Tag Archives: profense

A North Star AR?

When I do a gun review, I typically only have a chance to kick it around my local climes– the swampy Gulf South, where humidity is as thick as the gumbo and sand is only something you find on the riverbank or the beach.

Well, I had a special chance recently to hammer away on a test carbine in a class at Gunsite in the high mountains in Northern Arizona during monsoon season, where the moon dust turns a unique bubblegum consistency and sticks to everything.

Then, switching gears, I was able to bring said carbine back home and continue the T&E period with another 700 rounds in between Sazeracs and crawfish boils.

The gun was a Northstar NS-15.

This thing…

You may not have heard of them, but North Star has some pretty interesting sister companies.

An offshoot of RSW Aviation, North Star Arms is the second and more commercial firearms endeavor that has sprouted from the Arizona company. The elder RSW-related gun company is the better-known Profense, a maker of improved M134 Mini Guns in 7.62 and its downsized 5.56 little brother that started when RWS was looking for gun pods for its aircraft.

And I have to admit, the NS-15 proved super accurate and durable for a mid-length carbine with a 16-inch barrel.

North Star uses Ballistics Advantage barrels and ships with a sub-MOA guarantee

More in my column at Guns.com.

You bump into the coolest things at SHOT

So I am in Nevada for SHOT Show and got to spend all day on the range yesterday, where I came upon this bad boy.

Arizona-based aviation and defense company Profense was showing off their PF556, a down-sized version of the M134 Mini-Gun in 5.56mm rather than the more traditional 7.62x51mm.

As the gun only weighs 38-pounds, all-up it tips the scales at 110-pounds with a 1,500-round hopper.

The electrically-driven system (48 VDC) uses a fully programmable digital GCU that uses full brushless motor control of the weapon and ammo booster, allowing an adjustable rate of fire between 600 at 4,000 rounds-per-minute at the flip of a switch.

PF says the mount can be used on vessels, ROVs, vehicles, and other applications– including remote use.

PoR…