A few months back, I wrote about a niche-market AR-15 stock adapter called the “Hammerhead“, and wrapped up the post with an offhand comment that if Exile Machine wanted to send me an example of their product, I would be happy to put it through the paces and see if my concerns amounted to nothing more than someone pontificating about something he has never touched, much less seen in the flesh.
Well, what should show up on my doorstep a few days ago than this:
(On a somewhat personal, subjective note, I absolutely love how subdued the branding is on the Hammerhead – in my opinion, if a piece of hardware is going to function as a miniaturized billboard, they should be paying me to use it. Hopefully this design element remains in the future.)
Unfortunately, due to moving, remodeling, and other new-house obligations, I will not have the time to properly test and review this new toy for a few weeks (which, thankfully, the folks at Exile Machine do not have a problem with), but I will shoot off a few quick comments here.
Those of you with sharp eyes will notice that the object in the above photograph is not the billeted aluminium chunk we were talking about previously. That is because it is not. In fact, according to Mark Gessner, the President/CEO of Exile Machine, the aluminium version is no longer produced, and this new polymer construct is going to be the mainline product once they work out some kinks.
One of those kinks is the finish, which I am told that they are working on making more uniform across the surface.
Also, I made a comment earlier about how the natural point of comparison for the Hammerhead is the U-15 stock (something I was not too fond of from my five minutes of handling it); however, Mark wanted to specify that they do not see themselves as competition to the U-15, but rather something of a parallel product. Instead of focusing solely on the draconian and patently idiotic “black rifle”-related laws of Kalifornistan (like the “fixed magazine” regulation Kalifornistan gunnies all know and hate, which was one of the primary driving forces of the design for this product), the folks at Exile Machine are looking to target any locale with assault weapon bans on guns that look “evil”, like many of the Northeastern states. Fair enough – I cannot say as though I know a great deal about firearm laws outside of TN and CA, but anything that bypasses idiotic restrictions-that-accomplish-nothing (like, for example, AWBs) is a good thing in my book. That said, I have it on good authority they will ship you one of these things even if you happen to live in free America, you just have to send them a little money…
Finally, their webpage does an outstanding job illustrating all the different ways to employ the Hammerhead, but for the sake of upfrontness, I plan on using it with a new MagPul UBR Stock
installed directly on B.O.M.B.E.R., and a Command Arms Accessories Modular Buttstock to use on the Hammerhead itself. Yes, those are different stocks, but I will do my best to keep that in mind when describing stock-on-rifle versus stock-on-adapter, and the fixed buffer tube of the UBR should make cheek-welding easier and more consistent.
Of course, one of the new, coincidentally-named (but not actually related, contrary to my previous report) Hammerhead Rifle Tools would be mighty useful in moving stocks around and working on all the screwing and unscrewing to be done… *nudgenudge*
I promised Mark a review within a month, and I will do my best to hold myself to that, so keep an eye on this weblog and see what I manage to put up – if nothing else, there will probably be some amount of gunporn, and that is always a Very Good Thing (TM). Speaking of, here are some more gratuitous picture of the Hammerhead:
Definitely an interesting looking product. That said, I’m glad I don’t live in California when it comes to gun laws!
You have no idea how happy I am to have escaped that particular hellhole. Of course, as my father says, everyone should live there at some point in their lives, just to better appreciate the less-encumbered rights we enjoy in the rest of free America.
Still, even in light of those asinine laws that accomplish damned near nothing, one has to be encouraged that there exist people and companies willing to do their damnest to work around those laws and support the people trapped in those states. Definitely heartwarming, that
.
[...] Or is it? I dunno what it’s for but it looks interesting. [...]
hmmmm I wonder if I could employ one of these on that S&W M&P15-22 I’ve been wanting, but didn’t want to fuck up the collapsible stock to comply with our shit laws.
Keep me posted and maybe my bank account can be drained…
Well, assuming pistol grip + detachable magazine is the defintion of an assault weapon in Massafrakkingchusetts (and hell if I know – I had a hard enough time keeping up with the laws in Kalifornistan), and assuming some legal entity in that wonderful state has clarified “pistol grip” like the liberal bastion of America has (“‘pistol grip that protrudes conspicuously beneath the action of the weapon’ means a grip that allows for a pistol style grasp in which the web of the trigger hand (between the thumb and index finger) can be placed below the top of the exposed portion of the trigger while firing), then, yeah, you should be able to throw a collapsible stock on and call it a day.
However, if NJ’s defition of a gun that looks evil includes collapsible stock + detachable magazine, like CA’s does, you are still screwed
.
The northeast (NE) AWB states (CT, MA, NJ, NY) are different from CA in a few respects. We have a pretty detailed writeup on our legal page: http://www.exilemachine.com/legal.html but I’ll compare/contrast briefly here.
The primary difference is that while in CA you can have ZERO evil features on your (off-list detachable magazine) rifle, in the NE you can have ONE evil feature on your (postban) rifle. The evil features are the same in all NE AWB states but they differ slightly from CA’s list. For example in CA the thumbhole stock is evil but that’s OK in the NE, and in NE the bayo lug is evil but it’s OK in CA.
