Bullpup rifles are far from an American tradition, but they have their fans. The pros include the short Over All Length (OAL), the cons include virtually everything else, and…I still love them. I’m here to share that love and explain why these guns are great for far more than just looking cool in Sci-Fi movies.

Much like webbing gear and LBE, Americans have never embraced bullpups the way many other nations have. While you might see the occasional Bubba-ed up SKS made into a bullpup, or perhaps a Ruger 10/22 kit-gineered into one, no mainstream American bullpup has taken root. The current SBR and arm brace craze suggests Americans want a compact rifle, but it’s clear they want it in the form factor they are used to. This comes at the expense of barrel length, often reliability across ammo loads, and dealing with arbitrary ATF hoops. Here’s hoping the PSA Olcan can finally change some minds and make the bullpup mainstream in America.

I joked that the only pro a bullpup has is OAL (and why they made “Overall” into two words for an acronym I don’t know), and really, that is the main one. There are others, though. One of the things I like most about bullpups is the balance. Most of the weight on many of them is closer to the shooter’s body, so with something like an AUG, I can stand there all day holding it up with only my firing hand.

Many of the cons are well-known; a few are overblown; some others are definitely valid. However, many of those cons (the disadvantages) aren’t often discussed or well understood. So let’s break them down.

Bullpups: the Valid Cons

Some of the various less-than-desirable attributes of the typical bullpup are listed below.

• Bullpup triggers generally do suck. The Tavor X95 is the closest exception to that rule if you’re talking about a stock, out of the box weapon. If that’s not good enough for you, Geissele makes a wonderful replacement.
• The sight or optic height over bore is generally enormous. This can be a serious problem for guys who don’t train because they typically don’t understand the concept of holdover and why, if you are taking a headshot at 10 yards, you may not enjoy having to aim literally in the air above the target. It’s not uncommon to have 4-5″ of holdover. Adding something like a Manticore forend with a raised rail isn’t necessarily helpful. It positions the optic on a lower mount but keeps it exactly as high above the barrel and, critically, does not lower it to the bore axis.
• They generally have limited real estate available for those who want to equip ’em with modern accessories like lights, lasers, and associated switches. Even if you do manage to bolt these on, you often lack the option to configure them for optimal ambidextrous use.
• Related to the point above, slings can sometimes ride super funky, too. For example, there’s a reason so many FS200 reviews show someone who didn’t even attempt to put one on. When was the last time you had to remove a trigger pack to install your your sling? Yeah, that’s FS2000 life.
• They are more expensive than a value-equivalent (accuracy, reliability, etc.) AR model rifle.

Bullpup Cons: These are Overblown

• Magazine changes are fast, even if those new to bullpups claim otherwise. When you get the manual of arms down (which, incidentally, more closely resembles a handgun magazine change than what you’re used to with an AR), they are as fast, or even faster, than many other platforms.
• The ejection side can almost always be switched between sides and often easily with no spare parts or different bolt, but…while you can change the brass ejection side, you still have to contend with it hitting you in the face unless you greatly modify your position on the gun when transitioning to your non-dominant side. Again, this is a concept that those with little to no training will struggle to grasp, but to be fair, it is manageable in the rare use cases when the situation dictates it.
• There is little to no part compatibility with more popular platforms. If you plan to use one for your apocalypse gun, you’d better have two or a pile of spare parts. These often have to come directly from the manufacturer, because there is so little aftermarket support.
• The chamber is often more difficult to reach into, which can be a real problem if you suffer a serious malfunction. That said, when it comes to many malfunctions, the Steyr AUG might be the easiest gun in the world to clear. You just hit the quick release on the barrel and slide it forward 2 inches. Voilà, you have literally removed the chamber. Let the rounds drop, pop it back in place, and rock on.

Best of Breed

Bullpups have also gotten a bad rap as unreliable. I have not found that to be the case with any military-issued model, and that’s why those are the only ones I own. There is always the exception to the rule, of course, and if you are looking for one major one, you don’t have to look any further than the British SA80.

Oddly enough, even this oddity is making an appearance in the US, courtesy of a very cool and very creative offering from the maniacs over at Aly & Kaufman. Their design plays dress up with the BRN-180, and I kind of want one.

Non-military issue bullpups like those made by Keltec and Desert Tech have reportedly been more problematic, but I hear the latter’s new WLVRN offering is their best to date. Again, this is why I focus on the tried-and-true military guns.

So far, I have collected four of the Usual Suspects. Conspicuously missing from the pantheon of military bullpup greats is, of course, the FAMAS. Now, I saw a semi-auto version could be mine for a mere $75,000 on Gunbroker recently, but… Topping even that is the Walther WA-2000, which I’ll count here, though it’s police issue rather than military.

The last time I checked, there was one on GunBroker for an eye-watering $250,000. At the same time, a separate seller has a single magazine for it for the bargain deal of $2,500. So, if anyone wants to buy a kidney, I may be selling.

Oh, and because I haven’t yet allowed the 5.7 round into my supply chain logistics, I have no PS90 (although they are very good guns).

Even with those limitations, what I do have represents almost 50 years of bullpup innovation.

Steyr AUG

The AUG is clearly one of the OGs. I know how tight my pants felt seeing it for the first time in the hands of Karl in Die Hard. I can only imagine how shocking it was for those old enough to remember seeing its release to the world, something like 12 years earlier. This core memory is the entire reason I bought the anniversary edition a few years back. I wanted the classic look without paying the original model’s prices.

