American Tactical California King – SHOT Show 2010

The way i see it, there are two type’s of AR-15 consumers here in Cali. the Causal shooters that just wants a cool looking gun. and the practical shooters that are willing to go feature less in order to run limited or high capacity detachable mags (or standard capacity, how ever you want to see it :D) for either tactical or competitive applications.

It is my opinion that in the first market there is little room for improvement. folks who want to run adjustable stocks, pistol grips, fore end grips and are willing to give up the detachable magazine have many options to do so. the question imposed on this type of shooter is “what type magazine release modification, should you use to make your magazine non-detachable under California law?”.

the most common options are, pining the mag, welding the mag, replacing standard magazine release for a bullet button, etc.

i think most guys tend to go for the bullet button, for which now there are several designs that give the shooter different options, (and still allows for the magazine to be realized in to safely unload the weapon on clear malfunctions). in my opinion the best bullet button here in CALI is the “CA 15-BS” (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6g1ZdTarnDY). i believe there are two factors that make this product superior to everyone else’s.

1)uses standard mag release spring for the LPK (so your mag stays put) vs shortened springs.

2)it has an out of state configurations, so in can be quickly converted to a regular magazine release if one choose to go to a different state for any reason.

I’m guessing that the California king is marketing it self to the bullet button crowd. but this is where i think it fails to understand is target consumer.

1)The mag release uses wrench, which makes me believe this is not the same as a bullet button.
that creates one major handicap for the rifle. if a double feed happens the magazine can not easily and safely removed (if the tool is lost or not carried with the rifle at all times), with the bolt being half way through the plunger tube the upper can not be separated from the receiver living no options to the shooter but to try to fix the problem by removing the problematic rounds through the ejection port (usually with pliers).

the front magazine loading feature does not ease this problem sense in order to depress the spring and remove rounds from the magazine one would have to be facing the front of the mag well and in terms runs the risk of muzzling him or her self while attempting to clear the malfunction.

2) if the mag release does work as a bullet button the the front loading gate on the magazine doesn’t not bring anything to the table. except more parts and a awkwardly cut mag well, that allot of the market will find esthetically unpleasing (and design looks like it might cause pinching if the hand is rested on the front of the mag well, which many shooters do).

3)the front loading gate does not achieve it’s goal of offering a equal or greater safety for loading and unloading the Ar as compared to the bullet button, it also fails to match in efficiency. Based on the video demonstration i can only guess that the unloading most be very awkward, if in a situation where i need to keep the muzzle facing downrange while operating the follower and and trying to pluck rounds from the front of the mag well.

so if you are trying to reach the non detachable magazine crowd in CA I think you would be more successful by

1)scraping the front loading gate (makes the rifle look cheap in gimmicky and fails to offer and elegant solution to loading and unloading the firearm)

2)adopting the CAL 15-BS bullet button(or a similar bullet button release).

3)shipping 30 round magazines that are modified to only host 10 rounds (people love this because it doesn’t alter the look of the rifle and keeps the firearm California legal)

by addressing those comments a rifle bundled with all those features could be an attractive option to those who don’t want to build their own rifles from striped receivers and lpk’s, as well as the folks who couldn’t care less for learning about all the 3rd party options that are available to AR’s.

If you wanted to reach the second audience (detachable magazine featureless rifles crowd) things will be a little trickier.

i think their are two places where the current options can be greatly improved.
people who want to retain the detachable magazine have two options (on top of removing all other assault weapon features). to run an a1 stock with a modified pistol grip that doesn’t permit the shooter to wrap his thump around the grip (http://www.monstermangrip.com/). our switching to a one piece Monte Carlo type stock such as the u-15 (http://californiarifles.com/). which is not only ugly but changes the recoil of the gun by shifting the center of mass. which most practical shooters will not be happy about.

So what do Californian featureless Ar-15 shooters want in their Ar’s?

1)A better stock option grip option.

2)Something that doesn’t move the center of mass of the gun down affecting the timing of the gun such as the u-15 style stocks

3) a grip that offers the shooter a better grip than the monster man style grips (introduce the thumb back into the grip?).

Needless to say this are harder demands to meet. sense they take some serious engineering and design solutions. but if one could develop such designs then California shooters would definably gravitate toward those features.

anyway if you are interested in the CA market. i suggest checking out CalGuns.net.
it’s a great resource for this type of thing. plus you can get an idea of what is the current market here, and what rifles like this would be competing against.

anyway i hope you read this whole thing. if you don’t well…. i wouldn’t blame you 😀
rock on brother.
cheers,
Los.

