A genuine internet commando assertion, but never the less i cannot help to notice the similarities between the two. Granted the ACR has some new bells and whistles, but anyone else seeing the same thing? I've played with both but owned neither, how do their internals differ? How are the internals the same?

Aesthetically the ACR is a G36 with a magpul-afied stock, same lower, same handguard, lowered optic rail and near the same charging device.

so much Fail in so little time

you either havent put 2 minutes of thought into this or you have no understanding of basic firearms design/function

I have a G36k and have shot an ACR and there is no comparison.

The G36 wins hands down, the acr feels like it came from a toy store compared to the HK.

Both are derivatives of the AR18/AR180.

As are nearly all modern piston systems.

I remember reading somewhere (I know, I know) that what magpul had intended to do with the Masada was address the issues with the XM8, and create what they thought the XM8 should have been. There are definite similarities in the bolt carrier design. But there are a lot of differences also. The receiver of the ACR is aluminum, while the G36 is a steel-reinforced polymer. The "lower" on the G36 is really only the trigger housing, whereas the ACR lower includes the magwell. Then we can talk about the G36's modular magwell, which may or may not be a better design than the integrated magwell. Some would call the "ar-style lower" a step backwards from the G36 magwell. The charging handle on the G36/SL8 is patented, and pretty awesome, but there's nothing wrong with the (actually totally different) ACR CH.



I dunno. There are definitely similarities, but I wouldn't call it an "updated" G36. More like a cousin, that we can actually buy. But yeah, they're all built around that AR18 bolt carrier that Eugene Stoner (pbuh) designed.



I don't really know where I was going with this.

I wouldn't go that far. It has been popular with few weapons like ACR/SCAR, but: Russians are still working with Kalashnikov developments, Chinese have QZB, AR15 still has piston development going on like H&K, etc, etc, ....

Its sorta similar appearance wise in a few facets and uses a very similar OS, which is derived from the AR18 but they arent the same

Apologies, I should have said western weapons.

Sig being the major exception.

Really?  I have Shot a NFA G36c on several occasions  and used to own an SL8 conversion that I built, though my trigger time on the ACR is limited to 90rds I would say it's a much more solid gun.  The HKs stock flexes, though compared to the ACR in it's stock form the G36 is much handier.

Dr. Drake himself has stated that the ACR was conceived after the XM8 that the U.S. Army had poured millions into ended up being a total flop. In fact, I believe the first ACR was sketched on a napkin if I"m remembering the story correctly. The XM8 had its issues, but the piston operating system was very reliable and in fact outperformed the HK416, Colt M4, and FNH SCAR16 in the U.S. Army Dust Test with the least failures/malfunctions. What I took from Dr. Drake's post is that the ACR is what the XM8 should have been, but it's certainly no copy. Magpul simply built on firm ground layed by others and used the mistakes made by others to learn and build a rifle they wanted to see. Many great inventions start exactly that way.



I miss the days when Magpul could openly discuss products and ideas. That is one casaulty of the ACR and the delays in release that we don't get the constant insight we used to here from Magpul.  To their credit they still post and their posts are great, but they have to be much more conservative in the information they share and after everything I certainly understand that.

It certainly is.

That's what I remember as well.





 

Essentially, quite true.



Like the AR-15.....I prefer the old ones, myself.