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Beretta ARX-100 short barreled rifle
mark christian
Forums Admins, Member, Moderator Posts: 24,456 ******
My desire for more gas piston driven 5.56mm rifles continues, this time with he "space age" AKA unusual looking, Beretta ARX-100. There are countless YouTube videos on this rifle, so I'm just going to give my own impressions after taking it out to the range yesterday.
First, it comes with a nice looking soft case which holds the rifle, two magazines and a has room for a few accessories:
The stock folds to the right, which makes for a very compact package:
With the 10 inch barrel, the OAL is around 20 inches.
The rifle's neatest feature may be the easily removable barrel. Pull the bolt back, push down on the Glock-type levers ahead of the magazine well and pull out the barrel. It really is that simple:
The controls are ambidextrous, which includes being able to change the direction of ejection by pushing in a button at the rear of the receiver, as well as switching the bolt handle from left to right. In addition to being foldable, the stock is also adjustable for length, but only by 3 inches in or out. The stock fits me fine, but your mileage may vary. The rifle is light weight and with the 10 inch barrel is handles more like a SMG than a rifle. It has neutral balance and felt good no matter how I held it. The pistol grip is more or less a copy of the M16, which I don't like, and it is molded into the lower housing assembly and impossible to change. The trigger was heavy, around 7 lbs, but is single stage (a bit unusual for a military rifle) and has no creep at all. While not a good as the trigger on my SIG MCX, the Beretta trigger is acceptable out of the box. The flip up sights are a bit odd looking and while functional, there are better sights out there. Short Picatinny rails are included on each side of the rifle as well as on the bottom. The lower rail is very short, more like handstop only short. There is a full length accessory rail which can be installed. I have it, but haven't bothered to do anything with it.
the barrel is 1 in 7 twist and I fired Lake City M855, which was all I had on hand. The rifle ran perfectly. I used a number of different magazines, including second generation P-Mags, which worked fine. The Third Generation P-mags, which have an over insertion stop built into the magazine body are not supposed to be able to lock into this rifle. I don't have third gens, so I can't say if it is true.
I ran the rifle suppressed and unsuppressed:
Because the rifle can switch ejection on demand, there are ejection ports on the left and on the right. The first round I fired gave me a blast of gas out of the left side of the receiver which caught me totally off guard. I don't know how you south-paw guys can deal with right hand side ejection, but you do. Unlike my SIG MCX, which is very quiet suppressed, the Beretta didn't seem to get nearly the same level of sound reduction. It ran fine and with no need to change the gas setting, but I don't see this rifle as being a good candidate for shooting suppressed on a regular basis.
All and All, I'm please with this rifle. It looks odd and has some quirks, but it handles well and it won't get mixed up with anything else on the range. Beretta isn't selling many of the 10 inch SBR's, so I'm glad I got one while they are available.
First, it comes with a nice looking soft case which holds the rifle, two magazines and a has room for a few accessories:
The stock folds to the right, which makes for a very compact package:
With the 10 inch barrel, the OAL is around 20 inches.
The rifle's neatest feature may be the easily removable barrel. Pull the bolt back, push down on the Glock-type levers ahead of the magazine well and pull out the barrel. It really is that simple:
The controls are ambidextrous, which includes being able to change the direction of ejection by pushing in a button at the rear of the receiver, as well as switching the bolt handle from left to right. In addition to being foldable, the stock is also adjustable for length, but only by 3 inches in or out. The stock fits me fine, but your mileage may vary. The rifle is light weight and with the 10 inch barrel is handles more like a SMG than a rifle. It has neutral balance and felt good no matter how I held it. The pistol grip is more or less a copy of the M16, which I don't like, and it is molded into the lower housing assembly and impossible to change. The trigger was heavy, around 7 lbs, but is single stage (a bit unusual for a military rifle) and has no creep at all. While not a good as the trigger on my SIG MCX, the Beretta trigger is acceptable out of the box. The flip up sights are a bit odd looking and while functional, there are better sights out there. Short Picatinny rails are included on each side of the rifle as well as on the bottom. The lower rail is very short, more like handstop only short. There is a full length accessory rail which can be installed. I have it, but haven't bothered to do anything with it.
the barrel is 1 in 7 twist and I fired Lake City M855, which was all I had on hand. The rifle ran perfectly. I used a number of different magazines, including second generation P-Mags, which worked fine. The Third Generation P-mags, which have an over insertion stop built into the magazine body are not supposed to be able to lock into this rifle. I don't have third gens, so I can't say if it is true.
I ran the rifle suppressed and unsuppressed:
Because the rifle can switch ejection on demand, there are ejection ports on the left and on the right. The first round I fired gave me a blast of gas out of the left side of the receiver which caught me totally off guard. I don't know how you south-paw guys can deal with right hand side ejection, but you do. Unlike my SIG MCX, which is very quiet suppressed, the Beretta didn't seem to get nearly the same level of sound reduction. It ran fine and with no need to change the gas setting, but I don't see this rifle as being a good candidate for shooting suppressed on a regular basis.
All and All, I'm please with this rifle. It looks odd and has some quirks, but it handles well and it won't get mixed up with anything else on the range. Beretta isn't selling many of the 10 inch SBR's, so I'm glad I got one while they are available.
Comments
Thanks for the info.
As a lefty shooter that shoots all righty long arms, I can assure you it is no fun having the gas come at your arm and face. I always have to wear long sleeves to protect from hot brass hitting the arm too. But it is kind of nice to be able to see into the ejection port with a glance.
And fiery auto crashes
Some will die in hot pursuit
While sifting through my ashes
Some will fall in love with life
And drink it from a fountain
That is pouring like an avalanche
Coming down the mountain
Being right handed and shooting rifles which have right hand ejection and ejection openings only on the right means that blast and noise doesn't create any problem. As I said, I was caught totally by surprise when I fired the rifle and felt a fair amount of gas come out of the left side and hit me in the face. The spent cartridge was configured to eject out of the right side, so there was no danger of being struck with hot brass, but it is distracting to have that blast of gas hit my face.
I now appreciate the plight of left handed shooters in a right handed world.
The images have not been reversed, the bolt handle has been rotated from one side to the other. I happen to like the cocking handle on the left, which is where it will stay. This also gives a good view of the safety selector, the bolt release, which is at the front of the trigger guard (push down to release the bolt), the magazine release buttons (including one at the bottom of the trigger guard), and the barrel release levers, which look like Glock takedown levers.
I've heard the rifle called a pregnant guppy...and worse. The lines aren't especially graceful, but the design is functional...surprisingly so.
This photo shows the accessory rail which will replace the lower hand guard:
While I normally run a forward grip, this rifle and the SIG MCX are two that I don't feel need front grips. The hand guards on both rifles seem to rest in the off-hand naturally and feel comfortable when firing.