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AR-15 Rifles, Pistols & Tactical Gear | Gun Store in Roanoke, TX

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Western Sport

The CMMG BR4 Dissent: The 47-State-Legal AR-Style Rifle, From a Gunsmith’s View

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I’m Lance Rankin, the gunsmith behind Western Sport in Roanoke, Texas. Here in Texas the CMMG BR4 Dissent is a curiosity, but I get calls from folks with family in California, New York, and other restrictive states asking what they can actually own. CMMG’s answer is clever enough that it’s worth a close look. The range footage above isn’t mine, so credit the creator for the shooting impressions; the mechanical commentary is me. And the usual caveat applies double here: ban-state law shifts constantly, so verify current legality in your state before you buy anything.

How CMMG engineered around the bans

Most “assault weapon” bans work off a features test: pistol grip, telescoping stock, flash hider, and so on. The Dissent simply doesn’t have the features on the list.

  • A Remington 870-pattern shotgun stock instead of an AR stock and pistol grip
  • An 870-style crossbolt safety instead of the AR selector
  • A side charging handle instead of the rear T-handle
  • A muzzle brake instead of a flash hider
  • An adjustable gas system, handy for ammo tuning and suppressors

Underneath, it still runs like a modern semi-auto and feeds from standard AR-15 magazines. That’s the whole trick, and it’s why the marketing line is 47-state legal. As a gunsmith, I respect the execution. This isn’t a featureless kit bolted onto an AR; the fire control geometry had to be reworked to make a shotgun stock and crossbolt safety function at all.

How it ran

In the video, the very first round produced a light primer strike, then the rifle ran flawlessly for the rest of the session. One early hiccup that never repeats doesn’t worry me; I see that with new guns all the time, and it’s usually break-in or one hard primer. The trigger reportedly breaks crisp and light, which matches my experience with CMMG’s work generally. Recoil is mild, the shotgun stock feels odd for about a magazine and then becomes normal, and the barrel and gas tube get hot under sustained fire like every rifle ever made.

The manual of arms is the honest trade-off. If you’ve trained on AR controls for years, the crossbolt safety and side charging handle will fight your muscle memory at first. If your background is pump shotguns, it’ll feel like coming home.

Configurations

CMMG offers the Dissent in 5.56 NATO, 300 Blackout, 6 ARC and more, with 16-inch and 14.5-inch barrels and a pile of Cerakote colors. If you’re torn on chambering, my 5.56 vs 300 Blackout comparison walks through it; short version, 5.56 for cheap practice and range time, 300 Blackout if a suppressor is in your future. The adjustable gas block makes suppressed shooting genuinely pleasant, and Cerakote happens to be a service I do in-house if you want a color CMMG doesn’t offer.

Who should buy one

If you live in a restrictive state, or you’re a Texan who might move to one, the Dissent gets you AR magazine capacity, modern ammo, and a real trigger inside the rules, and it beats settling for a lever gun or pump shotgun you didn’t actually want. If you live in a free state and just like weird guns, it’s also a legitimately interesting piece. If you’re in Texas with no such constraints, a conventional AR is still the simpler, cheaper answer, and my guides on the best AR-15 for beginners and home defense AR setup will get you there.

Want one shipped to a dealer? That’s what I’m for. FFL transfers run $40 plus the $10 NICS check, local pickup by appointment in Roanoke. Call 817-393-4000 or email [email protected].

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Sunday Shoot-a-Round: Swedish Mauser, Glock 43X, and Thoughts on Freedom

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I’m Lance Rankin, gunsmith and owner of Western Sport in Roanoke, Texas, and Sunday Shoot-a-Round from Hickok45 is one of the few gun series I watch with coffee instead of a notepad. The episode above rambles, in the best way, from a Swedish Mauser to a Glock 43X to free speech and even diet talk. Everything on screen is his; the commentary below is mine.

