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PWS makes some amazing stuff. Their piston powered rifles are one of the only firearms to ever get a five star rating from me. I liked mine so much that I laid down cold hard cash to keep it in my gun safe. Not everyone can afford the high-end piston system though. Announced yesterday, PWS has just released a line of direct impingement rifles specifically designed for the entry level shooter with all the bells and whistles of a PWS gun but at a remarkably low price point — $1,349. That’s about $600 lower than their regular offerings, and includes a free Lucid ACOG-esque optic. They call it the “Modern Musket” for a reason . . .

From the presser:

Primary Weapons Systems (PWS) is releasing their first line of Modern Musket™ direct impingement (DI) rifles June 2014. Known for producing reliable and accurate piston driven AR-15 rifles and a DI accessory line designed to reliably enhance any AR platform, PWS’ next logical step was to supply their customers with the best DI AR-15 rifle available on the market. The new DI line is called the Modern Musket. The Modern Musket™ brand (www.modernmusket.com) is a message that PWS embraces.

This DI rifle is your defense rifle: your defense of your home, family, and your right to the freedoms outlined in the Constitution. These are the guns the 2nd Amendment was written to protect. As technology advances, our right to keep and bear arms must remain the same. The musket was the greatest weapons advance for a citizen at the time of the American Revolution and today, the AR-15 holds that role.

I knew there was a reason I liked this company.

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52 COMMENTS

  1. “all the bells and whistles of a PWS gun but at a remarkably low price point — $1,349”

    Given that name brand AR’s can be had for $600, what are the bells/whistles that PWS offers?

    • I don’t know anything about PWS Rifles, but I do know that brand name rifles for $600 are great as range toys, but come up a bit short for competition and precision shooting.

      • Sure, but the “Modern Musket” is being positioned as a proper HD gun. Who cares if its 1/2MOA? As long as it meets the MILSPEC for accuracy, its combat-accurate.

        Not hating on expensive guns…..I just bought a DDM4 V7 in MSP finish.

        • Make that three on the DD M4V7… although damn if I didn’t have to spend some money to swap out the grip, stock, buffer, and drop in a Geissele SSA. But man, it’s cruising now. (of course they deploy these with some better furniture now, but oh well)

        • LOL milspec just means “good enough to work, cheap enough so everyone can have one.” It’s not necessarily the place to aim.

      • Have to call BS on that one. I’ve got one name brand and one not so name brand M4, both in the $600 price range that shoot within 2″ from 25 to 100yds all day long with just about any ammo you feed them. Match grade ammo will go sub MOA in either gun and that’s good enuff for as far as the 223/556 will shoot. Just say no to multi kilo buck AR’s and buy more ammo with the change.

    • If you take a $800 basic AR from say Stag or Windham, add free float rails, an aftermarket isonite treated barrel, a PWS FSC, some magpul furniture, a special treated BCG, a special buffer and buffer tube, and competition trigger, and I’d say you’re right up at $1300+

    • PWS doesn’t do a very good job of explaining why someone should buy their “entry level” product over a run of the mill M4gery at half the price.

      • Their DI uppers sell hollow for 660usd, which is a great price considering a 14.5″ BCM upper + a KMR rail costs a total of 770usd before shipping/fees, both the PWS and BCM being without charging handle or bolt carrier. The BCM would also additionally need a longer muzzle device than the A2 it comes with, and pinning/welding done which add at least 70usd to the cost; it lacks a lopro gas block(you can just saw off the FSB, though). The PWS uppers look like pretty great deals(almost gives you that too good to be true, fellow American turns out to be redneck trash shooting living trees in a forest good feeling).

        This dealiness is assuming that PWS is using cold hammer forged barrels from a reputable source, as BCM is, but for now it looks like pretty good. I won’t buy one yet, since I have no use for a 5.56NATO barrel that long, but if they come out with a 10.3 or 7.5/12.5, I’ll probably pick one up.

  2. I am not a tree hugger but seriously! Know your target, background, etc and do not just shoot into trees. Stuff like this makes the environmentalists come down on us.

      • You don’t need to be a tree hugger. You need to be an American who recognizes that trees are useful, and you don’t need to put holes into a tree so that beetles or diseases can get inside and kill it, so that forest that we all love shrinks more and more.

        Every tree counts. Don’t kill one unless you need to. You wanting to shoot guns for fun or for a commercial is not needing to. Bring a stand for your targets, or find a dead tree and don’t be lazy.

        You want your grandkids to know what a forest is, right?

    • Feh. I use the fifty acres of pine trees behind my house (that I personally planned half of) as a backstop. I’m going to cut most of them in a few more years anyway: I can afford to fill a few of them with lead, and I like that much better than filling soil berms with it.

      “The most beautiful thing about a tree is what you do with it after you cut it down.” Rush Limbaugh’s 35 Undeniable Truths of Life, #8.

      • Just mind your chainsaw as you cut down those trees. Especially if you’ve been shooting any steel-core.

      • If their your trees, and you intend to cut them all, then fine.

        If it’s a forest and doesn’t belong to you, don’t be an ass. Trees are valuable. You can’t just buy a full grown tree.