Honestly, the AUG might be my favorite 5.56 gun to shoot, period. Mine is a 40th-anniversary model that came out in 2019, so it is less modern than the latest versions, but it is just what I wanted for that classic retro look. The aftermarket support has improved significantly for this long-overlooked platform. Heresy Design, among others, makes some upgraded parts that will allow you to run the gun more like what we have become accustomed to in the 2020s.

Your piston options make it easier than ever to run suppressed, too.

Final fun fact for the uninitiated: The military-issued AUG has no selector switch for full auto. You essentially just have a two-stage trigger. Pull it just a bit for one round at a time. Pull it all the way back for rock ‘ n ‘ roll. It’s definitely a unique setup in the world of select-fire guns.

FN F2000

Next in chronological development came the FN F2000, which is now hard to come by. Frankly, unless you are super into bullpups like me, it is probably not worth the time or expense to run one down. Don’t get me wrong, it’s an amazing piece of engineering. The front eject alone is wild. It is also one of the coolest Sci-Fi movie guns in history, and, like most FN products, it runs flawlessly.

Unfortunately, the ergos are god awful, and the trigger may be the worst in the history of firearms.

The second generation of FN F2000 tried to address some issues, such as the proprietary top rail system and the plastic charging handle that was prone to breakage, but there was only so much that could be done. I love my Gen 1 “Tactical Tuna,” but if no one has ever shown you the dark secret that lives under this enormous optic housing, here it is in all its glory:

Among the other oddities of the gun, FN tried to address the bullpup flaw of seeing and accessing the chamber by adding the “toilet bowl”. Essentially, this is just a little flap back by your cheek weld that allows you to give a little peek inside. It’s great in theory, but not particularly useful in the case of an actual jam. Also, due to rubber seals that attempts to keep the action clean, you can only run metal GI magazines. Lancers, Magpuls, and others are simply too wide.

I also mentioned the front eject. It takes 3-4 rounds of firing before the first piece of brass falls out after being shoved out from behind. There is literally no ejection pattern here, and it makes for a gun that is pleasant to shoot next to, especially in tight confines. We’ll put that into the Pro column.

Tavor X95

Next up is Israel’s second iteration of the Tavor in the X95. Spoiler alert: In my opinion, this is the best bullpup built to date. If only it could have an adjustable gas piston like every other gun on this list, I could run it suppressed. Perhaps now, with the latest low-back-pressure flow-through cans, I could, but it still feels like an egregious oversight. It would have been all too easy to have included this in the original design.

Why is the Tavor the best? Let’s see…

1. The aforementioned trigger is a class leader.
2. It has an AR-style magazine release that I’d call a game-changer in the bullpup manual of arms if my editor didn’t utterly revile the term as a hackneyed and banal phrase used by unimaginative marketing people, lazy writers, and untalented hacks. 🤷🏽
3. The rail space is sufficient to run most of what you might want.
4. It’s the most compact of all the rifles. In fact, it’s so compact that the Israelis put a thicker-than-necessary butt pad on it to meet the ATF’s 26-inch overall length minimum criteria.

That’s right. If you put a thinner butt pad on this 16″+ barreled rifle, it becomes an SBR!

I should probably mention that while the X95 has very respectable built-in backup iron sights (as does Springfield’s Hellion), you quickly lose access to them as you use up the limited rail space.

Another issue to be aware of is the grip. In my opinion, your newly purchased X95 requires an immediate replacement of its cutlass-style handguard with the military pistol grip version. For some reason, the factory setup just begs for your hand to slip up behind the trigger in a way that is literally impossible with something like the AUG design.

IWI is almost always out of stock on the factory replacement (complete with grenade launcher attachment nub). Still, thankfully, many other companies have stepped in to fill the market need (like this nifty solution from Underworld Arms). Of course, this could all be avoided if gun companies would just acknowledge my demand that all new firearms be produced to accept standard AR or AK grips.

It’s a seemingly easy, common-sense ask, but my letters continue to go unanswered.

Springfield Hellion

Newest on the scene is the Springfield Armory Hellion, or as it existed before they imported it and had marketing come up with the worst name ever, the VHS II. This, like all the others, is a great running gun and would give the X95 a run for its money, except for two issues.

1. First, it has a long length of pull on the stock that can only be made longer, even though it starts out longer than a fixed A2 stock AR.
2. Second is the absence of the X95’s AR-style magazine release, and the odd choice of a bolt release that can best be described as “pinching the nipple” to activate.

Thankfully, Manticore Arms has a stock that shortens things by 1 inch, but it’s still a lot in the world of body armor, etc. I will add that the adjustable gas system has proven to allow for flawless operation, both suppressed and unsuppressed.

Final Thoughts on Bullpups

If you haven’t shot one, I highly recommend you find a friend with one or a range that rents them. You’ll be surprised how quickly you’ll pick up the manual of arms, especially if you can get a little bit of instruction. For example, in the 2-day Tavor Operator’s course IWI used to offer, being told to treat the magazine reload as something closer to a handgun reload made everything click.

In the end, I’m not here to convince you these are a better platform than an AR or AK; they likely aren’t in most scenarios. Bullpups do, however, offer a variety of rock-solid options you could trust your life with and that do fit certain niches very well.

This could be vehicle operations (truck gun, anyone?), CQB mixed with a need for longer-range shot performance facilitated by a longer barrel, and states with SBR restrictions.

As long as you know their warts and are prepared to work around them, they can be a ton of fun.

OLIVO – If Bullpups Are Wrong