(Photo: Colt)
(Editor’s note: This article was a submission from freelance writer Max Slowik)
Magpul’s M-Lok mounting system just received a serious endorsement from Colt Canada with their new MRR or Modular Railed Rifle. Designed for land Colt military and police contracts, this is one of the first guns by a major manufacturer to select M-Lok over other rail systems.
While Picatinny rails are dropping off in favor of M-Lok and KeyMod, neither of the two newer mounting systems have established a firm lead over the other, and both have a lot of manufacturer and aftermarket support, until now. The decision to select M-Lok was based on feedback from law enforcement and military customers.
Even though it’s not tied to any specific contract the MMR will have an influence on what system other manufacturers chose to use with their patrol and duty carbines, which will, in turn, affect the commercial market.
Of course, the only way to know if one mounting system has achieved complete success is if it is selected as a standard by the U.S. military, and even then neither system will completely die off; both have their fans and established user bases.
In addition to the new rail system, the Colt MMR represents a step forward over the IUR, or Integrated Upper Receiver, Colt Canada’s current flagship AR-15-style carbine. Apart from using M-Lok instead of Picatinny, the biggest difference is the lost weight, reports Calibre.
“The new MRR [weighs] almost a full 3/4 of a pound less than the outgoing IUR rifles when fitted with the same heavy-profile barrel.” And the IUR wasn’t particularly heavy in the first place, with the 16-inch model weighing in at 7.45 pounds. Full specifications will be revealed at SHOT Show 2016.
Other new features include a full spread of Magpul accessories, including the magazines, pistol grip, stock, foregrip and folding backup iron sights. The MMR also sports a complete Cerakote finish, including the barrel, instead of traditional anodized and parkerized finishes. One thing that hasn’t changed is the use of Colt’s ported flash hider.
The MMR also has ambidextrous controls including the magazine release and selector levers and is expected to be launched in several configurations from PDW-style compact carbines to full-size DMR rifles with fixed Magpul rifle stocks and rifle-length barrel systems and extended handguards.
Colt Canada is showing the kind of adaptability and flexibility that Colt of the U.S. needs to have. In recent years, Colt has lagged behind while other companies took over their markets in all sectors, from military to commercial and law enforcement markets.
The quality of Colt rifles has not diminished, but the quality of their competition has improved, and the rest of the manufacturing community has been hard at work finding new standards that offer more to users that what Cold does today. If a Colt rifle like the MMR was offered in the stateside it would go a long way to restoring Colt as one of leading movers in the AR market.
It’s worth noting that the decision to go with MLOK was 2 fold, 1) the USMC actually carried out an extensive test between the two and the Magpul offering came out on top, so to comply with future POSSIBLE contracts they went with the US government’s decision. 2) they firmly feel that Magpul is a marketing powerhouse and eventually will come out on top either way. Colt Canada (or DIEMACO, as they were called at the time) has always been innovative. When the C7 standard service rifle was adopted there were no fewer than 180 engineering updates made to shortcomings identified to the M16, and there’s more added all the time.
I bought a Colt LE6920, the bare bones model with no hand guard or furniture. I built it into about this exact thing. I used a free float front tube style like this though it is a picatini, the top rail is on it and the side and bottom rails screw on as needed. I used a rogers stock and a nice 1 – 4 x scope. I love it. Needs a better trigger but is pretty good as is. I would have bought one of these instead if available as long as they do not end up over priced.
Picatinny rails are infinitely superior to Keymod and M-lok. I prefer to have my rail already there and I can use it or not as I see fit; a system that requires me to attach rails separately or use some dumb proprietary system rather than the universal picatinny rail system is a nuisance at best. I REALLY don’t care about “almost 12 ounces” of weight either.
What you don’t get about M-LOK is that it doesn’t need the rail. There are a ton of M-LOK accessories right now, that attach directly in the M-LOK cuts and don’t need that bulky abrasive rail. I broke enough gloves in the damn picatini rails, to be thankful for a DIRECT mounting solution, like M-lok.
For optics the top picatini rail is great, but there’s absolutely no reason to have that cheese grater all over the handguard.
Well there you go- Spot on comment re: where Colt has been (or not…) headed.
“If a Colt rifle like the MMR was offered in the stateside it would go a long way to restoring Colt as one of leading movers in the AR market.”
But only if they offer it at a competitive price point. $1500+ ain’t gonna fly when you can buy equivalent rifles for almost half that. It also looks like Colt Canada took a good look at the company Colt almost bought a couple years ago (LWRCI) and decided they needed to step up their game to match the quality and features offered by a premier manufacturer.