Franklin Armory's XO-26 Series

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Innovative Compact Firepower For Cops.

AR platforms exist in abundance, and new makers arrive almost weekly. The parts industry makes it easy for virtually anyone to buy a bag of parts and, with an often minimal skillset, assemble a rifle that might even work. If it’s a hobby and you’re building one to play with, that’s fine. But if you hang a shingle out and offer them for sale, it’s another matter entirely. If someone else is going to rely on your rifle for defense, it should (needs to) be the best it can be at every level. The fit, engineering, craftsmanship, build-experience, ergonomics and reliability should be the best possible.

So how do you make a reasoned judgment of the quality of a rifle if a company just suddenly appears and has a website with plenty of “Coming Soon!” slots on it? You can’t, and it’s as simple as that. It’s a crapshoot, and unless there’s plenty of company history involved, you “pays your money and takes your chances.”

But if you’re in the market, how do you sort through the glut of makers out there? Actually, it’s fairly easy. First you need to find a maker who’s been down the road a bit and is run by a leader with skill, personal involvement and has a genuine passion for quality, service and engineering excellence. And to me, the only way you can get that sense is getting to know the people involved in making the rifle in question. For a factory model that’s tough, and you simply have to trust your past experience with the brand. But with a custom or semi-custom gun, you can just pick up the phone and talk to the boss.

The padded buffer tube on the Franklin Armory XO-26 allows a cheekweld,
which, along with the pistol grip and vertical foregrip, stabilizes
the gun for more precise fire.

But Why?

Before we talk about the specific design of the XO-26, we need to understand how it’s applied in the real world. Some equate the idea to a pump-action shotgun with a pistol grip — but that’s not quite a good comparison. A pistol-gripped shotgun is notoriously difficult to shoot fast and accurately since you can’t index the rear of the gun against your body. Having your two hands trying to align things “out there” makes it a toe-to-toe distance gun at best. Effective? Sure, but it takes practice to hit well, even in close.

With the vertical foregrip and extended recoil spring assembly (buffer tube) of the XO-26, a shooter can index the buffer tube against their cheek, like a cheekweld with a standard rifle stock, hold the pistol grip and the vertical fore-end grip and come up with a very satisfactory hold. I was able to make consistent hits on an 8″ plate at 100 yards while standing. From a rest, the XO-26 is essentially as accurate as any high-quality AR rifle would be, with some concession as to cheekweld pressure and hold consistency. Our 100-yard groups showed it was possible to hit the 3″ mark easily with the right ammo.

But the real reason you need to keep an open mind here is the versatility the XO-26 offers. While die-hard M4, SBR and standard AR rifle fans might scoff at first, keep in mind the XO-26 offers an 11.5″ barrel length, longer than most AR “pistols” and longer than many dedicated SBR’s. The 5.56 suffers ballistically when barrel lengths get down around the 7.5″ of some SBR’s, and you need to have the special authorization and BATF paperwork for anything under a 16″ barrel in a rifle. With the XO-26, you basically get the handling and firepower of an SBR but with “buy-it-over-the-counter” convenience.

On the XO-26, the quad rail allows for the adaptation of a
wide range of accessories. Stock flip-up sights are solid,
and the toothed flash hider is standard.

Controls are all standard AR and will be familiar
to anyone who knows their way around one.

Specifics

The bits and pieces of the XO-26 mirror Franklin’s other rifles and are all top quality. Barrel twist is 1:7″ in 5.56 and 1:10″ in 7.62×39. E.R. Shaw, a premier maker, cuts the barrel. Franklin then treats the barrel in a salt bath, which hardens it inside and out. This delivers a stiffer barrel with less whip, translating into better accuracy. It’s equipped with a Low-Pro gas block and toothed flash hider. The upper is a forged aluminum flattop with Picatinny rail, has an YHM Specter quad rail, Salt Bath Nitride M16 bolt carrier group and a forward assist.

The 7075-T6 forged aluminum hardcoat Type III anodized black lower has a specialized tension screw, a padded buffer tube and other specific parts. The XO-26 is also available formatted to be CA legal, complete with the “Bullet Button” magazine release silliness, if you need to comply with it. There are several color options, and you can get receiver extensions with QD sling points.

The trigger is Franklin’s own, based off of mil-spec components, but every firearm manufactured by Franklin Armory features this creep-free, single-stage design that breaks crisply at 4.5 pounds, plus or minus .5 pound.

According to Jay Jacobson of Franklin Armory, their guns are 100 percent
made in the USA, including this Young Manufacturing Bolt Carrier Group.

Compact and handy, the Franklin Armory XO-26 is
tote-bag friendly and won’t take up much room in a patrol
car, plane, ATV or any situation where tight confines rule.
Yet, you’ll have rifle-caliber firepower at-hand if needed.

The XO-26B version is optioned slightly different, with a few of the
more obvious changes being the installation of the Magpul MOE Handguard,
A2 flash hider and Pitcatinny rail gas block.

Applications

The XO-26 (or a variant) can be had in 5.56, 7.62×39, 6.8 SPC, .300 Blackout and even a new chambering of .450 BM. Amazing versatility in ballistic choices for any role you can envision — especially pig hunting with that .450 BM! Also, look for a 7.5″ model in that substantial .450 BM caliber soon. Due to the compact nature of the XO-26, it would be perfect for motors, ATV use, undercover units, compact rack-mounts inside patrol car passenger compartments, aircraft or even slung with something like a Magpul Multi-Mission sling during field use in canyon searches, perimeter control, hot stops or building searches, just to name a few common situations we all encounter almost constantly.

The XO-26 is basically an AR, so the wide cross-section of accessories, from sights, lights and lasers to other goodies will likely fit. But one of the key points of the XO-26 is it’s a clean, simple design; to clutter up the compact, fast-handling nature of it seems to go against its intended role. This is not a precision rifle and not a battle rifle. It’s made for emergency use, a lot like a duty handgun. However, SWAT breachers are starting to buy them due to their handy nature when slung — something to think about.

The XO-26’s light weight (a bit more than 6 pounds) and handy configuration, means it’s a tool you can use to deliver rifle-type firepower when the chips are down — because you’ll likely have it with you. It’s easy to learn, quick to deploy and works great. And frankly, the fact you don’t have to fuss with any fancy government paperwork other than a regular 4473 transfer really helps to keep things in perspective here.

If you know you’ll need a fighting rifle, then you should take one with you. But the reality of what cops do is they don’t know when or if they’ll need rifle-style backup — until they do. And in light of all the other assorted equipment filling today’s duty belts and police cars, Franklin’s concept to make toting a serious bit of rifle-caliber sense along with you seems like a good idea.

Would I have used an XO-26 in the field? If my agency didn’t issue rifles or if I was limited to an ungainly model due to restrictions in place to comply with Federal laws, I would definitely have opted for the XO-26 concept if allowed. Combined with something like BLACKHAWK!’s new Diversion Bag (a duffle-type “non-gun” bag for a compact rifle) it would be easy to manage and be at-hand if needed.

If this sort of thing appeals to you, Franklin Armory definitely qualifies as a “family” of people, craftsmen, engineers and others, who build carefully thought-out designs to a high level of quality. The XO-26 is innovative and appropriate for many applications on today’s streets and undercover. It also makes sense as a home-defense, farm, ranch, boat or you-name-it gun, and goes for around $1,079 at full MSRP.

It’s been said rule one of a gunfight is to have a gun. With the XO-26, you can have a lot of gun — if you need it.
By Roy Huntington
Photos By Robbie Barrkman