    • Don’t kid yourself Jimmy. If that tree had a chance he’d shoot you and everyone you care about.

  3. @PGT I don’t know the exact specs of these rifles, but there is a huge difference between a $600 rifle and a $1300 one. Free float rails, better BCG, chrome barrel and chamber, etc.

  4. That has to be one of the cheesiest commercials ever, sticking a target on a tree is a bad image, there is nothing wrong with DI rifles for 99% of users, and to top it off that is not a bargain price. And while I’m ranting the logo is just embarrassing.

  5. (Said in Movie Trailer Voice Over Voice)
    “In a world where PPL are being intentionally impoverished, losing their homes, cars, jobs, families. One Man Knows that the answer to yourself defense needs is not a $200 shotgun w/ a Maglight duct taped to the barrel but a $1400 ‘budget’ AR!

    • Holy Shit I needed that effing laugh! I’m currently deployed to the mideast and I was bummed the hell out till I read your comment!!

  6. The musket wasn’t the greatest weapon advance, it was the cheapest, most reliable, man-portable at the time. Boxed magazine guns existed prior to, but costs were prohibitive for large scale manufacture.

    • The Model T wasn’t the greatest automobile advancement. It was the cheapest, most reliable, man-drivable at the time… luxury automotives existed prior to, but costs were prohibitive for large scale manufacture…

  7. Loved the ad., but felt sorry for the dog. Many times better hearing doesn’t mean it also doesn’t need to be protected.

      • That wasn’t no baying hound, and that wasn’t no feral hog they were shootin.

        They were being redneck idiots shooting trees and making their dog go deaf without any useful purpose.

    • Definitely an issue for the dog. Bad idea to have it in that scene. “Hunting” isn’t the same thing as blasting SBRs in the woods with a dog.

      Would have been great, they really should remove that scene.

  8. It would help if she could actually see through the optic mounted on that “musket”. Gotta love marketing geniuses.

  9. I don’t get the shooting at trees in what appears to be a public place. I am not a tree hugger but it just doesn/t seem right to me.

    I also don’t understand why a $1349 minimum is necessary for defensive AR. I own several $600 DI ARs (Olympics) with minor modifications and they are 100% reliable and will shoot russky steel as well as high end match grade ammo all day long no problem. I also own a high end piston gun that is very finikcy with ammo with no apologies from the manufacturer. The AR I grab in a bind is probably $900 as is (Geisselle trigger, free float rail) with a $700 optic and it has proven incredibly reliable. Buy a decent AR and spend some dough on a quality optic. I wouldnt trust the optic in this ad on my hunting rifle, never mind for defensive use.

    • Agreed. I bought a Colt LE6920 for $1100 (accessorized since then) but the same rifle can be had now for $900 shipped from various retailers. Colt is Colt, they have the TDP on the AR platform. There’s better rifles out there, and there’s plenty worse ones.

  10. As long as we’re all ragging on the video, what’s with the mom spraying sunscreen directly on the kid’s face? Every single manufacturer of spray sunscreen instructs (right on the bottle) not to do that. Details matter.

    • “Every single manufacturer of spray sunscreen instructs (right on the bottle) not to do that.”

      And every single person that’s ever used one of those bottles has done precisely that, with virtually no ill effects. Those warnings are there for legal reasons, because otherwise people too stupid to close their eyes and mouths when they did it would cry foul when it got in those gaping orifices. The video shows how 99% of Americans live their lives (with regard to the sunscreen), not how the lawyers would have it.

    • You know, it always amazes me that people find the littlest things to nitpick. But then half the people b****ing about shooting trees and spraying sunscreen are also the ones who’ll tout that firearm organizations are being “too PC.” Get a grip. Matt said it best, this video portrays how us regular Americans do it. We run out of the house into the woods or fields, throw some bullets at a ‘yote or squirrel (or even a *gasp* tree) And if the day comes that a .223 bullet kills a 3 foot diameter tree, I’ll eat my shorts.

      • Just because you’re a redneck jackass who shoots trees because he’s too stupid to bring a stand or find a dead tree, doesn’t mean “us regular Americans” are. You are not the majority. Most people(or at least I hope to god most people) aren’t that arrogant and destructive to say “I am man, I kill everything.”

        Some of us want our children to know what the hell a forest is, not just read about it in the history books.

        • Because shooting trees is what is killing forests and not urbanization. Holy Smokes, let’s look at the big picture here and that was the message that the video was trying to convey. Only in America will a gun video bring out the tree trolls.

  11. These rifles are far from basic. Even the venerable Colt LE6920 will not offer the advantages of the PWS Modern Musket, you want to put a reasonably priced NVD or thermal on your weapon you will have to upgrade the rail. QD mounts, add those too. Anything but a 1/3 co witness red dot, Pull the front sight post off the rifle. The stock and grip upgrades, extension tube, the enhanced bolt carrier group, buffer, the mid length gas system, PWS brake, 15″ hand guard, and an accurate barrel all add up to value. and you get a decent optic and a hard case.

    I have seen a more than a few of the blow out priced $600 rifles come in to our shop with broken bolt releases, gas ring failures, selectors falling out etc. We sell PWS for a reason, they are a great value.

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