Daniel Defense: A Look Behind the Curtain

When Daniel Defense came on the scene in 2000, its main goal was to create custom accessories for the owner’s personal rifles. What the company has become now is far larger than that simple dream. In the past 23 years, Daniel Defense has taken that first goal and built a firearms powerhouse.

Marty Daniel

Founded by Marty Daniel, Daniel Defense came about almost by accident. To hear Daniel tell it, and how the company’s website states it, the idea for a firearms company came after a chance invite to go shooting ARs with a friend. After failing out of engineering school twice, Daniel went back and graduated on the Dean’s list, and set on his path of entrepreneurship. It was after starting his first business that he went shooting and realized the sport of shooting was more rewarding than playing golf. Daniel bought his first AR in 1999 and has never looked back.

Early Designs

Once bitten by the shooting bug, Daniel realized the need for a flattop receiver in 2001. Drawing on his entrepreneurial skills, he designed his “Big Hole Upper” and found a local machine shop to manufacture 100 pieces of his design. Daniel kept the first four for himself and set up a website to sell the remaining uppers. Later in 2001, Daniel attended the Knob Creek machine gun shoot, displaying his first sling loop.

What made his loop unique? Simple answer: how it attached to the rear of the gun via an end plate which he engineered in his free time. It allowed the sling to attach at the rear of the rifle, with one side of the sling attachment featuring a loop to thread the web sling through. The Daniel Defense sling is secured by a castle nut or fixed A2 stock and was a viable option for users with single- or three-point sling systems, broadening the market.

The following year, in 2002, Daniel threw himself into his new project — how to make the AR more functional and natural to use. He took the two-piece handguard and made a single piece to help users attach accessories with ease. The new design, something we take for commonplace now, would allow users to attach lights, lasers, and bipods more easily. That same year, Marty learned his 12-inch rail design was being used on the competition and designated marksman rifles with the US Army Marksmanship Unit at Fort Benning, Georgia. The unit used the rail until 2009.

At the company’s first SHOT Show in 2003, they were approached by representatives from the US Naval Surface Warfare Center, Crane Division, to develop and submit a forend rail system for an upcoming contract with SOCOM. The only snag, Daniel needed to raise capital to fund the project. He approached his dad, who literally bet the family farm to support him in securing a loan.

With the necessary funds, Daniel Defense secured materials, equipment, and inventory to make the M4 rail. Going up against some major heavyweights from the industry, Daniel Defense’s RIS II rail was awarded the SOCOM contract in 2004. After successfully competing for a SOCOM contract the year before, Daniel Defense delivered the product in 2006 as required by the contract.

The company kept moving forward thanks to the sales of the sling mount and the original M4 rail on the consumer market. Daniel Defense was on an upswing and in 2007, purchased its first CNC machine. The HAAS Vf4 machine was used for prototypes and some of its rail systems [Omega X and L85 Rail Systems specifically].

DD learned of a pending design solicitation with the UK Ministry of Defence [MOD] for an updated standard issue SA80/L85A1 rifle in 2007. Going straight to work, DD used a privately owned L85 to base his measurements to develop Daniel’s idea. Since he had easy access to one of the rifles, where others did not, the company had an edge and won the UK solicitation in 2008.

Daniel Defense Rifles

In 2009, the DD engineering team was hard at work developing the first-ever DDM4 full rifle. The DDM4, later known as V1, featured a 16” barrel and Mil-Spec upper and lower receiver. Also, on the DDM4 was the Omega X 12.0 FPS rail system with the rail that extends beyond the forged front sight base and bayonet lug. The rifle would also feature the standard A2 Birdcage, A2 pistol grip, and Magpul buttstock among other things.

Also in 2009, Daniel Defense moved from its original home to a state-of-the-art facility in Black Creek, Georgia. The large 38,000-square-foot facility would allow the company to expand its operations and further its innovation. In the new place, DD would buy and install a hammer forge machine to make its own barrels. At the time, it was one of a few hammer forge machines in the country and ultimately started to produce barrels for some competitors. After purchasing a second machine, Marty started thinking about producing all DD items in-house and set to make it a reality.

In 2010, Marty ventured away from the standard AR and entered the hunting realm with Ambush Firearms. The original Ambush Firearm had a lightweight 16” barrel chambered in 6.8 SPC. The modular handguard with a shotgun-esque hand grip made it familiar to hunters. Ambush Firearms would later get consolidated into DD in 2015 and be the premium hunting rifle family of firearms.

Marty didn’t stop there. With his mind ever moving, DD next focused on an entirely new platform with the integrally suppressed weapon chambered in the up-and-coming .300 Blackout round. The DD ISR was born in 2013 and was released at the 2013 SHOT Show. The following year in 2014, the DD MK12 rifle was born featuring a Cold Hammer Forged stainless steel barrel. Building on the barrel and gas block from the NSWC Crane specs, the MK12 had the DD spin of an 18” barrel, an MK12 gas block, a DDM4 Rail 12.0, and a Geissele Super Semi-auto trigger. In the same year, DD expanded its product lineup to include furniture consisting of buttstocks, pistol grips, and vertical grips. From that point forward, all DD rifles include these pieces of furniture.

DD launched on a new-to-them platform in 2015 with the DD5V1, its first AR-10. According to the company, the DD5 was a new evolution of the platform with advances in materials, coatings, and design. The DD5 still holds a high bar for AR-10s. The following year, in 2016, DD released another new product with the 32-round magazine which provided two additional rounds.

More Daniel Defense Products

Never one to sit on its laurels, DD joined in the suppressor world with the Wave family of suppressors. The Wave family was unique at the time being some of the first suppressors to use the DMLS technology, or 3-D printing. The initial products were shown off at the 2017 NRA Annual Meetings and Exhibits in Atlanta. That same year, DD condensed its operations from different locations into one 232,000-square-foot facility in Black Creek, Georgia.

Between 2019 and 2020, DD released two new product lines. At SHOT Show 2019, DD introduced the world to its DELTA 5 bolt-action rifle which combined the modularity of ARs with the accuracy that people expect with a bolt action. Then at SHOT Show 2020, The DDM4 PDW AR pistol and SBR was released. The compact PDW became a natural choice for personal or home defense.

“I believe our new DDM4 PDW is the absolute best gun you can buy to protect your family. And protecting our families is the most important thing any of us can ever do. It’s accurate, easy to shoot, and compact. I couldn’t be any prouder of this groundbreaking product,” said Daniel Defense Founder & Executive Chairman Marty Daniel.

DD didn’t stop there. In 2022, the company introduced the DANIEL SOUNDGUARD suppressor line. The new design uses a gas-flow dynamic that virtually eliminates over-gassing and directs the gases forward thus decreasing blowback. The lineup included the SG-556, SG-30, and SG-30TI suppressors. On top of the new suppressor line, the company announced the expansion of its AR-15 rifle family with both the DD4 RIII and the M4A1 RIII rifles. These rifles both have a fully ambi lower and controls. Additionally, the rifles feature the RIS III rail system with MLOK, the same 6-Bolt, Bolt-Up system, and a free-float design that never contacts the barrel.

So, what’s next for the company? Essentially, your guess is as good as anyone else’s. With so much innovation in the company’s history, it’s not hard to guess that it will use that same drive in future projects. With a company that started as just an idea to produce accessories to now being a major power in the firearms industry in so many different avenues, it’s hard to pinpoint what they’ll think up next.