We’ve had a few people ask us about the STS Muzzle Thumper so we thought we’d mention it again. Made from Heat Treated 4140 Steel and treated with Black Teflon Coating, the three prong design of the Muzzle Thumper is intended to reduce felt recoil and muzzle climb but turns out, it also does a great job puncturing tires (and rib cages).
Use code,”ssd” at checkout for 15% off the Muzzle Thumper.
Robbins, North Carolina – 11 May 2016
War Sport, LLC is excited to announce the debut of their highly anticipated S-9 at the 2016 NRA Annual Meetings in Louisville, Kentucky. The War Sport S-9 is a 9mm carbine that is built on the AR platform and utilizes the popular Glock magazines.
“It’s been an phenomenal year thus far for us at War Sport and with the upcoming release of the S-9 we couldn’t be more excited!”, says President of War Sport, Pat Forbis. “Our customers have been asking for a 9mm and we have answered back with a product made with the same quality and precision our customers have come to expect from us.”
War Sport will be offering the S-9 in three variants: 16” Carbine, 8.5” PDW, and an 8.5” pistol version. Production will begin in approximately 12 weeks with a variety of other options for customers to choose from, making the S-9 customizable to ones specific needs.
War Sport will be located at booth number 4253 at the Kentucky Exposition Center, May 19 – May 22. The S-9 will be on display for the entire duration of the show for attendees to experience.
For more information about War Sport, LLC and products they currently offer visit the website at: www.warsport-us.com, or find them on social at: www.facebook.com/WarSportLLC, www.instagram.com/warsport.
This morning, the US Army published the highly anticipated revision to FM 3-22.9 last updated in 2008.
The Introduction explains the Training Circular’s organization.
This manual is comprised of nine chapters and five appendices, and is specifically tailored to the individual Soldier’s use of the M4- or M16-series weapon. This TC provides specific information about the weapon, aiming devices, attachments, followed by sequential chapters on the tactical employment of the weapon system.
The training circular itself is purposely organized in a progressive manner, each chapter or appendix building on the information from the previous section. This organization provides a logical sequence of information which directly supports the Army’s training strategy for the weapon at the individual level.
Chapters 1 through 4 describe the weapon, aiming devices, mountable weapons, and accessories associated with the rifle and carbine. General information is provided in the chapters of the manual, with more advanced information placed in appendix A, Ammunition, and appendix B, Ballistics.
Chapters 5 through 9 provide the employment, stability, aiming, control and movement information. This portion focuses on the Solider skills needed to produce well aimed shots. Advanced engagement concepts are provided in appendix C of this publication. Appendix D of this publication provides common tactical drills that are used in training and combat that directly support tactical engagements. Finally, appendix E of this publication, is provided at a common location in this and future weapons publications to provide a common location for reference.
This manual does not cover the specific rifle or carbine training strategy, ammunition requirements for the training strategy, or range operations. These areas will be covered in separate training circulars.
There’s lots of info in this TC but the Army’s biggest epiphany may be found at the bottom of this page in Chapter 6.
Hodge Defense named O P Tactical Inc. (OPT) of Raleigh, NC as their official dealer for the East Coast. OPT will stock soft goods such as PVC, hats, and shirts; hard goods including parts, uppers, rails, and complete upper receivers are on order. The first products featured on the site are Hodge PVC Patches, Stripped Uppers, and T-Shirts, available now at optactical.com. Hodge promotional items will be available in limited runs.
“We are honored to be part of the Hodge Family, their reputation for excellence precedes them. Jim is a great friend and we are excited to have him as an industry partner.” -Jon Sercan (MSG, Ret.), OPT.
“I’ve been buying from these guys for years, and it’s an honor for me to see our product in their lineup!” -Jim Hodge, Hodge Defense.
OPT is a stocking dealer and distributor of the most reputable brands in the tactical gear industry. OPT focuses on outfitting armed professionals, responsible armed citizens and agencies including Homeland Security, US military, LE, PMC, and private trainers. OPT also has a very loyal following among allied foreign militaries and agencies; military simulation enthusiasts, and collectors are among their frequent customers as well. OPT is a SOF veteran owned business incorporated in the state of North Carolina.