Most northeast AWB shooters, they’re going to pick the pistol grip as their “one” evil feature. But there are many who’d rather have a collapsible stock. The threaded barrel, not evil in CA, is evil in the NE. So for the NE shooter who wants to try swapping out various muzzle devices, they could do that by using a Hammerhead to replace the pistol grip. Otherwise they’d need to pin/weld the device to make it permanent, which by the way destroys the resale value of the barrel. There are milsurp bayonet collectors who want to be able to fix their bayonets to their rifle. Hammerhead lets them do that.
Having a 30-round (or larger) detachable mag is a very compelling reason to go with the Hammerhead, but that’s a CA-only thing.
Finally while CA has a precise geometric/biological definition of what constitutes a pistol grip, in the NE, there’s no such definition. You have to rely on common sense; it’s obviously part of the stock and not a separate grip.
We do recommend shooters in restricted states seek the advice of a competent firearms attorney before building or reconfiguring the evil black rifles. Still we have sold boatloads of these into the NE AWB states with that caveat.
-Mark
Exile Machine LLC
Ah, I missed the “two vs. one” hitch when comparing Kalifornistan laws to northeastern states – in that case, you should be golden, Weer’d, assuming you do not have a flash suppressor or other “evil” features.
I am definitely going to start pointing folks to your webpage, though, Mark – lawyers though you may not be, it is a good, consolidated source of information on some of the stupid-assed laws floating around our country.
Yep the M&P15-22 has a crowned barrel and an M4 style stock. You can buy them in Mass no problem, just the Mag must be reduced to 10, and the stock must be pinned in place.
If I bought one it would be a pinking rifle, plus an AR-trainer (not a rifle high on my list to own, personally, but a firearm so common one SHOULD know how to competently run all the controls) but also I see this as a VERY ideal gun for teaching new shooters, as it looks “Cool” ARs are easy to run, and again are common, so somebody who’s run some mags down the plastic .22 mock-up will easily transition to an AR-15 or AR-10. But since these “new recruits” might be younger children, or smaller men and women, an adjustable stock seems VERY valuable.
The value is a bit small tho if the new grip feels “goofy” in the hands, so I look forward to future reviews to sway my purchasing ideas.
@Weer’d Beard –
Have a look at this page ( http://www.exilemachine.com/customer_reviews.html ) for some customer reviews. Most comment on how it feels like you’re holding a wooden rifle.
-Mark
Exile Machine LLC
Well, I will definitely let everyone know how it goes – granted, my opinion is purely subjective, and I have a decided bias towards pistol grips on anything that can support them, but I will do my best to keep that out of the picture. I was trying to see if Unc’ might be interested in putting some lead downrange with it as well, but no such luck yet, just to get some different opinions.
I totally agree with the need for an adjustable stock, though – it is something Better Half and I have to work with, and why our HD shotgun has a Knoxx stock on it now. Yet another in a long line of stupid-assed laws that accomplish nothing.
[...] speaking of reviews, I will probably be headed to the range this weekend to test out the Hammerhead stock adapter I have – sorry for the delay, but between moving, in-laws, car wrecks, and everything else, [...]
[...] in such things, my review of the Hammerhead AR-15 stock adapter (that we have talked about a few times before) will be up in the coming week – depsite moving, wrecking my car, and having in-laws [...]
Howdy, I just re-read your choice of stocks for the test and I think you’re going to have a problem with the UBR stock-on-rifle config with the Hammerhead. There will not be room to wrap your thumb around the Hammerhead with that stock. I would suggest using the CAA stock for both tests, stock-on-rifle as well as stock-on-hammerhead. There is a configuration (we call Type IV) where you could run the UBR but it would entail denying your opposable thumbs. It’s an underhand grip that’s not ideal. Only about one percent of our customers configure their rifles this way.
-Mark
Exile Machine LLC
Funny you should mention that – I encountered just that exact problem at the range last weekend
. Unfortunately, I got the UBR with the best of intentions, given that one can remove the stock portion of it and still have a decent cheek rest on the buffer tube, given how it is designed, but that little double-sided sling mounting point is something of a bear with the Hammerhead.
I did not have the time/tools at the range to do so, but I am in the process of removing the UBR now and installing the CAA as the primary stock, just to see how it fits with the thumb-over grip, and will notate all this in the review.
Just a thought, but it does not seem as though it would be too difficult to remold the hump and spine to allow for the UBR, but then that would change the gripping technique regardless, and would probably cater to too small of a market to be worth it. Dunno
.
The bigger issue with respect to California at least is that modification of the spine to create more space for your thumb would take you into felony territory. This photo shows the legal line that you have to keep the web of your shooting hand above in order to not have a pistol style grasp: http://www.exilemachine.com/images/IMG_8060_CLINE.JPG
-Mark
Bah – there I go again, not being very specific
. I was more thinking along the lines of moving the hump backwards along the spine (along what could be argued to be the x-axis of the Hammerhead), rather than downwards. That would keep both the line of the spine and the hump above the Kalifornistan-required line, and about half an inch or so (no idea of the actual measurement, but it probably would not be much) of backwards shifting on the hump should make it line up relatively well with the swivel mount of the UBR.
Basically, leave the hump solid from the back of the lower to the back of the swivel mount, in basically the same location it is now, just larger/longer.
But, still, probably too small of a market to really care about
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