Looking at the SA Saint Edge ATC vs. the Drake Associates Athena they seem like the exact same rifle. Did Drake sell SA the design?
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Did Springfield knock off Drake Associates Athena?
- Thread starter endlesscoffee
- Start date
After about 5 minutes on the Google I found out that Springfield Armory worked with Drake Associates on the design of the ATC. Springfield Armory did not knock off of the Drake Associates ATHENA.
www.thearmorylife.com
Review: SAINT Edge ATC - The Armory Life
For being the most popular rifle in the world and having select-fire siblings used in military service for more than half a century, the AR-15 hasn’t seen that much innovation since its inception. Admittedly, the design was radically advanced at its time of introduction, with the use of modern...
www.thearmorylife.com
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Interesting concept... but , SAI is using a Ballistic Advantage barrel ? ( not trying to be a barrel snob )
- Barrel
18" Ballistic Advantage, Melonite®, 1:7
Seems like a premier rifle would have a more consistently precise barrel.... and why not chambered in the 6MM ARC... or 6.5G ?
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Finally, the gun version of the Pontiac Aztek.
I thought there was another version of this conversation (with the Q Fix??) and it has to do with the same designer moving between the companies.
A big part of Drake Associate's business model seems to be licensing their concepts to other companies. For example, the Savage Stealth rifles were a partnership between Drake, MDT, and Savage. The current Savage "precision" rimfire line that uses MDT manufactured chassis is another.
So I don't think there's any intellectual property theft going on between Springfield and Drake. I think it's more likely that either Springfield approached Chris about producing the Athena under license, or he approached them and sold them on the idea.
I'd personally rather see the chassis with more M-lok on the sides, and with a flat bottom and integrated ARCA rail on the forend. And an option to have it chambered in something like 6mm ARC.
I think the fact that it accepts AR barrels means it can be chambered, barreled in damn near anything that the AR-15 is chambered in. The person that buys this is going to put their personal favorite brand of barreled upper in it on Day 2. just gotta swap out the barrel nut, i guess.
in the spirit of keeping initial buy-in costs low, at least they didn't go with a BCA barrel. just my 2 cents.
Seen some pretty good BA barrels in the past- not gonna lie.
I would own this in a heartbeat if it friggin didn't weigh 10...10lbs. My LMT MWS is a pig and it weighs 10lbs.
I would own this in a heartbeat if it friggin didn't weigh 10...10lbs. My LMT MWS is a pig and it weighs 10lbs.
I've been waiting to see a review on the large frame model. The last time I checked you couldn't even order them any longer from Drake. I still hate SA so I guess I'll just save my money.
Excellent point, I had not thought of that. Thanks
And the BCA comment made me Lol..... that would have been quite the choice !
I looked for ANY meaningful review of the chassis , and couldn't find any... If anyone has seen a proper review, of the "Drake Associates Athena" I would appreciate it a link.
Fingered one at the LGS today. If you think it looks ugly online, it's way worse in person. It's pretty heavy, the upper HG rattles, the Larue trigger was very okay, still not sure what the fuss is about them, the HG front face serrations were uneven and just as useless as you would imagine. The whole thing smells like a solution looking for a problem.
So, I have one of the black anodized base models for review and I'm trying like hell to say something nice about it, I'm calling it Fat Amy. The damn thing is 9 1/2 lbs bare, no optic, no bipod, no ammo. I also wasn't jazzed that although the literature says "modular match trigger" it's not, it's the same flat faced trigger that comes with the standard Saint rifles; GI trigger pull and all. I swapped it out with a Schmid 2 stage trigger for testing.
That being said, I shot it a little bit this past weekend and the front forend is comfortable in the hand and it's pretty stable off my Game Changer. I haven't tested for accuracy yet so we'll see how that goes.
For the record, the upper handguard has a tension screw that can be tightened so it doesn't rattle. It uses an 1/8" allen key that comes with the gun and is the same one you use to tighten the tension screws that engage the bottom of the receiver.
That being said, I shot it a little bit this past weekend and the front forend is comfortable in the hand and it's pretty stable off my Game Changer. I haven't tested for accuracy yet so we'll see how that goes.
For the record, the upper handguard has a tension screw that can be tightened so it doesn't rattle. It uses an 1/8" allen key that comes with the gun and is the same one you use to tighten the tension screws that engage the bottom of the receiver.
I figured there was some way to tighten it, still seems weird that all three at the gun shop were sent out feeling like they were about to fall apart.
I can't explain it but you can tension the screws and lock it all up tight. Part of me kind of likes the outside the boxness of the rifle but another part is saying "what the fuck were you thinking guys?"
Mar 17, 1989In my opinion, anything is possible:
Col. Juan Lopez de la Cruz, who stationed at the U.S. Embassy in San Salvador between 1982 and 1984, was named in a seven-count indictment charging conspiracy, bribery, making false statements and aiding and abetting the filing of false claims.The indictment, returned Thursday by a federal grand jury in Alexandria, Va., accused Lopez of conspiring with Dennis J. Reese, president of Springfield Armory, Inc., to defraud the foreign military sales program operated by the Pentagon.
Lopez is accused of soliciting and taking bribes totaling $70,000 from Reese in return for helping Springfield Armory complete the sale of $3.7 million worth of firearms to the Salvadoran government.
Efforts to reach Lopez for comment on the charges were unsuccessful.
As an advisor to the Salvadoran Military Group, Lopez recommended to the Salvadoran government what types of weapons and supplies to purchase from U.S. manufacturers under the program.
After they were introduced in 1983, Lopez told Reese that he was in a position to influence the type of weapons the Salvadorans would purchase and could help get U.S. certification to complete the transactions, the indictment said.
Reese, who pleaded guilty last month to conspiracy and filing false statements, also bought Lopez a $4,722 Rolex watch at the colonel's request.
U.S. COLONEL INDICTED ON CHARGES OF TAKING BRIBES IN SALVADOR SALES
A federal grand jury has indicted a U.S. Army colonel who supervised military sales to El Salvador on charges of taking $70,000 in bribes and a $4,722 watch from the head of an armaments company. Col. Juan Lopez de la Cruz, who stationed at the U.S. Embassy in San Salvador between 1982 and...www.deseret.com
That you need tools for just to separate the upper from the lower. The pivot and takedown pins do not allow disassembly.
The top handguard also won’t clear over certain gas blocks and muzzle devices, as it sleeves over the barrel and locks into the lower handguard/receiver :
Yeah, I kind of see where they were going but... fuck man, anyone can just slap a couple sets of mlok weights and a section of ARCA rail on an AR and "voila" PRS-ish steady AR, this is a little extra.
And damn, the front half is so ugly that it's starting to make me think that B5 precision stock is sort of okish looking.
And damn, the front half is so ugly that it's starting to make me think that B5 precision stock is sort of okish looking.
I finally got out to the range to do accuracy testing with the black ATC today, shooting Federal GMM 69gr and 77gr at 100 yards. I'm not going to go in depth but the accuracy was good, the average for 69gr match was .54" and for 77 gr match it was .71". This wasn't a fully stock set up, I had replaced the trigger with an aftermarket 2-stage since I was pretty confident that there was a low probability I would've been able to get sub-MOA with the factory trigger.
