lowracer

Thought I'd share some photos of the injection molding process. It's really quite fascinating. Tooling (mold) for the Hammerhead. You can see the cavity that forms the outer shape of the Hammerhead about center of the image toward the right. Note cooling fluid lines running top and bottom vertically. The molten polymer material comes into the mold around 500 degrees F and the mold itself is so massive and gets so hot during molding that it has to cool down for hours before they can remove it to do another customer's part. A newly formed Hammerhead, ready to be extracted from the mold. Shop owner removes the rear insert. The insert holds cylinders that produce the threaded section and the anti-rotation hole as well as the cylindrical "cores" inside the part to help it cool evenly and make it more lightweight. After the newly formed Hammerhead is ejected, it goes into a jig to have the threaded core section removed. This is a threaded steel cylinder that forms the threads and the largest core inside the Hammerhead. The product is still too hot to touch without special insulated gloves. This is the hopper. Pellets of raw polymer material go in the hopper and are melted and forced into the mold by a large screw. Here is the shop owner operating the machine. The timing of the injection, cooling, and extracting process is all controlled by a built-in computer. This guy's been in the plastics business for more than 30 years and mostly makes parts for the defense industry. They do a lot of polymer gun parts, magazine bodies and grip extenders. The shop has at least two dozen or more of these machines. They run three shifts 24/7. After the Hammerhead has had its rear threaded core removed, an anti-shrink jig is placed between the tabs of the pistol grip mounting area (The jig hasn't been completed yet so for these samples they are using a bolt of the appropriate diameter, works almost as well and much cheaper). Polymer shrinks when it cools. If the tabs were not blocked in this manner, they would bow inwards and be very difficult to fit to the receiver. These Hammerheads are still too hot to touch. The big red bin at top of the image is filled with ice water. The parts go in there to cool. After removal from the ice water they can be handled with bare hands but remain very hot to touch for several hours afterward. The blacked out section covers a prototype of a future product I'm not ready to reveal yet.

That's the Rock River Arms tube that I mentioned in a previous post. Some people like foam covered tubes, but I keep coming back to the RRA tube. It's a fairly badass look too, IMHO.

Thanks for the pre-order! The best price I've found on a pistol buffer tube is the Rock River arms tube at $25 direct from their website. Depends on if you want one with a foam cover. Ace makes a decent one as does Model 1 sales.

MSRP on the polymer is $36 + ship. Shipping is $2.25 via US Postal 1st class. We're taking pre-orders...

That would be blackstar arms. http://www.blackstararms.com/ Though I haven't seen any activity out of them lately. Well in CA at least it's probably 50% the desire to have the AR rifle benefits, modularity, ability to drop 30-rounders with a finger press, etc, and 50% desire to extend a knobby middle finger to the CA Dept of Justice (DOJ) Bureau of Firearms and CA legislature. At least in CA there is some kind of legal deadlock the legislature and the DOJ have gotten themselves into, with law on one side and conflicting regulation on the other and whooops, there's a hole there big enough to drive truckloads of legal AR lower receivers through. So by building the evil AR, no matter if crippled with a mag lock or configured with an alternate grip, they get to make their oppressors wet their pants. Many people there buy way more lower receivers than they can possibly use just to raise that collective middle finger even more. I understand completely. In the early days of the OLL (Off-List (legal) Lower receiver) movement in CA, shooters were uncertain about the laws and there was much fear and trepidation in deploying even something so now widely accepted as the bullet button mag lock. There was an arrest made and legal action taken against an FFL for selling rifles fitted with one of the alternate non-pistol-grip stocks; the FFL prevailed, and the DOJ was slapped down. So I guess there is always someone willing to be the test case, and lawyers willing to step up and defend that case. We've sold a bunch of Hammerheads into the northeast now, so time will tell. We do recommend shooters deploy only Type I or Type II configurations there though. There are also a fair number of "free state" customers who just want to hold their AR like a wooden rifle and don't see it as neutering at all. Just FYI we now produce the product in engineered polymer. Got the weight and the price down where they need to be, based on our market surveys. Expecting to have these shipping by the end of the month. Weight is approx 5 oz. This is a photo of a preproduction sample:

You can just remove the Pistol Grip from an AK-47 and hold it like a wooden rifle... I haven't tried it since I don't own an AK yet but there are those in CA who do this.

It's pretty hard to judge the comfort if you haven't actually held it and fired it. Try one for 30 days. If you don't love it, send it back. Won't cost you a dime. (BTW We've never had a return on this policy). Customer comments here: http://www.exilemachine.com/customer_reviews.html

Rock River Arms CAR A4 Mid-Length upper Kaiser Defense CALGUNS.NET Bear/Star Lower Model 1 Sales Pistol Buffer Tube (top picture) Rock River Arms Pistol Buffer Tube (3rd picture) ACE ARFX-E Buttstock Exile Machine Hammerhead Rifle Stock Adapter

There is another alternative to the California 1-piece wooden stock; you can use the Hammerhead stock adapter to eliminate the pistol grip and fit your rifle with a different evil feature of your choice: Alternatively you may be prepared to make the case that this adapter by itself is not a pistol grip: -Mark Exile Machine LLC Fort Worth TX http://www.exilemachine.com

Not sure if I can say this on here but we've got one out on Gunbroker for a song. starting bid 99 cents. They're all the same thing, whether marketed as CA-legal or AWB Compliant.

