[SHOT 2023] Bond Arms Unveil Brand New Lever Rifle Which Uses AR Uppers!
There’s always a lot of new products at SHOT Show but its rare you’re genuinely surprised to come across something. I stopped by the Bond Arms booth, a company renowned for their myriad of Derringer models, and was met by something that immediately grabbed my attention – the new Bond Arms Lever Action.
Bond Arms are getting into the rifle game. SHOT Show 2023 seems to have been the year of new modular lever action firearms, however, I think Bond Arms’ new rifle has the edge on the competition. Their new rifle, currently known only as the Bond Arms Lever-Action (leave your cool name ideas in the comments), can use any AR upper and is compatible with 870 stocks – the ones seen at the show had a Magpul 870 stock and a more traditional black polymer stock. You could even use some wooden furniture if you wanted a more traditional look.
The rifle is truly modular, able to mount optics with ease, feed from standard AR magazines, use a variety of furniture options and its lever loop can be swapped out to fit a variety of stock options or provide an enlarged loop for use with gloves. The lever has a very show, around 6 inch throw, which allows it to cycle without hitting the magazine and also provides a crisp action.
Here’s what Gordon Bond had to say about the new rifle:
We spent over a year redesigning the lever system and actually came up with a very clever cam system that will aggressively extract a round out of a 30 round magazine with no problem and it allowed for a very short throw even with the longest rounds. It was so good, we did a patent pending on this and several other things we discovered going through this design process.
It has an extended magazine release which sits nicely under the index finder and has a number of safety mechanisms including an out-of-battery bolt carrier safety, as well as both manual and grip safeties.
The Bond lever action will be launching in 5.56x45mm and .300 Blackout, as well as other chamberings including: 9x19mm .300 Hammer, .50 Beowulf, 450 Bushmaster. In essence the platform will support any chambering using a standard rotating AR-15 bolt.
Bond Arms also note that while the system was originally envisioned as a “quiet and fast handling suppressor host”, which also provides full magazine capacities in short barrel configurations – something traditional lever actions with tube magazines would struggle to achieve, the same manual action resulted in a compliant design for restrictive states, and indeed also theoretically in restrictive countries. The Bond Arms lever action might offer a modular platform for countries which prohibit semi-auto centerfire rifles.
The new rifle is expected to be available by the end of 2023, SHOT Show 2024 at the latest, and will have an MSRP of $1,499. Find out more at BondArms.com
TFB and TFBTV’s coverage of SHOT Show 2023 is proudly sponsored by 5.11 Tactical. Click here to check out their new products.
Managing Editor: TheFirearmBlog.com & Overt Defense.com. Matt is a British historian specialising in small arms development and military history. He has written several books and for a variety of publications in both the US and UK. Matt is also runs The Armourer's Bench, a video series on historically significant small arms. Here on TFB he covers product and current military small arms news. Reach Matt at: matt@thefirearmblog.com
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What is the expected price on the Lower only?
One thing I have to ask is about the lower. Will there be an AR-10 AND a AR-5 lower? And if they do use a proprietary Bolt Carrier will they be offering a seperate bolts or just buy them from any source.