AR Sponsor
Posted: 8/22/2006 7:12:14 AM EDT
   I was out yesterday getting in a little range time in and thought I would share some of it with the ARFCOM family. I was doing some T&E on the Modular Weapon System and came away pretty impressed with the limited time I had. For starters, I took the whole "system" with me and it all fit in my briefcase. No shit. 1 complete lower, 2 mag-wells, 4 magazines, 2 bolts and 2 barrels. When I laid everything out I was surprised at how much stuff you can actually fit in a briefcase. (I certainly look at other "briefcases" a little different than I used to.) Anyway, here is the interesting part. I fired a 20-round group in the 11.5-inch .223 configuration with the iron sights. I wasn't taking my time because it was more of a function test and not anything to do with accuracy. After shooting the 20 rounds I walked downrange and was pleasantly surprised with a +/- 5-inch group for hastily aimed rapid fire. I pulled out the barrel and replaced it with the 16-inch 7.62x39 barrel and replaced the mag-well and bolt and fired another 20-round series into the same target. I figured that wherever they hit on the paper they would be easy to identify in their new location and their larger size. I used the same sights with no adjustment and held the same point of aim as with the first group. Imagine my surprise when I went downrange to access the damage and the 7.62 group was centered only about 5 inches below the original group with some rounds overlapping. Same sights, same point of aim, different barrels, different lengths, different calibers and almost no practical difference in point of impact. I wish I spent a little more time caring about the group sizes. I'll be trying it again with optics next time to see what it is really capable of. Disclaimer ---> While I have been working with MGI for a long time in R&D and T&E, none of it has been in an official capacity. I recently accepted the position of consultant in matters including T&E, R&D, etc with MGI so at this point I am officially part of the MGI family! Yeah!!! Anyway, I just want to be completely up front in matters such as this so there is not a perception of impropriety anywhere.  Jeff Z |
|
I like the locking levers much better than on the original production units. I have been watching this program for almost a decade and have seen many refinements and it is certainly the best it has ever been. Working with and for a perfectionist like Mack ensures that there will always be new innovation to wrap my hands around and those include a never-ending feeling of the necessity to "upgrade" and make existing products better. Everything is evolving and is never quite "finished" in the eyes of engineers and designers. On the availability of new products I better let Tom answer those types of questions. I work on projects that are YEARS away IF they go to production and don't want to speak out of class. If I knew any more they said they would have to kill me.  Justin, thanks for the kind words. I like what I do and hope some of it is reflected in my writing. I have only been writing for around 20 years, so I still consider myself pretty green compared to those whose work I have been reading since I was a young'un. I just try to do a little better tomorrow than I did yesterday. That’s my goal. On the 556 and XCR, I am excited too. SIG requested the licensing and said they were sending the XCR and a new handgun for T&E. I have been so busy with other projects that I have not had the chance to follow up with them or Alex. Maybe this week. Jeff Z |
Very Good Jeff! Thanks for the disclaimer. |
Yes, a .45ACP Grease Gun magwell is underway, has been prototyped, and is awaiting production, as soon after this upcoming run of modular lowers gets shipped as we can do it. Nothing happens overnight in production, so it will be at least 30 to 60 days minimum before it comes out, I'd expect. Jeff should be able to give a report on that too, before it is officially introduced. |
I'd estimate about 2 minutes actual time, but I haven't done any official timings on it. The barrel change is about 15-20 seconds, and you have to take the upper off to change the magwells, and you have to change the bolt head. So, if you don't have any trouble pulling the takedown pins, and have a pre-assembled bolt carrier with the proper bolt already in it, you can probably do it in maybe a minute, if you're good. Calibers that we can currently support are: 5.56/.223 7.62x39 AK47 6.8SPC 6.5 Grendel 300 Whisper 458 Socom .204 Ruger Wildcats based on .223 case or 7.62x39 cases Use of existing 22LR conversion kits w/barrels Soon to be offered: 5.45x39 AK74 45ACP Grease Gun 9mm(SMG and duty pistol mags such as Glock, Beretta, etc) 10mm/40S&W(Duty pistol mags TBA) 7.62x25 Suomi and/or PPsh 22LR 10/22 22WMR our own mags 17HMR our own mags Under development for future(if everything works out right in extended testing) .308 (testing currently with M14 mag) .243 .260 7mm-08 6mmBR 6.5mmBR 7mmBR 22BR 30BR Wildcats based on .308 case Down the road, pie-in-the-sky: Shotgun, probably 20ga and/or .410ga Other module options being developed and tested: 5.56 belt feed Possibly 7.62x39/5.45x39 belt feed Items under consideration for options: Overhead gas piston operating system for rifle cartridges Others may be added/deleted as we go along, depending on demand and success in testing prior to release. |
Today my workday found me spending a substantial amount of time at the range again. I wanted to be a "little" more precise than with the initial tests, and I was not disappointed in my findings. To start with someone asked me how long it took to do a complete caliber changeover. I figured "a few minutes" but wanted to be a little clearer. One of the images below is my stopwatch. I pressed, "go" when I started with a complete 7.62x39 system I just got done shooting. After stumbling and fumbling around I had a .223 system, cleared and ready to fire in 2 minutes and 43 seconds. I was happy with this time because I didn't even have the .223 parts on the same bench with me when I started and I didn't rush in the least. With everything ready it would be easy to do the barrel, bolt and mag-well swap in less than 2 minutes. I just thought I would clear this up. On to the shooting. Today I mounted in inexpensive scope on the system and headed back out to the range. I sighted the system in at 100 yards with the 14.5-inch barrel and Wolf 62-grain FMJ ammo. All sequential firing was done with a bull’s-eye (X) point of aim regardless or caliber, barrel length or distance.  First, at 50 yards I fired a 10-round group of .223. I swapped the system to 7.62x39 and fired a 5-round group. I repeated the same drill at 100 yards. After firing the 7.62x39 group I reconfigured back to .223 and shot another 10-round group followed by another reconfiguring and shooting second groups with 7.62x39. I was trying to see if the groups would be in the same place as the original groups or if there would be a drastic point of impact shift after completely and repeatedly disassembling and reassembling. I am very happy to find there is not! Yeah!!!!  I have lots of new testing to continue with but I was excited enough about this so I wanted to share it with "the family." I hope some of you find this helpful. Jeff Z |
AR Sponsor