Canadian Forces Small Arms Program - updates

A buddy of mine passed these on to me, so I guess I'll have to build a few new clones....damn, lol!

The image of the pistol is still shows the Browning Hi-Power, but the description says it will be a striker fire pistol.  My buddy, who's the head gun plumber at my unit thinks it might be the Glock G19x or maybe the Sig M17.  

I don't know anything about the Ranger Rifle to be honest and don't have a lot of personal interest in it.

It looks like the C3A1 and C14 Timberwolf will be replaced with something new, though the image still shows the T-Wolf.  Cadex recently developed their CDX-MX Kraken, and going by the history Cadex has with the CF, plus the C15 mid-life upgrade with the Cadex chassis, I wouldn't be surprised if that's what it ends up being.

As mentioned before, our Macmillan Tac-50/C15s received an upgrade with the Cadex Chassis.  

Last on this page is the C20 from what appears to be Colt Canada.  I haven't done much research on this rifle to be honest.  I know we had Armalites in 7.62 at one point in time, but that's about it.  From what I know about the C20 is it's a Colt Canada MRR in 7.62, looks like it's cerakoted in FDE, Hogue grip, what looks like the LMT DMR stock, S&B 3-18 sitting in Cadedx Unitized scope rings, no BUIS.  For clone builders, well, the rifle will probably be restricted in Canada so it will limit the number of people who will want to build their own clone, considering non-restricted options such as the Stag 10 and Troy 102.  That being said, it will probably be easier to clone than the US M110, lol!

The MRR and CMAR looks to be replacing the current C7 and C8s.  The MRR's been out for a while and I'm not going get into it.  

A couple of images of the MRR being tested popped up in the Ottawa Citizen article about the CF testing the new CADPAT:

There are no optics apart from iron sighs in these pics, but according to the chart, it looks like an Aimpoint on there, but the description says variable scope.  This suggests to me something like the Elcan Spectre DR, not a fixed red dot plus magnifier.  

Full-time Suppression?  Does that mean we're getting cans even for the regular rank and file? 

Anyway, word around the campfire is we might start seeing these new rifles, even at the Reserve level, within the next 3 years.  

I usually take this sort of information with a grain of salt, and believe it when it actually appears at the unit, but just in case, I might start collecting some Magpul furniture in FDE, lol!

CANSOFCOM C8 lower complete

I've had this Magpul ASAP sling plate for ages but never actually completed my CANSOFCOM clone until now.  This was basically the last piece of the puzzle and I never bothered installing it until now because I sort of liked the QD sling plate I had on there before.  But the OCD got the best of me and I was sort of bored so I decided to throw it on.

 

Apart from that, I also had the Colt Canada castle nut which has round slots for a proprietary Colt Canada castle nut tool instead of the standard AR castle nut tool.

I can't believe this obsolete thing cost me $41.

While I was at it, I also swapped out the Maxim Defense CQB Stock to another CC lower I had which was nearly identical to this one, minus the Canadian Forces markings.

There are two metal tabs included in this kit, one for mil-spec tubes, the other for comm-spec.  Either way, this feature is a right pain in the ass and I'll get to that later,

So, onto the buffer tube goes the castle nut, then the sling plate, as per usual.

Then spin the whole thing until you capture the buffer spring retainer.

Then insert the rear take down pin retaining spring,

Capture that spring by holding down the sling plate.  Normally, I would just spin on the castle nut to hold down the sling plate, but not with this unit.

I have to insert this stupid thing first, and though tweezers are pictured, I ended up needing pliers because it took some finagling to get it in.

It took some effort to get it to this point as it didn't simply drop in.

Once I sort of had it in, I spun the castle nut down onto it.

And here's where the Weapons Tech must have been cursing the choice in sling plates because there are only two slots to insert the Colt Canada castle nut wrench, but because of the design of the ASAP, you can only turn it so much before running out of real estate to grab onto.  At least with the standard AR castle nut, there are 4 slots for the castle nut wrench to grab on to.  

I'm not sure if the weapons techs that work on the Hill have access to standard AR castle nuts, but if they didn't, I'm sure they were not happy with the design of the ASAP sling plate.  I took a bit of advice from our own weapons tech, and that was just to put a punch up to the hole and hammer the thing in the direction I want to tighten or loosen.

Beside the pain-in-the-ass install and that most modern sling plates are QD, this thing is noisy as fuck so if it's not being used, I'd probably secure the loop with tape or something.

