Review: Manticore Arms AR 15 Line

[DMViergever]

Manticore Arms recently sent me their AR line to review and the one item that really stuck out was the Eclipse flash hider. It is the "IIncredilble Hulk" of 3 prong flash hiders. It is 2.25 inches long and just under four ounces with crush washer. This thing was big and beefy and after tapping it on the counter we assumed it was a tuning fork. We mounted it up on a 16 inch carbine and started slinging lead. We were pleasantly surprised that there was no "ping" associated with similar flash hiders. The other cool thing was the Eclipse completely eliminated muzzle flash with XM 193. The Eclipse is certainly the all-star of the line up.

The Extended Magazine Button Release came with both the extended pad, a mag release button with two holes drilled for screws to attach the extended pad and a tube of Loctite. He primary use I can see for it may be gaming or for the extremely tiny hand. It is large enough that I would not put it on a rifle I was going to run hard or trust my life to but for teaching your little one to drop an AR mag without having to release the pistol grip. It will probably find a place on a .22 LR for when my little girl gets to shooting age.

The Sage Trigger Guard is different from other trigger guards for 2 reasons. It is extremely flexible, so flexible that it can literally flex and touch both ends. This seems a bit scary to me as I would assume if it took a hard blow to the trigger guard I imagine it could get up into the trigger. I cannot be certain because it was never installed on one of my lowers because of the second reason I don't like it: it requires two roll pins. Most all trigger guards require a roll pin in the rear and a detent or screw in the front. The Sage however uses a roll pin both front and back. I have built, changed, worked on a ton of lowers and still the one part that makes me most nervous is putting a pin in a trigger guard. To me having to do two is a deal breaker and the manufacturer stated that they preferred it to a screw after talking to a couple guys who had stripped out Magpul trigger guards. Personally I would rather ruin the $8.75 part as oppose to the lower.

Manticore's main calling is its products for Tavors, Augs and AKs and one of my fellow reviewers has been very impressed with their line of Aug parts and the Tavor line looks excellent but as far as the AR 15 line goes the only thing that really impresses me is the Eclipse. If you are in search of a device to deminish flash it is worth a look.

http://i702.photobucket.com/albums/ww27/DMViergever/IMG_3012_zps8d1c3de6.jpg
http://i702.photobucket.com/albums/ww27/DMViergever/IMG_3019_zps9d3312b0.jpg

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kBRJUOUjnq8

Dmviergever
Www.facebook.com/almosttactical

[discreet]

4oz flashider :dirol:

What's up with this new trend of boat anchors. I mean, that is about the worst place to add weight to a gun. Guess it will take one of the new v7 receiver extensions to balance the thing out lol.

Unsure what the point in having a rubber trigger guard in. Maybe it's to make it more confortable when youtry bump firing with your **** in it?

[DMViergever]

Haha like I said it is beefy. It works good but a quarter pound is heavy.

Triger guard is plastic, just very flexible. One won't be goingvon my rifle

[Iraqgunz]

I fail to see why anyone would put this junky crap on anything other than airsoft.

[DMViergever]

Yeah...when you agree to do a review you gotta do it. Good or bad.

[mastiffhound]

This looks like airsoft stuff being semi-upgraded to work on a real AR. It will probably find it's way into a gun shop I used to frequent that has new owners who think stuff like NCstar and other crap-type AR stuff is the best. If it's cheap enough it will unfortunately sell.

[plouffedaddy]

I'm a fan of the Eclipse; especially for the money. It's heavy but extremely effective at hiding flash signature. I don't have any experience with the rest of the products in the OP.




http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OaPARsgsWCI

[DMViergever]

I would give this company more credit than airsoft. Their other lines are pretty excellent and they are huge in the bullpup line. The AR is by no means their staple.

The AR market is a fickle business, there are a ton out there and everyone who has one wants something different. Sometimes you just can't win for losing. I post good products and positive reviews and am questioned if I am paid, then post a negative review about one small part of a company and it is taken and ran with that the entire company isn't solid.

The Eclipse is good. It is a bit heavy but in my mind if you want total flash reduction without the Vortex "ping" that this is a viable option. Remember, not everyone wants a rifle that weighs two pounds and shoots around corners. The Eclipse is great for the heavy barreled night time hog and coyote hunters running N.V. that want zero flash.

