Video: Adcor Defense's B.E.A.R. Elite M4 Coming Soon

Maybe you haven’t heard of Adcor, that’s OK, not everyone here did.  Maybe if you’re in the Aerospace business, then you might have heard of them.  Adcor is a machine shop, with Adcore Defense a subsidiary machine shop.  And they make weapons.

Adcor Defense is only about 20 years old but they’ve designed a pretty unique rifle: theirs is the world’s only gas-piston-operated M4 with both a free-floating barrel and a forward charging handle.  The gas piston system also promises less carrier tilt, which from footage of its operation, is fairly believable.  And the piston’s adjustable, so the operator can crank up or turn down the cycle rate of the rifle in situ.

The Adcor B.E.A.R. has a whole host of tweaks that make it a much more modern rifle than the M4, not limited to just the benefits of a gas piston system, which include not worrying about the gas burning off the gun’s lubricants as it gets used.  The piston is mounted into the quad rail, which is how they achieve a free float with a it; it’s a carbine-length rail with a cutout for barrel-mounted accessories, like, you know, shotguns and grenade launchers.  The way the quad rail comes apart it’s both easier and faster to clean than a standard M4.

But then there’s the spring-loaded dust cover, which closes itself between ejections, the fact that the forward-mounted charging handle is ambidextrous and doesn’t cycle with the piston, like an M4 charging handle should, and that the whole thing uses push-buttons to hold the receiver together that make it a very modern battle rifle.  Which is why the U.S. military has the Adcor B.E.A.R. on their short list of guns to replace their old M4s with.

You can buy their uppers, by the way, if you like the sound of all that.  Which we do, not sure how someone might not like the sound of that… And they’ve even gone so far as to improving on their already awesome B.E.A.R. with the B.E.A.R. Elite, ($1,900, coming soon, although uppers are ready now for about $1200).

Changes include M249-profiled barrels, made by FN, for sustained fire and rifling durability, at a 1:7 twist, available in 10.5-, 12.5-, 14.5-, 16-, and 18-inch barrels, and the lower receiver is fitted with a Magpul MOE buttstock and grip, and Magpul flip-up backup irons.

Either one of these uppers is appealing enough, it’s no wonder it’s one of the options for the next American battle rifle.  Makes you want one, don’t it?