#5.56

If you were designing the next small arms round, how would you do it? What methods would you use to determine its physical characteristics and performance attributes? How would you know what was too large or too small, too powerful or too weak? Perhaps more critically, how do different methods for answering these questions compare to one another? Could some methods be better or worse than others?

On display at the recent Russian Army 2017 expo was Kalashnikov’s new AM-17 and AMB-17 compact assault rifles. The AM-17 is a 5.45x39mm caliber improved version of the MA assault rifle introduced last year, designed to fill the same role as the AKS-74U compact assault rifle/personal defense weapon. The AMB-17 is an integrally suppressed variant of the same, firing the 9x39mm dedicated subsonic round first introduced with the AS Val and VSS Vintorez in the 1980s. Pictures of the new rifles have been posted on various social media outlets, such as TFB contributor and small arms expert Max Popenker’s blog.

Your chance to own a semiauto reproduction StG-44 is coming soon: Hill & Mac Gunworks recently announced that the first of their Sturmgewehr rifles would be shipping before the end of this month. In an announcement made through the latest InRange TV Question & Answer Session with the company, HMG founder Mac Steil explained that series production of the Sturmgewehr has, at long last, begun, and that the first rifles will be shipping to pre-order customers before the end of August. Further, he stated that HMG would be publishing a Sturmgewehr release calendar, so that preorder customers could figure out when exactly their rifles would ship based on their preorder dates.

The day many of you have been waiting for has come (and gone): The Desert Tech MDR has finally been released to the US consumer marlet after more than four years of development. Desert Tech announced the gun’s official release in a monthly update on their website, citing the first delivery of the rifle made on July 21st:

With the soldier’s load growing beyond the bounds of reason, and the Army set to replace the M4 Carbine in some units with the new Interim Combat Service Rifle, questions have arisen about how the soldier’s burden has changed over time. In the comments section of several of my articles relating to these subjects, readers asked if I could compare the current soldier’s load with the soldier’s load from World War II, to see how they compare. As always, I am happy to oblige.

I know this is not exactly breaking news, but when I saw Gary Hughes of Dead Air Armament post up the ‘In Stock’ notice for a Colt AR15A4 at Brownells, I was intrigued. Sure, other manufacturers have started making retro clone style M16/AR rifles. But when Colt talks, people listen.

NATO member and ally the Republic of Estonia has released a tender with up to €75 million (roughly $86 million USD) for nearly 20,000 new rifles in both the 5.56mm and 7.62mm calibers, according to reports from IHS Janes’ and other outlets. The new contract is intended to supply both brigades of the Estonian Land Forces with new weapons, replacing their aging Ak4 (license-built Swedish G3s) and Galil rifles.

This guest post and accompanying photographs are contributed by a guest writer, Alton Chiu. Alton currently writes for Small Arms Review. This is his second article contribution to TFB and is on the merits of using .22 LR ammunition for training. 

Is it possible to convert someone into an AK fanatic, or do you have to be born one? Can the comfort zone of aircraft-grade aluminum and nitro-injected ergonomics be overcome by the simple elegance and robustness of the Kalashnikov? This question is one I’ve found myself asking a number of times after I published my love letter to the AK back in early 2015.

In preparation for the 29th South East Asia (SEA) Games being held in Kuala Lumpur, Royal Malaysian Police held Exercise Rimau 2017, a public counter-terror exercise designed to prepare law enforcement for worst case scenarios that could take place during the SEA games. Some of the situations appear to have been a VIP armed escort out of a hostile environment, an NBC or bomb attack, and assaulting an enemy hardpoint. Three Malay LE units in particular were pointed out by a TFB reader that were training in the event, the General Operation Force, VAT 69 (69 Commando), and Unit Tindak Khas (UTK). A mixture of small arms were in use, mostly various AR variants and some handguns. We’ll try to outline of the tactics, techniques, and procedures in use throughout the exercise, in addition to the small arms. Earlier we reported on Sultan Muhammad V of Malaysia being into competition shooting. The question begs to be asked if his shooting hobby allows a larger budget to be set aside for Malay Military/LE forces to be better armed than their counterparts in neighboring Indonesia or Thailand.

Often I get asked the question about silencer choices for someone just entering the NFA market. Even though the majority of the decision process is left to a particular shooters use case, for rifle caliber suppressors I tend to gravitate towards suggestions that include considerations for weight, length and price above all else. Seemingly on the list every time is the Trek from Gemtech – a no frills performer for the 5.56mm market.

Mean Arms is the genius behind the clever workaround of fixed magazine for California compliance. In California you have two options to stay legal with your AR-15 and not register. Either have a featureless rifle which maintains the removable magazine but no pistol grip. Or you have a fixed magazine that requires tools to be removed. Well now that the Bullet Button is banned, clever people like Mean Arms have come up with ways to make a fixed mag not be so bad.

Having already established itself firmly in the battle rifle cartridge sphere, the Ruger Precision Rifle has opted to shrink and take on the intermediate caliber crowd. Ruger has announced the release of a 5.56 version of the platform optimized for the shorter cartridges.

When I started the Modern Intermediate Calibers series, I did not expect it to grow as large as it has. The initial plan was for 7 major calibers, which grew into well over 20, and the spinoff Modern Personal Defense Weapon Calibers, which itself will have at least 20 entries.

Dave C. shared this photo of some brass he is processing. His son Cullen is helping him go through the approximate 88k rounds of once fired brass. Do you guys reload? Do you process this much brass?