Not long ago, Brownells Gun Tech™ Caleb Savant gave us a rundown of the B5 Systems Bravo AR-15 carbine stock. Now he gives us a similar tour of B5's Enhanced SOPMOD Stock. Both stocks offer nearly the same external ergonomics, but the SOPMOD has internal storage compartments in the "chipmunk cheek" cheek rests. O-ring sealed rubber plugs cap the ends of the watertight, tubular compartments that are tailor-made for batteries, either AA cells or CR-123 lithium cells. But folks store other items in them, too. At the very least, you can pack a tube of ChapStick® in there for those windy winter range sessions!
The SOPMOD has even larger cheek rests than the Bravo stock, so you can achieve an extremely secure cheekweld, making your AR-15 much more comfortable to shoot than with a slim M4-type carbine stock. That secure cheekweld means better control, which typically leads to more accurate shooting.
Just like the Bravo stock, the SOPMOD has a removable rubber recoil pad, with a deep-textured, non-slip buttplate behind it, if you prefer to shoot without the recoil pad. You also get a QD sling swivel socket on each side, and two slots for threading a sling the traditional way. The SOPMOD has the same easy-to-operate, spring-loaded lever for unlocking the stock so you can extend or retract it quickly.
What does the name mean? B5 Systems based the Enhanced SOPMOD Stock on a stock designed at the Naval Surface Warfare Center (NSWC) in Crane, Indiana (often just called "Crane") for the U.S. Special Operations Command (USSOCOM). "SOPMOD" is a forced acronym that means "Special Operations Peculiar MODification." Among AR-15 fans, it now mostly stands for a sturdy, comfortable, lightweight carbine stock with handy storage compartments!
