#MDR

In this episode of TFBTV, James Reeves is visiting Desert Tech Germany at IWA 2022 to talk about the ridiculous hoops Germans must go through to get a Desert Tech MDR bullpup rifle.

BLK LBL has expanded their line of handguards with integrated bipods by introducing a version designed for Desert Tech MDR and MDRX bullpup rifles. The new handguard is called BLK LBL Mantis and it is designed in collaboration with Desert Tech, with the idea suggested by Karl Kasarda of InRange TV who has been extensively testing these rifles during the past several years.

The Desert Tech MDRX has come a long way from being unveiled as a prototype at SHOT Show 2014 to being featured in games like Escape from Tarkov and the Tom Clancy series. James personally watched this Desert Tech rifle evolve with great interest, from its early days as the MDR to its newest evolution, the MDRX. James got a copy of the brand new MDRX at the beginning of 2020 and has spent a year reviewing this modern bullpup. Does it live up to the hype?

Desert Tech has published a news release stating that “All .308 MDRs shipping from the factory as of today are equipped with all of the 2019 upgraded parts!“. The upgraded parts include the new 6-position gas valve and the new wider extractor.

In today’s episode, we follow Miles to Shot Show 2018 Media Day at the Range and visit Desert Tech.

Utah gunmaker Desert Tech was out on the range for the 2018 SHOT Show Industry Day, bringing their brand new MDR bullpup rifles out for attendees to enjoy. The MDR had been in development for about four years until, in August, production MDR rifles began rolling off the line – albeit slowly. Still, this highly anticipated space warfare bullpup is available in the wild finally, which is delightful news for those of us who’ve been rooting it on.

Consumers have been excruciatingly patient in waiting for the MDR by Desert Tech. To help alleviate those frustrations Desert Tech’s Director of Marketing, Carson Jenkins, put out a statement on Friday, January 5th to give consumers a status update on production:

Let me start off by saying that this subjective list of TFB’s ‘Top 5’ best guns from 2017 is not rooted in scientific study nor is it the result of massive data crunching of user polls. The below guns were picked by general popularity, page views, innovative designs and overall accessibility. Point being, there were a lot of awesome firearms released this year and these are only a few of them.

I was invited to an event co hosted by Desert Tech and Nikon. Desert Tech finally released the MDR (and is now shipping pre-orders) and wanted to put it in front of media. In addition to the MDR, Desert Tech wanted to showcase their other platforms, the HTI and SRS, with platforms from .308 Win to .375 CheyTac. Nikon was slated to provide the optics, including some new stuff. Wait, what?!? Nikon? Precision Long Range optics?

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:

The Firearm Blog would like to extend its thanks to reader and contributor Giorgio, who lent his journalistic services to us at this years IDEX conference in Abu Dhabi in February. Thanks, Giorgio!

Desert Tech MDR is probably one of the most awaited rifles on the market. And no surprise that people keep wondering about various aspects of its mechanism. Perhaps Desert Tech has been stormed with such questions. Anyway, they started releasing short videos on their YouTube channel answering the questions people ask.

Ah, the Desert Tech MDR: The rifle many (based on my comments and emails) believe will be the savior of bullpups, and the best rifle ever made, sweeping aside all others. Well, that’s a pretty high bar for it to clear, but Desert Tech was at the 2017 SHOT Show, and had brought some of their pre-production MDR rifles with them for display.

The concept of a stockless – or “bullpup” – rifle has been around since the very dawn of the 20th Century. It was invented in the United Kingdom, the country with which it still is most closely associated. After World War II, the concept began to gain traction, but bullpups saw their greatest success in the 1970s and ’80s, being adopted by Austria, Britain, France, Singapore, and many other major nations of the world. However, in the modern military market, the concept’s popularity has declined. The questions of why, and how designers can create more competitive military bullpups are the subjects of this article.

Today at SHOT show, I was able to take a look at the Desert Tech MDR in both 7.62×51 and 5.56×45.  Desert Tech was taking orders on them currently, so they should head out to dealers soon.  Some salient information:  There is a handguard that will go around a 2-piece OSS suppressor for the 7.62 version.  Although Desert tech makes in-house suppressors, they are optimized for their bolt action rifles.