New Products from Springfield Armory & MDT

Is this an act of rebellion? No, he just picked up the new Hellion! Brownells new product team captain Paul Levy walks us around a new variant of Springfield Armory's Hellion bullpup rifle. The rifle in Paul's hands has a 20" barrel, and you can also raise your Hellion with an 18" barrel. The 20-incher more closely resembles the original Croation VHS-2 rifle the Hellion is based on, complete with bayonet lug and the distinctive concentric ridges on the barrel that were part of the original's grenade launcher mounting system.

 

Due to its bullpup configuration, the 20" Hellion is an extremely well-balanced rifle. The balance point is just about at the pistol grip, which makes handling and manipulation easy and fast. Unusual for a bullpup rifle, there's a collapsible stock, so you can adjust the length of pull. The large, adjustable cheek riser makes shooting the Hellion extremely comfortable. Paul demonstrates the unique mag release system for us.

 

For you left-handed shooters, it's easy to configure the Hellion for left-side ejection. It comes with handy flip-up backup sights built into each end of the full-length M1913 Picatinny rail. Plenty of M-LOK® slots on the handguard for mounting a light and other accessories. The Hellion's ambidextrous charging handle resides UNDER the Picatinny rail and is easy to operate from either side of the gun.

 

Check out the positive, tactile and audible, operation of the safety selector! Mounting a sling is easy with pairs of QD sling swivel sockets on both sides of the stock and the front of the handguard. The gas system is adjustable, so you can tailor gas flow to specific ammunition or to a suppressor. The Hellion accepts most AR-15 pistol grips, though some grips with oversized beavertails may not fit.

 

Also new from Springfield Armory is their Model 2020 Rimfire rifle. This is the smaller sibling of the popular centerfire Model 2020 bolt action rifles. It's really designed for precision long-range shooting at .22 LR scale. The sturdy stock has traditional front and rear sling swivel studs. The bolt knob, safety, and trigger all operate very smoothly and positively. The Model 2020 Rimfire uses readily available Ruger® 10/22® magazines - no proprietary, model-specific mags to buy! The free-floating barrel has a threaded muzzle, thread cap included.

 

MDT's Oryx M-LOK® Bipod is lightweight yet VERY sturdy for a bipod with reinforced polymer construction. Operation is super intuitive. The legs fold forward along the rifle's forend. Just push down on them to extend them. The locking mechanism automatically engages and is easy to release when you need to fold up the legs and move on. There are 5 leg-height positions, and the Oryx is adjustable for cant, too.