The M.U.L. (multi-use launcher) from X Products packs a whole lot of fun into a .308 blank-powered 66mm tube.
You know how every so often, you come across something that is absolutely perfect and could not possibly be improved upon, like Oreos? And then one day you wake up, and while you weren’t looking they came up with double-stuffed Oreos? It’s sort of like adding bacon to… well, anything. Something you thought couldn’t get any better is suddenly cranked up to 12?
Well, strap yourself in and prepare to go over the top, because X Products has just double stuffed the Can Cannon (click this link to see our article on the original), with the new Can Launcher Upper for 7.62mm ARs in .308 Caliber. Dubbed the M.U.L. (for “multi-use launcher”), this is the Can Cannon with bacon; it launches cans and all manner things harder and farther.
The Fun Tube
The original Can Cannon was introduced in 2015, and it was met with much excitement. The idea was simple and awesome at the same time. Almost everyone has an AR-15 with a lower, bolt and charging handle that could serve as a host for the Can Cannon upper. The old Can Cannon has a standard upper receiver that will chamber a .223 blank. Affixed to the chamber is a tube with holes that vent the gas produced by the blank. Surrounding the tube and threaded to the upper is a 12½-inch tube with a 66 millimeter inside diameter. This simple modification produces a chamber of about 5½ inches, into which one can insert a can, tennis ball or a host of other garage clutterers… and then launch said clutter like your old slingshot could only dream!
Designed to attach to DPMS-pattern 7.62 AR lowers, the M.U.L. gives you the ability to launch a lot of cool things a very long way!
The M.U.L. is a compact package that offers outsized amounts of fun on the range.
B.A.T.F. (Bureau of Anti Tube Fun)
As we all know, when a Killjoy sees something fun their heart grows 10 times smaller, and they are consumed with a burning lust to put a stop to it. The notorious BATF (Bureau of Anti Tube Fun) stepped in and put a halt to the Can Cannon Christmas in September of 2015, when they issued a letter saying that when the Can Cannon was affixed to a rifle receiver it was considered an SBR, or short barrel rifle, and when placed on a pistol it became an AOW (Any Other Weapon). By that time, almost 5,000 units had been sold, and people asked why X Products hadn’t already gotten a determination letter from the ATF. It turns out, they had. “We had already received a determination letter for our upper before the product originally went on sale. After the fact, we submitted a complete firearm and they decided to change their minds.”
To address the concerns of the BATF, the system’s barrel has multiple ports cut to release gas and prevent it from being a short-barreled rifle.
X Products had four options to correct the problem:
- Adding holes after the chamber so that all the gasses are expelled instantly.
- Adding holes after the chamber and then welding a plug/plate over the bore so that no projectile could pass.
- Making the tube 16-inches long.
- Rifling the inside of the tube.
Option 2 was the route X Products went to appease the BATF, who gleefully moved on to their other important duties, like going after the Sig Brace. Way too much joy down in Whoville from that Sig Brace, too.
With a proven solution in place, all the existing Can Cannon owners were offered an exchange program to be compliant. A plug was welded in the end of the tube, and a rod was inserted and welded just past the chamber to prevent a live round from chambering.
Article continued below:
Size Matters
The .223 Can Cannon was great at launching cans, which made people want to launch things harder and faster. That lamentation of the people for more power was answered at the 2017 SHOT Show, with the debut of the .308 Multi-Use Launcher (M.U.L.). This is the big brother to the .223 version. The M.U.L. Upper mounts to any standard DPMS 7.62mm AR-pattern lower; just drop it onto your lower, install your BCG and charging handle, and you are good to go. Using X Products’ proprietary .308 blanks, you can push heavier objects farther and harder than the standard 5.56 can cannon.
What are these “heavier objects” that you can launch? Well, X Products offers a grappling hook and a list of accessories (see table at right) coming soon. No need to look too far to find a hidden arsenal of ammunition. Simply dig around in your kitchen pantry; soup cans or other 66 millimeter cans make fine projectiles. You can also check your garage for a stockpile of ammunition, as most spray cans will fit. Heck, half the fun of the M.U.L. is figuring out what will launch best. I found that soda cans will not work as the pressure is too great and pulling the trigger tends to produce shredding and spewing rather than the satisfying arch and thud of a solid landing. Keep in mind: many items can be launched with a little help from a bit of wadding. Plastic water bottles and tennis balls work best with a few wraps of duct tape during the prep for take-off.
