The AR-15 is America’s rifle. It checks the boxes that make a gun great. First, it’s lightweight, reliable, accurate, and easy to shoot. Second, tons of companies produce it, allowing you to get whatever level of quality you want. Finally, it’s one of the most modular weapons ever created. The modularity of the weapon allows for all manner of attachments. Most of the time, these attachments can help decide what the rifle excels at. A good optic and bipod help with precision, a red dot and a compensator make speed your primary concern, and sometimes attachments can just be insane.
Yep, downright insane. Amongst all your favorite optics, lights, lasers, and other gadgets and gizmos sits a few insane accessories that deserve mention. They vary wildly in their usefulness and availability, but each of these does exist and can be attached to an AR-15. Whether or not you can find one is entirely on you. Let’s jump into the insane attachments that would make USA Today write another silly editorial.
Panacea X Chainsaw Bayonet
Speaking of USA Today, there were right when they said a chainsaw was a possible attachment. Coming straight out of Gears of War is the Panacea X Chainsaw Bayonet. This attachment came out in 2012 during the height of the zombie craze. It’s been in production since then, but to be fair, according to Panacea, they are having some issues with the supply chain.
The X Chainsaw Bayonet isn’t a real chainsaw in terms of what it can cut. It’s a trimmer saw, which makes more sense and is already heavy enough. A real chainsaw would be extremely unyielding, and I say that knowing that a trimmer saw is already quite unwieldy. This is an electric saw and uses an 18v battery.
The Panacea X Chainsaw bayonet has a 10-inch bar for reaching out and slicing through your shrubs while remaining strapped for the Soviet invasion. Who says yard work isn’t dangerous? The chainsaw bayonet attaches easily and quickly onto a Picatinny rail. It weighs five pounds in total and is 17.5 inches overall. Slap a Makita battery in the thing, and you’re off. Panacea does not send an actual chain with teeth with the chainsaw bayonet. They even admit it’s a novelty item and not a real bayonet.
A Grenade Launcher
This one is nothing new. We’ve been attaching grenade launchers to rifles since Vietnam. Because we’ve done it for decades, it might not seem so crazy, but just stop. Think about it for a second. A rifle is already a very effective weapon, and somewhere along the line, we said, Nah, not good enough. Let’s add a 40mm grenade launcher to the bottom of it! So we did and largely have continued to do so.
These grenade launchers are multipurpose tools that can launch your typical high-explosive or high explosive dual purpose rounds, as well as smoke, flares, and even less lethal munitions. They are a game-changer. It’s not impossible for the average Joe to own one, either. You can purchase an M203 40mm grenade launcher along with a $200 NFA Stamp from the NFA for a destructive device.
On the flip side, you can also purchase an NFA-free 37mm flare launcher. These cannot launch grenades, but flares and smoke shells are available. Grenade launchers don’t seem so crazy these days, but it’s still pretty nuts that our gun wasn’t gun enough, so we added a grade launcher.
A Shotgun
Oh yeah, you can add a shotgun to your AR-15 to double its firepower! The original design was the Knight’s Armament Master Key. The Master Key was a Remington 870 that was strapped to the bottom of an AR-type rifle. The Master Key was intended to be a ballistic breaching tool attached to a fighting rifle. The master Key started it, but there have been several adaptions since.
C-More, the optics company, also produced a mag-fed, straight pull bolt action version known as the M26. This was adopted by the Army, and C-More sells a few different versions of the gun. Some are NFA-regulated weapons, and some are not.
There are a number of home-brewed shotgun options out there. People have done this several times with 20-inch rifles and 18-inch barrel shotguns. You can do it without the need for a tax stamp as long as the barrel is 18 inches.
A Flamethrower
Why add a gun to your AR-15, when can you add a flamethrower? You might have to fight the xenomorphs — we all know they hate fire. If not, well, who cares if you have a flamethrower attached to your AR-15? It’s America, and you can! The Exothermic Pulsefire UBL allows you to mount a flamethrower to your rifle with absolute ease.
The Pulsefire UBL uses a lever-activated clamp to attach the flamethrower to a Picatinny rail. It has a 25-foot reach that lets you reach quite far and burn down those pesky bushes. I’m serious; flamethrowers are pretty common in the agricultural industry for controlled burns. You have 20 seconds of burn time total to light it off.
The UBL is 16 inches long overall and weighs six pounds in total. It holds a quarter gallon of fuel and uses electronic ignition. The UBL doesn’t have to be mounted and includes a handle for nonmounted use. No tax stamp, no nonsense, and no FFL.
A Drone!
Most of these you can get with a tax stamp, at the very least. Getting grenade launchers, flamethrowers, shotguns, and more is possible, but getting the AR-1 drone from Taiwan doesn’t seem possible. It’s a massive drone that weighs over 30 pounds that can tote a standard 5.56 rifle and fire it. The AR-1 comes equipped with two cameras, one for navigation and one for aiming and firing the gun.
I have no idea about the legality of such a device. It might not violate gun laws, but the FAA might not like it. However, it’s easily the most insane attachment to an AR-15 on the market. This big drone is intended for military purposes, and sadly, I don’t see them being imported.
It’s a fairly large drone. It does fold up for convenience’s sake, but it’s not going to fit in a backpack. It would fit in your trunk, though, and would put on one hell of a show!
The Good Ol’ AR-15
Is there anything you can’t attach to an AR-15? I bought a cup holder off Etsy a year ago, and I’m convinced if there is a rail, there is a way! Seriously, it seems to be the Lego of modern firearms, and the industry certainly proves that point as much as possible. What other insane attachments are out there? Let me know below!
