Tag Archives: 300 blackout

Beretta Showcases Titan Concept Rifle as NARP Takes Center Stage at L’Aquila

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The storied gunmaker released its one-off Titan rifle this week as the Beretta NARP platform was featured at the head of Army celebrations in Italy.

The Titan is a semiautomatic sporting rifle using a short-stroke gas piston system and chambered in 6.5 Grendel. As such, it takes cues from the company’s select-fire NARP series carbine, which has been under development since 2018.

Using an enhanced two-stage trigger for a crisp, predictable break, the Titan is a bespoke release for sure, using a titanium upper receiver, a magnesium lower receiver, a carbon‑fiber stock and forend, and a forged‑carbon pistol grip.

The Titan is unlike anything Beretta has ever released as a rifle. (Photos: Beretta)

It incorporates magnesium, titanium, and carbon fiber in its construction.

The exclusive grey camo pattern applied to the receiver subtly incorporates the date 1526, the year of the earliest verified Beretta firearms contact.

The Titan is shown with Steiner optics, including an MPS enclosed micro red dot atop a M7Xi series 2.9-20×50 riflescope.

Its custom-fitted case is built with a carbon‑fiber shell and a refined Alcantara interior.

We profiled how the iconic Italian gunmaker produces such one-of-a-kind firearms via the company’s  Pietro Beretta Custom Atelier, where dreams come true.

With semi-auto NARPs in the form of the Titan at least conceptually in existence, a production model for the U.S. market seems very possible in the coming months.

NARP marches at the head of the parade

Released in 2023, the NARP has been a hit at arms expos worldwide, and we had a chance to go loud with one on Beretta’s range in Italy in 2024. Offered in 5.56 NATO, .300 BLK, and 6.5 Grendel, a large-action 7.62 variant is also under development.

We had a chance to fire the NARP on full-auto in 2024 and found it very controllable. The mag shown is for a Beretta 93R that we were also shooting that day. Sigh. (Photo: Chris Eger/Guns.com)

Compare the 6.5 version of the NARP, the Praetorian, below, with the Titan in the first part of this post.

Beretta NARP Praetorian configuration 6.5 at Milol Paris

It has been short-listed for Project Grayburn, the replacement program for the British Army’s SA80 rifle, and earlier this month was seen in the hands of elite Italian Army units.

Folgore brigade paratroopers with the Beretta NARP at the 165th anniversary celebration of the Italian Army in L’Aquila in May 2026. (Photo: Italian Army)

Alpini mountain troops seen with the Beretta NARP in L’Aquila in May 2026. (Photo: Italian Army).

Beretta Defense Technologies confirmed to Jane’s Defense earlier this year that the Italian Army ordered 7,000 NARP rifles chambered in 5.56 NATO with 14.5-inch barrels.

It is believed the rifle will replace Beretta ARX-160s as part of the modernization plan of the Italian Armed Forces. Speaking of which, the same troops shown with the NARP this month were wearing the new Altimetrico F-based Mimetismo multi-terreno modello 2025 (Multi-terrain Camouflage Model 2025), camouflage pattern, which was developed by the Italian Army in collaboration with Beretta.

For comparison, check out the image below of Italian troops with the current Vegetato camo pattern and Beretta ARX-160s seen in Rome last week by Guns.com staff.

What were we doing in Italy? You will find out soon enough!

(Photo: Chris Eger/Guns.com)

One Can to Quiet Them All…

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Utah-based SilencerCo on Tuesday announced a new addition to its lineup, the Hybrid 46M, billed as “the world’s first and only truly modular large-bore suppressor.”

Built to a design that incorporates titanium, 17-4 heat-treated stainless steel, and Inconel, the full-auto-rated Hybrid 46M adds modularity to the company’s already popular Hybrid 46. In its long configuration, stretching over the front module and endcap, the suppressor runs 7.72-inches and weighs 14.9 ounces. In its shorter format, ideal for SBRs or pistols, it tapes out at 5.78 inches and weighs 12.2 ounces.

When it comes to accommodating calibers, it is omnivorous and is rated for all centerfire pistol and rifle calibers– including 45ACP, 10mm, .450 Bushmaster, .458 SOCOM, .45-70 Government, .338 Lapua Magnum– up to .460 Weatherby Magnum. This gives it the appeal of being a single can for just about everything in the gun safe.

More in my column at Guns.com. 

Know when to fold em

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I’ve always had a curious fascination with folding guns, going back to the Hotchkiss Universal and the ARES/Warin Stealth Gun of the 1980s.

A fellow by the name of Utah Connor built a folding sub-gun very similar to the ARES disguised as a radio (complete with collapsing antenna) in the mid-1970s. The concept was that plainclothes police officers and security personnel could sit and chill out with the ‘radio’ at their feet or on a table and, with practice, deploy it in 2-3 seconds.