[Tzook]

After having messed around with this stuff (I'm also the shooter in the video) I don't think I could take any of it seriously enough to put it on a hard use, practical carbine. However, for what it's worth the Eclipse is the best flash suppressing device I have seen thus far, so it's not totally without merit. If you need total darkness and don't mind weight, the Eclipse is definitely worth a look.

And like DMViergever noted, the AR stuff this company puts out is definitely not the meat and potatoes of what they do. They have AK and AUG stuff that is considered to be solid gear, AR stuff simply just isn't their niche.

[eodinert]

The AAC Blackout flashider is 4.3 oz... nobody is bitching about that.

[scoutfsu99]

The AAC Blackout flashider is 4.3 oz... nobody is bitching about that.

Nor do you hear anything about a 3.75 oz SF brake. But a 4 oz flash hider that actually hides the flash?

People around here would bitch about a free blow job.

[Krusty783]

The flexible trigger guard seems logical to me from a business point of view: The part is not load bearing (so it doesn't need to be metal) and injection molded plastic is cheaper. That being said, they could have sprung for the few cents per part it would cost to include a threaded sleeve and screw instead of 2 roll pins.

[kdcgrohl]

Don't dismiss the company based off of their lack of AR-knowledge. They make high quality AK parts, and appear to make some very nice stuff for the bullpup market as well.

[discreet]

The AAC Blackout flashider is 4.3 oz... nobody is bitching about that.

...for their silencer mounting version.

Point I made is 4.3 oz is still heavy for what it is/does. The new Noveske kx4 is only a tad heavier and that thing is still pretty big.

[Dawg180]

This looks like airsoft stuff being semi-upgraded to work on a real AR. It will probably find it's way into a gun shop I used to frequent that has new owners who think stuff like NCstar and other crap-type AR stuff is the best. If it's cheap enough it will unfortunately sell.

It is easy to talk the talk with a lot of hate and say something is crap without actually using it. Send me your address, I will send you an Eclipse and a couple of SAGE trigger guards for free to test out. For a good baseline, test the SAGE trigger guard on a rifle against the Mapgul polymer trigger guard mounted on a gun, or whatever else you are running and see which one breaks first in various testing. Test them out honestly, fairly, and let me know what you think. Bending it in half before it is mounted is, well, meaningless. It is like rolling the new tires you bought for your car down the street and saying "they suck" before you ever put them on your Mustang- use it in the proper installed application and then try it out.

Let me address a couple of the comments in this thread, just going by the physical numbers and material choices.

First, everything we make is 100% designed and manufactured in the USA. NOTHING is made outside the U.S, and everything is designed for and tested on real firearms! It is actually insulting I have to even state that, but for the record there it is.

Materials are chosen based on application. In this case, the SAGE trigger guard is designed of a polymer with some flex- A little flex is better than break in this application. Once installed, the arc profile means of the SAGE combined with the polymer choice is pretty much unbreakable. A good knock to will cause it to bend slightly and return to shape, that is it. A roll pin is used at the front as there are lots of people who have used another brand of trigger guard that does use a tiny little set screw and stripped out the set screw on installation. We have considered including both a roll pin and set screw to let the end user decide which one to go with. As for being molded, well, if a trigger guard is made of polymer it is molded. It is not magic, just materials engineering.

As for the Eclipse being 4 ounces, well, 4 ounces of weight for zero flash and almost no 'ping'- it seemed a worthwhile engineering tradeoff for a mere 1 ounce over a stock A2 flash hider to gain a vast performance improvement. For the record the Eclipse is actually 3.6 ounces, and for comparison the Smith Vortex is 2.9 ounces, the AAC Blackout is 2.6 ounces. For a ounce more (1/12 of a can of Pepsi for a point of reference...) we were able to eliminate the ping that pronged flash hiders typically have and give equal or better performance. Fair trade off? Seems like to us, especially when guys are bolting 12 ounces rails and 18 ounce optics on to their guns...

I realize responding to a thread like this may get some backlash, but I feel we should be able to at least justify the design decisions we make with our products. If those choices aren't in line with what you like, no problem, there are plenty of options out there in the AR market.

Sven
Manticore Arms

[discreet]

Fair enough response Dawg.

We'll see how they play out. As for me personally with ping, that has never been a concern for me. Just seems that while some are going for the lightweight ordeal (BCM, V7, Rainier etc) there are still a few that are doing just the opposite.

IMO unless someone is spending huge amounts of time shooting in the dark, or using NV, don't really see why flash is that big of an issue. But to each their own. all IMO for me. Someone may love the stuff, the same as me digging v7 stuff while others think it's pointless.