The M.U.L. proved to be too powerful for soda cans (that would get shredded), so the author picked up some weightier options.
A CMMG Mk3 3GR was the author’s host rifle for the X Products M.U.L. project.
Fun Time
The M.U.L. was shipped to me in a cardboard shipping tube and needed a host for range work, for which I selected the CMMG Mk3 3GR .308 Rifle. The lower is billet 6061 T6 aluminum that accepts LR-308/SR-25 pattern magazines. The trigger is a Geissele SSA 2-Stage trigger; the first stage pull is 2.3 pounds and the second stage is 1.2 pounds. The total pull weight is thus 3.5 pounds. The low-mass hammer reduces lock time; this all adds up to a crisp break that is very shootable. I also robbed the bolt carrier group and charging handle. The installation was quick and straight forward, with no fitting or fuss.
I could have added an optic on the Picatinny rail, but sights were not possible as the tube has no means to attach a sight. I instead opted for a Go Pro camera, which would allow me to share the fun on YouTube. To facilitate this, I used the Caldwell Pic Rail Go-Pro mount that uses a standard Picatinny rail with a quick-detach mount, allowing the camera bracket to be removed for carrying or transport. The adjustable bracket allows the camera angle to be adjusted, and then locked into place. The whole thing is made of aluminum and is light, durable, and super handy.
Selecting ammunition was more of a scavenger hunt than a shopping trip. I went to the canned soup section of my local grocery store and bought soup, vegetables, and Beanie-Weenies. Next, a trip to the auto parts store yielded spray glue, spray paint and a case of bottled water. I had some tennis balls and duct tape already in the truck.
At the range, the manual of arms made itself evident. Load the blanks into the magazine, insert the magazine, load the muzzle up with your projectile of choice, cycle the bolt with the charging handle, off safe and depress the trigger. This launches the can, bottle, or ball and generates squeals of joy. Be warned- the B.A.T.F. Inquisition may be alerted by your happiness and come up with some new sanctions. As there is no gas tube, the bolt must be manually cycled each time. I found the rate of fire to be about 12 rounds per minute of sustained fire.
I have some recommendations based on my range sessions. For close-in shooting, use tennis balls, as they are safer. They don’t explode and spray contents, and tend not to break things. When lobbing items over medium distances with precision, spray cans of glue or paint work quite well. Be aware that these hit hard and tend to leave a mess. I managed to shoot a can of glue through the rear window of a Ford Explorer, wedging the can between the front seat and passenger door and spraying glue everywhere! Finally, the money shot is soup cans. These bad boys can be launched 100-plus yards with enough elevation applied. I was able to knock over 55-gallon barrels at 50 yards with a flat trajectory. Re-read that sentence. Go ahead, I’ll wait.
The author put a can of glue through the rear window of this vehicle on the range.
That’s pretty radical, right?
I really can’t stress enough how much pure fun the new M.U.L. delivers. Not one person failed to smile and laugh while shooting it, no matter the ammunition or target. The learning curve to land hits using Kentucky windage was short. And it’s just the right combination of serious and silly. This served as an ad-hoc team-building outing for range training more than once; kind of like a fun intermission.
The 66mm tube threads over the “barrel” of the upper.
No practical use necessary
I could go into the “practical uses” of this thing; it really does have some: launching ropes to boats, bringing down drones with a net, training a dog to retrieve, etc. There are plenty of creative ways to use this thing as a tool rather than a toy. But for me, this is about fun, plain and simple. I let lots of people shoot this gun, and the shooter was never the only one laughing. Spectators, folks waiting their turn; everyone around is going to have a great time when this thing comes out to play. The good, clean fun and games were well worth the money. Gosh, I spent almost this much money trying to build the perfect potato gun one summer. If you take a run on the .308 Multi-Use Launcher (M.U.L.) and manage not to have a good time, I highly suggest you apply for a job at the B.A.T.F., because you’ve got a broken laugh box and might as well put it to good use.
For more information, visit https://www.xproducts.com/product/308-multi-use-launcher-m-u-l/.
To purchase a Can Cannon on GunsAmerica.com, click this link: https://www.gunsamerica.com/Search.htm?Keyword=Can%20Cannon<id-all=1&as=730&cid=2&ns=0&numberperpage=50&.
To purchase a CMMG Mk3 series rifle on GunsAmerica.com, click this link: https://www.gunsamerica.com/Search.aspx?Keyword=CMMG%20Mk3.
Maybe I missed something along the way…but what happens if someone loads real .308 and then pulls the trigger? I’m thinking that hole was there for a reason?
