Doomsday Defense
Rock River's .300 AAC LAR PDS Proved
There's No Such Thing As Too Much Handgun!
The LAR PDS is a compact .300 AAC AR pistol incorporating Rock River’s proprietary front-mounted
piston-driven operating system. Compact? Yes. Powerful? Very!
There isn’t any real reason why anybody would need to pack a .300 AAC AR pocket howitzer in a shoulder rig for personal protection. However, you also don’t need a car capable of doing more than 75 mph, high-speed internet, more than one TV channel, shampoo with conditioner, or ice cream on your apple pie. If we just had what we needed, we’d all still be squatting in caves, wearing goatskins and gnawing raw squirrel. You drop a .300 AAC AR pistol into a shoulder rig because this is America and we can do stuff like that here.
America birthed cowboys, NASCAR, airplanes and Superman. Our national resume includes freeing enslaved continents on multiple occasions. No offense to everybody else on the planet, but we are
unabashedly awesome.
The holy union of the LAR PDS AR pistol, the DeSantis DSD shoulder rig and the Low Profile
System from High Threat Concealment makes for an immensely powerful package. The
system is not technically concealable, but it does allow you to pack a lot of firepower
while keeping your hands free.
One Powerful Pistola
The arcane descriptors defining handguns in America arose during the early 1930’s — back when alcohol was illegal from sea to shining sea. If a conventional firearm starts as a virgin receiver and dispenses with a buttstock altogether then it is considered for legal purposes a handgun. In this configuration there is no minimum barrel length. As a result, the good folks at Rock River Arms took a stripped AR lower and proceeded to go a little nuts with it.
The .300 AAC LAR PDS is a piston-driven, gas-operated handgun which orbits around the same basic chassis as an AR rifle. The Rock River iteration employs a unique bilateral forward-mounted charging system and a proprietary piston-driven recoil mechanism entirely constrained within the forearm. Unlike the typical AR-based gun, this means there is no buffer tube.
The .300 AAC chambering puts .30-caliber horsepower in a standard .223 case. This allows you to use the same magazines and magazine pouches you already have for your standard AR rifles. Fit and finish are perfect and the rails are adequate for all manner of tactical bling. I opted for a SureFire X-400 combination white light/green laser and an EOTech Holosight. While ain’t none of it particularly cheap, the X-400 is the apex predator among tactical lights and the nasty end of a Holosight was the last thing Osama bin Laden saw before queuing up for his 70 dark-eyed virgins. I can think of no better endorsement.
The most remarkable aspect of the Rock River Arms LAR PDS design is the bilateral forward-mounted
charging system. The cocking ears fold when not in use but allow fast operation without removing the
strong hand from the pistol grip.
The SureFire X400 combines a brilliantly bright white light illuminator with a green laser designator.
A Carry Solution
Back in the 1970’s, DeSantis produced the Mac Scatter, a point-and-shoot shoulder rig for both the MAC-10 and Uzi submachine guns. Today’s DeSantis DSD rig is designed to allow security agents to pack an SMG or micro assault rifle covertly. The DSD configures the gun muzzle down on the strong side and balanced by a brace of magazines. The rig is made from heavy-duty ballistic nylon and is amply cut to distribute the weight of the weapon and ammunition. Magazine pouches are available in either 5.56 or 9mm. The whole setup leaves your hands otherwise free.
Add on a Low Profile System from High Threat Concealment and you’re packing enough onboard chaos to dislodge ISIS from Syria. This hard-use rig packs your sidearm with spare mags and two spare AR magazines both comfortably and discreetly. Construction is indestructible nylon and Kydex and everything rides underneath a bulky jacket.
The tail end of the Rock River Arms LAR PDS incorporates a stubby length of Picatinny rail.
This quick-detach sling swivel set Will back less than 10 bucks on Amazon.
The pistol grip is a proprietary soft rubber design.
Practical Tactical
The Rock River LAR PDS is eminently maneuverable. From a standing start to effective target engagement took me maybe a second and a half. Empty magazines dropped free and spares were easy to retrieve, especially from the HTC Low Profile System. I found the weapon to be most effective when presented with my arms outstretched and weak side locked. With all the electronic glass in tow, the gun was equally at home at bright midday or dim twilight.
The muzzle blast will part your hair and the flash at night is visible from the International Space Station, but at appropriate ranges I could shoot remarkably well with the gun. The soft-shooting nature of the system made follow-up shots easy. You’ll shoot this mule of a handgun better than your conventional concealed carry pistol while packing an order of magnitude more horsepower.
The .300 AAC chambering offers .30-caliber power while allowing
use of all your existing AR magazines and pouches.
At close combat ranges the RRA LAR PDS in .300 AAC shoots just crazy
straight with both 125- and 220-grain loads.
Will chose an EOTech Holosight as his primary sighting arrangement for the LAR PDS.
Why? No! Why Not?
Nobody will use this setup for daily CCW purposes. However, it does pack a powerful gun and all its support gear comfortably. Whether you’re fishing on a deserted stretch of Alaskan river which hosts brown bears as big as Volkswagens, escaping the coming apocalypse alongside your fellow survivors or just looking like the star of an action movie at the local range, the union of Rock River, DeSantis and High Threat Concealment just drips cool.
When all the mags are topped off, the rig is not as comfortable as a GLOCK 43 in my favorite Wilderness Tactical ankle holster, but 1911’s I’ve packed ate into my kidneys worse. The spare magazines do indeed balance out the weight, and the LAR PDS itself is as small as it might conceivably be and still remain safe to its user. If life went truly sideways, this is the system to beat.
There is indeed no conceivable reason why you might actually need to be able to pack a .30-caliber AR pistol and 150 rounds of ready ammunition on your person. However, justifying a Rock River LAR PDS in a DeSantis DSD rig doesn’t really require a great deal of imagination.
If you can’t think of anything else, “Just because this is America” will do nicely.
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