Much like the North Pole two weeks before Christmas, Q headquarters in Portsmouth, New Hampshire, is full of excitement and energy – as well as guns and silencers. Prepping for their pre-order run of 500 “The Fix by Q” line of bolt action rifles, the Q team invited me up for an exclusive behind the scenes look at what goes in to manufacturing functional artwork.

First, let’s talk about The Fix. Sitting at just about five and a half pounds, this rifle needs to be held to be properly appreciated. Even though I have little to no practical use for a .308 bolt gun at the moment, I found myself wanting one almost immediately. The ergonomics are comfortable, the in-house made trigger is dreamy, the operation and controls are smooth and simple and the whole gun just feels right.

For the first run, dealers are limited to orders of only five rifles, leaving just enough for the rest of the us shooters. Customers will also have the ability to order a trash PANDA silencer at the same time as their rifle, complete with matching serial numbers. Delivery of the initial preorder run is expected to come in the June/July timeframe.

The preorder site for The Fix can be found here (2/01/2017)

The preorder rifles come complete with custom cases designed and made by Blue Force Gear.

The Fix By Q Specifications:

• WEIGHT – 5 lbs. 9 oz. without accessories (16 in. Barrel, 7.62 x 51mm)
• TRIGGER – A factory bolt action trigger that is light, crisp, and most importantly – safe.
• BARREL LENGTH – Bartlein barrel / Tooley match chambered.
• STOCK – Fully-Adjustable folding stock.
• CALIBER(S) – 7.62 x 51mm (16”) / 6.5 CREEDMOOR (20”) / 338 FEDERAL, 300 WSM

Moving on – At first glance it’s easy to write off the Honey Badger by Q as just another suppressed, 300BLK short barreled rifle. However, seeing and feeling is believing. The integrated collapsible stock is sleek and functional, giving all currently available PDW-type stocks a real run for their money. The rifle itself is light, slim and points naturally. It’s just plain impressive.

Stay tuned in the coming weeks for the Honey Badger preorder announcement.

Honey Badger Specifications:

• WEIGHT – 5 lbs. 4 oz. with Silencer
• CALIBER – 300 AAC Blackout
• BARREL LENGTH – 7 in.

For the Honey Badger history buffs out there, here’s the original prototype lower:

As for the rest of the Q command center, everyone is busy designing, building or finishing a rifle or silencer. VP of Engineering, Ethan Lessard said that some of the team has been working 80-100/week to get to the production phase.

I am hoping that TFB will get invited back for regular Q updates. For a silencer nerd, Q HQ is pretty much heaven. Until then, here’s a ‘day in the life’ at Q in pictures.

Here a direct thread rifle silencer by Q gets the wire EDM treatment. The process is like something taken from a SciFi movie. Wire EDM is used to “trim” the baffles to ensure the boreline is perfectly concentric.

The Q vault, filled with prototypes, test weapons and important design milestones.

Q VP Robby Johnson and Engineer Andrew Sands inspect prototype parts for yet to be announced Q product. Any guesses?

A few hundred El Camino rimfire silencers are packaged and stacked, Form 3s approved and ready to head out to Silencer Shop.

Q had a custom laser engraver built, allowing for fast, high-quality engraving of parts.

Q on Instagram