[SHOT 2026] Olympus Arms Launch New Carbine & New Ammunition
Never ones to stay still Olympus Arms, the Montana company that brought you the long-stroke Vulcan rifle, have announced that they have developed not just a new carbine but also a new round for the carbine. Olympus have spent a year and a half working on the new project.
The new carbine doesn’t have an official name yet but the ammunition does - .30 EPIC, a proprietary cartridge developed in-house at Olympus and set to be manufactured by the company as well. The idea was to create the most powerful round that could still be used in an AR-15 lower, from a double-stack magazine. The new ammunition and carbine were on the line at Industry At the Range Day and on the show floor.
I got to put a few rounds through the carbine and found it surprisingly pleasant especially after finding out what the round is reportedly capable of. It was certainly cool to be amongst the first media to get a chance to fire the new round.
The .30 caliber 110gr projectile is backed by a charge of pistol powder to reportedly give it a similar velocity, 2,800 fps, to that of a 62gr 5.56x45mm round and â…“ more energy downrange. The round uses a 6.8 SPC case necked up to .30 caliber, Starline provides the brass and Sierra provides the projectiles. Olympus Arms say that the carbine and ammunition are optimised for suppressed use.
Olympus Arms will be producing the ammunition in house and stated the per round cost would be $1.25. So far the new, and as-yet unnamed, carbine is the only firearm chambered in the new rifle and an Olympus Arms rep noted that any AR-pattern rifle chambering it would likely need 6.5 Grendel bolt fixtures.Â
The carbine design is definitely eye-catching. It uses a gas-operated, short recoil action unlike the Vulcan. The new carbine has an interesting forend and upper receiver design with a pair of recoil springs located beneath the barrel with the non-reciprocating charging handle located forward, on the left hand-side. The forend has staggered MLOK slots and a gap in the Picatinny top rail, ostensibly for using a C-clamp grip. The carbine uses off-the-shelf 6.8 SPC magazines and will ship with 15 and 25-round magazines.
The lower receiver is a standard AR-15 lower. I put a couple of rounds through the carbine at SHOT Range Day and found it had a somewhat punchy recoil impulse, though nothing unpleasant. While they haven’t yet settled on a name for the new rifle they are tentatively considering another name from Roman mythology - Mercury.
Down the line Olympus Arms envisages other calibres, including 5.56x45mm and potentially a version that uses a reciprocating barrel to dampen recoil further. Olympus Arms hopes to have the new carbine and ammunition shipping by Q4 2026 or Q1 2027. MSRP for the upper is around $2,475 but you get coupons for 4 free 50-round boxes of .30 EPIC ammunition. Check out olympus-arms.com for updates.
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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I have a couple of nitpicks :
Looks like a Lasgun from Warhammer40K. Just get the licensing rights from Games Workshop and they could make millions.