Connor called his curio the “Undercover 9” or UC-9.

In 2008, Magpul displayed their concept of the ARES/UC-9, a sub-gun that folded up to look like a laptop battery. Of course, it was vaporware but it nonetheless made it into video games.

Well, Magpul last week announced it has more than a half dozen new reasons to love them in the upcoming year ranging from new magazine and furniture offerings to…the fabled FDP-9 folding gun.

The FDP9/FDC-9 uses a ZEV OZ9 operating system and a Magpul chassis. (Photo: Magpul).

With Glock internals.

It’s supposed to arrive in 2022. Holding my breath but cautiously optimistic.

Always wanted a suppressed HK53-based SBR?

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The Heckler & Koch HK53 was designed in the 1970s as an ultra-compact version of their 5.56mm HK33, basically, the German answer to the Warsaw Pact AKS-74U Krinkov or Colt’s various Vietnam-era Commando models. They saw some export success, and in the U.S. the pre-Homeland Security Border Patrol adopted them for some tactical teams (hey, Customs had the Steyr-AUG at the same time, so you can see the need for competition).

Well, SilencerCo teamed up with Canton, Michigan’s Dakota Tactical Firearms to craft a limited run of just ten (10) roller-locked semi-auto HK53s SBRs in .300 BLK, equipped with matching Omega suppressors.

Termed the D300 by DTAC, these guns usually run bigfoot on a unicorn rare on the market. Each uses an 8.3-inch free-floated fluted barrel and a “sear-ready” tungsten-filled bolt group. The DTAC hand guard is freckled with M-Lok (because what isn’t these days?) while the receiver runs a 1913 Pic rail for your optic needs that go beyond the standard HK drum/post sights. A collapsible A3 stock, tools and 30-round mag complete the package.

How mucho do they run? Check out my column at Guns.com for that stocking sticker, along with some more sweet pics.

Meet the (very quiet) Integra

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integra

Yes, that is a suppressed AR with the suppressor attached. (Photo: Chris Eger)

Gemtech last month brought out a sweet new production Nemo Arms AR upper that includes a pinned suppressor body and titanium core– with an all up barrel length that’s still firmly in the carbine arena.

I shot the Integra, shown off for the first time in public, at the ASA Suppressor Shoot in Knob Creek and have to admit its wicked quiet in .300BLK when using one of Gemtech’s suppressor optimized BCGs which reduces carrier speed to non-suppressed levels and reduces felt recoil.

How quiet? It mics at 128dB, and for comparison, dry-firing an unloaded AR is 124dB…

The upper features a 10.1-inch barrel with suppressor tube pinned and welded onto the end to make it 16.1-inches overall and thus a “one-stamp” device.

The core can be removed for cleaning and maintenance. Removal is by a 3/8″ socket.

It costs a good bit more than the similar concept over at Hardened Arms, but this is Gemtech here and we are talking about a Nemo upper for a base, so there’s that.

More in my column over at Guns.com

 

A factory Ruger Mini-14 in .300 Blackout? No foolin

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The good folks at Ruger have been in the Mini-14 biz for going some 40 years or so and in that time have cranked out millions of these rugged .223 carbines. As time has gone by, the company has trotted out offerings of these guns in 5.56×45 (there is a slight difference over .223), .222 (not a misprint) 7.62×39 (Mini-30) 6.8mm (Mini-6.8) and .308/.243 (XGI). Well now, the time has come to add a new caliber to that field:

Why .300 BLK?

The 300 AAC Blackout round (7.62x35mm) was designed by a suppressor maker, Advanced Armament for use in modified AR-15s. The goal was to use the same .223 case, neck it down to accept a .308 bullet 2-3 times the normal weight of the 40-71 grain .223, and give it performance that equaled or bettered that of the standard and popular AK-47/SKS round, the Combloc 7.62×39 (which itself owes some allegiance to the old German 7.92×33mm Kurz used in the world’s first assault rifle, the StG-44).

In the end, you have a .308 that fits in a standard NATO M16/AR-15 magazine and can use the same lower receiver paired with an upper in the appropriately changed out caliber. A neat benefit (and the reason it was introduced by AAC) of the round is since it uses such a big fat bullet over a low charge, its usually subsonic which means you can use it with a suppressor and not have to worry about the sonic boom of the ammunition to add to the sound signature.

(Left to right: .223 with .55-grain bullet, .308 WIN with 173-grain bullet, .300 BLK with 125-grain bullet)

(Left to right: .223 with .55-grain bullet, .308 WIN with 173-grain bullet, .300 BLK with 125-grain bullet)

Introduced last week, Sturm, Ruger unveiled its newest offering in the Mini-14 Tactical series, and advised that it is an optimized .300 BLK platform geared with suppressors in mind.

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Read the rest in my column at Ruger Talk