

Not to mention, I mean, how many guns do you get that are $1500, $1600 and you shoot ’em, you do a review and you’re like, “Oh yeah, this gun’s a piece of shit.” It really just doesn’t happen that often.

That said, 1600 bucks.

And right now there’s a glut in the market.

You can get a AR-15 now for 500 bucks.

600 bucks.

A decent one, too.

Now, it’s not even gonna be in the same ballpark as this gun and I don’t even wanna invite that inference.

But the point is, right now even at the high end you’ve got, products from L&T, from Bravo Company, from LaRue that are going to perform as well as this gun.

And they’re all in the same price range, if not less.

So, it’s a very competitive market right now.

And that’s the entire point.

So, would I buy this gun? I don’t know. I don’t know.

I definitely have to shop around.

If this were a $1200 gun, there’s no question.

There’s no question, but the extra.

Putting it in that $1500 bracket, there are a lot of high end guns in that bracket.

So, I guess do your research.

See what’s important to you.

So anyways, I’ll leave it at that.

LWRC, they did a great job with this gun.

Everything other than the naming.

Trigger could use a little bit of a touch up, but I mean it’s great.

It’s good for an AR.

And I really have no complaints.

I just have to caution the viewer to do some shopping around because you can get a lot with 1500 bucks.

And you get a lot with this gun.

Anyways, I hope you enjoyed the review.

Thanks for watching, guys.

I really do appreciate it.

Thank you to our sponsors, Ventura Munitions.

Thank you to our subscribers.

And thank you for everyone who watches week after week.

We really appreciate the support.

Happy Holidays.

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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4 of 28 comments
  • Isaac Newton Isaac Newton on Dec 22, 2015

    From LWRC website where they try to sell their piston rifles:

    "LWRCI™ has engineered a complete solution to the deficits found in the direct impingement M16/AR15/M4 family of rifles and carbines. The principal improvement comes from the incorporation of our patented self-regulating short-stroke gas-piston system (...) This translates into carbines that are far more reliable than the legacy direct impingement carbines regardless of user maintenance."

    Why would a company now put out a product they claim has "deficits" and is far less reliable?

    I can't think in any other consumer product (automobiles, cell phones, computers) where you can see this type of marketing double speak and be taken seriously.

    • See 1 previous
    • Isaac Newton Isaac Newton on Dec 22, 2015

      @Olivia1997 I was posing a rhetorical question to get people to acknowledge the cognitive dissonance...I wasn't really looking for answers.

  • Bad Penguin Bad Penguin on Dec 23, 2015

    You would expect tighter shot groups from a $1600 rifle. Probably it could be tightened up by ditching the milspec trigger.

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