Shoot your keepsakes

The theme that opens the episode is one I preach at my own counter: quit letting cherished guns rot in the safe. He’s owned his Swedish Mauser Model 96 in 6.5×55 for eight or ten years and still hikes with it and shoots it regularly. That rifle was made in 1911, the same year Browning’s famous pistol was adopted, and it’s still splitting 2-liter bottles a century later.

From the gunsmith’s chair, I’ll second all of it. The Model 96 action is one of the smoothest ever made, and 6.5×55 is the original gentle-recoiling 6.5, doing what the Creedmoor crowd rediscovered a hundred years later. His trick of dabbing white paint on the front sight is old-school and it works, especially on dark targets. Cheap fix, big difference. And no, honest use doesn’t ruin an heirloom. Neglect does. Guns are machines. They’d rather be run and cleaned than entombed.

The Glock 43X and Shield Arms mags

He’s still testing Shield Arms magazines in his Glock 43X, with good results so far, while rotating carry duty between the 43X and a Sig P365 XL. Those steel Shield Arms mags bump the 43X from 10 rounds to 15, which is why people love them. My advice as a smith: if you run them, use the recommended steel mag catch and then test the daylights out of them before you carry. Any magazine that touches a defensive gun earns trust at the range first, not in the holster. If you’re weighing that little Glock against its bigger siblings, my Glock 43 vs 43X comparison covers it.

The porch-talk portion

The episode wanders into the Joe Rogan cancellation push, platforms like Rumble courting creators who feel squeezed, and his own headaches with Facebook pulling links to his videos. Firearms channels live with that reality constantly, and he’s right that owning guns puts you in politics whether you asked for it or not. The Second Amendment doesn’t defend itself. He also shares that a low-carb diet has taken about 18 pounds off him, and revisits the Beatles on Ed Sullivan. That’s the charm of the series: it’s a range session with a neighbor, not a spec-sheet recital.

Where I land

Watch the episode for the Mauser alone. Then go dig out whatever’s been hiding in your safe the longest and take it shooting. If it needs attention first, a sticky bolt, a dark bore, sights that were never right, that’s literal daily work at my bench, and I’d rather fix it than have you retire it. Texas folks new to all this can start with my guides on buying a gun in Texas and constitutional carry. Reach me at [email protected] or 817-393-4000.

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Machine Guns for Sale? The West Virginia Bill, Explained by an NFA Dealer

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I’m Lance Rankin, and as a Type 07 FFL with an SOT here in Roanoke, Texas, machine guns are literally part of my license. So when West Virginia floated a bill that could have let ordinary residents buy new M16s and MP5s, my phone lit up. Here’s what the bill actually said, why it was arguably legal, and the strange way it died. Fair warning: this is dated commentary, so check the current status of these bills before you plan anything around them.

The loophole that isn’t really a loophole

Since 1986, the Hughes Amendment has frozen the civilian machine gun market. No new registrations, which is why a transferable M16 costs more than a decent truck. But the same statute contains an exemption most people have never read. Under 18 U.S.C. § 922(o)(2)(A), the machine gun ban doesn’t apply to transfers or possession “under the authority of” a state.

West Virginia Senate Bill 1071, introduced by Senators Chris Rose and Zack Maynard with backing from Gun Owners of America, tried to use that exemption directly. It would have created an office inside the West Virginia State Police to purchase post-1986 full autos, things like M16s, MP5s, and M249s, and resell them to qualified residents after a background check and a fee. The expected price? Nothing like the six-figure collector market. Kentucky introduced a similar bill. If the mechanism holds up, it’s the first real crack in the Hughes freeze in nearly forty years.

Then it got weird

SB 1071 cleared the Senate Judiciary Committee and was headed to Finance. Then, right before a critical deadline, a lobbyist who had worked for the West Virginia Citizens Defense League reportedly announced he intended to kill the bill, claiming it could create legal exposure for police officers. GOA disputed that flatly, arguing the bill complies with federal law and simply activates a dormant part of it. The WVCDL confirmed the lobbyist had worked for them but said the group had taken no official position, saying they hadn’t had time to analyze the bill.