With no hole, a normal round will not chamber.
Blank loads are shorter.
I bought a can cannon after the first GunsAmerica article. Seemed like a good idea.
When it didn’t fit into a standard AR lower, I called the company TWICE and had to leave a message. No return call.
When I call to buy a case of their high capacity drum magazines, they sure seem to be able to return the call. Go figure.
I imagine that it GunsAmerica had a poorly fitted can cannon shipped to them, X products would return their call.
Their drum mags work great. I’m thinking that their can cannons need a little work (or perhaps I just got an out of spec can cannon and it’s their customer service that needs some work.)
As this is essentially a muzzle loader, I wonder why the BATF has any jurisdiction at all.
While the projectile may be loaded from the muzzle, the power source is loaded semi-auto fashion, hence the BATFE has jurisdiction.
THIS WOULD BE GOOD FOR POLICE TO MARK LOOTERS AND OTHER STUPID LIBERAL DEMONCRAT PROTESTER AND LOOTERS. USE A PROJECTILE LOADED WITH SKUNK SCENT THAT BURSTS ON IMPACT.
Disagree, because the police are not known for supporting anyone having fun.
On the other side, “Liberals” could load things like water bottles with skunk spray and shoot them back at the cops. The water bottle would burst on impact and the cops would get skunked too – OR…load some “Banana Peel” into the water bottles and watch the cops do pratfalls.
Remember: Any weapon used by one side in a confrontation can be used by the other side too.
Police are very, very paranoid about demonstrators with guns. Very paranoid. Many would go into automatic shoot-anything-anyone-that-moves mode. That might seem like a good idea against liberal/socialist demonstrators, but it’s not. Too many bewildered bystanders would be killed, too.
“product income source for the can cannon folks” is the answer to that question.
The original version went through some incarnations that resulted in an end product that can ONLY use their proprietary length blanks. When pinning the chamber became an (additional) excuse to molify ATF the folks at Xproducts decided that the final iteration located the welded pin JUST far enough into the leade that a mil-spec blank WON’T chamber.
So much for cheap fun.
If the M.U.L. won’t launch soda/beer containers without bursting, they can keep it as far as I’m concerned.
My 3rd generation “barrel” using DAP blanks launches water filled empty soda/beer cans with a gorilla-tape stoppers anywhere from 110-135 yards for about eleven cents per round.
The 4th gen pressure tube and proprietary Xproducts blanks (5.56 version) equates to a minimum of close to .35 cents each (minus payload cost).
It was a great idea until pure profit motivation took over.
Come the revolution, we’ll all be making 66mm rifle grenades.
Careful. Some of you are bound to find out methods to blow yourselves up before you find out methods to not blow yourselves up.
Would this work on a nagant somehow?
nope
Go to neighborhood tire store and rummage through scrap for a couple old shock absorbers. Find or make a device to either screw or clamp to your muzzle. cut either inner or outer tube wich ever comes close to desired OD and weld threaded or clamp device on. Just remember to only use blanks.
This is just plain Fucking Stupid! Lets give the left more reasons to think we are insane!
Who cares what the left thinks? In the long run of history, they are the dinosaurs. If “man-caused climate change” doesn’t get them ( while we on the practical Right are simply adapting to any change that takes place) then they’ll die out because they all go gay or transgender.
Do you really believe they need a reason beyond the fact that we support the second amendment?
Hey, you X-Products people. What about making your own proprietary ‘ammo’ by 3-D???
I recently though I saw something where they do that now with the 37mm launcher ammo?
More things for the Whiners from Whinerville to whine about. You know the ones. The people who are losing bowel control now over the current push to repeal tax stamps on suppressors. What do we do with people like that who can’t stand the idea of other folks being able to push the Second Amendment where it’s never been in a long while? We hand them a cork and an Imodium, and tell them to STFU, they’lost the election.
Ahhhh, you’ve just got to admire the creative ingenuity of gun people. I’m just wondering why the 66mm soup can diameter?
Beer cans would have been a better choice? They are ubiquitous and your wife could not fault you then for drinking the beer–after all, that would be ‘alcohol abuse’ if you just wasted it by spilling it out– before filling it with sand, plugging the top with liquid nails caulk and you might even get better range with the 5.56 version?
I REALLY LIKE the drone NET idea! They’ve got some interesting plastic netting used to cover cherry trees against birds that’s compact and lightweight but good square footage???
