Nemo Arms AR Pistol Gel Demo

SHORT BARREL

This Nemo Arms Battle-Light 1.0 AR Pistol has an 8.5-inch barrel. Rob has faced criticism on social media, and even from a bold few who dare to criticize in person, that the 5.56mm round will not work in such a short barrel. Rob notes the research done on this in the 1950s and explains that this is simply not true with modern bullets.

CONTEXT OF USE

We all know how important context of use is. Rob doesn’t care what this gun and round combination does at 300 yards – he’s interested in its performance as a close-quarters self-defense weapon, for example in the home or workplace. For him, the question is: What will a hollow-point or a ballistic-tip bullet designed to rapidly expand and rapidly disrupt inside human tissue do out of this 8.5-inch barreled AR pistol?

ENTER THE GEL BLOCK

Rob has two rounds for testing: a full-metal jacket (FMJ) and a hollow-point. An FMJ round is supposed to have enough velocity when coming out of an AR to start tumbling when it hits tissue. In Rob’s gel block test, at 2.5-3 inches in, the round starts to destabilize, resulting in a large permanent wound cavity between 3.5 and 14 inches. Then the bullet loses energy as it exits the gel block.

The hollow-point round did what it’s supposed to – 15.5 inches of penetration and it remained in the gel block. It has a wider permanent wound cavity than the FMJ.

CONCLUSIONS

Rob believes the concern people have with an AR pistol that has a shorter than 10-inch barrel is overblown. The proof is in the gel – you can do a lot of damage with a short-barreled gun firing 5.56/.223 at close range. The Nemo Battle-Light 1.0 AR Pistol is a great choice as a home-defense weapon or for other close-quarters defensive applications.