Daniel Defense looked at the popularity of 300AAC Blackout offerings across the market and realized that the ISR was an elegant way to combine the best characteristics of the round into one platform. The ISR is was not built to compete in a military contract, it was conceived, designed and built for the commercial market, though Daniel Defense anticipates interest from the military.
"The ISR takes advantage of the best characteristics of the 300BLK round without adding weight, length, or the cost of an extra tax stamp to an unsuppressed rifle of the same length," said Jordan Hunter, Daniel Defense's director of marketing. The guns are going to be sold as complete guns with no option to buy just an upper receiver group. At least not initially, Jordan said.
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The overall barrel length, including the welded-in-place suppressor, means you only need to pay for a single tax stamp — not two as you'd need if you were buying a short barreled rifle and a separate sound suppressor.
Daniel Defense could have teamed up with any number of industry partners to bring a suppressor into their lineup, but they chose to make their own can. "Who do we want to trust with our brand," asked Jordan, "The quality of our product and the perception of our brand is so important to us that we decided to do it ourselves."
It's unclear if the ISR marks Daniel Defense's entry into the suppressor market. "We have the ability to do anything" said owner Marty Daniel, "nothing is off the table."
The AR platform rifle weighs a numerically significant 7.62 lbs. The suppressor features stainless steel construction, 17-4PH monolithic baffles and a salt bath nitride finish. DD hasn't offered any metrics on sound reduction, but they say the can's performance is on par with something like an AAC 762-SDN-6.
The suppressor is threaded and welded directly to a custom gas block. The gas block is mounted with a spiral roll pin and then spot welded in place to the cold hammer forged barrel. It's a novel setup that has the gas block inside the suppressor. Maintenance should be straight forward, as the baffle core is removable.
On the outside, the barrel and can are covered by a Daniel Defense 12" MFR handguard. The MFR is a thin and small diameter handguard, so heat buildup was a consideration during development, but it turned out to be a non-issue. Jordan says that after five full auto mag dumps, the rail was warm enough to be uncomfortable but not hot enough to cause burns. Running the gun with gloves will make the experience more comfortable if you are hell-bent on plowing through a month's supply of ammo in a day.
The rifle will cost $3199 and will ship in April. The ISR will be ready for it's debut on the firing line at the SHOT Show Media Day at the Range, this coming Monday.