For Hodge items link our New items page
www.optactical.com/newitems
The Scenario
Last month I spent a few days with Buck Doyle of Follow Through Consulting in Utah courtesy of PROOF Research. During his Scoped Carbine Course we used rifles provided by EraThr3 which featured PROOF Research carbon fiber barrels. They were outfitted with SureFire WarComps and suppressors along with Leupold Mark 6 3-18×44 scopes with the Tremor3 reticle and Mark 6 IMS mounts. Barry Dueck also brought sets of his Rapid Transition Sights for each rifle which offers M16A2-style front and rear sights at a 45 deg offset. I use the RTS on my telescopic sight equipped 7.62 gas gun and they are great for taking those close in shots. At Buck’s course it was no different, and I used them quite often in different scenarios.
We fired Hornady 55 and 75 grain Superformance Match cartridges in 5.56mm during the course, depending on whether the rifle was suppressed or not. During shots out past 500m, we relied solely on the 75 grain rounds. This whole combination allowed participants to effectively engage targets out to 1164 yards. This course and firearm setup really increased my confidence in the ability of 5.56mm to reach out and hit targets past 1000 yards. To be sure, there are better rounds available for those distances and we had to use some pretty serious holds to hit out that far, but it’s just something I’d never done before as I consider targets past 600 yards as beyond the application of the 5.56 round.
A Proof-of-Concept Carbine
EraThr3 provided a new proof-of-concept rifle configuration for the course participants which they plan to place into production as, “The Grunt”. They decided upon the design and built them in a matter of weeks but the upper and lowers were cut specifically for this new gun. You may notice that there is no cutout on the upper for the boltcatch. Instead, they milled material from the reverse of the catch in order to give it enough room for operation. Additionally, the ejection port cover pin is captive so there’s no retaining ring. This is also the first time EraThr3 has incorporated a forward assist on a carbine.
Overall, it’s a very lightweight rifle, but an expensive one. These rifles would retail for over $10k with half of that price going to the glass alone, which also added some heft to these otherwise very lightweight rifles. Of course, we wouldn’t have been hitting targets at those ranges without the optics. I know some are going to say that this is one expensive rifle. Yes, it is. Although many folks won’t be able to afford it, EraThr3 is okay with that.
The Parts
They were very open about the rifle’s components and were more than happy to provide links to the parts where available. Although EraThr3 may substitute some items for production versions of “The Grunt”, the rifles we fired in Utah included the following components:
-16″ Proof Research Carbon Fiber 5.56mm barrel, 1:7 twist.
–Surefire WARCOMP 556 Muzzle Device
-New E3 Billet upper receiver, with forward assist, Hidden dust cover rod, and more rigid design than its’ counterpart, “Project Anorexia” released last year.
-New E3 Skeletonized Lower Receiver with improved features such as a matched grip profile, elimination of roll pin, hidden duct cover rod, and more robust lines.
-New E3 14″ M-LOK Handguard with full length skeletonized picatinny top rail.
–Titanium Bolt Carrier
–Properly Headspaced JP Enhanced Bolt
–V7 Lightweight Portdoor
–V7 Portdoor Rod
-New Titanium EraThr3 Forward Assist
–AXTS Raptor Charging Handle
–AXTS Talon Ambi Safety
–AR Gold drop in Trigger
-Titanium Takedown pins/mag-catch
–Ultra Light Bolt Catch
–PWS Enhanced Buffer Tube/ratchet design end plate & castle nut
–PWS Mod 2 H2 Buffer at 4.5oz
-Magpul STR Stock & MIAD Grip
–Atlas V8 Bipod or FALKOR DEFENSE MANTIS depending on rifle issued
–Dueck Defense Rapid Transition Sights
“The Grunt”
EraThr3’s Sheri Johnson had this to say about the guns, “These 12 rifles were built with a grip of hand selected parts and accessories, some of which being new to us, and provided just for the event in Utah. As a grassroots, custom rifle manufacturer, we’re not married to a specific line of goods or accessories. Maintaining the ability to reach across the table, work with most everybody in the industry, and configure a handful of rifles for an event like this is what we’re all about. There’s always risk in the unknown, yet that seems to be where we’re most comfortable. There was most definitely plenty of that when we committed to putting on a show in the mountains of Utah. Win, lose, or bust, you can bank on the idea that we’re always out to test the limits, regardless of the venue.”
I asked about how the production version of “The Grunt” will be rolled out and EraThr3 CEO Stirling Becklin related this to SSD, “Our objective with the Grunt is to address those end-users who aspire to have the most refined, yet rugged rifle available, and we acknowledge that this limits our customer base to a small fraction of the industry’s make-up. All the better, and we’re proud to be in a class of our own. The Grunt will be available at two price-points, one with a carbon barrel, Ti parts, etc., and another being a sub $3k model with a more standard bill of materials, including a single-point cut 416R stainless barrel, but maintaining the same level of accuracy and attention to detail.”
