#M17s

The bullpup rifle tends to be – when it comes up – a pretty divisive subject among “tactical” rifle shooters. Bullpup detractors dismiss the layout as clunky and awkward, while its proponents cite the advantage of longer barrels and shorter overall lengths. Both camps are often correct in their criticism, but there is another aspect of the bullpup that I think often goes poorly addressed – if it is addressed at all. That is the subject of balance.

I have sold few firearms that I own, but I only regret selling one, a Bushmaster M17s bullpup rifle. As such, Military Arms Channel decided it best to hit me where it hurts and highlight his own rifle (just kidding, I don’t think MAC would do that to me).

Arizona based K&M Arms was present at the 2016 National Rifle Association Annual Meeting, and they brought with them their M17S series of bullpup, triangular-bolt rifles. New for the show was the finished .308/7.62x51mm variant of the M17S, prototypes of which had been shown previously at Bullpup Shoot 2015.

In October, I traveled out to see my co-writer Alex C. to collect data on the weights of different long guns and some of their components. Over that weekend, I weighed 58 rifles and submachine guns, and numerous magazines, bolts, bolt carriers, and other miscellaneous items. The purpose of this was not only to collate a general list of the weights of different weapons, but to be able to enhance the accuracy of a previous spreadsheet I’d produced showing the loaded “combat” weights of different rifles; that being available at this link.

Tavors, SA80s, FAMASs, AUGs, QBZ 95s. Whether for better or worse, the majority of bullpup weapon systems in the world are manufactured and in use by countries and militaries outside of the United States. Sure there was the Bushmaster M17S way back when, and now we have Keltec’s shotguns and rifles, in addition to the ever lofty Desert Tech MDR that’ll probably enter the civilian market in a dream while we sleep at night. These American designs haven’t experienced too much success in the U.S, market, apart from the Keltec KSG. Whether or not an American design does go to the forefront of bullpup popularity time can only tell. However for now, I’d like to introduce two designs that I saw at Bullpup 2015 which if not really original, just refreshing from everyone else. It was a good change of pace to see people coming out with their own ideas of what a bullpup should be.

Some rifles regardless of features, price, or quality just never pan out or find a home in too many safes across the globe. We take a look at five long guns and try to figure out why a few of these never took off. These are not all necessarily bad rifles, but for one reason or another flopped and never found a large group of buyers.