One thought on “American Tactical California King – SHOT Show 2010”

Carlos A says:

March 2, 2010 at 1:21 pm

The way i see it, there are two type’s of AR-15 consumers here in Cali. the Causal shooters that just wants a cool looking gun. and the practical shooters that are willing to go feature less in order to run limited or high capacity detachable mags (or standard capacity, how ever you want to see it :D) for either tactical or competitive applications.

It is my opinion that in the first market there is little room for improvement. folks who want to run adjustable stocks, pistol grips, fore end grips and are willing to give up the detachable magazine have many options to do so. the question imposed on this type of shooter is “what type magazine release modification, should you use to make your magazine non-detachable under California law?”.

the most common options are, pining the mag, welding the mag, replacing standard magazine release for a bullet button, etc.

i think most guys tend to go for the bullet button, for which now there are several designs that give the shooter different options, (and still allows for the magazine to be realized in to safely unload the weapon on clear malfunctions). in my opinion the best bullet button here in CALI is the “CA 15-BS” (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6g1ZdTarnDY). i believe there are two factors that make this product superior to everyone else’s.

1)uses standard mag release spring for the LPK (so your mag stays put) vs shortened springs.

2)it has an out of state configurations, so in can be quickly converted to a regular magazine release if one choose to go to a different state for any reason.

I’m guessing that the California king is marketing it self to the bullet button crowd. but this is where i think it fails to understand is target consumer.

1)The mag release uses wrench, which makes me believe this is not the same as a bullet button.
that creates one major handicap for the rifle. if a double feed happens the magazine can not easily and safely removed (if the tool is lost or not carried with the rifle at all times), with the bolt being half way through the plunger tube the upper can not be separated from the receiver living no options to the shooter but to try to fix the problem by removing the problematic rounds through the ejection port (usually with pliers).

the front magazine loading feature does not ease this problem sense in order to depress the spring and remove rounds from the magazine one would have to be facing the front of the mag well and in terms runs the risk of muzzling him or her self while attempting to clear the malfunction.

2) if the mag release does work as a bullet button the the front loading gate on the magazine doesn’t not bring anything to the table. except more parts and a awkwardly cut mag well, that allot of the market will find esthetically unpleasing (and design looks like it might cause pinching if the hand is rested on the front of the mag well, which many shooters do).

3)the front loading gate does not achieve it’s goal of offering a equal or greater safety for loading and unloading the Ar as compared to the bullet button, it also fails to match in efficiency. Based on the video demonstration i can only guess that the unloading most be very awkward, if in a situation where i need to keep the muzzle facing downrange while operating the follower and and trying to pluck rounds from the front of the mag well.

so if you are trying to reach the non detachable magazine crowd in CA I think you would be more successful by

1)scraping the front loading gate (makes the rifle look cheap in gimmicky and fails to offer and elegant solution to loading and unloading the firearm)

2)adopting the CAL 15-BS bullet button(or a similar bullet button release).

3)shipping 30 round magazines that are modified to only host 10 rounds (people love this because it doesn’t alter the look of the rifle and keeps the firearm California legal)

by addressing those comments a rifle bundled with all those features could be an attractive option to those who don’t want to build their own rifles from striped receivers and lpk’s, as well as the folks who couldn’t care less for learning about all the 3rd party options that are available to AR’s.

If you wanted to reach the second audience (detachable magazine featureless rifles crowd) things will be a little trickier.

i think their are two places where the current options can be greatly improved.
people who want to retain the detachable magazine have two options (on top of removing all other assault weapon features). to run an a1 stock with a modified pistol grip that doesn’t permit the shooter to wrap his thump around the grip (http://www.monstermangrip.com/). our switching to a one piece Monte Carlo type stock such as the u-15 (http://californiarifles.com/). which is not only ugly but changes the recoil of the gun by shifting the center of mass. which most practical shooters will not be happy about.

So what do Californian featureless Ar-15 shooters want in their Ar’s?

1)A better stock option grip option.

2)Something that doesn’t move the center of mass of the gun down affecting the timing of the gun such as the u-15 style stocks

3) a grip that offers the shooter a better grip than the monster man style grips (introduce the thumb back into the grip?).

Needless to say this are harder demands to meet. sense they take some serious engineering and design solutions. but if one could develop such designs then California shooters would definably gravitate toward those features.

anyway if you are interested in the CA market. i suggest checking out CalGuns.net.
it’s a great resource for this type of thing. plus you can get an idea of what is the current market here, and what rifles like this would be competing against.

anyway i hope you read this whole thing. if you don’t well…. i wouldn’t blame you 😀
rock on brother.
cheers,
Los.

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