Crusader Arms Crypto: New "Not An AR" From Canada

If there’s one thing that Canadian firearms manufacturers are good at, it’s figuring out how to best deliver their country’s shooters what they want while still playing within a constantly changing federal rulebook. That’s how we get the new Crusader Arms Crypto—a semi-auto rifle that’s not an AR, but offers similar functionality and looks, and accepts many of the same parts.

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A new design with familiar parts

At first glance, the Crypto looks like an AR, and that makes sense because a lot of the parts are the same—it’s made to fit an AR barrel, grip, forend, bolt carrier group and other parts. But it will not accept AR magazines; it can only fit Crusader Arms’ proprietary five-round mags. This might sound dumb, but it’s done on purpose, to fit into the current Canadian legal framework. The Crypto mags can fit into an AR magwell, but not vice-versa, and that fits the Canadian laws that say the only new semi-autos that can be legally sold are those designed to only accept five-round magazines.

Make sense? Whether or not you agree with the law, that’s what Crusader Arms has to play with, so it’s why this rifle is built the way it is.

There are other differences between the Crypto action and a standard AR, but note that it operates on direct gas impingement—most semi-autos built in Canada work on a piston-driven system, adapted from the AR-180 design principles.

The Crypto has an 18.7-inch barrel with a 1:8" twist rate and weighs about 6.5 pounds. It comes chambered in .223 Wylde. A completed rifle MSRP is $1,999.

The Crypto receiver set would let them strip down their AR for parts, switching almost everything over to the new rifle. All they’d need to add is a stack of the proprietary mags.

Speaking of those magazines—they may only hold five rounds, but they will come double-ended, similar to the taped-together “jungle mags” that you saw in Cold War conflicts. This lets users quickly switch from one mag to the next, but it also makes it a bit more difficult for users to convert their magazines to higher capacity, which would attract heat from the feds.

Crusader will ship six double-ended mags with each rifle, offering shooters 60 rounds’ worth of mags with each rifle. The receiver sets come with no magazines.

Crusader is expected to start shipping these new rifles at the end of August 2024. For more details on the fully-built rifle, check out CrusaderArms.ca. And for our previous look at Crusader Arms firearms, check out Hop’s perspective on TFBTV below.