Drop Point Tactical

Strike-Industries: J-Comp Review
by Julian Honore’ / Lead Design / Product R&D 

Drop Point Tactical Post #01
www.droppointtactical.com

Hello, and welcome to our new Tactical blog.  Yep, there are a lot of tacti-cool blogs and companies out there tapping into a growing market.  And this blgo is one baby step towards a grand design that snot all that disssimilar at first glance.  But behind the scenes, we are bringing some unique skillsets to bear on this arena, including a strong emphasis on co-branded, collaborative production, and a general sense of accountability to our viewers that we hope to convert into customers.  The founders hail from wildly different backgrounds in formal design, illustration, optics and weapons production, as well as general blade knowledge ranging from production to highly custom rarities, blade-care, and deployment which we will be featuring prevalently.  For now though, I want to jump right into something fun, and at the same time fullfill an obligation to a company that we hope we will be able to continue to work with, test products for, and get some work done with when we're ready.  So lets just cut to it: 

Changing out your stock compensator is about as common place as swapping out the stock exhaust on your motorcycle:  It’s the first thing you can do to get immediate performance bumps in your brand new baby – whether it be an AR15, or a Sport-bike.  And like a nice, thunderous, fire-breathing, bead-blasted titanium header, you want your compensator to accentuate your rifle as much as it helps its target scores.   Comps, flash hiders, and barrel accessories of all types are one of those cases where neither form nor function take precedent – you want both, and you expect to get both.  So lets look at Strike Industries crack at this staple piece of equipment.

I love unboxing videos.  Drop Point Tactical will start doing more and more of those but for now, all you really need to know is right there in that photo above.  They just KILLED the packaging.  It looks exactly like a robot vinyl model kit.  Its not like any of their other packaging (typically silver with technical illustrations).  This just  makes you want to leave it on the shelf for a long while (which I did). Its just one of those little touches that tells me Strike Industries is thoughtful, and that they're having fun in the design department without me.  So I have already raved about the niche markets discovered, served, and useful parts manufactured by this still fledgling but definitely on the rise Tac. Company (All previous content will be migrated to this new official DPT blog which is associated with our own forthcoming "boutique" tactical production company), and they have already moved on quite a bit since this comp was released.  I've finally gotten around to publishing the review in a proper format, but also becasue I really wanted to have it coated and that process just takes time.  More on that later in the review, and in forthcoming reviews.

Very often what you see with Strike is a “from-the-drawing-board-to-fabrication” approach.  They create brand new parts from scratch, improving on (if not experimenting with) some existing products (see thier fore-grip vs magpuls AFG) in a notable, almost defiant ways, always seeming to strive for an edgier design treatment than its direct competitors.  But in this case, when considering their take on an AR compensator, Strike Ind. has gone a completely different direction all together:  Rather than reinventing wheel on this piece, they’ve introduced something to the American market that’s already  in service, arguably better, and…just looks fantastic:  The Japanese Army Compensator, or "J-comp."

 

  

Before getting into the engineering and design details of this part, I think that its fair to say that this choice demonstrates just how intelligent, deliberate, and non ego-centric Strike Industry’s business strategy really is.  There are literally piles of compensators, flash hiders, barrel shrouds, and if you like, fake suppressors out there (for us poor States that can only dream) that could use a “Strike-Facelift”.  But they didn’t go that route.  They looked for something that was already in action, and they put in on the table for the American market. I applaud that. And being something of a Japanophile, as well as an aficionado of every country’s strongest suit (Finnish and British bolt-action rifles, Italian handguns, American ARs and M1s, and German…well, everything), I can only hope this is the beginning of Strikes import and repackaging strategy.  I put this question to them directly and hope to hear back.

Unless you really want to get into the science, there’s not much to tell about the J-comp, and that’s the point.  it works.  It was on my rifle in moments.  I didn’t have to think about fitment.  It’s just “blue-on,”, twist, and go.  Performance-wise, this compensator does precisely what’s its purported to do, and once you fire it, you’ll see just what that extra half-inch of steel and subtle but ingenious 2-way pressure transmission can do for even the snappiest AR recoil.  A more abbreviated blog called Action Close Reviews puts it very concisely, and they obviously know more about physics that we do: "The J-Comp is designed with 6 ports which both redirect concussive force to reduce recoil as well as minimize flash. This is a nice merge between the two things most people look for when deciding on a muzzle device. You really don’t feel like you’re losing with one to gain the other. Both aspects work very well with this design. The J-Comp is made with a parkerized  steel which gives the J-Comp a nice crisp look."

Indeed, the pressure release going in all directins at once is dead simple, and dead beautiful.  its a little sculpture.  Designed fo the Type 89 current in-service rifle for the Japanese army, this is the perfect finishing touch for an equally simplistic yet beautiful rifle.  The type 89 is nothing to shrug at.  We dont seem to have these here in the US.  No surprise there - we don't exactly ship AR-15s to Asia in bulk - so they obviously had to come up with their own solution.  Again, this is a whole other article, but by appearances, the Type 89 is a very practical rifle worth discussing. A sort of mix between an M1 Garand, and a Sig 556.  Really simple, really adaptive, and really effective, and appears to come in many flavors, from QCB, to Sniper Platforms, to heavy Gunner, you still see the same basic chassis gain and again. A Japanese rifle simpistic in design that works great and comes in a rainbow o variants - Whaddya know?  

 

I’m not a physics graduate, nor am I a gunsmith. I like to shoot, I like to stay on target, and I like nice clean follow-up shots with my limited 10 round magazine here in the good old liberal state of California.  I don't know where these guys in the YouTube videos with their bump fire rifles and their 10,000 round stress tests come from, but as I fling brass downrange at nearly a dollar a pop, I also want to squeeze as much accuracy out of each shot as I can.  Because lets face it, after about an hour and $100 in ammo plus range fees, you start to think about going over to the handgun section, or, more likely, home.  Wipe the rifle down and put it away, lie a motorcycle in winter, or a car in Summer when the gas prices get bonkers.

In summation, to me, the J-comp is the very abbreviated way of saying all there is to say about Japanese ware-fare in the last half century or so.  Treaty regulations and various design constraints have put the kind of pressure on Japanese manufacturing in the military industry that has wrung out some serious innovation, conservation, and accuracy.  Even buying into thi one small piece of beautifully milled out cylinder of steel is enough to give you the message.  I love it, and I dearly hope for more imports mixed in with Strikes menu of new items.

For more technical information, read up on how the j-comp works at: http://strikeindustries.com/shop/index.php/japan-type89-comp.html

Part II: Strike Industry Entering the Color Arena: Necessary, or just Fun?

In the meantime, I will start working Strike's nerves to convince them to release some of their components in the various familiar battle colors we are used to seeing from companies like Magpul, but perhaps with a bit of a twist, as I was for example able to achieve this peculiar color working with Robar on the aforementioned J-comp.  When coating the piece OD green, we ended up with something a little different - something Id call Dark Forest.  It's almost undetectably green, so I cranked up the saturation on the photo to help defeat my low-light environment.  I hope it catches their eye, and I would love to hear back from Strike on this subject -  in particular, if they were to start coating, would they be willing to play with colors with as much experimentation as their actual product designs?  Colors that aren't necessarily your standard line-up of greens and Tans?  How about some shades of grey, or parts for "arctic" terrain, etc - the kind of crazy White and light Grey combinations you see coming out of custom stock companies that are really bold, like J Allen Enterprises, McMillan, or any number of companies both combat and competition that play with metallic hues and actual composites in their upper receivers, etc   This is for the viewers, Strike, and Robar or whoever works together best all to consider.  Thanks!