Suggestions for a take down rifle?

ilikegunspdx · May 20, 2026

pagansaint71 said:
Cry Havoc Tactical makes a quick release barrel set up to break down AR's. It's used on the USAF GAU-5A rifle. Pair that with the FAB Defense folding pistol grip and you got a true backpack AR. Its worth checking out

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I would rather have a bufferless gun with folding stock. Sig rattler is ready to shoot all the time and is much smaller. GAU is 28" when ready to shoot and must be put together before you can shoot. Brn-180 10.5" is only about an inch longer than an mp5 when both have their stocks folded and it's always ready for action. Both those guns are much smaller than the gau. The buffer system that was designed for the ar-10 is not needed to tame the recoil on a 5.56 and it adds huge amounts of length when it's not even needed. There are other bufferless guns too of course like hk 53, jackl, bren2, mikes. I woudl take any of those over the gau except perhaps foxtrot mikes.

pagansaint71 · May 20, 2026

ilikegunspdx said:
I would rather have a bufferless gun with folding stock. Sig rattler is ready to shoot all the time and is much smaller. GAU is 28" when ready to shoot and must be put together before you can shoot. Brn-180 10.5" is only about an inch longer than an mp5 when both have their stocks folded and it's always ready for action. Both those guns are much smaller than the gau.

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So you want a radial delayed buffer system. The CMMG Dissent is pretty cool too.

ilikegunspdx · May 21, 2026

pagansaint71 said:
So you want a radial delayed buffer system. The CMMG Dissent is pretty cool too.

The bufferless 5.56 guns I listed above are mostly locked breech, short stroke gas piston. I have nothing against radial delay at all and have never shot the dissent.

I have buffered ar pattern rifles and SBRs in addition to roller delayed and short stroke gas piston and they all work well, but for compact, ready to shoot 5.56/300 BLK the buffer is not needed and adds a huge amount of length. For example look at the AR 9 in the screenshot of the list above. It's bigger than the 5.56 and even .308 guns listed. This is due to the buffer system. The buffer system was made to reduce recoil on the ar10 and was retained when ar10 was downsized to the 5.56. Stoner's later design, the ar-180 5.56, used a bufferless short stroke gas piston system, as do nearly all of the newest design military 5.56 guns.