I’ve previously referenced the Jericho B as being a bit of a mystery, but thanks to Marcin at POLARMS (which is, well, in Poland), I am very pleased to present to you pictures of the production – or possibly pre-production! – version. As I had previously guessed, the “transitional” Barak is VERY similar to this gun – it just has a different slide design in front.
You can find his photos after the jump.
So, first of all, happy Chanukah! This has been an amazing year for IWI, especially for their Galil ACE rifles, which has been picking up more and more positive press.
I’ve been remiss in posting due to real life circumstances, but wanted to chime in on a couple of bits of news.
The IWI Masada was announced in early November. This is an interesting gun in that it’s the first “real” weapon that IWI has announced using their US subsidiary, versus the Israeli company. This may be indicative of a greater shift by IWI to focusing on the US market, which wouldn’t be a bad move for them. It also supports the theory that IWI probably terminated the OEM relationship with Magnum Research, and not the other way around.
The gun itself is pretty nice, and is a “greatest hits” sort of deal:
It is unclear whether it’s using proprietary magazines or if they’re CZ-75 mags and the floorplate is just weird-looking. IWI also didn’t include an optic mount for the slide, ala the Glock MOS, but that may be coming later.
After the break… the Tavor shotgun and 2018.
Continue reading IWI Masada; a Tavor Shotgun; what’s next in 2018?
On their Facebook page, IWI has posted an image of an X95 chambered in 7.62×51. We’ve heard rumors about the development of this rifle, but this is the first image I’ve seen of it. It appears to use SR-25 magazines, and is an interesting cross between a Tavor and an X95. The charging handle and pistol grip seem to be of the X95 type, where as the rear of the gun and the handguard seem to be from the origina Tavor. In my opinion, it’s a lot prettier than the 5.56×45 X95, and I’m looking forward to it!
UPDATE: it’s called the Tavor 7. Specs from IWI-US’ Facebook page after the jump.
Continue reading IWI-US teases 7.62×51 X95 (UPDATE: Tavor 7!)
If you’re in a state that allows SBRs AND you’re an X95 owner, your ship has come in.
IWI-US has announced on Facebook that the X95 short foregrip and thin buttplate are now available. The 13.5″ barrel is still on the way, but a 3″ chop from 16.5″ is unlikely to require much in the way of gas system changes. The resulting gun will not look exactly like a mil-spec X95, but it’ll definitely be a lot closer. Be warned that putting the thin buttplate on a stock 16.5″ X95 will turn it into an SBR, as it will no longer make the 26″ OAL limit.
Now, where’s the Galil ACE and Uzi Pro SBR kits? 🙂
Sorry for my absence – my interests lately have run to 3D printing (yes, including firearms!), which is a bit off the topic of this blog. I also have not had much time to go shooting with the kids’ school year picking up. Rest assured that I still plan on posting, perhaps with less frequency.
As shown on Facebook (h/t to the TheFirearmBlog for reminding me to post), Recover Tactical is developing Browning High Power grips. Presumably, these will fit guns with curved trigger guards like true BHPs, Kareen Mk1s, and FEGs, but probably not the guns with square trigger guards like the Kareen MkII/III, KA-III, and the Arcus guns. Next in line are apparently Makarov grips, which strikes me as a bit nonsensical – FAB Defense has a good solution already, and how much of a market is there? IMHO, there’s a huge opportunity in producing TA-90 and CZ-75 grips, given how many beat-up old guns are on the surplus market now.
IWI-US released a statement on Facebook that the .300AAC conversion kits for the X95 and SAR are being released soon. Complete 300AAC X95s will be coming out in “end of February, early March”. X95 conversion kits will be available in “end of march, early April”. And, finally, we’ll see SAR conversion kits at “end of April”.
Unfortunately, there’s some bad news coming along with this. The conversion kits are going to be pricey since they include a barrel, bolt, gas regulator, rail with gas regulator cut-out, new recoil springs, and a new case deflector. Much like the 9mm conversion, this is a bit of a situation where buying a new gun seems rather cheaper than converting your old gun. (Or, perhaps, converting your AR-15 instead of your Tavor.)
Finally, the CAA Micro RONI has been released, and, shockingly, it’s really rather reasonably priced at $250 for the base model. Jim Grant has a review, and he seems to like it – with the usual caveat of “your Glock isn’t a rifle even in a chassis”.
I saw on Facebook that IWI-US is now shipping the 7.62×51 Galil ACE rifle to dealers. Their website currently only lists the GAR 1651 model, which comes with a 16″ barrel and takes SR25 magazines. Curiously, there is no mention of the 18″, 20″, or pistol variants. I would have expected the pistol variant to have beat the rifle out the gate due to import restrictions.