Took about a hundred meter shot last month with a scoped high powered pellet rifle hovering and obviously spying around a neighbor’s barn and house. I think I nicked it because it jumped and went away. Could easily take one out with an AR-15. One of those 40grn. varmint rounds would literally explode it, but don’t like firing serious bullets in the air. Probably is a totalitarian law against that anyway. But I’d really like to capture it and find out if it’s just a perve trying to check her or her daughter out, someone scoping to steal something on the property, or an illegal warrantless intrusion by the local police state authorities? At least three county departments have them in my state now. And more on the way.
Anyway, keep up the good work, Boys!
As a “gun nut” and a drone pilot, it really bugs me to see people using the bad actions of a few to make a whole culture/hobby look bad. I’ve been shooting guns for over fifty years without ever shooting a person and I’ve been flying drones for several years without spying on my neighbors or peaking in peoples’ windows. Please don’t put down the entire drone hobby because of the actions of a very few.
Fred, I’m not putting down drones. I’m a huge fan! They are part of my own property defense system. I’m an original old time R/C airplane builder and graduated into building LSA. But I don’t fly over my neighbor’s houses to peek at their daughters/wives sunbathing.
It’s not a big problem in the private sector, But with new FAA drone laws obviously favoring the police state, And the courts allowing ‘questionable’ 4th/A actions by LE using drones, “The bad use of drones will soon not just be the actions of a ‘few’ but of a growing contingent of Gestapo to perpetuate their illegal surveillance state.
To wit: A sheriff’s department in North Dakota is using drones indiscriminately to ‘patrol’ over private property. When asked what his probable cause was, he brazenly told the news that “,,,he uses the Drones to GET probable cause”, AND he’s also ‘arming’ these drones with supposedly less than lethal, but still adequately maiming firepower!
I’m pretty sure the one harassing my neighbor is a private one, however, and my other neighbor, who is a skeet shooter says he can take it down at ranges over 100 yards with one of his ‘goose’ guns with the right ammo and that’s what we’ll try the next time. Fortunately the court rulings on this so far favor the privacy and safety of the home owner. You simply can’t buzz a drone, your R/C gas engine B-52 model airplane, fireworks, or your trained falcon over people’s land disrupting their peace and quiet, terrifying their animals, and possibly crashing into them or their homes. (several cases of this so far) placing them in fear of their lives.
What I want to do Fred, when I get time, is develop a counter-attack hunter-interceptor electronic device that shuts it down when it gets over your property. I know the technology is there. It just has to be ‘applied’. For now, On a basic level, I’m looking at a drone from this company that’s actually designed to crash into things without getting damaged. So that could be used to just fly up and intercept an illegal drone and smash it down?!
I see no difference in the police flying a UAV over my house than a police helicopter – both have good law enforcement use. Needless to say, I’d rather limit flying low over cities, towns, and neighborhoods to official police business, and not some hobbyist voyeur. Flying UAVs would save the tax payers huge money, and save wear and tear on helicopters, so I’m all for the police using them instead of the expensive whirlybirds any time they can.
The difference between the helicopter and a drone is one can be much cheaper to operate and a lot less noticeable. Both of those truths make the drone more likely to be used. The stronger and more capable law enforcement gets, the harder it is to successfully resist should that prove necessary.
I believe there is a gun to take them down that blasts them with an emp pulse.
This is jusf one more reason why we need a similar “Mil Spec” for the AR10!
Are “Proprietary” .308 Blanks the only type that can be used? Why ? Size issue? Safety issue with standard Nato surplus 7.62 Blanks? Or just another product income source for the can cannon folks.
The 308 blanks I have seen tend to be as long as live rounds, no actual crimp, but shaped like a bullet for feeding in belt fed guns. So would not chamber in one of these due to the inability to use live ammo. Those crimped 308 blanks in the pic are shorter to fit. Can’t see where they would be hard to make.
Exactly what I was wondering/thinking. Pretty likely the standard NATO 7.62mm blank is too long (since they have to prevent chambering of live rounds). I’m wondering if standard blanks can be cut shorter to fit and still function OK. I’ve got over 5,000 of those suckers and it would be a good use for them. I’m thinking that cutting them off to a proper length and then simply squeezing the end shut in a vise would would but gonna have to experiment.
Another possible use other than a harpoon (how the heck do they get away with using that as it’s obviously launching a lethal object?) would be a Ham antenna launcher. Us Amateur Radio guys are always looking for good way to get wire antennas WAY up into trees.
The film said you could use standard Army surplus blanks – where did someone find out different?