The range time cometh. Took the Extar 556 Mk2 out to the range and only finished about half of the manufacture recommended break-in cycle for the pistol. Most of that was sighting in the red dot and enduring comments that it was a range toy or a New York pistol from other shooters
but the latter was somewhat expected. About the only thing that doesn't seem to cycle reliably is IMI 55gr. It ate everything else without a problem. The aggressive muzzle break gives the Extar interesting firing characteristics. The gun barely has any upward recoil and a polite nudge straight back. Sustained volleys produce a rolling motion that is very controllable, though the fireball and report is every bit as obnoxious as the other reviews say it is. I haven't done any real range work pas 25yards since this was more of a reliability/break-in trip, but hand supported is passable to 25 yards. Anything past that challenges my eyesight versus .223 holes and I didn't have a spotting scope or rest. The 1:9 twist says that 72gr should probably be my upper limit in bullet weights.
As you can see, I'm using a flush picatinny offset to utilize the top rail space. New Frontier Armory offers a proprietary picatting mount that is notched for the raised grooves of the forearm, but charging $50 for what amounts to three short picatinny rails kinda fails. Thanks, no. Another somewhat negative point is that the break isn't designed to be user servicable, so there's a detractor as well, but that's what helps mitigate the recoil. Utilizing the rear picatinny point is effortless and I was up and running with a single-point sling in no time. No, it's not hanging directly over my foot and the flipflops add +3 to my tactical stats
Build quality is pretty good, with only one or two sharp plastic edges I felt necessary to file down. Heat buildup on the forarm after 100 rounds is negligable, but the top rail above the barrel definitely feels it. The charging handle is reciprocating, and you'll only leave your thumb resting on it once before the gat say "NO." I've aided the ergonomics somewhat by adding a Rhino magwell grip/funnel. Without a bottom hand guard rail, an AFG was out and frankly, don't like them anyway. The firearm is so compact that a magwell grip works just fine. The lower is mostly standard AR (without the buffer tube), which means the trigger, safety and mag release can be swapped for aftermarket parts. This and the full-length top rail were the reasons I went with this over the Keltec PLR16. The PAP85/92 was briefly considered, but would take a $100 or more to get it anything beyond stock and the weight was a concern as well.
Best of all, you can't get much more truck gun/get home gun than this. It easily fits in any standard backpack and only weighs 4lbs as configured in the pictures above. Throw in a couple of mags and you've got enough firepower for any close to medium range encounter, short of hard plate terrorist bear zombies.
(mine is a regular 'AR').