#ACR

Two-Stage triggers still remain a popular choice for many riflemen due to their unique characteristics that make them great to run in high-stress situations or in precision applications where a predictable and consistent trigger pull is needed. The recently revived Bushmaster Firearms has just introduced their new DM2S Dedicated Marksman 2 Stage Trigger. The new trigger will feature a standard installation and will be compatible with all mil-spec AR-15 lowers.

Over the years,  Bushmaster Firearms has gained a reputation as a staple in the AR-15 manufacturing community. Bushmaster has gone as far as to become somewhat of a household name when it comes to the iconic AR-15 design and the company recently announced that they are back – standalone. As part of Bushmaster’s return, they plan on resuming production of the ACR and .450 Bushmaster rifle models. As a start, however, Bushmaster will offer variants of the XM15-E2S like the M4 Patrolman’s Carbine and the QRC rifle.

At the 2018 SHOT Show, Kinetic Research Group – known for their high quality chassis for Remington 700 and Tikka T3 rifles – displayed something totally new: A complete precision bolt action rifle they called the “SOTIC”, after the Special Operations Target Interdiction Course, which is now called the Special Forces Sniper Course. The rifle is based partially on the TRG series, but comes equipped with a KRG stock and forend, and which can be upgraded with a larger forend that sports M-LOK slots and other mounting points.

Recently on The Firearm Blog we talked about one of the great might-have-beens, the German caseless G11 rifle developed by Heckler & Koch during the 1970s and 1980s. Today we have a video from 1990 filmed at Aberdeen Proving Grounds of a demonstration of the G11K2 on the firing range.

In the comments section of my recent Brief Thoughts article regarding caseless ammunition, there was a discussion about whether the cookoff issues of caseless would also be problem for LSAT-style polymer cased telescoped ammunition. Based on conversations I have had with subject matter experts regarding polymer cased ammunition in general, I noted that a lower cookoff threshold is one of the challenges I would expect CT ammunition developers to face. However, after some back-and-forth in the comments, I decided to contact LSAT/CTSAS program officer Kori Phillips regarding this issue (as it was not something I covered in my three-part interview with her), and she kindly agreed to allow her comments on the matter to be published here on TFB. They are below:

In the world of “might-have-been” small arms, a world of .276 Garands and NATO-standard EM-2s, none flew so high nor fell so far as the Heckler & Koch G11 caseless hyperburst assault rifle. Designed to out-match any contemporary small arm in a Cold War shootout across Central Europe, the G11 combined the aesthetics of a scifi plasma rifle with complexity of a Swiss watch. The result was a bullpup caseless wunderwaffe with a 2,000 round per minute hyperburst setting, and a price tag that, as the joke goes, compared unfavorably with reconstructing East Germany.

Earlier this month, the Serbian Army debuted a new 6.5 Grendel weapon system, developed by Zastava. The rifle, called M17, is a heavily modified variant of the M70 AK family that has been developed by the company for decades. It incorporates a number of significant new features and improvements detailed below. The new rifle comes as part of an infantry upgrade for the Serbian Army which includes new 7.62x54R rifles, optics, helmets, and load-bearing equipment. This development marks the first adoption of the 6.5 Grendel round as standard by a national military force. The new rifle is advertised to be half a kilogram lighter than the previous rifle, although it’s not clear whether that is supposed to be the 7.62x39mm M70 or the 5.56x45mm M21. Reportedly, the rifles and the new caliber have not yet been adopted, but are still in testing.

Caseless: The ammunition designer’s holy grail, and the engineer’s worst nightmare. It would obsolete the cartridge case overnight, resulting in cheaper, lighter, and more compact ammunition. Weapons would be able to carry 50, 60, or more rounds in slim, inexpensive magazines, and expel them at a rate of fire much higher than current weapons are capable of – not only because the ammunition is lighter and therefore more could be carried to feed such thirsty guns, but because the extraction and ejection cycles of the weapons themselves could be eliminated.

At the 2017 Association of the United States Army annual meeting, gunmaker FB Radom was present at the Polish pavilion, displaying their MSBS modular assault rifle, recently named “Grot” (arrowhead) by the Polish government. The new rifle has been selected by the Polish government to replace their legacy AK fleet, many of which are the upgraded 5.56mm “Beryl” variant. The first order for the new rifles was signed in mid-September, and will result in the delivery of 53,000 rifles to the Polish government, which is expected to be completed by the end of November.

We have already seen the 6.5mm CT Carbine prototype brought out by Textron for the 2017 Association of the United States Army annual meeting, but TFB also got an up close and personal look at Textron’s cased telescoped machine guns. Textron has two different cased telescoped belt fed weapons in testing right now: A 5.56mm CT light machine gun, and a 7.62mm CT medium or general purpose machine gun.

At the 2017 Association of the US Army (AUSA) Annual Meeting, Textron System displayed for the very first time their firing 6.5mm CT Carbine prototype. Previously, only non-firing mockups had been shown to the public, but after successful tests this summer the real thing was brought out to show at the conference, where TFB got its first look at the weapon.

Polish arms maker Zakłady Mechaniczne Tarnów (ZMT) has released a new large-caliber semiautomatic sniper rifle system. The 100 year old company, formerly known for their bolt-action sniper rifles and autocannons, introduced the new advanced rifles at the 2017 International Defence Industry Exhibition (Międzynarodowy Salon Przemysłu Obronnego, MSPO) earlier this month. The new rifle system will come in two sizes, one designed for magnum-length rounds like .338 Lapua Magnum, and the other designed for short-action cartridges like .308 Winchester. Called SKW308 and SKW338 after the calibers in which they will be chambered, the rifles stem from a program begun in 2010.

The Magpul ACR stock seems to go well with almost any rifle. Polenar Tactical posted up this AK on their Instagram account and it is sporting an ACR stock. Here are some other popular examples of ACR stocks on non-ACR rifles.

Is the People’s Republic of China about to be the latest nation to abandon the bullpup configuration in favor of the “traditional” rifle layout? That seems to be the word on the street since about September of last year, when Chinese news outlets and blogs online began publishing articles claiming the PLA had already selected a new rifle, which was set for “practical training” (troop trials) and service with the PLA Special Operations Forces before going on to replace the bullpup QBZ-95 and conventional QBZ-03 in both the PLA Ground Forces and the PLA Marines. The news articles themselves – some of which appear to be related to state-controlled media – included the header image of this article and the image below, suggesting that is the rifle that the PLA is set to adopt.

Not long after SHOT Show, I got the chance to interview Mrs. Kori Phillips, former program officer for the Army’s Lightweight Small Arms Technologies (LSAT) program, and current program officer for the Cased Telescoped Small Arms Systems (CTSAS) program. We talked at length about both programs, the technology they developed, and the state of lightweight ammunition today. The interview, which spans fifty-five questions, will be broken up into three sections, each covering questions about different aspects of the program, to be published monthly once each in March, April, and May-wait, hold on,