At SHOT 2005 we met up with Mike from ABS and sealed a deal for taking one of the 458 SOCOM barrels and making it a carbon fiber version.  As part of a complete project (I need a new personal 458 upper as I have sold the last one I built for myself), here is the start, the barrel

The original barrel was one of the 20" Lothar Walther stainless steel versions weighing in at 3.25 lbs (not bad but no light weight either)



Following the CF treatment, and WITH ABS brake installed, the result is a solid 1 lb drop in weight



Here are the CF barrel next to a similar SS barrel.



The complete rifle will be a longer range version, meant for harassing larger targets at increased range.  The parts are here, the initial fit test has been done and we are thinking of dubbing her "Night Shade" (pretty but deadly)  Pictures will follow

pretty sweet lookin!


i wanted to get in on the abs group buy but couldnt come up with the funds and profile was hard to decide on

Marty,

Between you and Tony if you keep this up I'm going to have to buy a third one of these from you just to be the new kid on the block here.

But it looks good, wish you would have had that when I bought mine.

Pat

Quoted: Marty, Between you and Tony if you keep this up I'm going to have to buy a third one of these from you just to be the new kid on the block here. But it looks good, wish you would have had that when I bought mine. Pat

Wait till you see the final version.  Stil torn between the JP/VTAC hand guard and the PRI Gen III ...

Quoted: Marty, Why not go with a carbon fiber hand guard as well? We all know that you secretly WANT to fire a 5 pound .458 on full auto...I'ld volunteer to help go through a few boxes of 250gr screamers with you ONCE. Happy holidays. Steve/Sluggo

I have done the 5lb version in F/A ... the 10.5 SBR version ... it gets your attention with the 300 gr ... see the footage of C Bell (CMMG) on our website ...

Now, this is the first glance at Night Shade.  This was the mock up for fir test, will do final assembly and get better picture

NICE!  Very NICE!