EDC Carbine
The EDC carbine, here meaning ‘Pistol’ Carbines and Short Barreled Rifles, continues to be a popular platform. Their unique compact profiles and legal niche give them a utility no other platform can surpass.
My LWRCi and Zenith MP5 are used daily and sometimes in tandem as PDW’s during EDC. They are simple vehicle/bag portable items that take little more effort to grab than a wallet and your sunglasses.
The overall size of an EDC carbine with an 8-10″ barrel makes them maneuverable inside and around a vehicle. Emergency up gunning made easy.
I like these EDC carbines and when I was talking with Israel Weapon Industries (IWI) they insisted I look at the ACE up their sleeve.
The Galil ACE is a derivative of the original IMI Galil. The IMI Galil was an AK variant Israel developed in order to invest in a highly reliable and robust 5.56 and 7.62 NATO platform that would perform in the deserts of the middle east. The original Galil platform was derived from the Finnish RK-62 which was a derived AKM variant with a few improvements over the Soviet and Polish designs.
As most successful arms projects go you take what works and add incremental improvements. The Galil to ACE improvements featured material and interface modernization more than anything else.
With a couple hundred rounds through this platform, so far, I’m growing attached the unique blend of AR and AK ergonomics. Additionally when considering features around a high quality emergency or “bug-out” gun the ACE holds some out of the box that should place it very high on a list of candidates.
-The full stroke AK derived gas system is proven reliable and easily maintained.
-The tri-lug bolt, robust extractor, and fixed ejector are in keeping with AK reliability and design.
-The full length top rail allows for a modern optics suite if desired, however the iron sights are the more accurate peep style too. The sights are the full length of the top rail and come with tritium night sight inserts allowing daylight and low light use out of the box. The handguard portion features a quad-rail with integrated lock-on covers for modern accouterments, lights, lasers, grips, etc.
-The 5.56 uses readily available and inexpensive STANAG pattern magazines. Whether PMAGs (Including the D-60), Lancer’s, Daniel’s, or the old ever present aluminum GI’s. The other variants have equally available magazines too.
No reliability issues so far. Accuracy has been quite acceptable with a more substantial test in the near future.
Time to add optics and other equipment and see how if it stands up.
