XM8 M203 make woopie 56k overload

[swatt13]

Lets start with a little backstory.
I love ar's. particularly the m16/m203 with the perforated heatshield. I had an m16, the perforated heatshield, but no m203. i searched high and low, many ris mounted short launchers, but none to fit the bill for the longest time. one day i sold my 16, got an xm8 conversion kit for a sweet price, then got a g36. pieced together the xm8 and we were very happy together, except at night as we lay in bed making woopie i would be thinking of my lost true love, the m16 m203.

Now i tried to forget about it, constantly tweeking my xm8 (adding rails, longer inner barrel, spring bushings, lead wieghts, adjusting body pins ect) although i had tried to move one (i was planning to mount a smokeys ag36 to get the m8 m320 look) but i couldnt forget it. Then the kicker.... one day I aquired an M203 long barrel mount (the launcher iv always wanted - the launcher standing between me and my lover) O what a stab to the heart. i tried finding a moderatley priced 16 to no avail.... the m203 sat mocking me for some time, a constant reminder to the love that would never be.

i became evident that i prolly wouldnt be getting an ag36 (rangers had it listed for $720!!!) atleast for some time, and the very fact that i had a rail on the underside of the m8 wich would make mounting any of the m203 ris i turned down rediculously easy, it seemed as though history was destine to repeat itself. why was i cursed!? then.... i toiled and boiled, fumbled and foiled, then... and idea! Why not mount the m203 on the xm8!? no that wouldnt look right.... too late, the seed was planted! I conversed with a team mate and the blind date was arranged. we brought them together, sat them on the ground in provocative positions and we took lewd pictures... now im not proud of that, but i needed blackmail to get these two to work together.

so fast forward, we did so rd and got busy brainstorming and fabricating. We (swattmedic and myself) cut and moulded two pieces of angle iron inplace of the barrel mount. we tapped and drilled the angle iron to mount atop the 203, drilled 4 holes to mount the mounting plate to the fore grip. drilled 4 holes in the fore grip and attached the 203 via the 4 screws and mounting plates inside the foregrip. this worked, but as expected the m203 sat at a slight upward angle (following the xm8 forgip design) which wasnt a big deal untill we tried to bring it all together. the plates when screwed down force the fore grip to flex outward, this was undeniabley noticable when attatched to the rest of the gun. it looked like shit to say the least.



so swattmedic being a man of good heart, aggreed to take a second undertaking. he drew up some blue prints and stencils, i mocked up some pics on the computer in memory of my lost true love, kind of a commemorative neuvo rendition of the m16m203; taking my favorite aspects of the 16203 (heatshield) and blending them with the new life of the m8. Again we set out to make beauty. We cut the two side plates out of aluminum (which was the easy part), ground them down to desired fit, cut the perforation holes, spent countless hours tweeking and sandblasting (raw aluminum can be a bitch to work with). drilled the neccissary holes in the fore grip and plates, mounted the m203/ mounting plate system to the side plates. And this was what we ended up with.



there were a few thing that needed to be addressed after the fact, new locking screw type body pins were fabed up, reinforcment pins were installed, a new sling loop was added; i use a single sling attatchment point. previousley it was the sling pin at the rear of the stock, but the increased fore wieght caused the rear stock to flex and split when slung. oh and the plates were painted. this is the finished product in the field;

[Lerch]

The 203 and XM8 look good together...but your mount just doesn't quite fit that space-age-ish look of the XM8.

Good show of workmanship and practicallity though :cheers:

[CalvinTat]

Looks great, before the paintjob all I was thinking was: "That is ugly as sin". After the paintjob it was looks good.
I partially agree with Lerch on the mount, but hey, its innovated and thats what counts. You can always look into different mounting styles later.

BtW, the intro was like a horrible romance novel, Its so bad you wanna put it down and burn the book, but its just so bad that you wanna see how far they will take it.

How are mag changes now with the M203 on the XM8?

[swatt13]

Originally Posted by Lerch

The 203 and XM8 look good together...but your mount just doesn't quite fit that space-age-ish look of the XM8.

Good show of workmanship and practicallity though :cheers:

thanks lerch. i agree, it definatly doesnt look as good as it would with a 320, but this way i was able to pay homage to the m16m203 and m8m320 and get the grenadier loadout i always wanted.... kinda like hitting one bird with two stones....

[BC_K]

If I may say.......Fuckin PIMP!

[Cheesevillage]

The heat shroud cries "Alien" to me. So nice.

Don't listen to these guys about it not fitting .

The thickness (erm...height) of the foregrip gives this gun the look of those rediculis guns which are so heavy and so awesome yet they all look the same. This one is different.



-Cheese

[Pliskin]

I dont like the heatshield space-age look, but I do love the entire finished product, great job on it mate, you really showed craftsmanship there.

[G3P]

wow that looks awsome....how many hours did u put into that?

[swatt13]

wow, thanks for all the great feed back wether posative or negative, I appreciate how everyone has stated what/ why they dont like it, rather than just saying they dont like it. when we finished the product we sure liked it, but since we seen the gradual transformation we kinda miss out on the wow factor, but its nice to know you guys like it.

the first way we had it (as mentioned in the above story) took us about 4.5 hours, the second version (pictured) took us about 10 hours from conception to encarnation.

I must mention this would not have turned out nowhere near as nice as it did without the help and direction of swattmedic, he deserves alot of credit as well.

Originally Posted by CalvinTat

Looks great, before the paintjob all I was thinking was: "That is ugly as sin". After the paintjob it was looks good.
I partially agree with Lerch on the mount, but hey, its innovated and thats what counts. You can always look into different mounting styles later.

BtW, the intro was like a horrible romance novel, Its so bad you wanna put it down and burn the book, but its just so bad that you wanna see how far they will take it.

How are mag changes now with the M203 on the XM8?

ha thanks calvin, i was going for a cheezy romance novel, mag changes are no problem, there is a tecnique to get the 203 trigger guard in place when changing mags, im planning on tapping a hole in the body and screwing it together with a tiny machine screw to eliminate the "problem"

[CalvinTat]

Either way, regardless of our personal opinions its a great concept and the design was well thoughtout.

The more I think about the mounting of the M203, the harder it gets to come up with a design that functions the same, in terms of stability, and would fit the XM8 look.

[^Hyperion^]

I PM'ed yo about it Swatt , it's my favoreite gun of all now. Always loved the XM8 and the M203 but never thought about mixing both and it looks GREAT. You're my new idol , along with Patrick Roy , Larry Holmes (boxer) and Peter Griffin :razz:

[swatt13]

thanks hyp,

could we move this to the showcase section?

[Identity]

Holy shit thats insane dude! Wow. Love your gun. It looks like a pulse rifle!
Good job! Im planning to get a Gernade Launcher for my G36C soon! Haha.

[Alex Le Chef]

even if everybody talks down on this gun...

this gun is f**** awsome !

[Sergeantmajor]

unbelievable...