Good ideas often start in the strangest places, like the middle of a ground blind amongst a swarm of hungry mosquitoes at a Texas hog hunt. That’s where Evin Galbraith of DPMS and Travis Noteboom of Crimson Trace decided that the smoke from a good cigar was preferable to donating blood to the ravaging mosquitoes. And with the inspiration of that cigar, they also decided that a pre-accessorized AR-style rifle was a pretty good idea.
dpms2The AR-15 and its variants are without a doubt the most frequently and heavily accessorized rifles in the world today. Even a casual look through a few catalogs or search on the Internet will yield a plethora of available accessories that you can use to trick out your rifle. For experienced shooters who know what they like, it’s like the proverbial “kid in a candy store.” However, for shooters new to the AR platform and law enforcement agencies searching for a functional “one-size-fits-all” patrol rifle, the wide selection of aftermarket accessories can be confusing if not downright overwhelming. As those of us with boxes full of accessories that didn’t quite work can tell you, trial and error can be an expensive way of figuring out what you really want on your black gun.
Thanks to Evin, Travis (and the mosquitoes) there is a solution to this dilemma: the DPMS RAPTR (Rapid Assault/Primary Tactical Rifle)—a “pre-accessorized” AR that provides everything you really need in a black rifle and nothing you don’t.
After defining the basic concept of the RAPTR, Evin and Travis approached some of their colleagues in the tactical industry to get their insights into the accessories that made the most sense and were most in demand by savvy shooters. With the help of Dave Biggers of XS Sights, Jason Harmon of ERGO/Falcon Industries, and Julie Knuth of US Peacekeepers, they methodically developed the ideal “turnkey” black-rifle package based on three primary objectives: meeting the needs of the law enforcement community for an out-of-the-box patrol rifle, providing a pre-accessorized solution for the commercial customer, and making the resulting package affordable for everyone. Based on the sample rifle that I reviewed, the RAPTR satisfies all these requirements exceptionally well.
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