There was once a company that produced a dry cake mix that only required water to be added. When they ran taste tests, apparently the cake was borderline phenomenal, and they thought they had a sure fire hit on their hands.
It wouldn't sell.
You see, nobody believed that a cake mix that didn't require eggs or fats could possibly be any good. The company eventually changed their formula to add eggs, and sales went through the roof.
Para USA is going to have the same problem with their Tactical Target Rifle, or TTR.
The TTR still uses a direct impingement system, but instead of a gas tube that ends inside the bolt carrier there is a rod that comes off the BC and travels along the top of the barrel. Surrounding this rod is a spring, which means you can actually have a folding stock on an AR-15 - no annoying twang each time you shoot. From my understanding, gas is ported from the front of the barrel directly onto the rod and any excess is directed over the barrel rather than the bolt. It's like a combination between a piston system and DI, using the best of both worlds.
Not "shitting where you eat", in my opinion, is overshadowed by what it does to the rifle's balance and that's where Para is going to have the hardest time making the sell.
In this picture, you can see Todd Jarrett cradling the rifle to where it just rests on his hands.
With no grip whatsoever (Todd Jarrett always tells you to grip 20% harder. Todd cannot take his own device for if he were to use any more pressure with his grip, he would end up crimping the magazine well), he slid his finger into the trigger and unloaded the rifle downrange.
The rifle did not move a friggin' inch. Not a millimeter. Had I not been accosted by the blast, I would have sworn he wasn't firing it at all. The forward spring / gas system combined with the compensator made the TTR have the least kick of any rifle I have ever fired in my life and that includes .22's! I would, without reservation or hesitation, place the stock against any portion of my anatomy and run 30 rounds through the rifle. There was NO kick and NO muzzle movement at all.
At 100 yards, I was able to switch between two targets without any sort of effort. I'd shoot one, then the other, then back, then back again. Maybe 2/3rds of a second between each shot. That was because all I had to do was move left to right and not worry about bringing the rifle back down.
Had I not actually fired it myself, I would not have believed it. I would have been with the Cake Mix Crowd and refused to believe something could be that good with so little effort.
Folks, the Mrs. has threatened to forcefully remove my manhood should I even think about purchasing another firearm before my grandchildren graduate college, and yet when Para releases this item, I'm going to have to figure out how to sell a kidney to get the money to buy it.
Let me also be abundantly clear here - I am not shilling for Para in any attempt to get free gear or another trip like this. I was genuinely amazed by the rifle as well as the pistol and although I am getting a good deal on the gun we used at the event, I'm still having to plunk down a considerable number of Benjamins to purchase it.
Had this rifle shot like poop, I would have reported it, but the fact is that it was simply took my breath away with each trigger pull.
The TTR still uses a direct impingement system, but instead of a gas tube that ends inside the bolt carrier there is a rod that comes off the BC and travels along the top of the barrel. Surrounding this rod is a spring, which means you can actually have a folding stock on an AR-15 - no annoying twang each time you shoot. From my understanding, gas is ported from the front of the barrel directly onto the rod and any excess is directed over the barrel rather than the bolt.