Samurai 556 AR Pistol

• Rare Breed Firearms Samurai lower by Spike’s Tactical
• Custom-designed SD Tactical Arms handguard
• Chambered in 5.56 NATO

As enthusiasts of arms and armaments, who among us hasn’t been influenced or inspired at some point by the Samurai? In the realm of ancient methods and tools of battle, and the overarching culture behind them, medieval Europe tends to steal much of the limelight when it comes to popular culture—movies, books, TV series. At least in the West.

Feudal Japan existed more or less contemporaneously with the feudal West, albeit in its own separate Eastern microcosm. Still, the romance of it, the intrigue, and the all-out instruments of battle hold an undeniable sway over the human imagination, regardless of where you find yourself on the globe.

The Samurai sword—the katana—is even today regarded as the pinnacle of battle-blade design, a true piece of technical mastery developed over the course of centuries. So much so that even today Japanese blades are still highly sought-after, even if it is simply to obtain a set of “best-of the-best” culinary knives.

Enter the Samurai AR pistol pictured here, conceived and built by Violent Art Firearms (VAF) principal Jay Canter. VAF is a new brand established by Canter to allow him to focus on his design, manufacture, and consulting work in the firearm space and to create a dedicated focus on this arm of his photography business. (For more of VAF’s work, see the “Shorty AR” feature on page xxx of this issue.)

“I have been inspired by martial arts films my entire life,” Canter says. “I was personally involved with more than 15 years of training numerous forms of martial arts myself, and Samurai have always been one of the most mysterious and interesting parts of the culture.”

The build is centered around a lower receiver designed by Rare Breed Firearms and manufactured by Spike’s Tactical, aptly called “Samurai.” Rare Breed is known for detailed, very artfully sculpted lower receivers—and complete firearms built around them—like the Crusader and the Spartan, adorned with stylized medieval knight and Greek warrior helms respectively.

The Samurai was created in a similar vein, albeit with a classic, fiercely rendered feudal Japanese motif. You could even describe it as even more intricate than the other two designs, with not one but two through-cut slots present in the  hoate (face mask) and a good bit of detail that replicates a period piece of Samurai headgear.

As it happened, Canter saw an early rendering of the lower before the design ever made it into corporeal form, and it instantly set his gears turning. It was a foregone conclusion that this lower receiver would form the launching point for a new build as soon as he could physically get his hands on it.

Spike’s Tactical carries this and other Rare Breed designs exclusively, milling it from a solid block of 7075 T6 aluminum billet and shipping it with a standard Type III hardcoat anodized finish. As you’d expect from a high-end AR lower, this one features such niceties as a threaded bolt catch roll pin, an integrated trigger guard, and a generous magwell deftly provided by the stylized Samurai helm frill and hoate chin piece.

Aside from the lower, which you, too, can purchase from Spike’s, the centerpiece of this build is the custom handguard by SD Tactical Arms. SDTA offers a range of off-the-shelf designs. You may recall the WWII “shark” handguard that adorned one of the featured firearms in UN12 issue 012. The one pictured here is a true one-off piece built using the company’s design-your-own option.

“I wanted the handguard to match the armor that the Samurai wore,” Canter says. “And then I wanted to do a medallion of sorts at the front—so that’s the dragon design. To give added depth, I had parts of the medallion cut through fully to show the linear comp.”

The handguard features longitudinal grooves in its three distinct sections, replicating the armored slats that made up traditional lamellar Samurai armor, along with stylized X shapes (echoing those within the helmet relief carved into the lower) that represent the lashings or leather thongs that would stitch a Samurai’s armored garment together.

The SDTA handguard effectively obscures the gun’s barrel, which is a Roscoe Manufacturing 10.5-inch Bloodline for 5.56 NATO profiled for a carbine-length gas system. The custom dragon medallion cut into the handguard’s far end does, however, serve to show off the linear compensator affixed to the barrel’s business end. This is an SDTA Cyclone shrouded by an SDTA “Pig Cover” shroud that threads onto the muzzle brake itself.

Here it serves two purposes—its original, to mitigate the uncomfortable concussion caused by the brake, and its secondary, to play into the Samurai build’s overall aesthetic, with an array of scale-pattern laser etchings reminiscent of the clouds or waves found in classical Japanese paintings—it evokes a different reaction depending on who you ask—and with a bronzed treatment that gives a bit of flash to the firearm’s front end. It also serves to enhance the dragon medallion cutout, adding light and color to an otherwise monochrome presentation, making it a standalone vignette in its own right.

The aforementioned trio—handguard, barrel, comp—are hosted by a Arms Republic upper receiver with the forward assist delete, rendering it a “slick-sided” unit. A tunable Odin Works gas block feeds a carbine-length tube from White Label Armory. An ambidextrous Rack charging handle from Battle Arms Development actuates a Violent Art Firearms S2 Black Diamond bolt carrier group from Iron City Rifle Works (for more information on VAF, see the feature on xxx).