Whatever actually happened behind the scenes, the Judiciary chairman pulled the bill, ending its run for the session. Reporting at the time suggested the governor would have signed it. As of this writing, that’s where things stand: dead in West Virginia for the session, with the Kentucky bill still worth watching.

My take as a dealer

Two honest observations. First, the legal theory isn’t crazy. The exemption is right there in the statute, and post-Bruen, courts are being forced to look harder at these questions than they used to. Whether ATF and the courts would let a state resale program stand is another matter entirely, and anyone expecting a cheap M16 next year is getting ahead of the facts.

Second, the way this died bothers me more than the outcome. Gun owners lose more legislative fights to friendly fire than to the opposition. When a pro-2A state can’t pass a pro-2A bill the governor would sign because our own side torpedoed it at the deadline, that’s a discipline problem worth talking about openly.

What you can do right now

Full autos may be frozen, but the rest of the NFA world is open for business. Suppressors, short-barreled rifles, and the paperwork that goes with them are everyday work at my shop, and I’ll walk you through the process without the mystery. Start with my explainer on what an FFL dealer actually does, or if you’re newer to all this, how to buy a gun in Texas and how to buy a gun online. Questions about NFA items? That’s my favorite subject. [email protected] or 817-393-4000.

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The Jackal PDW: Is This Call of Duty Gun a Fun Meme or a Serious Firearm?

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Every so often a customer walks into my shop asking about a gun they saw in a video game. Lately it’s been the Jackal PDW from Call of Duty: Black Ops 6. The video above, from the Stuff and Things channel, covers a real-world version of it, and since I’m Lance Rankin, the gunsmith behind Western Sport here in Roanoke, Texas, I figured I’d give you my take on their build. Credit where it’s due: the range work and the conversion in the video are all theirs. The opinions below are mine.

What this thing actually is

The in-game Jackal is modeled on the “Gepard,” an experimental Soviet design from the late ’80s and early ’90s. The original was built to be modular, convertible between calibers from .380 ACP up through 9x19mm and various Russian rounds, at a time when the Soviets were short on submachine guns.

What Stuff and Things put on the range isn’t one of those. It’s a conversion kit on a Century Arms Draco NAK9, the 9mm Romanian AK-pattern pistol, dressed up to match the video game aesthetic. It feeds from Glock magazines instead of anything Soviet, which is a practical choice even if it’s not period-correct. As a gunsmith, I’ll say this: building a convincing lookalike on an AK-pattern blowback gun is harder than it sounds, and they pulled off the look.

How it shoots

Per the video, accuracy was honestly decent. They were ringing steel at 150 to 200 yards, which is plenty for a pistol-caliber gun. The comfort report is less kind, and it matches what I’d expect from the platform:

  • The safety has no positive stop and sits in an awkward spot, so working it takes a deliberate reach.
  • It’s direct blowback, so that heavy bolt slams back and forth and you feel every bit of it. A 9mm PCC shouldn’t kick, but blowback guns thump more than people expect.
  • The short brace puts your face close to the dust cover, the grip is cramped, and the mag release is a stretch.

One detail I liked from the teardown: the gas tube is fake. It’s cosmetic, with a weight inside to help the blowback action cycle. That’s the kind of clever workaround you see in conversion builds.

The magazine catch, literally

Here’s the part that would generate service tickets at my bench. Standard Glock 17 and 19 mags don’t seat reliably because the latch point sits too high. You need extended 30- or 33-round sticks, or you’re modifying mags. If a customer brought me this gun complaining about feeding issues, that’s the first thing I’d check. A gun that’s picky about magazines is a range toy by definition, not a defensive tool.

