A few years back, Battle Arms Development unveiled the OIP ‘Ounces Is Pounds’ rifle, a limited-production AR-15 pattern carbine, designed in concert with Bentwood Gunsmithing to see just how light an AR could be while retaining proper function. At this year’s Range Day, they had the OIP 2.0 at the firing line.
The OIP weighs in at easily under 4 lbs., with a receiver that is further skeletonized when compared to BAD’s already aggressively lightened lightweight receiver set, and the receiver extension is as minimalist as it can possibly be; pretty much a fixed aluminum tube with a shoulder rest for a stock. The barrel, a very slim pencil profile, was noted by the rep as being even lighter than the already heavily lightened dimpled barrel of the original OIP. As you may also notice, the optic, in this case a Trijicon MRO, is supported by a skeletonized mount. True to its name, if there’s a place weight could be saved on this rifle, it was saved.
If you’re wondering how the reduction in weight effected the recoil, it wasn’t bad. .223/5.56 isn’t really a recoil-intensive round to begin with, so even with the reduction in rifle weight, it was still extremely controllable.
The rep at the booth noted that they had enough components to build roughly 50 OIP 2.0s. Despite this, no immediate word on availability.
Tags: Battle Arms Development, SHOT Show
But how many will actually get out to people who might use it? Right now because of the limited number a vast majority go to collectors that will never actually carry it for the stated purpose.
Combine this with the new polymer cased ammo from Truevelocity and your whole Weapons platform is making the translation to lighter weight.