New: Bond Arms Lever Motion AR-15

Whether or not you’re keen on them or hate them, modernized or so-called “tactical” lever motion rifles have skyrocketed in reputation lately. We will attest that our personal Marlin 336 Darkish Sequence mission is a ton of enjoyable to shoot, but it surely nonetheless has a couple of downsides. The journal tube can solely maintain 5 rounds, it have to be reloaded one spherical at a time, and the handbook of arms is considerably totally different from a contemporary semi-auto rifle, resulting in a steep studying curve. At SHOT Present 2023, we discovered a brand new Bond Arms lever motion rifle that fuses this traditional working mechanism with the ergonomics, capability, and modularity of an AR-15. The Bond Arms lever motion AR decrease can be utilized with any milspec AR-15 higher, feeds from an AR-15 magazine, and accepts quite a lot of Remington 870 shotgun shares.

About Bond Arms

Bond Arms is a Texas-based gun producer that has been round since 1995, however they are not sometimes related to rifles. The corporate primarily makes Derringer-style double-barrel handguns. So, once we walked by the Bond Arms sales space at SHOT Present this week, we have been stunned and intrigued to see the lever gun pictured above on a desk surrounded by handguns. We instantly requested for extra info and have been directed to the rifle’s designer, who gave us an in depth run-down of its options.

The Bond Arms Lever Motion AR-15

To be clear, this rifle remains to be in a pre-production prototype section, however Bond Arms tells us they have been testing and refining it for greater than a yr already. It is not the primary lever-gun-meets-AR mission we have heard of — the FightLite Herring Mannequin 2024 involves thoughts — but it surely actually looks as if a significant step ahead on this class.

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Ranging from the highest, it accepts a regular AR-15 higher receiver. Bond Arms says it has been confirmed to work with all the things from a .223/5.56mm higher all the way in which as much as a .50 Beowulf higher. Most of us already personal a number of AR higher receivers that can be utilized with the Bond Arms lever motion decrease.

Transferring on to the decrease receiver, that is the place it will get actually fascinating. There is a push-button security much like what you’d discover on a lever gun, and a novel magazine launch that extends rearward to supply easy accessibility to the shooter’s index finger. The entrance portion of this magazine launch — the half the place a daily AR magazine launch button can be — will also be pressed on to drop the magazine. On the alternative facet of the receiver, there’s one other magazine launch button for ambidextrous use. The magazine properly is flared for fast reloads; we examined its retention and launch with a 30-round PMAG.

Essentially the most stunning a part of the Bond Arms lever motion AR is the lever mechanism itself. In response to the designer, it makes use of an uneven cam that rides in a observe (the slotted silver piece protruding from the receiver in these photographs). This permits the leverage utilized to the bolt to extend at factors the place extra drive is required, akin to whereas feeding a spherical from the journal. Bond Arms says this advanced cam mechanism wasn’t obligatory for five or 10-round mags, however feeding the primary few rounds from a full 30-round magazine created extra resistance and required extra leverage for easy operation.

There’s additionally a secondary “grip security” constructed into the lever — to ensure that the rifle to fireplace, the lever have to be squeezed evenly in opposition to the inventory. This capabilities equally to a 1911 grip security, solely reversed to the entrance of the grip.

We have been in a position to deal with and dry hearth the lever gun prototype, and located it to be easy and straightforward to make use of. In comparison with a standard lever gun, this rifle has a noticeably shorter throw that lends itself to speedy hearth. The one time we seen the grip security mechanism was once we tried to press the set off with out touching the lever; it labored as supposed and prevented the rifle from firing.

One other ingenious facet of this design is the interchangeable lever loop. Bond Arms realized that some customers want massive loops to be used with gloves, whereas others want extra conventional small loops. In addition they wished to permit customers to swap to varied Remington 870 shotgun shares, such because the Magpul SGA 870 inventory and Hogue Overmolded inventory pictured right here — this might require totally different loop shapes to match the contour of the grip. The answer was easy: make the the loop and set off guard a separate piece from the interior a part of the lever. The loop attaches to the gun through two dovetailed sections across the set off guard.

This modular design permits the consumer to simply swap lever loops (and shares) with out affecting the rifle’s inner mechanism or requiring gunsmithing work.

Worth and Availability

We have not had an opportunity to shoot the Bond Arms lever motion AR but, however we hope to get our fingers on one quickly for an intensive overview. Bond Arms advised us their purpose is to launch the retail model of this lever gun by this time subsequent yr (i.e. January 2024) at an MSRP of $1,500. Clearly, the worth and time-frame aren’t set in stone at this level. For extra info, regulate BondArms.com or observe the corporate’s Instagram @BondArms_.

Written by Patrick McCarthy