The trigger is standard AK fare, somewhere around 6 or 7 pounds with a slightly sticky reset. The muzzle device is a reproduction of the game’s flash hider, threaded 1/2×28, so at least you can suppress it. With an 11-to-12-inch barrel it’s not exactly compact, either. An MP5 clone does the same job in a smaller package.

My verdict

Serious firearm? No. It’s uncomfortable, mag-picky, and there are better 9mm carbines at every price. Fun meme? Absolutely, and I don’t say that as an insult. Range toys are a legitimate reason to own a gun, and if a Call of Duty build gets somebody to a range for the first time, that’s a win. GoldenEye did the same thing for a whole generation, mine included.

If the video-game itch strikes and you’d rather build something you’ll still love in five years, that’s what I do all day. Check out my guide to the best AR pistols or how to build an AR-15, and if you find something odd online, I handle FFL transfers for $40 plus the $10 Texas NICS check. Questions? [email protected] or 817-393-4000.

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Mrgunsngear’s top 5 favorite firearms: a gun dealer’s reaction

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Mike from Mrgunsngear put out a video picking his five favorite firearms, one from each major category, and it’s embedded above. He’s one of the more level-headed reviewers on YouTube, so when he commits to favorites, I pay attention. I’m Lance Rankin, and I sell and wrench on guns every day at Western Sport in Roanoke, Texas, so I figured I’d run his list against what actually moves across my counter and lands on my bench. Spoiler: the man’s picks hold up.

Shotgun: Mossberg 590

Mike’s heart says older Remington 870, but he’s had reliability trouble with the newer production, so his buy-it-today pick is the Mossberg 590. I see the same thing in the shop. Old 870s are tanks; recent ones have been a coin flip. The 590 is the 500’s tougher sibling, worth its extra weight, with a deep accessory market and a top-mounted safety that works the same for lefties. No argument from me.

Rifle: BCM AR-15

His rifle is a BCM with a 16-inch ELW-profile barrel, and his reasoning is the part worth hearing: past a certain point, more money buys very little more rifle. BCM sits right at that point. Durable, accurate out of the box, made in Wisconsin. As a Daniel Defense dealer I’d add DD to that same conversation, but the value argument for BCM is honest and I make it myself at the counter. If you’re earlier in the journey, start with my best AR-15 for beginners guide before you spend BCM money.

Revolver: Smith & Wesson J-frame

His carry revolver is a 13-ounce .357 Magnum J-frame, a design that’s been proving itself since the 1950s. He admits it kicks, and a featherweight .357 genuinely does. Most people who buy one end up feeding it .38 Special, which is fine. It’s the gun that’s always in the pocket when the fancier gun got left home. For a shooter who wants a bigger wheelgun, he points to the 686 Plus, which is also what I’d hand you.

Semi-auto pistol: Glock 19X or 45

He calls this pick controversial. It isn’t. The 19X and the Glock 45 are the same practical idea, a full-size grip under a compact slide, and they may be the best all-around Glocks made: reliable, optic-ready, decent sights, usable trigger. His joke that the 19X wins because it’s tan is at least half serious. If you’re weighing frame sizes in the Glock line, my Glock 19 vs 17 writeup covers the trade-offs.

PCC: CZ Scorpion Gen 3

His pistol-caliber carbine pick is the Scorpion, specifically the Gen 3, which fixed the accuracy complaints of the earlier guns. Simple blowback action, AR-familiar controls, big aftermarket, and a price that undercuts a lot of the competition. His best point is one I repeat to home-defense customers: an average shooter under stress will get hits with a carbine far more easily than with a pistol. Something with a stock and three points of contact is more forgiving of everything.

Where I land

What I like about this list is that there’s nothing exotic on it. Five proven designs, all of them repairable, all of them with parts support that’ll outlive us. That’s what favorites should look like from somebody who actually shoots. Every gun on this list is something I can put in your hands through our online store or here at the shop in Roanoke. Watch Mike’s full video for his complete reasoning, and if you want a second opinion tailored to your situation, call me at 817-393-4000.

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