What’s Up With Those Colors?
The rifles we used at the course were offered in a variety of vibrant colors and Sheri did play a trick on me, initially pairing me with a pink rifle. She told me that the colors were inspired by a box of crayons and sure enough, she included a pack in each rifle case along with a bag of Skittles.
She said, “Production rifles probably aren’t going to ship with a bag of candy, but you never know how things may just stick.” Turns out, the Gray tone on the rifle I used for the event is kind of their trademark color, and is more likely a standard color than any of the others that showed up on Buck’s range.
But Does It Shoot?
Whenever you write about a gun, people obviously want to know if it can shoot. At least with carbines, generally they all do and in this case, yes, it does. At this point in the game, Stoner-style rifles aren’t exactly rocket science and EraThr3 has already been building them for several years. Virtually no expense was spared. Take one look at the rifle’s components and you see that it’s going to work unless they don’t know how to put them together. Like I already said, EraThr3 does.
No torture tests were run on the guns we shot and we didn’t go downrange and measure shotgroups. This was a course on long range gunfighting, like a service member might encounter in Afghanistan; shooting from one ridgeline to another. Once they were zeroed, hits were the evidence of the weapon’s fidelity. The guns worked well. Rather than the weapon, it was the environment we had to contend with for those hits. Temperature swings and shifting winds tested our ability to compensate and the high altitude of the range location drained our bodies. Despite this, the rifle didn’t let me down.
However, I’ll give it all to you; the good, the bad and the ugly. I did have two ammo related malfunctions. No biggie, I applied immediate action, and went right back to it. But this wasn’t like shooting a typical long range course of fire. Although we used 20 rd PMags, we went through a lot of ammunition, engaging targets both near and far.
Additionally, EraThr3 did an awesome job mounting the SureFire WarComps on the PROOF Barrel blanks. The timing was perfect; threaded right on with no need for crush washers. However, they had to learn a thing or two from SureFire about mounting the WarComp to ensure that it would offer correct alignment for a suppressor. Consequently, not every rifle was equipped with a suppressor during the event lest we risk a baffle strike. This stuff happens, and I’d say it had a lot to do with how quickly they built these rifles.
In the end, neither one of these issues detracted from my experience. My goal for attending this event was to see if I could effectively engage targets past 1000 yards with a 5.56mm rifle and with this combination of rifle, optics and ammunition, I could. Mission accomplished.
What’s Next?
As I understand it, most of the rifles we used on the course are going to put up for sale at a discount to benefit some USMC charities in honor of Buck Doyle’s service. I’ll post details as soon as I get them but I can tell you, they’ll go fast.
EraThr3 on Erathr3
I had a great time in Utah and got to do some really fun shooting. This was also the first time I had met anyone from EraThr3 but I think this note they sent me sums them up best, “Call us boutique, niche, crazy, or whatever else makes it easy to recognize our inability to conform to the masses. Truth is, we’re just a handful of misfits out to make our own luck and do what makes us happy. It’s what started the madness, and is sure to drive us into the future.”
Shout out to DEFCON Group for the images!
Dear SSD,
This carbine showed up on “House of Cards”. Is it the first public view of LMT’s Suppressor Upper Receiver Group candidate fir SOCOM or did someone in the prop department give tge actor a rifle with no barrel?
-Karl
Dear Karl,
We’re going to punt and crowdsource this one. Although, we’re leaning toward “short barrel” rather than “SURG”.
Perhaps a reader has some insight?
-SSD
If you’re familiar with the Hodge Defense AU Mod 1, this may look familiar. They use Badger Ordnance’s popular selector lever, but this one is ambidextrous. You may also notice that it’s cut for full-auto.
It was developed in conjunction with Hodge Defense in order to help inform a government requirement. Hopefully, we’ll see these offered for sale soon.
On 12 April, USSOCOM’s Directorate of Procurement released a solicitation for the long anticipated Suppressor Upper Receiver Group.
According to the government, “The SURG weapon upgrade of the M4A1 Lower Receiver Group will allow the Warfighter’s weapon to be optimized for continuous suppressed use.” Interestingly, there’s no requirement that the upper feature an integral suppressor, just that it is suppressed.
Vendors have been working on this project for quite sometime as SOCOM has collected data in order to dial in the requirement. As you can imagine, most of the major players have all teamed up which explains the relatively short lead time until submissions are due.
Potential offerers have until July 13th to answer. Specific information requires an account with Fed Biz Opps.
Visit www.fbo.gov.
