Sorry that content has been a bit sparse lately – a combination of high holidays and IRL zaniness has been conspiring against me. I have a few posts in the hopper that just need photographs to finish.

Still, I wanted to point out a new preview of the IWI X95 that was posted up by The Firearm Blog. Miles apparently got to use it at the recent bullpup shoot, and had some thoughts.

On the whole, I liked the article, but had some real quibbles with some of his criticism:

• There’s nothing wrong with polymer rails on the sides and bottom if they work correctly. The main complaints about polymer rails are that they tend to break when used with a VFG, and they can have zero shift issues on the top when the gun heats up. The former doesn’t sound like an issue on the X95, and, as for the latter, the X95 doesn’t have a polymer top rail.
• The constant complaints about plastic components. The AUG made these work quite well back in the 70’s. When are we going to accept that maybe materials science has advanced since Bakelite was invented?
• The complaints about the barrel length. If this were a PCC, yes, I’d agree that the extra barrel length is useless. I always chop my PCCs! But you get somewhat improved ballistics in 5.56×45, enough so that the “extra” barrel length can be justified.
• It’s hard to argue that the Tavor’s bolt release is not in a somewhat weird place. But the problem in actual usage is pretty minimal. In terms of reloads, you just rack the charging handle, which is conveniently located right above your support hand. And if your gun has failed badly enough you need to lock the bolt back, you’re not going to be shouldering it, and thus have two hands free for the manipulation. I suppose it’s annoying on the one-way range when you constantly need to show a clear chamber while the range is cold… but that’s not a high priority for me.