Full disclosure right up front: I’m not the first guy to put together an AR-15 PDW (personal defense weapon) that can be easily transported in case the size of a typical airline carry-on bag. As a matter of fact, a good friend of mine, who, due to his occupation, travels the nation a great deal not by air, but by charter bus, built his own personal AR PDW chambered in 300 Blackout.
My pal used a discreet looking case which, to the casual observer, was no different than any of the hundreds or thousands of airline carry-on bags a person might see. No one was going to bat an eye watching my buddy walking in and out of a hotel pulling the small/medium bag on its wheels. However, the surprise was inside.
I had been wanting to try out the LAW Tactical folding stock adapter since my friends at Brownells started carrying them in their catalog. This seemed to be as good an excuse as any.
Assembling the Components
While my friend went with the 300 BLK, I decided to stick with the good old .223 Remington/5.56mm NATO. As a “PDW”, the barrel would be “pistol” length; at least AR pistol length. I went shopping for a 7.5 inch AR-15 upper receiver and ended up purchasing a completed upper from PSA. I had a 5.56mm bolt carrier group and a Bravo Company charging handle in my box of parts.
The upper receiver had an interesting looking aluminum forend and a full Picatinny rail running the entire length of the upper. As for the barrel, it arrived with a standard milspec A2 flash-hider. While the A2 flash-hider is certainly a worthy item on a 16 or 20 inch barrel, for this “shorty” I desired something a bit more to drive the expanding gas and noise away from my face. The natural choice was the patented Barking Spider 2 muzzle-brake/flash-hider. I’ve been using the Barking Spider on short-barreled guns for quite a while now, so there would be no surprises.
Down below, for the lower receiver, I picked up an Anderson stripped lower back when prices were too good to pass up. Yes, Anderson Manufacturing is out of business, but Ruger bought the factory and put many of the Anderson employees back to work for them in Kentucky.
Into the stripped lower I installed a milspec AR-15 trigger with included safety lever. For a pistol grip, I found a beefy Ergo Grip soft-rubber, textured version in my parts box. The rear of the lower receiver would be where I installed the aforementioned LAW Tactical folder device. In addition to the hinge apparatus, LAW Tac includes a bolt carrier adapter device/plug that bridges the gap between the rear of the bolt carrier and the buffer. The LAW Tac device mates with any milspec M4 style buffer tube. For that component I went to the KAK Industry website for a pistol buffer tube, buffer and spring, and one of their Shockwave stabilizing braces. They sell the whole set up as a kit.
With the gun now ready, I need just a couple more add-ons. For a sighting system I went with a Black Spider Optic 3 MOA red dot sight with riser. As the “PD” in PDW stands for “Personal Defense” I thought a prudent addition would be a white light for positive target identification. Keeping with the compact scheme, I went with the Surefire Mini Scout tactical light again, purchased from Brownells. While the placement might seem odd, the Mini Scout fits on the top front of the forend, but it does not interfere with sight picture since the red dot is on a standard height/same-plane riser.
Color Coordination
The upper, lower, muzzle-brake and brace all came from different manufacturers so their color did not match. No problem, I ordered a can of “Gray Sabbath” DuraMetl™ metallic finish from Duracoat Firearms Finishes in the “matte” non-reflective version. All the main components, save the optic and light, were refinished. I think it came out looking pretty good.
The Carry-On Case
Now it was time to go shopping for a carrying case. I found a case that was similar to a Pelican, but not a Pelican, on sale on the Amazon website. There is no external branding or markings on the case and I cannot recall the manufacturer.
However, it did come with the requisite “pick and pull” foam insert so I could customize it to fit my PDW and spare magazines perfectly. The case size is 22”x14”x9” (long, wide, deep), which happens to be the exact carry-on size specs listed by United, Delta, and American Airlines. Hence, the case has the hidden-in-plain-sight style with wheels and the extending drag handle feature that every carry-on bag possesses.
Range Time
Many of the older guys in the gun world will tell you that any barrel under 12 inches “won’t work” for the 5.56mm. We would see. The rifling in the barrel is a 1:7 RH twist and that design historically prefers heavier weight projectiles. This was my first AR with a 7.5 inch barrel, so I wanted to test out a variety of bullet weights and designs to see which the gun might prefer.
From Black Hills Ammunition I had their 50 grain Waterproof TSX load, their 62 grain Dual Purpose, the 69 grain Open Tip Match, and, lastly, their 75 grain Heavy Match hollow point. The 50 grain Barnes bullet was rated as the fastest at 3275 FPS (factory tested velocity) and the slowest was the 75 grain HP at 2750 FPS.
My paper target was set out at the military standard distance of 25 meters for BZO purposes. I decided to slow fire six rounds of each load using the 3 MOA red dot. I measured all six rounds for group size. The 50 grain load produced a 2.15” group, the 62 grain was 2.19”, the 69 grain was 3.25 inches total, although, if you removed one shot it shrunk to 2.18”, so that could easily have been my fault. The 75 grain round produced the only sub-2 inch group at 1.75”. The moral of this story is that a super-short AR, such as this, cannot be expected to produce MOA groups. However, we were not expecting such results.
When you are considering a firearm in the role of the PDW, anticipated distances would be contact range to perhaps fifty yards or so. Was my folding AR capable of putting rounds in the upper chest of a humanoid silhouette at fifty yards? Most certainly, yes.
In addition to the bench trials, I spent some time moving around and performing more challenging drills, such as shooting single handed with my strong side and single handed with my support hand only. Being compact, the gun balanced extremely when pressed against the shoulder and a single hand gripping the fat Ergo pistol grip. Using all of the aforementioned Black Hills loads, I performed moving drills and rapid fire target engagement. By the time I stopped to let the barrel cool, I had fired about 150 rounds through the gun with zero stoppages, even when it was held in only my left hand.
Using a folding stock AR as a PDW is most certainly a specialty tool. However, in the event you found yourself away from home and in need of a firearm to protect yourself or loved ones from one or more threats, having a 5.56mm power tool in your hands should provide more comfort than any typical handgun would.
Paul G. Markel is a combat decorated United States Marine veteran. He is also the founder of Student of the Gun University and has been teaching Small Arms & Tactics to military personnel, police officers, and citizens for over three decades.