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The SOLGW Mk 1 made waves last year for rising to the top during a grueling selection process in which one of our Tier One SOCOM units selected to field it. This 11.5-inch carbine chambered in 5.56 NATO demonstrated the best reliability and performance among its peers.
Not surprisingly, it has since become one of the most desirable AR-platform rifles in the commercial market, though many would-be buyers have balked at its hefty price, which is just shy of three grand.
I’ve spent the last several months running the carbine to see whether the juice is worth the squeeze and you can see it in action in the video here.
My experience with the SOLGW Mk1 has been universally positive. I’ve run it in several configurations, in terms of the optics I’ve mounted on it and with respect to the types of muzzle devices I’ve employed. In all cases, the rifle has run without any glitches.
More impressively, my hands-on time with the rifle has shown how it rises to the occasion when called on to perform different tasks.
For instance, in a multi-gun capacity I ran it with a Vortex 1-10 Gen III Razor LPVO and a Holosun 507C in an offset Area 419 mount. Not only did this setup perform well at distance with the LPVO at 10X, but I was able to quickly transition between far and near targets by rotating the rifle 45 degrees to bring the Holosun’s halo-style reticle rapidly into view.
In another configuration, I ran the rifle with an EOTech holographic sight and 3x magnifier paired with Unity FAST mounts and EOTech’s OGL weapon-mounted laser and IR designator. This setup is much closer to how SOCOM assaulters kit-out the gun. Unsurprisingly, the rifle worked like a charm here too.
A final thing worth noting is the primary muzzle device I used is the Huxwrx Flow 556 Ti, which is also similar to the military’s selection for the Mk1. The rifle has a non-adjustable gas block that balances extremely well with this suppressor, and cuts the gas going back into the shooter’s face to basically zero.
In conjunction with the bolt-carrier group and buffer system, the gas block and suppressor, enhance the SOLGW Mk1’s reliability and soften the recoil impulse in a way that makes the rifle very easy to control.
Reports from the operators who field the rifle indicate that its lethality, performance and reliability are outstanding.
Based on all this, it looks like the Mk 1 delivers in a way that justifies its price, and then some.