Guns: What's Next? A Flamethrower?

Gun rag articles feature the silliest things sometimes. Hey, you only get so much mileage out of reviewing the umpteenth AR variant coming from some indie machine shop - in order to get more people to read your magazine, sometimes you have to write about something unexpected. Just look at what was on the cover of April's "Shotgun News":

"AR + Arrows = PSE TAC-15"

That's right, the folks at Precision Shooting Equipment cooked up an AR-15-based crossbow. It fits on any standard AR lower, turning your sedate 5.56 caliber carbine into a medieval-style engine of destruction:



The craziest thing is that this is not only a usable crossbow, but a powerful one. It uses nonstandard bolts because of the force imparted by the string; normal bolts would be shredded by the 170 peak weight. According to PSE, the TAC-15 can deliver a 425 grain bolt with 160 foot pounds of energy - about a 50% increase over the standard hunting crossbow.

Before you jump in line, the list price from PSE for one of these things is $1300. Still, it's actually fairly practical as far as curiosities go - if your locality has a special hunting season for crossbow users, the TAC-15 might let you join in the fun with all your AR lower accessories: grip, stock, trigger (I'm not sure on this, since legally the lower is a firearm no matter what you mount on it).

In the absurd event you actually shoot this thing in self-defense, be comforted that a 160 ft-lb broadhead will sail clean through a game animal - or conventional body armor.