Noveske Gen 3 Afghan 5.56 Review: Premium AR-15

0:00 [Music]

0:04 Hey everybody, welcome back to the Armed Scotsman. Today on the table we have a Noveske Gen 3. Let’s get this one going.

1:02 Alright folks, as I said, this is a Noveske. This is a 14.5″ pinned and welded Gen 3. Yeah, let’s go ahead and start this review.

1:17 Okay, so obviously let’s talk about what doesn’t come with it. The ACOG right here does not come with it, so we will take that off. This is the TA31 horseshoe red or whatever it is. So that doesn’t come with it, obviously.

1:32 Alright, so let’s go ahead and jump right on it. At the back here, this is a Magpul STR stock. It’s very similar to the CTR stock, it just has a slightly wider cheek rest on here. Pretty nice and it does a great job. It’s very comfortable.

1:48 Rubber butt pad at the back, QD sling attachments on either side, original sling attachments right here to adjust. Obviously this is right here and then just like the CTR, this STR has this lock in place so you can lock it and it barely wiggles.

2:04 Which is really nice, very little rotation in there. So pretty nice indeed. Alright, we’ve obviously got a buffer tube and then you come down to your castle nut and it has been staked in two places and the staking looks very good. So very nice to see that.

2:22 And it has a QD sling attachment on the back right here. Moving along to the top here, you’re going to notice that we do have some backup sights on this already.

2:29 This is a little stiff. These are Magpul Pro sights, so they actually come with it, which is really nice to see. These are kind of expensive — these are almost I think $150–$200 something like that.

2:45 Very nice iron sights. They’re not the polymer ones that you see, these are metal. Slick, very nice. Sights that come with it.

2:53 Alright, upper and lower receiver — it is 7075-T6 aluminum. Everything is your standard here. You’ve got your dust cover, your brass deflector, your forward assist, your mag release, your safety on this side. It is not ambidextrous.

3:10 And then we do have a bolt catch and release right here. So the upper and lower receiver — excellent quality. The wiggle test — there’s literally no play between the upper and lower receiver. So the fit and finish is very, very nice. Very nicely done.

3:26 Moving down, you do have this grip here. It is a Magpul grip right here. It’s pretty good. It’s got some nice texturing on there. It feels like a slightly better upgrade over the standard A2. It does have a storage compartment on the bottom. It is made by Magpul.

3:43 I just prefer the K2+ that’s my favorite, but anyway. Coming down, you’ve got your enhanced trigger guard right here. It’s built in so it’s not interchangeable or anything like that. That’s kind of what it comes with, which is fine with me.

4:01 It does have a kind of an upgraded trigger in here. It’s not fantastic but it’s not bad. It reminds me of like Bravo Company BCM two-stage triggers. Kind of reminds me of that.

4:09 So you got a little bit of take up — make sure I got that safety off — and when I say a little bit I mean like it’s barely anything. Obviously this is a single stage, it’s not a two stage. You got your break and then a little bit of let out. Kind of a pretty audible and tactile. It’s not a brilliant trigger but it’s not a bad trigger.

4:38 Actually when I was pulling this charging handle back it just reminded me — I did not go over that with you. It is a Geissele charging handle. It’s ambidextrous as you can see. Very nice indeed. I think they call this super badass but it kind of reminds me… yeah I mean I guess I haven’t played with this one before. I usually run the super charging handles but I really like these ambidextrous charging handles from Geissele. They’ve been great for me on my other rifles.

4:55 It’s very slick when you pull this back. Some air, you know, you pull back and it’s like buttery smooth. Very nice.

5:04 Okay so we got an actually enhanced magwell flare out magwell here and it’s done more so than a standard AR-15, which again I’m a big fan of.

5:20 Comes with a 30 round PMag if your state allows it. Came with a Gen 3 so you can see there. Very easy to insert the mag. You do have some slight branding on here with the Noveske here and their logo right here.

