M+M Industries M10X International Defense Rifle

August 21, 2019 - 10:35am

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Rifles

Italiano

The M+M Industries M10X “International Defense Rifle” blends the typical “Eastern Block” 7,62×39mm chambering with some of the best features of modern western rifles: the perfect revisiting of the AK platform for the 21st Century?

The M10X 7,62x39mm caliber semi-automatic rifle was first introduced by its manufacturer M+M Industries, Inc. at the 2015 edition of the NSSF SHOT Show.

Fast-forward to one year later, the M10X had already evolved to a more refined design with the launch of the “Èlite model”; the current iteration, dubbed the M10X International Defense Rifle, was launched in 2017.

Blending the key features of the most quintessential military rifle of the 20th Century – the AK/AKM Kalashnikov design – to some of the best features of modern American and European tactical firearms, according to the manufacturer the M10X was «designed and produced with the latest manufacturing technology to overcome many of these rifles previous design limitations with unprecedented interchangeability, modularity, accuracy and ease of component replacement.»

M+M Industries M10X cambered for the 7,62x39 Russian cartridge

The M10X semi-automatic rifle is built around two receivers, held together by a front passing pin and a rear latch, blending the AKM and AR-15 field-stripping procedures but doing without the elements of the parent platforms that are seen by some as inherent weaknesses (eg. the AK’s sheet metal top cover). All this, without declining into an overly complicated design: as a matter of fact, the M10X has only 49 components, basically the same as a STEN gun and a long way from the eighty parts of an AK and the over 100 components of an AR-15.

The upper receiver of the M+M M10X semi-automatic rifle is manufactured out of stainless steel and embedded into a monolithic aluminum extrusion, available in different colors, featuring a full-length top MIL-STD 1913 Picatinny rail for optics or back-up folding sights; a ventilated handguard with a front hand stop; a set of QD sling swivel attachment points; and M-LOK slots for accessory rails.

The stamped steel lower receiver includes the squared AK-style trigger guard and a thumb-activated, ambidextrous rotary safety switch conveniently located over the grip area. The M10X rifle comes issued with a MagPul MOE pistol grip and a MagPul Zhukov-S adjustable stock that folds to the right and, unlike other AK folding stocks, allows the rifle to be used when folded.

Side views of the receiver: above the grip you see the manual safety lever

For the more curious among you: the knife visible in the picture at right is a CRKT Provoke

The M10X is chambered in 7,62×39mm, and feeds through readily available AK/AKM magazines; magazine well, insertion method and release paddle lever are the same familiar ones from any AK-type rifle.

The ejection window is located on the right side only, but cocking handle guides are cut on both sides of the upper receiver, so that the handle can be swapped to left-handed or right-handed operation in seconds; the operation doesn’t even require field-stripping.

A long-stroke gas-operated rifle with a rotating bolt, the M10X features a peculiar nitride treated steel bolt carrier that shows clearly its AK heritage despite the vastly improved design.

At the end of the gas tube, an FN FAL-style gas valve allows the user to adjust the gas system to different types of ammunition or – where legally available – for the use of silencers or sound suppressors.

All the components of the gas system are either made out of stainless steel or are nitride treated for durability.

The barrel of the M10X rifle is 41,9 cm (16.5”) long, has a nitride treated bore and a 1:9¼” rifling. A proprietary flash hider/compensator is fitted from factory to the 5/8-24×1 RH threaded muzzle. Tests carried on in the U.S. show that the M10X rifle can offer some of the highest levels of accuracy to be found on a 7,62×39mm rifle: the barrel itself is capable of 0.7 MOA groups, but group accuracy in semi-automatic fire is still pretty high at 1.5 MOA with Match Grade ammunition, down to 2 MOA with standard commercial ammunition.

Competitively offered at a lower price point if compared to the vast majority of modern sporting and tactical rifles, the M+M Industries’ M10X semi-automatic rifle is accurate, controllable in rapid fire, and tolerates dirt and abuse. It may not be the “perfect gun”, but for a 7,62×39mm rifle, it’s pretty close to it.