I laughed when I watched this.  He is having too much fun.  I have to say that my CMMG .45 is the most fun gun I have ever shot.  It’s not even close.

First of all, I prefer the 7.5″ barrel, not the Banshee.  I also found that it ate everything I fed it.  But I really like Browning BPT Performance Target FMJ (for the CMMG and pistols), which increases muzzle velocity to 920 FPS.  I also recommend to the video author that he shoot .450 SMC, which will run 1120 FPS.

I found it easy to ring steel (8″ diameter) at 100 yards with an EOTech red dot, regardless of the ammo brand.  It’s easy to shoot 300 or more rounds with this gun and feel like you’ve only just begun range time.  It’s that much fun, that accurate for a pistol caliber carbine, and that light on recoil.

I did an initial review of the CMMG .45 ACP Guard, with more to come.  It has an 8″ barrel and classifies as a pistol because it has an arm brace rather than a stock.  I liked the weapon, and in fact will be using it as my primary home defense gun (with EOTech and tactical light and pressure switch attached).

I don’t like the idea of a shorter barrel, but CMMG apparently knows that there is a market for it, and has come out with a version of this with a 5″ barrel called the Banshee. I appreciate reader Ned Weatherby sending me this video.

This reviewer, Lone Star Boars, had a suppressor on it as well as a thermal scope.  I like the can with its quick-connect design over the flash suppressor.  CMMG makes it for their weapons and sells through Silencer Shop.  I am told by CMMG that the buffer kit he used was for their Ripstock Assembly, which I don’t have, and that my gun doesn’t need this kit to run 450 SMC.

A couple of comments.  This is impressive performance.  However, gunners simply must deal with the notion that YouTube is dead.  This video has all the appearances of being a hunting video, but with one complaint it will be taken down by Google because of the presence of guns.  Watch the video while it’s still up.  But we simply must move on from YouTube.  To us it must be dead.

I found the gun as pleasant to shoot as he did.  I put 300 rounds through mine the first time, he put 500 through his.  I could have put a 1000 rounds and still been fresh, but that gets expensive, even with ball ammunition.

You might recall that I purchased a CMMG .45 ACP PSB, CMMG’s AR pistol in .45 ACP.  I did a brief review of it and found it to be very much to my liking, eating everything I could put in it with no FTF/FTE over 300 rounds.  It may be the best gun purchase I’ve ever made.  Well, this development increases their capital.

CMMG’s MkG Guard pistol-caliber rifle is now safety certified to shoot the potent 450 SMC cartridge, according to a recent CMMG press release.

The CMMG MkG Guard is an AR15-style rifle for chambered in .45 ACP and features a Radial Delayed Blowback operating system that works to harness the strong recoil impulse of .45 ACP.

Pistol-caliber carbines and rifles are becoming increasingly popular in the shooting community.

For those unfamiliar with 450 SMC, Triton first conceived the cartridge in 2001 and is essentially a magnum version of .45 ACP that offers ballistics comparable to 10mm.

“It is a true stopper that delivers energy capable of taking down big game,” the release states.

For example, the 450 SMC 185 grain Bonded Defense jacketed hollow point round will produce a muzzle velocity of 1,725 feet per second and 1,223 foot pounds of energy out of a 16 inch barrel, the release states.

While the 450 SMC uses a case with the same outer dimensions as .45 ACP, there are a few significant differences that allow DoubleTap Ammunition to load 450 SMC with five to six thousand pounds per square inch of pressure more than a standard .45ACP, according to the release.

First, the 450 SMC uses a small magnum rifle primer instead of the large pistol primer. This modification allows the hardened case to be thicker at the base. Second, the brass is manufactured from the ground up to handle up to 30,000 pounds of pressure. The result is a dual-purpose cartridge that is exceptional for both hunting and personal defense.

While 450 SMC can be safely run in any .45 ACP that is rated for +P ammunition, the amount of rearward force created by such a hot load would potentially be problematic from a straight blowback AR15, the release states. But the CMMG’s Radial Delayed Blowback operating system allows the Guard to handle the potent load, CMMG officials maintain.

The RDB system uses up some of the recoil impulse of the spent round to unlock the rotating bolt from the barrel extension. This mitigates the leftover rearward force that then drives the carrier back to cycle the action.

By eliminating some of this rearward force during the unlocking sequence, the Guard requires less weight in the bolt carrier group and buffer to safely cycle, which will result in less felt recoil for the shooter, CMMG officials maintain.

I won’t get 1725 FPS out of my shorter barrel, but by using the 450 SMC cartridge I should see an improvement of 200-300 FPS over the .45 ACP based on what I’ve read.  I also wrote tech support at CMMG to verify that their position holds not just for their carbine, but for the AR pistol as well.  It does.

This will be the first of several reviews of the CMMG PSB .45 ACP.  My intention for this first one wasn’t to test accuracy at distance, as I will get to that later.

My intention was (1) to put a lot of rounds through the gun with different manufacturers, (2) to test it in rapid fire, and (3) to sight in my EOTech with the gun.

I headed out to the range with the Glock .45 ACP magazine that came with the gun, plus another (26 round mag) from the Gun Mag Warehouse (this one was SGM Tactical).  Both magazines worked fine, but the Glock magazine loaded easier and the spring on the SGM Tactical was very stiff.  I spent most of my time with the Glock magazine.

It took a long time and a lot of rounds to get the EOTech centered, more turns of the screws than I had anticipated.  I finally got it shooting at about one inch low at 7 yards, or a little higher than height-over-bore.

I put close to 300 rounds through the gun.  I was also shooting a Dan Wesson 1911, but only two magazines worth of rounds.  The CMMG performed flawlessly.  It ate everything I put in it.

Remington, Federal, Magtech, American Eagle and Winchester.  The Remington was hollow point.  The Winchester seemed dirtier than the others, and the Magtech and Federal seemed to perform the best.

But every round hit where I aimed when I finally got the red dot centered where I wanted it (I had to move it to the right and up).  It works very nicely in rapid fire, and it’s easy to recover sight picture.

The things I like about this gun are as follows.

(1) It worked flawlessly over nearly 300 rounds, many of which were discharged virtually as soon as I could grab a sight picture (less than a second).

(2) It has AR style operation, with which I’m intimately familiar.

(3) I find that I really like the thumb-over-bore (or C-clamp) grip.  It helps to stabilize any AR style weapon.  I had worried that this barrel was so short that the muzzle brake would cause concussive stress to my left hand upon discharge.  No worries after the first shot.  The barrel was cool, the hand guard was cool, and I didn’t feel a thing even without gloves.  My left hand was near the end of the hand guard.

(4) This gun and its caliber were very controllable.  I’ve shot AR pistols before in 5.56mm that I considered to be out of control (or better said, very difficult to control).  This one is not.

(5) It has a flared mag-well where the magazine is easy to insert, but not the AR-15 size magwell.  It is one suited for the Glock magazine for which it is designed.

The things I don’t like about this gun are as follows.

(1) Nothing …

I consider this gun to be a very good weapon to fill the gap between pistols and rifles, as I don’t really relish the idea of shooting a rifle inside the home for self defense.  I really, really like this gun.

Now, if I could just remember to put my tools in the range bag before I go so I don’t have to borrow tools from other guys.  It’s embarrassing.  Or I could just get some tools and leave them in the range bag.

I’ll do other reviews on this gun as time permits.