Bushmaster M17S

Bushmaster M17S
Type	Bullpup rifle
Place of origin	Australia
Production history
Designed	1992
Manufacturer	Bushmaster Firearms International
Produced	1992-2005
Specifications
Mass	Template:Lb to kg
Length	Template:In to mm
Barrel length	Template:In to mm
Cartridge	5.56x45mm
Action	Gas-operated
Feed system	STANAG magazines

The Bushmaster M17S is a semi-automatic bullpup rifle that was manufactured by Bushmaster Firearms International from 1992 until 2005.

History

The design of the M17S dates back to 1986 when the Australian company Armtech Ltd. developed the prototype as a prospective military rifle for the Australian Army. Two prototypes were developed, one for the 5.56x45mm NATO, the C60R, and the more revolutionary C30R that used caseless ammunition. The C30R was developed hastilly and an out-of-battery ignition resulted in a prototype exploding during a high-profile demonstration.

The Australian Army adopted the Austeyr rifle leading to the sale of the Armtech design to another Australian company, Edenpine PTY Ltd. Edenpine improved the design resulting in the ART-30 and SAK-30. The salient features of the M17S were in place but some Finnish Valmet parts were used instead of AR-15 parts to save money. Edenpine expressed interest in selling the design on the United States market and subsequently licensed the design to Bushmaster for local manufacture thus avoiding import restrictions. This rifle was sold from October, 1992 to 1994 as the "Edenpine M17S Bull-Pup rifle." The distributor was Edenpine (USA) Inc., the American branch of Edenpine of Australia, headquartered in San Jose, California.

When Edenpine folded in 1994, the totality of the rights passed to Bushmaster who manufactured the "Bushmaster M17S", starting just a few months before the approval of the Federal Assault Weapons Ban. The M17S was the only American made bullpup rifle to be offered commercially, and the only bullpup rifle not banned by name. The BATF approved a version in which the barrel sleeve is longer, meaning that there are insufficient exposed threads on the muzzle to securely attach a flash hider, resulting in a version without the M16-style "Birdcage" flash hider.

Design

The M17S is a semi-automatic rifle that uses a gas operated, rotating bolt. The design takes the operating system of the Armalite AR-18 and moves the pistol grip forward in a manner similar to the British SA80. Instead of the sheet metal receiver of the AR18 and SA80, the M17S uses an extruded 7075T6 aluminum receiver that serves as the stock and foregrip as well. This method of construction is particularly efficient and is used on numerous current designs such as the FN SCAR and Barrett M82.

The M17S features a short-stroke fixed piston system that is self-compensating. The rifle chambers the 5.56x45mm and accepts STANAG (M16 rifle) magazines. The main drawback of the design, reported by almost all users, was the tendency of its aluminium handguard to become hot after one or two magazines emptied in rapid fire. Bushmaster discontinued production of the M17S in 2005.

References

• Modern Firearms article
• Operators manual
• Janes article