Rifle Review: IWI's Tavor X95 - The Next Generation Bullpup!
It's not common that a foreign design comes to the American tactical firearm market and disrupts it as well as the IWI Tavor platform has. Back in 2009, the Israeli military was looking for a rifle that had the velocity of a 16” barrel but had the maneuverability of a short barreled rifle and thus the Tavor X95 was adopted.
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Not only is the Tavor X95 a new outlook on the assault rifle genre, but it is also a considerable improvement from the orginal Tavor SAR. The grip is now located in a more central location which greatly increased the overall balance and feel of the firearm. Another significant improvement is the new fire control pack with a 5-6 lb. trigger pull, repositioning of the ambidextrous mag release to an AR-15 location, a forearm with Picatinny rails at the 3, 6, and 9 o’clock positions with removable rail covers. Topping off the improvements is a modular Tavor style pistol grip that can be swapped out to a standard pistol grip with traditional trigger guard and a smaller, lower profile bolt release button.
Now for the barrel, the X95 sports a 16.5" barrel that is chrome lined and cold hammer forged which greatly increases both the life expectancy of the firearm as well as the accuracy/precision. As for the twist, IWI went with the industry standard of 1:7 which is ideal in stabilizing heavier 5.56 loads.
As for the internal system of the Tavor X95, IWI went with a long stroke gas piston system. The biggest advantage of the system is the increased reliability compared to the direct impingement system of the AR-15 which allows gas directly into the reciever. The X95 instead allows the gas coming from the barrel to push the face of the piston in the gas tube versus making it’s way all the way to the bolt carrier group.
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