No problem, I enjoy it. It's just like holding a wooden rifle. Hard to describe it otherwise. When I pick up my M1 carbine or Garand it's pretty much the same hold. M1's a bit fatter but the muscle memory from wooden rifle to Hammerhead hold is pretty close. Look at photos of marksmen shooting wooden rifles, you'll see it's a similar geometry. I think you'd have to try it and try different stocks. Your cheek weld goes on the pistol buffer tube, and there are a bunch of those on the market and it's popular to put some foam sleeve over those to make it more comfy. I find good sleeves at mountain bike stores where they're sold as hand grip material. Some pistol buffer tubes come with foam installed or as an option. Ace and Model 1 Sales have some nice ones. Choice of stock is a big part of the fit too. There are probably hundreds of stocks to choose from. The entry length stocks work well on the back of the Hammerhead. And the good thing about using something like the ACE AR-UL-E stock is that you can just cut the buffer tube if you need it shorter. Because there's no buffer/spring inside it, it's just a tube. For instance in this config you can cut that AR-UL-E stock down as short as you like. Or use an adjustable stock now that there's no Pistol Grip. Can I mention the gun auction sites on here? Don't want to run afoul of the rules. -Mark Exile Machine LLC 214 432 7411 [email protected]

nope, not even sure what ffrax is... I do go by lowracer on many other sites though. Here are a couple shots of the experimental threadless "stubby" mod for CA. We just saw the tail section off, file a little and spray paint. Could use these in New Jersey, but you will want a good firearms attorney on speed dial in case LEO confuses this for a pistol grip. Public Testing at our Fort Worth Range... We just toss a stack of 30-rounders on the bench and let anyone try it who wants a shot at it. We get really good feedback that way.

Thanks for the warm welcome. I've always enjoyed my trips to NJ, except for that one time coming out of Newark airport around 1AM when a wrong turn put me in some place that looked like Beirut. :mrgreen: My web provider shows me who links to my company site so when I see a forum or blog is linking up I go out to see what people are saying, and join and provide clarification if needed. This is a new product so there are always questions that come up. People always ask why does someone in TX care about the AWB... I lived in CA for a couple years until about a year ago when I escaped back home to TX, and decided to do something to help those shooters who are still fighting these crazy laws. We've sold boatloads of Hammerheads into CA and have recently started to sell into the free states and the northeast AWB states. CA customers split pretty evenly between Type I/II and Type III/IV configs. We are even prototyping a threadless grip-only model specifically for CA. Finally even though we do have the 30-day guarantee, we have never had a single customer return. Look forward to doing business with you in NJ. -Mark

Howdy, Thought I'd chime in here and address some of the questions and concerns. Some of this is on our FAQ page (http://www.exilemachine.com/faq.html). 1) Configuration: CA defines the pistol grip very precisely. NJ and the other Northeast AWB states do not have such a definition. Therefore we do not recommend you use it in what we call Type III configuration, where the Hammerhead is a grip-only and not attached to a buttstock. This is fine in CA but a grey area elsewhere. For NJ we recommend only Type I and Type II configurations as shown, as Hammerhead is obviously part of a rifle stock and not a grip: Type I Configuration Type II Configuration 2) Comfort: Everyone who's actually fired it has remarked how comfortable it is to hold and shoot. There is a balancing act between making it legal and making it look like something that belongs on an AR-15, and something that would be comfortable to hold. The edges are much more rounded than they appear in side-on photos. Type I config puts less of a cramp in your neck as you can hold your head more upright to get a sight picture. We do sell these into the free states for shooters who desire a more traditional rifle hold. We also have a 30-day no questions guarantee. Shoulder it up and if you don't love it, send it back. 3) Control Manipulation: Most CA shooters who eliminate the pistol grip install an ambi-safety. We have a sizing page (http://www.exilemachine.com/sizing.html) to help you determine if you'll be able to reach. If you have normal to large sized hands you'll have no trouble. Very small hands and you might need to stretch to hit the mag release, and we have customers who use the Arredondo mag release button to help with that. 4) Bore Axis/Muzzle Climb: We have a very detailed writeup about this on our FAQ. Basically if you go with a Type I configuration, your muzzle climb is less than if you shoot your AR in what we call military style, where you put the bottom tip of your buttstock as high as possible on your shoulder, which is how most people shoot these days anyway. Most shooters tell us that there is no felt recoil. 5) Evil Features: If you want to run a collapsible stock that is an obvious choice, but it would also be possible to choose a threaded barrel and experiment with different flash hiders or compensators, and not have to pin or weld them, thus destroying resale value on your barrel. This is less common but you may also decide to fix a bayonet, so you could have a bayo lug. -Mark President / CEO Exile Machine LLC Fort Worth TX 214 432 7411