As with most ICRW BCGs, this is one sexy beast in spite of being possibly the hardest-working component in the gun. A clear plexi ejection port cover from Battle Arms Development allows an onlooker to appreciate the BCG even when the cover is in its closed position

The lower is finished off with a 2A Armament lower parts kit and Lantac titanium takedown pins. User control interfaces include a Battle Arms Development bolt catch, a push-button Elftmann Tactical Speed Safety, and an Odin Works XMR3 extended mag release attached to a White Label Armory backing and spring. Fire control is facilitated by a Rise Armament RA-535 advanced-performance drop-in trigger, which uses a bow with a distinctive hooked blade shape that Canter feels nicely complements this build’s theme.

Ensuring the gun’s pistol classification and bolstering it against the user for use is a Jay Canter/Violent Art favorite, the Odin Works CQ-B pistol brace, which comes as a complete kit for the receiver’s rear extension—compact buffer tube, micro buffer and matched recoil spring. The brace portion is honed from 6061-T6 aluminum and adds plenty of visual interest with its various cuts and recesses, perfect for a custom AR pistol build. The CQ-B also includes a QD sling mount and five adjustment positions and a slot on the butt end for the user to fit an arm strap.

A War Dog Industries billet pistol grip (they call it their Billet Rifle Grip) provides critical purchase for the user’s shooting hand. This is a unique piece that utilizes a skeletonized “windowed” design through the middle, while offering smoothly contoured front- and backstraps for a unique ergonomic experience.

Targeting is accomplished using a Holosun 512C open-reflex rifle sight. The pistol feeds from Magpul Gen3 PMAGs fitted with Aeroknox billet “Plus // 5” magazine extensions, which add five rounds to the standard count of 30.

As usual, the Cerakote work was the final step in producing the build, and once again this one was turned over to JD and Koted Arms out of Mesa, Arizona. It’s a bit of a departure from your usual custom coating scheme, seeing that it’s mostly black. If you look closely, you’ll notice that there is some variation.

“I wanted the helmet to be the focal point of the Cerakote on this build,” Canter says. “Considering how typical over-the-top most of the designs I create are, I wanted to do something less ‘loud.’ The overall build is Armor Black, which is a flat black. The helmet itself was sprayed gloss black to create some separation.”

As for the color, which includes the silver accents on the dragon medallion, he continues: “JD and I sat down and talked about color theory and where to go with it. So some of the other colors on there I gave him a few to choose from and let him decide which ones he thought would look the best.”

SDTA Bespoke

While SD Tactical Arms offers a range of products, from muzzle devices to accessories to complete builds, they might be best known for their custom handguards. Notably, the company offers customers the chance to apply their own custom design that may be etched or cut into the metal and create a true one-off piece, as is the case with the Samurai AR.

 “The process is pretty simple,” says SDTA’s Cody Kress. “Usually what happens is I get an email or phone call from a customer, and we have a conversation about what they want to do. I tell them whether it’s a doable project or not, then I’ll have them formally order the handguard and I’ll start on the design. Once that’s done, I’ll send them a rendering, then we’ll go back and forth a little bit to get it dialed in. Once done I send it off to anodizing, then we send it off to the customer.”

Usually the “back and forth” phase is pretty quick, but Kress and Canter went back and forth on this one on an almost daily basis for a couple of weeks to get it just right. The through-cuts were computer-mapped via CNC, while the very detailed etching was done largely by hand. To create the sunburst pattern surrounding the dragon and the armor “plates” along the handguard’s length, Kress put pen to paper, so to speak, and drew those things himself.

According to Kress, most customers know exactly what they want and the designs are relatively easy to produce—custom text cut or etched into the metal for promotional purposes or for a memorial piece, for example. This one took a lot more discussion and a bit more time, which Kress says was a departure from SDTA’s normal process but is a testament to the work they’re willing to put in to get a design just right.

Browse SDTA’s range of products—including custom handguard designs or the chance to create your own—at sdtacticalarms.com and follow them on Instagram @sd_tactical_arms for a look at past and current projects.

Samurai 556 AR Pistol Specifications

Caliber: 5.56 NATO
Capacity: 35+1
Finish: Cerakote by Koted Arms

Featured Accessories

Lower Receiver: Rare Breed Firearms/Spike’s Tactical Samurai
Upper Receiver: Arms Republic 6061 billet
Barrel: Rosco Mfg. 10.5” 556
Muzzle Device: SD Tactical Arms “pig cover” titanium linear comp w/SDTA Cyclone muzzle brake
Optic: Holosun 512C 

Parts & Accessories: VAF/ICRW S2 Black Diamond BCG, SD Tactical Arms 12.5” handguard, Iron City Rifle Works angled foregrip, White Label Armory carbine-length gas tube, Battle Arms Development Rack ambi charging handle & clear ejection port cover, Odin Works .750 tunable gas block & CQ-B pistol brace, Rise Armament RA-535 trigger, Lantac titanium takedown pins, Elftmann Tactical Speed Safety, Battle Arms Development bolt catch, Odin Works XMR3 extended mag release, War Dog Industries billet rifle grip, Magpul PMAG Gen3 20-round, Aeroknox basepad