Bushmaster M17S

The M17S was developed for the Australian military in 1982. The Australian military were in need of a new 5.56x45mm rifle therefore had given the job to Armstech which was set up for the sole purpose of designing and developing military rifles for Australia. Armstech's design which was put together in just 4 months however lost out to the Austrian Steyr Armee Universal Gewehr (AUG) which was selected as Australia's service rifle. Even though Armstech's effort went unnoticed, they still decided to improve on their rifle design for export purposes and named the rifle C30R.

The C30R was greatly publicized in Australia due to the rifle's advanced technology using case free ammunition. Unfortunately Armstech had developed the rifle in such haste that a demonstration in front of the news media was a major failure. This marked the end of Armstech. In 1990 the rights of the rifle went to Keith Greenwood of Edenpine who developed the C30R to SAK30. The SAK30 was then changed to ART 30 in June 1990 with the significant features of the future M17S present. The trial rifle was tested in Guns Australia and received good reviews however the target sale was in the United States not Australia. Edenpine then went on to the United States to look for a manufacturer to produce the rifle and signed on Bushmaster and renamed the ART30 to Bushmaster M17S or plain M17S in 1994.

The M17S is probably the only American manufactured semiautomatic bullpup carbine rifle that has not been banned in the open market. It weighs approximately 3.77kg and uses the 5.56x45mm NATO or .233 Remington ammunitions. Its barrel length is 54.6cm and has an overall length of 76.2cm. It's operated by a fixed piston gas and has a magazine capacity of 5, 10, 20, 30 or 99 rounds. The M17S which has a firing range of 400 m can also utilize M16 magazines. The M17S is not a favorite among shooters simply because of its bullpup design which means it can cause, injury incase the barrel ruptures or when it propels the bolt out. However the M17S's upper receiver is a 1/8 in thick piece of tube made out of aircraft aluminum therefore injury is unlikely to happen simply because the receiver has the ability to contain any form of explosion.

The M17S is almost identical to the AR-15/M16 rifles. Some of the similarities are like the magazine release action, the bolt release and the non responsive charging handle which is placed on top of the upper receiver. This rifle is relatively easy to operate. The safety operation is actually crossbolt situated right behind the trigger. The trigger can be easily engaged or disengaged with the thumb or forefinger without having to change your grip. The safety button has a white dot as an indicator that the rifle is safe and a red dot specifies that the rifle is ready for fire. To dissemble the M17S, press out the rearmost two pins located at the left side of the rifle until they run against their stops. Once this is complete, the upper receiver can be rotated forward and the bolt carrier assembly can be removed. That's it! Disassembly is complete. The maintenance consists of wiping and cleaning the bolt, receiver, bolt carrier and locking lugs with a rag cleaning rod, gun oil, solvent and a small brush for the hard to reach places like the locking lugs. The gas system does not need any sort of maintenance.

The original Bushmaster rifles are identified by their flat black finish and the short throw captive held pins that hold the upper and lower receivers. In its second year, the upper receiver's exterior finish was changed to matte Teflon and in the third year, a long throw captive pin retaining system was implemented. Some minor changes were made to the M17S due to the ban of the Great Clinton Semiautomatic Rifle in 1994 so that the rifle would be legal for civilian ownership. The only noticeable change was the missing flash hider. As perfect as it may seem, the M17S does have a few disadvantages. For instance this rifle cannot be fired by a left handed person simply because the ejection port. The rifle also needs an after-market sight that undoubtedly adds to the rifle's cost. It is surprising that such an easy to handle rifle is not very popular. This lack of popularity is because Bushmaster has not given any publicity hence the lack of knowledge of the rifle. The reason for not publicizing the rifle is amazingly because the AR-15 rifles and carbines have been receiving such large orders that they have not been able to publicize the M17S.