Looking at purchasing an AR Pistol and came across the HM Defense Raider M5. Their gas system and bolt seem to be well received by several YouTuber’s. Just curious if anyone has one or experience using one that might have some insight.
Even if you shoot all of the time,even to hit what you want to hit you will need a laser on it. I have one and to me it was a waste of money and without the laser to me it would be unless in a self defense IMHO
I don’t know too many people with any AR pistol or riffle that have a laser on it. Many have different Sights, but I have only seen one with a laser. Is this a general comment about the AR platform or the HM Defense specifically? I was at my range this past Friday and saw several people sighting in their riffles and none were using a laser and they were on target.
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I am talking about the AR pistol, The AR -15 rifle the sights are good or a scope and a red dot to me works great for close in stuff. The AR pistol is only good for close in shooting even with the laser.
Gotcha. I was considering the Pistol as a home defense tool and so I could silence it as well. Don’t need to blow out the ears of me and my family if I ever needed to use it.
You do not need to be blowing thru the walls of the house either into your neighbors
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@Jeffrey77 I haven’t heard of HM Defense, but that doesn’t mean too much there are lots of good builders out there now. Do you have a link or two to reviews of their equipment?
An AR pistol is a fine choice for HD/SD. There are a bunch of members on here with that setup or similar. If it’s your first AR, I’d recommend to stick with 5.56, but there are a few of us running 300Blackout which allows for even shorter barrel length and they are a dream suppressed.
Already considered that. Not worried. Thanks for your input.
Thanks @Harvey. This would be my first AR. I was looking at 5.56 / 223 and did a little research on 300 BLK today and other things like cost of Ammo, Silencer cans, optics, etc. There are several videos on YouTube regarding their pistols. Here is one of them: HM Defense Raider M5 AR Pistol - YouTube. Here’s another: HM Defense 12.5" Monobloc Upper - YouTube
I’m going to send them an email with a list of questions to see how their customer service responds. I’m a little perplexed that there are no long-term reviews and/or recent videos about them (recent being less than a year), but their technology of the Bolt and Gas system seems to quite stellar. But I don’t plan on abusing the Tool, so not sure it’s really necessary to purchase a complete build or just piece together on my own.
The original AR pistol’s could not have a butt stock of any type to be classed as a pistol. If you put any type of a stock on it you had better have a permit for a short barrel rifle because it was totally against the law. Now there must have been some changes to that law to be legal. But to be true to form if it has a stock so that it can be pulled/mounted to your shoulder to shoot it is no longer a pistol. I personally do not care to look up the laws to see what has changed. Still personally as to home defense I would rather have the youth model 410 or the 20 gauge as I have already stated if I wanted something besides a pistol
The law has not changed. As long as the intent of the AR is not to be mounted against the shoulder, it is classified as a Pistol. If you compare closely the Stock or Butt or whatever you want to call it between the two, you will see the Riffle is contoured to fit against the Shoulder, as originally designed. The Pistol is not and is shaped to fit flat against the forearm and or gripped by your support hand. Of course the other requirement is the length of the Barrel.
Everyone’s need and requirements are different. Size of home, cover ability, layout of rooms, etc. A shotgun can be a great choice, but at a distance, I really don’t want to put holes in my furniture and repair walls or cabinets. Of course just the sound could be determinant enough to scatter the mice. To each his own.
If you have ever shot a Keltek PMR-30 in 22 mag , now that is a noise and light show. I think the show will turn any perp. around whether you hit him or not. The fireball is about 2 feet by 1 foot in low light coditions.
Thanks, I’ll take a look at those videos. There may not be a ton of reviews just simply because it’s a very crowded market with AR manufacturers. That said… there are a ton of AR manufacturers out there making good stuff so don’t feel too tied down to any one in particular. You can save a few bucks by putting it together yourself (even just buying a separate lower and upper can save like $50), but there is appeal to just taking it out of the box and “it just works”.
There are many threads in here with helpful info, I’ll go ahead and post a few but check back in if you have any specific questions we can help with.
@Harvey thank you I will look around. It’s like Christmas shopping though…always finding something I want to add to my list.
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I finally got around to watching the HM Defense videos. They seem like good kit. I respect IraqVeteran8888, Sootch00, and MrGunsnGear (his comment is on IraqVeteran8888’s video) opinions and they seem to all give it a 
My own $0.02, they get points for USA made/assembled/sourced and I do think they address potential weak points on the AR platform (the bolt and gas port/block). But those failure points under normal usage is pretty far down the line in round count. Its hard to say how many more rounds you’d get out of the system before failure? 10%? 20%? more? If all else is equal though (cost, availability) those are nice-to-have features.
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I contacted HM this morning and they answered several of my questions. They then gave a contact number of someone near me who is an authorized dealer. After speaking with him, I felt very comfortable about the product. Failures can come at any time, but when you hear someone has multiple AR’s and put 200,000+ rounds through one w/o issues, that speaks volumes to me. That is what I couldn’t find on any review or video - that long-term performance.
USA made and assembled was a big deal to me as well. Long-term durability based on how I plan to use it and my general upkeep with firearms , as well as the price point (not cheap, but not expensive either), sold me. Plus purchasing it from a Veteran-owned, small business is a bonus.
I went ahead and ordered the Raider M5 Pistol. Hopefully will have it in 5 weeks or so.
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@RustyBucket_TX Luckygunner.com has some Soft-point for sale right now. I just picked up some to have on hand when my Pistol arrives.
Appreciate the link.
They are only showing 55 grain fmj available right now
Added to my links and will check back.
Thanks
Wow, sold out quick. Glad I jumped on it. I’m sure there will be more soon.
Let us know your impressions when you get it in!
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