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TigerStripe

January 27th 2009 1:02 AM

Addax 11.5 inch Side Charger GPU

A few weeks ago I received a prototype side charger GPU (Gas Piston Unit) from Addax Tactical. Once I had removed it from the very well wrapped cocoon it was in I was very impressed. It was a beautiful black. I had to strip it down to see the differences between a side charger and a standard charging handle type AR15. There were quite a few and they are quite ingenious.

Side Charger before chamering a round.

It had a Vltor CASV-EL rail system of a similar black. I had not used a weapon with the CASV-EL as I thought it was too bulky. It’s not and there are a great number of ways to attach rails and accessories to it.

Vltor CASV EL

Now we will look at the unique features of the Side Charger GPU. To begin we will look at working the charging handle.

Closed on an empty chamber.

Charger extended to load a round.

Charger to the rear, ready to load a round.

You can leave the charger extended or fold it down for use.

When the magazine empties, the charging handle locks to the rear. To avoid having a throbbing finger the bolt release is cut down. I had no problems with the bolt release even though I began shooting it with a standard bolt release.

TigerStripe

January 27th 2009 3:45 AM

Addax 11.5 inch Side Charger GPU
Bolt Carrier Group Parts

Now we can look into some of the other differences between the side charger and a standard AR style upper.

Since there is no traditional charging handle on the top rear of the upper that space is no longer needed for that use but needs to be moved to remove the bolt carrier group. That space has been filled by a small piece of metal that rotates to the side for field stripping.

Here it is beginning to rotate.

Here it is rotated to the side to allow the bolt carrier group to be removed.

The bolt carrier group is removed just as a standard one with the exception of the missing rear charging handle.

The bolt carrier group removed. Note the notch in the bolt carrier near the bolt. This notch is where the charging handle connects with the bolt carrier group for operation.

A closer photo of the notch in the bolt carrier. This bolt carrier is a modified Young Manufacturing Light Weight carrier.

Proper GPU Gas Key Staking.

The bolt, firing pin and retaining pin are interchangable with standard AR15 parts.

TigerStripe

January 31st 2009 3:56 AM

Addax 11.5 inch Side Charger GPU
The Piston Parts
The piston parts on all current generation are Diamond Black ® Ion Bonded for increased strength and ease of maintenance. Carbon cannot build up or become embedded with the ion bonding. Anyone ordering a GPU now or in the future will have this upgrade to the system.

The Bolt Carrier Group (BCG) again. The BCG must be included along with the other piston parts because the ion bonded op rod is an integral part of the piston system. It both moves the BCG to the rear and cycles the piston back into the "start" position after firing.

The complete piston parts removed from the gas block. All piston parts are inclosed here, minus the op rod of course.

The cross pin, a small but important part. It holds the piston parts together. Break down of the piston parts begins by pushing the cross pin out either side of the front hole in the piston tube.

The first step in breaking down the piston parts.

The second step is to simply separate the adjustment knob from the piston tube.

Next, with the adjustment knob out of the way, remove the actual piston from the piston tube.

All the piston parts broken down. Top to bottom: the piston tube, the piston, the adjusting knob and the cross pin.

This is the entire process of breaking down the piston parts. You can use your favorite cleaner to remove the carbon from the outer surface of parts. Wipe any remaining cleaning agent off the piston parts, then reverse the process to reassemble the piston parts.

TigerStripe

February 10th 2009 5:56 PM

Positives of side charger

Why a side charger?

If you are looking at a piston system, you know that the original AR15 design has some flaws. Like the positives a piston system has over the direct gas designs, the side charger has positives over the standard rear charging handle design. So why would you want a side charger? Here are a few reasons.

If you are a police officer or military who has to carry your carbine in Condition 3 due to department policy or rules of engagement and need to chamber a round it takes time to contort it into position to grab the charging handle. With a side charger no contortion is needed. You can have your carbine at the shoulder ready to fire, pull the side charging handle quickly to the rear and release. You are in Condition 2 or 1 and, if the threat is clearly present, ready to fire.

If you use a standard magnified optic, also known as a scope, or a red dot plus magnifier the rear charging handle can be difficult to reach. The big latches and tactical latches can help but you’re still just putting a bandaid on the problem. You can mount a scope or red dot plus magnifier on a side charger and not have to worry about that problem. The handle on the side charger is unobstructed so you can load a round very quickly.

I have heard people who run their carbines suppressed complain about gas in the face. The reason for this is in the rear changing handle design. With the side charger upper that area is sealed when the carbine’s takedown pin is engaged. No more gas in the face.

Are these the only positives of a side charger? No. This is simply a short list of positives of the side charging GPU.

TigerStripe

February 11th 2009 7:38 PM

Range time with the Side Charger

It took a while to get all the parts for the pistol lower that would allow me to use the 11.5 inch side charger, so when I got it all put together I was ready to go to the range. Direct Impingement AR pistols are known to be the least reliable of the standard AR setups, generally due to gas problems or buffers that are too light. I decided to see if I could stop the side charger with a light buffer or bad ammo. I brought a standard carbine buffer, a 9mm buffer and poor ammo.

My first magazine was loaded with Wolf. I pulled the charger and a round went home.
Notice the gun pointed straight downrange.

I pulled the trigger thirty times and it went bang every time.

My next magazine was loaded with Adcom M855 spec ammo. It is known to be very poor ammo and I have had stoppages when using it in the past. Not this time.

I then tried a 9mm buffer with both Wolf and Adcom ammo until I ran out of it. The GPU ran fine and did not have a stoppage with the 9mm buffer.

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