I suspect that the 7.62×51 version of the rifle is going to meet with much more success than the 7.62×39 version. The 7.62×39 version suffered quite a lot from comparisons to cheap Zastava and slightly-less expensive Arsenal AK rifles, and was somewhat overshadowed by the PSA KS-47 and CMMG Mutant Mk-47 rifles. Other than the VEPR-308 and Zastava PAP M77 rifles, there’s not a whole lot of competition in the 7.62×51 AK rifle market, and there’s certainly nothing that takes SR25 magazines. I also think that the market for higher-end 7.62×51 rifles is somewhat more robust (as evinced by the SCAR-17’s continued sales at $2600). If the street price lands at $1700-$1750, it will be competitive with higher-end 7.62×51 modern sporting rifles.
Personally speaking, it’s certainly the most appealing ACE to me, but I’d prefer it with a 20″ barrel.
I was looking at a review of the new IWI-US imported Jericho over on LooseRounds, and noticed that the author had a very interesting comment about it:
… the action and slide of the Jericho sit tight inside the frame and as a side effect, reveal little of the slide itself for weapon manipulation. Unlike say, my square Glock which gives me lots of real estate for racking and manipulation, the Jericho gives much less purchase. Consider this a negative if forced to manipulate the weapon when wet or in slippery conditions.
Fair criticism, of course. IMI apparently took this to heart when they designed the Barak, which has the large, easy-to-grab, and ugly rear sight “hump”.
But… this is also specifically a problem with the newest generation of Jerichos. The sights on the new imports are of the “snag-free” variety. However, if you look at the older IMI guns, they’ve got a much different design – very vertical, thick, and “snaggy”. The advantage is that the old style sights make the slide much easier to manipulate. You simply grab the top of the slide and push back against the rear sight.
Want to be a real operator and do a one-handed-against-the-table slide manipulation? The old-style sights were awesome for that. In fact, the old-style sights were pretty great in general, so I’m not sure why they changed them. Snag-free isn’t everything.
According to a Facebook post by IWI-US, the X95 is now shipping to distributors.
We are pleased to announce that the first black X95 carbines with 16.5″ barrels started shipping today to our wholesale…
Posted by IWI US on Tuesday, March 29, 2016
This is pretty fast work by IWI-US standards! They’ve also recently announced that they’ve manufactured 50k standard Tavors for the US market, which is also quite an accomplishment.
Unfortunately, I probably won’t have an X95 soon due to MD’s ban on rifles with an OAL of less than 29″, not to mention being out of space in my gun safe and having a five year old about to enter Jewish day school (tuition!). Still, if I can find a friend with one, I’ll try to get a review together.
Fresh from IWI-US marketing:
We successfully introduced the X95® select-fire bullpup to our law enforcement customers last year and our civilian customers have been clamoring for us to get them a commercial version,” Michael Kassnar, VP of Sales and Marketing for IWI US said. “The X95® is a modern, modular bullpup design emulating all the familiar features of the TAVOR® but on steroids.”
The TAVOR® X95® platform incorporates a tri-rail forearm covered by three removable vented rail covers. The TAVOR® style trigger guard is modular and can easily be converted to a more traditional trigger guard with pistol grip. The charging handle has also been relocated closer to the shooter’s center mass, and perhaps the most significant departure from the TAVOR® is the ambidextrous magazine release, located to a more traditional AR-15/M16 location on the X95®.
Like the TAVOR® SAR, 16.5” 5.56 NATO, .300 Blackout and 17” 9mm Luger Parabellum models feature interchangeable cold hammer forged (CHF) barrels manufactured and engineered to IWI’s demanding specifications. Conversion kits in .300 Blackout, 5.56 NATO and 9mm will also be available.
The TAVOR® X95® in 5.56 NATO and .300 Blackout uses standard AR-15/M16/STANAG magazines and is supplied with one black Magpul Gen III PMAG. Available in Black, Flat Dark Earth and OD Green. MSRP for the TAVOR® X95 is $1,999.00 and the Conversion Kits are $899.00 in 5.56 NATO and 9mm and $499.00 in .300 Blackout.
$2000 MSRP is better than I expected. No word on the release date yet, but I’d be surprised if it were in 2016. I am HOPING that IWI comes out with a 20″ barrel version for those of us in restricted states – they’ve got their fancy CHF barrel-making machine now, so it shouldn’t be impossible.
Hot off the presses from IWI-US: they’re now manufacturing barrels.
This is big news because it means the .300AAC conversion is probably going to finally happen in 2016. It will also aid in getting the Galil ACE rifles out the door – they need 922r compliance parts, and a barrel is one of them.
Another fascinating tidbit is that they’re going to be making AR-15 and M4 barrels for other manufacturers. While this may just be a way to keep their CHF machine going at full-tilt 24/7, it would be a very short step to manufacturing their own line of AR-15s. I don’t necessarily know why they’d want to get into that market, given how crowded it is, but maybe they’d export back to Israel? No reason IWI-US couldn’t export parts to IWI, after all.
The Hebrew Hammer 