I’m often torn on bullpup rifles. Part of me sees the appeal, especially for something like home defense. It’s short, well-balanced, and easy to use with one hand. In military hands, they seem well-suited for mechanized infantry, but they have many downsides. Most bullpup rifles tend to be expensive, tough to find, and have their challenges. What about a conversion kit to transform a rifle that already exists into a bullpup? The Triad Modular Bullpup Chassis promises to do just that.
It’s a quasi-AR design. It uses an AR lower receiver, specifically a standard MIL-SPEC lower with a removable trigger guard. Due to the receiver extension and buffer design, you can’t use your typical AR upper. The Triad kit works with so-called ‘bufferless’ uppers or uppers with alternate buffer designs. It works with the BRN 180, the PSA JAKL, the Matador Arms uppers, and the Foxtrot Mike FM-15 uppers.
The Triad kit comes in pistol and rifle designs. The pistol variants are essentially arm pistols, like those pioneered by Bushmaster so many years ago. The rifles are, well, rifles with proper stocks. A3 Tactical sent me the BRN-180 kit, and while each is largely the same, there are some small hardware differences between the upper designs.
Installing the Triad Chassis
The Triad Chassis is surprisingly easy to install. You’ll need to install a stripped lower and a bolt catch. Other than that, the kit comes with all the necessary goodies, including a proprietary magazine release and an AT3 trigger. It took me about an hour to get everything installed correctly. I admittedly took my time and ensured I followed the directions to a T.
All you need is a series of Allen keys. There is nothing difficult, and the instructions are easy to follow. It comes with everything you need to set up the system except for a bolt lock and lower receiver.
I ran into a snag with the BRN-180 upper. It turned out I had a rare early model with a small tab on the handguard. This prevented the upper from sitting correctly on the lower. I had to cut away a portion of the linkage cover, but that wasn’t difficult. My upper is the proper rifle variant with the 18.5-inch barrel, so as you’d imagine, the length of the gun changed mightily by turning the gun into a bullpup.
Snapping In
Due to the radically different design, your face now rests on the optics rail, or at least most of it. The kit comes with a rubberized pad that allows you to rest your face on the upper without getting raked. A3 tactical included a modular carry handle/optics rail. The modular part allows you to choose the height. I went with the low mount since I planned to use AR height optics anyway.
This creates a less-than-optimum design where the carry handle is bridged to the handguard. With my setup, the carry handle sits half on the optics rail and half on the handguard. This creates a less-than-optimum bridged optic setup.
This isn’t a problem for systems like the PSA JAKL and FM-15, which have a monolithic upper receiver. On the BRN 180, the upper isn’t monolithic, so the handguard moves when fired, even if it’s not noticeable. The chassis kit connects to the handguard at a dedicated point, so perhaps that helps limit and prevent movement. Unlike a standard handguard, it’s not out there in the wind but supported by the chassis.
Still, I was curious to see if the bridged optic would affect accuracy at the range. I equipped my BRN 180-infused Triad with a Holosun 510C optic and a SIG Juliet3 micro magnifier.
Ergonomics of the Triad
The JAKL and FM-15 kit would also likely have better ergonomics than the Triad. One of the problems with the BRN-180 is the dog-leg charging handle on the right side. As a rifle, it’s fine, but in a bullpup kit, the charging handle is tough to reach for a right-handed shooter. The JAKL and FM-15 feature charging handles above the barrel and are reversible.
The proprietary magazine release creates an ambidextrous design. We have a standard magazine release and an additional button that’s very well-placed and easy to activate. On the left side, this huge button allows you to grab the magazine and hit it at the same time. Reloads are surprisingly fast for a bullpup, and muscle memory was drinking its creatine at the range because I figured it out very quickly.
You can choose to leave the AR-style safety installed, but it’s not necessary. You can have two safety devices if you choose, but the Triad provides one. The Triad kit has an ambidextrous safety device above its trigger on the chassis. The kit also comes with a short and long stock portion to allow you to adjust the LOP as you see fit. I went with the long stock.
Triad To The Range
I loaded up the BRN 180 and Triad combo and hit the range. The rifle feels quite comfortable and shoulders nicely. The soft rubber cheek rest is quite comfy and allows for a great sight picture with the optics on the carry handle. My first shots involved zeroing the optics, which didn’t take much effort.
I did learn quite quickly that I had to watch my grip. My hand naturally fell where the gas system met the piston. Every shot resulted in a bit of gas hitting my hand. It wasn’t painful, but you feel it, and it’s a bit of a surprise. The fix was easy, so I moved my hand a little further forward, and wa-la, the problem disappeared.
Zeroing was not an issue, and I fired three confirmation groups to see if the bridged optics rail was a problem. It didn’t seem to be. My zero was done at 50 yards, and I stepped back to 200 yards to confirm. I enjoyed hitting a 10-inch gong at 200 yards from a good kneeling position. Maybe with a precision magnified optic and a small target, I’d see some accuracy issues with the bridged optic, but with a red dot and magnifier, it works just fine.
Going Fast
The Triad kit has an interesting recoil impulse. You feel more of the ‘kick’ portion of recoil. In a 5.56, it doesn’t matter. The recoil is insignificant, but it’s more than the typical 5.56 rifle, if that makes sense. The muzzle rise portion of the recoil disappears with the radical rebalancing of the rifle.
It handles like a freaking laser beam. A Bill Drill is so easy to shoot with this setup. The lack of muzzle rise makes the gun superbly easy to control. Just pull it tight into your shoulder and pull the trigger as fast as you want, and the gun barely moves.
Reloads with a bullpup will always be a bit trickier and slower than the reloads from a standard rifle. Still, I was impressed by how quick and easy the reload was to learn. It’s easy to get the gun running, but you’ll need to use the bolt release to conduct a reload. To reach the charging handle, you have to use your shooting hand.
The Triad kit and the BRN 180 played well together. I had no reliability problems, and the gun chewed through Lancer, KCI, and Magpul magazines. The BRN 180 has already proven to be reliable, so I’m not surprised.
READ MORE HERE: The World’s First Bullpup Pistol-to-Rifle Kit: Meta Tactical’s APEX-Series
Going Bullpup
Going bullpup isn’t for everyone. Bullpup rifles are tricky, and I understand why folks don’t care for bullpups. The Triad kit does eat up a lot of your rail space, and even with the longer BRN 180 handguard, there isn’t a ton of room for accessories. My Cloud Defensive OWL takes up most of the space on the handguard for accessories. Night vision guys will be aghast!
However, I’m surprised by how well the BRN 180 and Triad kit work. It shrinks the rifle into a very capable defensive weapon. While it might have its downsides as a bullpup, the setup will work for home defense without any real issues. If you’re interested in the Triad, check it out here.
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