Magpul SGA handguard, now with M-Lok!

Bushmaster ACR with new Magpul long hand guard

I took a chance before on an Airsoft handguard for my ACR, and I’ve had it on there for just over a year now and so far no issues.  Guys from ACRForums.com down in the states have also been running this hand guard for a few years, also with no issues.  It’s made from one piece of billet aluminum and is a replica in appearance to the Remington ACR hand guard.  It’s lighter than the factory cheese grater and aesthetically speaking, it just looks better.  

Ever since I swapped out the factory 16” barrel for the NR 18.5” barrel however, I’ve felt the hand guard was a little on the short side.  It would look great on a short 10.5” or 14.5” barrel, but with the longer barrel, I’ve been craving a little more real estate, and maybe even mount a bipod on it.  

Another hand guard the guys in the states have been using is the Magpul PTS long handguard.  PTS stands for professional training system, in other words, Magpul’s Airsoft line.  I’ve had bad experiences with the PTS line as a set of MBUIS cracked on me so I was hesitant to try anything plastic from Magpul’s PTS line, but again, given its track record with ACR owners down south, I was tempted.  I understand that a few Canadian ACR owners have also been running the longer airsoft handguard for a while and so far, no one has reported any issues.

Anyway, someone was selling a handguard and stock for $30 (I’ve seen this hand guard alone sell for $100) so I jumped on it.  I just wanted the hand guard, so the stock was just an interesting piece of plastic I’ll get to later.

A comparison between all three hand guards that I have.  I know there are a lot more options than a few years ago, including a local Richmond guy who’s now making CNC handguards for ACRs (RPM I think?  Available through Reliable Gun).

None of these hand guards had heat shields in them, including the factory cheese grater.  I’ve heard that the shorter factory plastic handguard does come with a heat shield, and I’ve heard of guys swapping the shield over from the factory unit to their longer Airsoft units, but I’ll save that project for when I actually find one.  They’re apparently far more desirable than the cheese graters.

The retaining pin on the aluminum hand guard is held in like the HK pushpins but can be taken completely out of the hand guard.

The factory cheese grater is captured, but there is a way to remove it.  

The plastic PTS unit is captured as well, it looks removable just like the cheese grater, but I don’t think I will need to.  All three retaining pins lock firmly into the receiver so I have no concerns about them.

The only thing that is a bit sketchy is the front end of the aluminum airsoft hand guard.  The pins are too small to mount to a real ACR and I had to rig some spacers to make it work.  It’s held on so far, even after some abuse, but I’d like to find a better way to secure the spacers.  The guys in the states use M5 screws, but I haven’t messed around with those yet.  

The Magpul PTS handguard is made of plastic, but it’s a perfect fit to the real ACR and there is no wobble whatsoever.  It locks firmly in place so I have a feeling it probably won’t give me a lot of issues down the road.

The PTS handguard came with two sections of pic rail.  They’re heavy and don’t feel like aluminum, but as I had nothing to attach to these rails, I took them off the hand guard and threw them in my spare parts bin.  I may attach a bipod to the ACR one day, but I’ll leave it naked for now.

I don’t have much interest in using the airsoft stock, and I’ll probably end up flipping it back on some airsoft forum or something, but I thought maybe I should give this thing a once over and see what it’s about.  I’ve done a comparison between the airsoft ACR and the real deal before, but didn’t pay all that much attention to the stock.  

Well, here I was again, looking at the two and having a hard time discerning the differences, other than color.  The airsoft one uses Philip screws to keep the rubber butt pad on as opposed to the hex heads.  

Fold the stock and they look nearly identical.  The Magpul emblem is of a different design from their PTS line.

Anyway, back to the hand guard.  I had to move my front backup sight back a notch because of the new handguard.

I had an Aimpoint PRO on the ACR for a while, and recently I threw on a Holoson, but now I may throw on something with a finer reticle and more magnification than a 3x flip-to-side.

Overall, I’m satisfied with the PTS hand guard.  It’s ergonomically pleasing and if I want to mount a bipod closer to the muzzle, I now can.  Something I haven’t mentioned is that it’s light.  Way lighter than the cheese grater, but at the same time, it felt sturdy and fairly robust.  That being said, time will tell how well the plastic holds up.  Lots of people have used these, and I haven’t heard of any reports of any catastrophic failures, so we’ll see.