5:38 Okay, moving back to the top you have a full length 1913 Picatinny rail all the way along here. So tons of room to add whatever optics you need.

5:45 Now you’ll notice how it kind of attaches here as well. A lot of times when you have handguards on AR-15s they come back, they’re kind of chunky and they sit a little bit out from the upper receiver. This isn’t the case with this. It’s very smooth and that’s because this handguard is pretty thin.

6:01 It definitely — like I was holding one of my other AR-15s and I held this, I was like dang this thing is… it’s kind of hard to tell but I mean I have medium sized hands and I can grip all the way around there no problems. So very thin handguard, very nice to get a grip of.

6:18 So yeah, that’s how it is attached. As I say it just kind of blends into the upper receiver which I do really like.

6:26 Moving on up to the actual handguard you’ve got M-Lok slots at the 3, 6, 9 position and in between all those you’ve got lightning cuts still kind of lightening this handguard up.

6:33 This gun weighs in at uh 7 — I think it’s just a smidge over 7 pounds but we’ll go with 7 pounds. So I mean it’s not a heavy rifle, it’s not a light rifle. It’s very well balanced.

6:49 And you’ll notice on this side too you’ll have these lightning cuts as well or these cutouts underneath your Pic rail as well.

6:57 Underneath this handguard we do have a mid-length gas system and I can tell you mid-length is my favorite and this is a very, very soft shooter and we’ll talk more about that in a minute.

7:06 But it’s a mid-length gas system with a 416 stainless barrel underneath here. It’s a 1 in 8 twist. Noveske is definitely known for having great barrels. I did the accuracy — actually it was great.

7:21 So I don’t have any long-term information on that, but yeah, Noveske makes good barrels. That’s what they’ve known for. And it’s a 14.5″ as I said with a pinned and welded. This is a Dead Air flash hider on the front here being pinned and welded so it makes this a non-NFA item because it’s pinned and welded. Overall length is 16″ or above.

7:46 Big fan of these. So as I said, the outside of this gun, the fit and finish is exquisite as you would expect for this price point. I mean it’s very, very nice quality for sure.

7:55 Now we’re going to take this down and have a look at the bolt carrier group. Man that was nice and tight on there. The fit and finish between the upper and lower receiver is extremely nice.

8:11 Alright so let’s take this out. There’s your ambi charging handle, very nice. And then you have your bolt carrier group. So we’re going to just take a quick look at this, make sure everything looks okay.

8:19 Yeah the staking looks great, fit and finish is really nice and I believe it is phosphate coated. That is your bolt carrier group.

8:26 Alright so we are back together. So let’s talk about it. Went through I think it was probably close to 400 rounds on this one. As I said before it’s a very, very smooth shooter.

8:43 I actually took out another AR-15 with this one because I was reviewing a different one as well and this one you could definitely feel how smooth this gun was. Shooting very nicely done, no problems whatsoever as expected especially for a gun at this price point.

8:58 So yeah, no problem shooting. Accuracy was great. The overall quality and construction — this gun is super, super, super nice.

9:06 Okay but let’s get into some of the things here. So things that I do like: comes with great furniture, the fit and finish is phenomenal, the overall build quality is excellent. Comes with a really nice charging handle, really nice upgraded sights, comes with a lot of stuff that you want.

9:22 However you’re going to be paying a premium for this gun. I got it — and I hate mentioning price in these videos because obviously things change and prices change and I hate doing it — however I’m going to tell you I picked up this gun for approximately $2,200 and that was on sale.

9:40 Are you getting your money’s worth at that point? That is totally up to you. That’s a question only you can answer.

9:48 Things I would like to have seen on a gun especially at this price — I like ambi safeties. I like an ambi safety and also even a bolt catch/bolt release on this side. However I definitely cannot fault the quality and construction of this Noveske. It is top notch.

10:03 Anyway that is it for me folks. If you have any questions, any comments please ask them below. Happy to help out wherever I can and that’s it. Until next time we’ll catch you later.