As we move into the next decade, the personal defense weapon trend has done absolutely everything but fade away.
With numerous companies offering PDWs chambered for a wide range of calibers, including 5.56 NATO and 300 Blackout, the market seems more primed than ever for a massive PDW breakout from some of the more established firearms manufacturers.
To that end, Georgia-based Daniel Defense decided to jump on that train with the launch of their DDM4 PDW at this year’s SHOT Show industry conference in Las Vegas, Nevada.
Chambered for 300 BLK, and available either as a pistol with Maxim Defense’s CQB Pistol Brace or as a short-barreled rifle with Maxim’s CQB Gen 7 stock, the DDM4 PDW hits a niche seemingly still up for grabs and still not dominated by any one gun in particular.
At a first glance, the gun looks fairly typical of a Daniel Defense high-end build with the quality and attention to detail immediately evident. With the brace or stock fully extended, the gun measures no more than approximately 21-inches, making it a solid backpack or trunk gun.
The gun is designed to shoot well with both subsonic and supersonic loads, especially thanks to its optimized chrome-lined cold hammer forged 7-inch barrel featuring a 1:7 twist.
Like a number of other PDWs on the market, Daniel Defense’s product can also shoot comfortably when suppressed or unsuppressed. All DDM4 PDWs will retail with a standard linear compensator produced in-house by the company, that directs muzzle blast forward.
Additionally, the gun also features Daniel Defense’s GRIP-N-RIP ambidextrous charging handle, built for suppressed fire, which is designed to make life a little easier for shooters by redirecting gas flow up and away from the user’s face through the use of strategically-placed cuts and ridges on the body.
Up front, the DDM4 PDW makes use of a shortened (6-inch) version of the company’s MFR XL rail with multiple MOLK attachment points on the rail’s side faces, and retails with a detachable SLR Rifleworks MLOK MOD 2 handstop.
As one might expect, the gun certainly won’t be cheap, with an MSRP of $1,865 for the pistol version, and $1,935 for the short-barreled rifle.
Ian D’Costa is a correspondent with Gear Scout whose work has been featured with We Are The Mighty, The Aviationist, and Business Insider. An avid outdoorsman, Ian is also a guns and gear enthusiast.
